Prepared for the worst we left Little Italy Bed & Breakfast in Dona Fela before dawn to reach the Panama/Costa Rica Frontera when it opened at 8:00am.
Overlander Blogs and Google had told us this was a tricky one - so get there early!
8:05am and no Queues - great! what's the First Rule? Avoid Border Touts! Thought we had as a big fella in an official looking shirt and ID card shooed away the scruffy hawkers!! turned out the Border Touts have smartened up their act and the Major Players now wear fancy shirts with badges and border logos!!!
No worries! Let's see how it goes!?
Very well as it happens - our Tour Guide for the Border Experience Thrill-seeker ride was 'Super Bien' and for just $10 got Pablo and us out of Panama and into Costa Rica in under two hours - most of which was spent waiting at the SOAT Seguro (vehicle insurance) counter whilst their IT Systems powered up for the day!!
Hello Costa Rica! You look a lot like Panama!! We stop off at Soda Guadalupe for Coffee + WiFi and find Costa Rica is much like Panama - but much more expensive - Petrol/ Beer/ Wine/ Hotels - all way more $$$s than back over the Frontera!
Fish Hook Marina Hotel in Golfito looks good - with a 'Special' on their last Ocean View Doble - so away we go. Motoring along, chatting, wondering, when: Hang on a minute! Wasn't that a Troop of Squirrel Monkeys playing at the side of the road?
Yes - 20 of them! Feasting on windfall fresh fruit on the edge of the Rainforest. We chucked a Uey grabbed a banana and said 'Hello' to the cute little critters!
Fish Hook Marina lovely - not just Ocean View - on stilts out and over the Ocean! And a Boat Jetty attached with several $m worth of Yachts moored up!!
Quite a contrast from the poverty we saw at the Frontera!!
