Hola amigos, padres, familia y todo el mundo quien esta leyendo

YO HABLO ESPAÑOL! Un poquito, pero es Español tambien. Now that that’s clear, let’s continue in English. I’m sure I could write this entire thing in Spanlish, but who wants to read that, right?

Today is December 6th, the day of Sinterklaas, and I’m located in San Jose, Costa Rica. I might be in a different country, on a different continent, but I still have to tell “de Sint” how good I’ve been this year, and that I was very disappointed not to find any presents in my shoe this morning. I even put out a carrot for Slecht-Weer-Vandaag, but all I got was emptiness and a half-rotten carrot. Anyway, for those confused about my whereabouts, you’re just going to have to read the story to find out why and how I ended up in Costa Rica instead of in Quito, Ecuador.

Bocas del Toro

So Bocas (that’s what “we” locals call it) is a TINY town. Actually, Bocas del Toro consists of multiple islands, but Bocas is also the main town where life happens. I can’t tell you how tiny this place is, but for example: the airport and the football/soccer field are ONE. As in: the sports field is IN the airport. Imagine a runway, with a bit of grass behind it, surrounded by a fence. Yes, that piece of grass I mentioned, would be the sports field. Courtesy to Habla Ya for the maps ;-).

Anyway, as always, in the beginning it feels really weird being in a new place. It’s weird to go to a supermarket because you don’t know what kind of food they have. It’s weird to walk around town because you’re blond and people like to whistle at you and call you “mami”. It’s weird to walk around at night because you’re in a foreign land of Spanish and don’t know how to deal with life. But after a while the weirdness went away and this small, small town started to feel like home.

Classes de Español

I did go to Bocas for a purpose, other than having lots of people whistle at me in the streets. The goal was to learn Spanish. Well: goal achieved.

So I was in class with five other people, whom all started to learn Spanish from scratch, just like me. It was nice to not be the only noob in class. As of day one, Erian, our amazing teacher, just threw us in at the deep end. “Tienes que nadar”, is what he said (translation: swim, bastard, swim!). From the first second we set foot in class, everything was in Spanish. Which is good, because that’s how you learn. But man, I remember coming home from that first day with Spanish words still buzzing in my ears.

Our class was every day from 8 to 12 and we had our own little classroom. As of day one Gizem, Jessica and I got along really well. We were comfortable enough with each other to laugh when something was pronounced horribly wrong.

Every Friday someone would leave and every Monday one or more new students would join our little group. As the weeks progressed, the people joining our class were better and better Spanish speakers, which also meant that my Spanish was improving, YAY! No honestly, I never thought I’d be at the level I’m at now. I knew I would learn some new things, but just today, I had a conversation with my taxi driver – all in Spanish. Even he was surprised by how much I’d picked up in only four weeks.

Diving

Knowing me, obviously there was some diving involved. Yes, I did go to Bocas to learn Spanish, but is it my fault Bocas is also a known place for diving? It’s not like I’m doing it on purpose, I swear. I just “accidentally” keep ending up in places where the diving is great.

I dove almost every day after school, because #life. I practically lived at Bocas Dive Center, the dive shop I was diving with. They just accepted me as one of their own and made me feel at home every single time I walked in. Nothing was ever too much to ask or too much trouble. Most days it was just Tina, the girl who got stuck with me, and I out on the reefs. Tina was great, we got along really well so it was a treat to go out with her every day.

So the diving itself was a little different than what I’ve been doing over the last months. Less big stuff, more small stuff. Like SEAHORSES!!! I spotted not one, but TWO seahorses in my time in Bocas. As in, I found them. Another milestone in my dive career.

Next to the seahorses, there were multiple crabs, nurse sharks, lots of fishies and many shrimps. Every dive was an adventure, to see which one of us could spot the coolest animal. I think I won when a crab swam over to me and attached itself to me. His name is Sebastian. Can you see the resemblance?

There’s one divesite, Tiger Rock, that’s a 1.5 hour boatride out, so we they don’t go there a lot. In Jessica’s last weekend, the two of us went diving together at Tiger Rock (no, sadly not known for it’s Tiger Sharks), and had a blast. The conditions weren’t great, the visibility could’ve been better and it was raining during our surface interval, but it was nice to go diving with a friend.

