On our way back toward California, we stopped at Roswell, NM to see if we could find some aliens.  Roswell is pretty dead and there were lots of places closed or out of business, but it still had a few things to offer for the UFO buffs out there.

One of the first places we visited was a little gift shop/black light museum which had a lot of chintzy little things to buy and a small little walk through “museum” filled with paintings and black light sculptures.  It was cool to walk through and talk with the shop owner afterwards.

We were then on our way to check out the official UFO Museum, but after reading reviews online about how people saw better displays at 4th grade science fairs and wishing they would have gotten that hour of their life back, we decided to skip it and head to another gift shop.

This particular shop had a bizarre 50′s style diner with some alien manaquins set up inside.  It was pretty creepy but great for some photos.

Overall Roswell was at least interesting to check out.  I don’t think we would have chosen to go there on our own, but just decided to see what it was all about since we were passing through on our way toward California.  If you want a true UFO experience, you might want to look into some other places, but if you have an hour or so if you are passing through, check it out.

We stayed in a part of the city called Casco Viejo which is known as Panama City’s old town.  Apparently it is where Panama was originally established back in the 1500′s.  There are tons of old buildings and the area is currently under some heavy renovation and construction.  They are trying to build up the tourism in the area with lots of posh restaurants, shops, and hotels.  It is right up against an extremely dangerous and impoverished part of town which it is squeezing out little by little.  It was a bit annoying to get around with all the construction, especially while driving, but it was fun to walk around and see the old buildings.

The main attraction for us in Panama City was the Panama Canal and the Miraflores Locks.  We got a cab to the locks and paid $8 a person for a view of the canal as ships were passing through on the observation deck, a pass through the fantastic 4 story museum they had set up there, and a ticket to see a 10 minute mini-documentary on the history of the canal.  What a great deal!  We arrived just in time to see a few large ships passing through the locks and even a small sail boat.

The canal has these small carts that help pull the ship through the locks and hold them in place to prevent damage to the walls.  For smaller ships, they just use a couple of guys and some rope.

You can see the grey carts pulling the huge ship through the canal above, and below the guys helping the sail boat along with some rope.

It was fascinating to watch as the water levels lowered and rose to help the boats traverse the canal.  In total it can take anywhere from 8-10 hours for a boat to get entirely through the canal and it’s 3 locks all the way from one ocean to the other.

They are currently working on expanding the canal and building more locks that can help larger ships traverse through the canal as there is currently a limit on the size of ship that can pass through.  The new locks should be ready by 2014.

Panama City was great.  If you love seeing unique cities while traveling, definitely check out Panama.

We pretty much just hung out for a few days and relaxed by the beach.  We made quick friends with the dogs and a little kitten.  The dog came with us every morning to the beach and loved playing fetch.

Here is a picture of some of the treasure we found.  They had some HUGE shells on the beach.  I made sure to grab at least a few big ones.

Hibiscus Garden was a wonderful place to stay.  We did make it into Santa Catalina, but the town itself wasn’t really anything to write home about.  There were a handful of dive shops which we visited, but found out there were no whale sharks in season there so we passed on it.

Next up is Panama City and the canal!

Boquete was very nice, small, and had lots of great people.  There is some fantastic coffee too with lots of local coffee plantations nearby.  Plenty of hostels and hotels and lots of retirees who had set up a base camp there.  Apparently after a US magazine published an article about the top 10 places in the world to retire with Boquete listed, it had a small boom of new residents with tourism sweeping through and is still being developed to this day.  It still manages to maintain it’s small town charm however, and was a treat to visit.

We decided to visit Boquete to do some white water rafting, an activity we hadn’t experienced before on our trip.  We booked the excursion through our hostel and had a blast.  We went with another couple who had also never tried white water rafting before and we all got along great.  There were up to level 3 rapids and Steve even got knocked out of the raft once!  It was so much fun.

Our first stop was Bocas del Toro, a collection of islands in the northwestern part of the country.  We had to drive to a small town called Almirante, leave our car parked securely, and then hitch a water taxi over to the islands.  Bocas del Toro has some great beaches, surfing, yummy food, and cheap drinks.  What more could you ask for?!

I loved hopping from island to island with water taxis, it’s always a unique experience.  We ended up visiting Red Frog Beach on the island of Bastimentos and had a wonderful beach day.  Not crowded at all and enjoyed some awesome surf, swimming, and lounging.

