Another Bus Ride, Another Story
Getting from Jaco, Costa Rica to Panama City turned into an unintentional adventure. Here was the original plan: Rachel and I were to catch the 9 am bus from Jaco to David, Panama. We would stay overnight in David and then take a local bus the next afternoon, ride 7 hours from David to Panama City and arrive by early evening. Simple, right? The funny thing about travel is that you never know when your perfect plan is going to bite the dust. Here is how our plan bit the dust quick and hard.
Rachel and I were going to use her friend’s car to drive us to the bus stop. The battery of the car died right as we were leaving. Our attempt to jump the car with a neighbor’s car did not work. We borrowed the neighbor’s car and were dropped off at the bus stop 15 minutes late but did not know whether we had missed the bus or not. We waited 30 minutes for the bus to arrive before we tried to hitchhike back to Jaco. Hitchhiking failed but 15 minutes later, our bus showed up! It was an hour later than planned. At the border between Costa Rica and Panama, even though Rachel and I each had proof that we were going to be moving on to other countries (she had a hostel confirmation in Colombia and I had my flight reservation from Peru to San Francisco), we did not have proof that stated when and how we were leaving Panama. After both we and our bus driver made several attempts to gain leniency with the border officials, the bus had to leave us. We went to an internet café in “no man’s land” to attempt to purchase an exit ticket from Panama. Two hours later, after many internet searches and the reading of multiple Refund Policies, Rachel and I bought acceptable tickets (that we cancelled a couple days later) and were over the border. We got on a local bus on our way to David. A friendly man started chatting with us and asking about our plans. From him, we learned that we could take an overnight bus from David to Panama City. So we decided to go with that option, cancelled our hostel reservation, bought our bus ticket, relaxed and ate a tasty meal, got on our bus at 11 pm, had a good night’s sleep, and were in Panama City within 24 hours of leaving Jaco.
Whew! It felt like our trip went any way except the way that we planned. The thing is, at the end of it, Rachel and I looked at each other and both agreed it was one of our favorite days together! We celebrated the victories and let go of the difficulties. We were positive and rolled with each new challenge thrown our way. We have fun together and just laughed at some of the ridiculous things that happened. Best of all, due to this crazy chain of events, we got to Panama City at an even better time than we had originally planned!
Before my trip, I dreaded these types of days. I thought I would meet travel obstacles with frustration and impatience. I worried these situations would cause me to be helpless and put me in danger. Instead, I greeted the challenges with a level-head and flexibility and humor. It made all the difference in my view on the day and my ability to reach my destination. Also, it gave me a great story to share with you all!
Happy travels, readers! Until my next post…
