Panama thru Costa Rica

Panama City, Panama:
Cool, very similar to Cartagena. Well maintained because there is supposed to be a huge influx of gringo retirees moving into Panama City during this decade (this is projected by the government atleast, I don't know how they decide these things) Very safe feeling and, like Cartagena, there are two distinct parts of the city. A new part with tons of skyscrapers which I didn't spend much time in and the old part, Casco Viejo, which had some run down Colonial buildings. I have a shot of the dichotomy between the two from a bridge in Plaza Fracia. I also have a few shots of an American Christian youth group that set up shop in the middle of Plaza Francia and did a play. I watched most of the play...I was so captivated by the idea of it and by the audacity of American new age Christians. I also had to go to the Panama Canal which was what you'd expect; a giant canal with huge ships passing thru it from the Pacific to the Caribbean side. The canal museum was probably the most interesting part of the whole affair. I saw the biggest mall of my life and watched Captain America with some Canadians too..did I mention that?

San Jose, Costa Rica:
Denise was meeting me here so I got on a bus with Gee and Natalia (the Belgian/Mexican couple from the plane in Puerto Obaldia) and went to San Jose. I stayed in a pretty cool little house turned hostel called Pension de la Cuesta. San Jose is not much. It's got a ton of American food chains ( I hadn't seen a Wendy's in over a year) so I guess you can go there for that. We only stayed for a day and then left for more northern parts the next day.

Monteverde, Costa Rica: Some disenfranchised Quakers left the states and started a conservation project in Costa Rica up in the hills and called it Monte Verde. Soon the government caught on and turned it into a National Reserve. Now Monteverde is an American Disneyland selling eco themed tours. We did a night tour (saw nothing) and a hike thru the reserve (saw nothing) and decided to leave the country. Costa Rica is the most expensive place I've been to in 13 months (worse than even Chile or Argentina.) I will have only stayed here for only 5 days and am fine with that. We're getting the out of here and going to Nicaragua tomorrow.