Rob and Anna's travel adventure

My View - The missed Bocas del Toro (Panama) entry, San Jose (Costa Rica) to Palenque (Mexico) [Rob´s entry (#8)]

Standard disclaimer: Anna does an excellent job covering the positive aspects of our trip, and I try to fill the 'other side'.

Puerto Viejo (Costa Rica)
This entry is out of chronological sequence as I forgot to include it when covering that section.
Not knowing what to expect, I was quite surprised at PV. Total gringo hangout where the enthusiasm for surfing was exceeded only by getting high. We stayed our first night in a large hostel and virtually every conversation I overheard involved something with weed, or drugs in general. All sorts of pipes were being examined when we arrived, and things went downhill from there, such as loud 40-IQ conversations into the night. Understand that I’m not moralizing or passing judgment (but being kept awake does annoy me greatly), but rather it confuses me what motivates someone to travel so far to such a rich, diverse, beautiful place to be baked the whole time. Furthermore, while (parts of?) Costa Rica seem to be tolerant regarding drugs, other surrounding countries are NOT (at least with foreigners), and I think, “Why risk it?”. I kept thinking while there “Pull your head out of the bong and get a life!”
We moved the next day to a much more mature place and enjoyed our time visiting the nearby rain forest reserve.

Costa Rica/Panama boarder
After crossing the boarder into Panama, we were bombarded by all sorts trying to sell us things, including steering us away from taking the bus in favor of taxies. We read that Panama was poorer than Costa Rica, and figured that we need to be on our poorer-country-guard. This notion was further reinforced when we arrived at a ferry ‘terminal’ (shack would be more appropriate) when swarms of children rushed to grab our backpacks (presumably to earn a few cents walking a few yards to the boat). Fortunately however, these initial impressions were not at all what we encountered in the rest of the country.

Bocas del Toro (Panama)
As Anna mentioned, my time in Bocas wasn’t fun at all. There were two medical conditions causing me great distress. One was another day of vomiting- making a total of five days on the trip (about one day every three weeks or so). this time was exceptionally severe as the wrenching occurred about every 20 minutes instead of past times of once an hour. In addition, it lased the entire day (Note: as of mid March, I’ve had no more heaves). The other medical condition as a horrible-looking rash on my lower legs. Absolutely no clue how that could have happened. The rashes were insanely itchy, and the recommendation of the doctor examining me was to consult a specialist in Panama City (Another note- no more rashes have occurred, the doctor wondered if some medication prescribed could have accounted for both conditions, will check soon). Unfortunately however, I really wasn’t in the mood for the island activities and missed out.

San José to Volcano Arenal (Costa Rica)
For American readers- If you consider yourself very patriotic or proud, I’d urge you to continue reading our blog when interested, but to probably skip this entire entry.

Reporting the usual negative information, the trip to and visit in Arenal brought with it some unpleasant situations with tourists. I’ve complained about some of the travelers in the past, unfortunately however, these travelers are like UN ambassadors compared to the tourists we’ve run into in Costa Rica. I have a couple of specific stories it illustrate this point.
The first situation that irritated me was an American family (shocking, I know) that boarded the bus with us in San Jose. I loaded first, and took the very front seats, for the excellent view. I quickly realized that these seats were reserved for special needs people, as they often are. So I sat one row back. Then the family boarded, took all four front row seats (announcing that they could talk better that way). The two daughters I termed the "Gringo B!+che$", and from the moment they all boarded engaged in loud non-stop 70 IQ-level verbal diarrhea absolutely guaranteeing no peace on the journey whatsoever. So even though I boarded first and had my choice of seats, I ultimately relocated to marginal seats to avoid the front-row spectacle. So it went, hour after hour, constant verbal diarrhea. But this is what absolutes sets me off. The daughter spoke excellent Spanish and lived there for months (so they SHOULD know handicapped seating on buses), the family was making jokes about he wordless symbol/signs denoting handicapped seating (so they SHOULD know that their seats were special), were bragging about all the extra legroom (they SHOULD know there was a reason for the extra room), AND were completely fine sitting there while (literally) people with canes hobbled to the rear of the bus and elderly people stood.
Wait- it gets better. Then three of the four gringos vacated "their" seats on a stop/boarding break, and an elderly lady took one of the empty special seats. One Gringo B!+ch told her that it was "occupied" by her father. The lady seemed to object to this response and appealed to the bus driver to resolve the injustice. To my shock (SHOCK and disgust), the driver sided with the Gringo B!+che$! So the old lady hobbled to the back of the bus while two late-teen/early 20’s B!+che$ sat in front of the bus with all the legroom yakking with their stupid parents (also occupying the handicapped seats).
One of the reasons that I'm so offended and outraged by this situation (beyond the obvious) is that I suspect some of the cold responds receive from local people here are do in part from ugly, self/centered people like these creating vulgar impressions of foreigners. I suspect that we are assumed similar and this negativity is being projected on us. In other words, my theory is that jack-off tourists crap on the locals, who then dump back on foreigners (like us). Very irritating.