The island is also home to the poisonous red dart frog which lived in the jungles.  We didn’t see any in the wild while we were there, but there were little kids roaming around the beach with pouches made of big leaves with little red frogs in them.  They were walking around trying to get money from tourists for pictures of the red frogs.

Bocas del Toro was beautiful and friendly.  Definitely a must see in Panama for sure.

So we breezed through the country and made it to the opposite Caribbean coast to Puerto Viejo. We had heard lots of great things about Puerto Viejo including reading about it in a book our great friend from back home, Ryan, gave us called “In Search of Captain Zero” so we were excited to stop in and check out the small surf town.

We stayed in a unique hostel called Rocking J’s and were warmly welcomed by the owner of the attached bar, Gabriel. We had a blast the first night there partying, playing pool, and chatting with other travelers.  The entire hostel was covered with mosaic artwork and paintings and had a hammock hotel just feet away from the surf and sand.

Here is a cool dragon sculpture eating a snake sculpture they had guarding the front gate.

Unfortunately, during the first evening, we ventured out into town to get a snack and ended up getting food poisoning from it. We were out of commission for 2 days and still weren’t back to 100% by the time we finally left later on. After we felt better, we managed to have a really great time checking out the town, going to the beach which was only a few hundred feet away, and being artistic while I painted a mandala mural above the reception area.

Puerto Viejo is also home to the famous “Salsa Brava” surf spot.  It’s notoriously dangerous and for expert surfers only.  The locals name it the “Cheese Grater” as a wipe out here could result in getting badly scrapped up by the reef below the waves.  We decided to leave Salsa Brava to the experts and enjoyed some beach combing at the reefs near the hostel instead.

It was fun to stop over in Puerto Viejo for a few days and if you love the Pura Vida surfer bum vibe, definitely check out Puerto Viejo.

After getting into Puerto Viejo, we noticed that Rocking J’s was covered in mosaic and painted art so we inquired about doing another painting somewhere in the hostel in exchange for them letting us pitch our tent for free.  The bar owner, Gabriel was excited to have another artist contribute to the hostel and invited us in with open arms.

We stayed for 5 or so nights while I painted a large mandala mural just above and to the right of the main reception area.  I was thrilled to be painting such a large area that I knew a lot of people would be able to see and enjoy the work.

Everyone there loved it and I had a great time painting it.  Here is the finished mural.

And here are some work in progress pictures.  Behind the white is a sun that was painted by two separate artists that never finished their work.  3rd time’s a charm!  And yes, I had to sit and stand on top of a refrigerator while I painted :)  Steve also helped me paint the upper left corner as I couldn’t reach.

One of the first stops we made was Lake Arenal near the famous Volcán Arenal which was supposedly still an active volcano with lava flows and everything.  On the drive there we drove around beautiful Lake Arenal and ended up seeing a really inviting sign along the road “Volcano Brewery: Microbrewery of Costa Rica 100 meters ahead”

!!!!

We pulled the car into Volcano Brewing and raced in mouths watering for some great tasting beers.  We were not disappointed.  They had a great small selection of various beers and each one was really good.  I preferred the Witch’s Rock Pale Ae myself, and Steve favored the Gato Malo Dark Ale.  We discovered they had a great deal with an all you can drink and all you can eat for $89 per person if you stayed in the hotel for the night and after a few beers we caved and treated ourselves.  So much for saving money in Costa Rica!  We enjoyed the Jacuzzi, Foosball table, and pool table all night while drinking some delicious beer with a beautiful view of Lake Arenal.

Volcano Brewing Company and Hotel is highly recommended if you have some extra bucks to spare and you love some good beer.   Cheers!

Steve got me a few small but great gifts while we were in San Juan del Sur which consisted of a bottle of Flor de Caña, a certificate for a 1 hour massage, a chocolate bar, and a caramel birthday cake.  Then while I was out getting a wonderful massage, he and Mark set off into town to gather some fixin’s for what turned out to be an amazingly delicious BBQ.  We had a pool party BBQ and drank ourselves stupid, there was even some skinny dipping!  WOO HOO!

Thanks to my wonderfully sweet fiance, our good friend Mark, and a new friend and great guy Troy, I had a wonderful birthday I will never forget.  Thanks guys! ♥

The door posed a special challenge as there were lots of thin metal bars that ran vertically and horizontally all over the door, so I had to paint around and on top of them to give the illusion of a flat surface.  I think it turned out pretty good and Steve’s sing came out fantastic.  I love his donkey mask style :)