Diving isn’t always fun and games, you know. At one point, I was pulling off my fin and it hit me in the face. At first we were laughing at it, but after a while it really started to hurt. I hit myself a black eye. I walked around like this for a week. People at school kept asking me if I got robbed. Would’ve been a great story, but no.

On my very last dive, I didn’t want to wear my own wetsuit. It has to be dry for travelling, you see. I decided to borrow one of the shop’s suits, because I get really, REALLY cold. Turns out I chose this amazingly hip suit, with half of the sleeves cut off.

A shout-out to the entire team at Bocas Dive Center. From Charlie to Jess, from Momo to Freddie and from Hector to Eddie (hey, that rhymes). Every single person made sure I had a good time and made me feel at home. A big, BIG thanks to Tina, who wasn’t just a guide, but also my friend. Thanks for all the laughs and the daily uvas. Thanks for taking me out every single day, always with a smile on your face and enthusiastic every single time, no matter if we were going back to Ferry Wreck or exploring some place new. Bocas Dive Center is a better place because of you.

Beaches, Volcanoes and Coco Plantations

So lots to do in Bocas when you’re not in class or diving. As mentioned, I went diving almost every day. The days I didn’t go diving, I filled up with other fun stuff, like going to the beach or kayaking or just having a chill day with some friends.

Beaches

As you can see on the map of the area, there’s lots of islands around. Islands mean beaches. Beaches mean fun. There’s lots of “must-see-beaches” around Bocas. Even though I’m not a big beach-person, I saw all of them anyway. It’s nice to be social every once in while.

One weekend, Jessica, Gizem and I biked to Bluff Beach. It’s about a 40 minute bike ride, excellent for sunburns. The beach was completely deserted. It was just us, the palm trees, the ocean and the jellyfish. Let’s not forget about the jellyfish. Nice beach to see, but not really a nice place to go swim. Everyone got stung by jellyfish within 5 minutes, so that was the end of swimming. Jessica loves taking pictures, so let’s take a minute to thank her for the pictures below.

One of Bocas’s most famous beaches, is Starfish Beach. There’s a lot of starfish around, and the views are supposed to be great. Honestly? It sucked. All of us were really disappointed. Unlike Bluff Beach, it wasn’t deserted at all. There were lots of food and drink stalls, all of them playing music. All of the music mixes so you just get this music mush in your ears, really unpleasant. Except for the 2 starfish we saw, there wasn’t much to do at the beach. It was nice being there with friends, but that was it. The only GREAT this about it, was running into this lonely puppy. He was sooooo happy to see me.

The last beach, is Red Frog Beach. I sat around and read my book. It was a nice outing, but considering I’m not a “tanning on the beach” kinda girl, it was good that I had diving on most days ;-).

Coco Plantation

This was GREAT! We went to a coco plantation, had a local lunch and saw the process of the coco beans being dried and roasted. After the process, they get shipped off to Europe and turned into the amazing chocolate we know. We got rained on ALL day, but that didn’t take away the fun. It actually made for a few amazing pictures.

Volcan Baru

After all this reading, you’ve made it to the volcano story. This story is the reason I’m in Costa Rica and not in Ecuador. This story is a great one, now. At the time though, not so great.

So there’s this volcano, Vulcan Baru, in Boquete, a town in Panama. On Gizem’s last weekend, we decided to go there and climb the volcano before saying goodbye. Man, that was a LOT harder than we thought. We started our climb at 11:30 PM. It’s a total of 13, THIRTEEN, km up and 13 back down. You hike up during the night to see the sunrise, and go back down in the morning. Boquete is at 1200 m elevation and the summit of the volcano is at 3400 m.

So, we start our hike and quickly it becomes clear that the path is in bad shape and you need to be in good shape to do this climb. Luckily I had my K3 flashlight to guide our way. After km 1 Gizem starts to feel bad, probably because of something bad she ate. After km 6 she is feeling so sick, we have to decide that she has to go back down. Obviously she can’t go down alone, so one of us has to go with her. Yvonne and Nemehia are the heroes of the weekend and decide to head back to the hostel with Gizem. Jessica and I are left behind and continue our climb to the top.

