Panama

So we finally arrived in Panama City. Let me tell you how the journey went:

It was plain.... great! I never imagined a bus to be that comfortable. Honestly, I've never experienced such great comfort! Even I had legroom and was able to sit comfortably. We were traveling in an executive bus with food and drink included. We departed from San José at 11 p.m. and took off to the Costa Rica / Panama border. Alberto fell a sleep right away but I was looking out the window and took my last, imaginary pictures of San José by night. It was incredible to see the illuminated city from the mountains top - something I will never forget. I soon also fell asleep and enjoyed my comfortable chair. Both Beto an me woke up when we arrived at the border. It was already 5 a.m. and we had almost slept for 6 hours - wow. When we were standing in the line Beto told me that we had to wait for an hour until the border actually opened. It was already getting warm and the sun was shining. Waiting for one hour? We just woke up from a 6 hours long baby sleep. We decided to get a coffee at the bar opposite from the Passport control. We crossed the border by feet, I had never actually done that before :). Next stop was the Panama immigration where I had to prove that I have booked a ticket to get out of Panama. I thought, great now lets go back into the cold bus and roll... but noooo, we had to grab our bags and get to customs control. Every single bag was supposed to get checked and after a while the customs officers said, that in order to check the bags, everybody has to get into the small room we were already standing in. It felt like two hours until the officers finally started to check the bags. When it was my turn he wanted to see my passport and asked from which country I was - Alemania. Ok, you can go. Ok, you don't want to check my bag?! Again I was "favoured" because of my European passport - great success for me. I encountered my first cockroach in Panama - so Costa Rica doesn't have any :P.

Back in the bus it time for a breakfast. Afterwards we were disappointed that we haven't ordered the gallo pinto at the bar, because the breakfast consisted only of a soft toast and one cookie. I headed back to sleep right after the breakfast and woke up for lunch out of a box. When we finally arrived at Panama City we were met by an incredible heat. Since the air condition kept our bus on a nice temperature, when we headed out it was unbearable. We took our luggage and went to the close by shopping mall and grabbed some food and coffee until somebody would pick us up and take us to the university.

There we met some members of LC USMA and were impressed how hot it still was - at this time it was already 7 p.m.

The time in Costa Rica was incredible and the people as well. THANK YOU!