We’re going pretty strong over the first few km’s and run into a few people on the way up. Around km 10 we decide to sit down, take a break and have a snack before going on. The higher we get, the thinner the air gets and the harder it is to go on. This is about the moment my heart decides to give up. It started pumping SO fast, I felt dizzy and couldn’t breath. It was like both my brothers, 34 elephants and a mammoth were sitting on my chest. We had 2 choices: go up 3 more km and hope the Jeep we saw pass by earlier wanted to take us down, or go down 10 km and miss the summit. Considering Yvonne and Nemehia sacrificed their trip so we could see the sunrise, I was determined to get to the top. Only now, our pace slowed down SO much because of my heart- and breathing problems. I could take 4 steps before having to sit down and take a break.

We missed the sunrise. BUT, we made it. I have to give Jessica a medal for the patience she showed during this time. She kept me going and was a true friend. I can’t thank her enough. She’s the reason we made it to the top. Without her, I would’ve been stranded halfway up a volcano. Even though we missed the sunrise, and it was too cloudy to see the oceans (on a clear day you can see both Caribbean and Pacific oceans), the view was still amazing.

As Jessica went to the very top (at this point I felt SO bad, I couldn’t climb the last 30 m), there was a couple who got engaged that very morning. They were super nice and were celebrating their engagement.

It turns out the cars we saw go up earlier, were the couple and their friends. They decided to do their first good deed as an engaged couple and offer us 2 spaces in their car. We went down in a Jeep, which was VERY bumpy but at least we didn’t have to walk. We were accompanied by all the balloons and decorations they had taken up.

So, now you know how I almost died. Sort of. Considering Quito is at almost 3000 m elevation, and I was going there to hike, I decided not to go. Better be safe than sorry, right? I changed my flights and ended up in Costa Rica. I don’t mind. It’s nice here.

Summer Nights and Filthy Fridays

So a nicer story now. Summer is the name of “club” in Bocas. By club I mean an old barn with a DJ and lights. It’s a great place. Just look at this persons review of Summer on Facebook. Can’t go wrong by going there, right?

So every Wednesday and Saturday Summer would be THE place to be. Gizem, Jessica, Rachel, Micha and I went a few times. Considering we had class in the mornings, we wouldn’t stay too long. We’re all responsible adults, you know. The best part about Summer was that there would always be a booth where you could have your face painted. IT WAS AMAZING. Every week I got a different design and it looked great every time. Why don’t we have this in Belgium?

I’ll end my blog for today with a (short) story about the greatest party ever invented by mankind. As the title suggests, it’s called Filthy Friday and takes place every Thursday (haha). No, so every Friday between 11 AM and 9 PM this party rocks Bocas. Every tourist, local, dog, rat and baby in Bocas attends this legendary day. It’s not a bar crawl, oh no no, it’s an ISLAND CRAWL. So basically every couple of hours they line up water-taxis and take you to a new island, a new place to partay. In total they take you to 3 islands, with 4 locations.

The day starts off early with free drinks for girls and free “Filthy Friday” tattoos. Considering we had class until 12, and wanted a solid lunch before dancing our souls to hell, we’d head to lunch after school and join the fiesta around 1:30 PM. Even though I’m going to TRY to explain this party, it’ll be hard. You just have to get on a flight to Panama and go. Simple as that.

Okay so at the second location, Blue Coconut, there’s a “Flithy Friday Floatie Race”. This is a race in which contestants swim a certain distance WITH a floatie. The first couple of weeks we just observed and saw the winners walk away with an AWESOME t-shirt (and a bottle of rum, but no one really cares about the rum). By my last week, I was determined to win one of those t-shirts. There’s two ways to do this: (1) win the race, or (2) win the most necklaces by doing the most shots. Well number 2 obviously was NOT going to happen, so I had no choice but to sign up for the race and swim. And man, I swam. I swam the soul out of me. It took me about 30 minutes before I recovered from that swim.

I WON, I WON, I WON !!!!!!!!!

VICTORY WAS MINE !!!!!!!!!

And still is, because as you can see: I’m a legend now.

So there you go, my time in Bocas in just 2832 words. A big thanks to Erian, for teaching us Spanish and pool, for always being patient and not laughing TOO often. Thanks to Jessica and Gizem, my friends from day 1. Thanks to Rachel, who joined our class a while later but was a dear friend anyway. Thanks to Franzi, Lukas, Ania, Micha, Claudia and Lisa. Thanks to the entire Habla Ya team. Went out with a bang, but the memories are killer.

Write you soon

Fi