The next issue I had with our fellow Americans occurred in the same town, when we went at night to view the volcano. A shuttle van went to various hotels to pick up people, and again, we were the first loaded, joined soon after by some Mexican women from another hotel. We were having a calm and interesting conversation when pulling into another hotel where we were assaulted by a hoard of babbling, loud American TOURISTS. It never ceases to amaze me how the most seemingly mundane topic generates such vigorous discussion.
We were subjected to loud intense conversations such as how bright the headlights are, how the road went from smooth to bumpy, where everyone lived, and so on…. without end. Once at the volcano site, the guide informed us that if we were silent, we could hear a ‘thunder’ from the volcano as material was ejected and tumbled down the mountain. Of course, the silence lasted for about 5-10 seconds before the verbal diarrhea squirted again. After a while, struggling to hear the volcano sounds, Anna herself ‘erupted’ and told everyone that if they would shut their pie-holes, we could possibly hear what we came to witness. All immediately shut up, and we were rewarded with hearing the rumbling. Some returned to the van shortly after to resume babbling- good and good riddance!
Several more things annoyed me with this group. We are in total darkness trying to witness something about 3 km away. When we saw the eruption, it was not ‘large’ at all, more like points of light (the guide said that the boulders were about the size of the van, not too big considering the distance). But yet, almost everyone still ‘photographed’ it with his or her simple snapshot cameras- all with the flashes going off. All the flashes flashing, all clueless that film is being wasted and that our eyes need to re-adjust to the darkness each time afterwards. Far from an expert photographer, I knew that a lengthy exposure (without flash of course) would be required to get anything imaged.
I captured a couple of images, the guide went insane (even though I explained that the camera was hand-held [i.e. no doubt suffered from lots of camera shake- 15 second exposure] and that it was not properly focused) explaining that mine were the best images he’d seen anyone take and wanted to use them on his website. Many of the ‘tourists’ wanted to see my photos, and asked me how I captured them. More than once, when I explained the fully manual mode, 15-second exposure, 1600 ISO simulated film speed selection, open aperture, etc., somewhere Id be interrupted to have the ‘listener’ babble on about their camera, how many pixels it has, etc. So basically, I’m asked a question, and before I can complete my answer, I’m pelted by their irrelevant verbal diarrhea. I feel like I wasted my time even trying to explain anything. It’s not so much that they were offensive, but so much reminding me of children. Simple children with a 15-second attention span, and loud non-stop verbal diarrhea. Those are my fellow countrymen. My father used to tell me that I’d learn more by listening than speaking, which explains much….


Nicaragua
Next, it was back to Nicaragua, Anna covered the major fiascos there. One thing she omitted was that while waiting for a bus, there was a nearby mango tree and many fallen fruits. These (free) mangos were absolutely delicious, and we enjoyed many!

Honduras
Anna also covered the fire ordeal in Honduras.

El Salvador
Overall, El Salvador was a welcome change from to other countries in the region. The Lonely Planet (or as it is sometimes referred to, the “Lying Planet”) was pretty accurate about the people being unspoiled by tourism.
One of our stops was San Salvador. The biggest bummer there were all the loud drunk travel losers in the hostel we stayed. It always amazes me, as well as certain other travelers, that there are those who expend the time, effort, and expense of going to another country, and spend their time drinking and hanging out with other similar-minded travelers. It’s a different type of verbal diarrhea, all about pints, stouts, Manchester United, Liverpool, etc. Fine, just keep it quiet at night. It’s so disappointing when those that should know better don’t.

Guatemala City to Santa Elena
After El Salvador, it was back to Guatemala where we encountered our usual levels of OK local people and ignorant rural coolness. In route, my backpack fell off the vehicle we were traveling in at high speed, which really upset me- especially in light of my repeated concerns regarding how well it was secured, and all this “HURRY, HURRY!!!” we constantly received to save few seconds. Their few seconds saved were greatly offset by backtracking to pick up my bag, and the hours I spent sewing up all the holes and tears in what was an otherwise (virtually) new $200 backpack. There have been a few days that we had enough of the region and mentality, and this was certainly one of them.

Tikal
For American readers- If you consider yourself very patriotic or proud, I’d urge you to continue reading our blog when interested, but to probably skip this section.

The most negative thing about Tikal was a re-occurring theme. Peaceful scenes in the park with calm, quiet orderly visitors SHATTERED, OBLITERATED and ANNIHILATED by hoards of (almost ALWAYS American) tourists. Loud room-temperature IQ conversations about NOTHING fill our ears, kids running around yelling, in short, they basically ‘take over’ the area. We tried to keep ahead of them, which worked well for a while, but then we stopped to make some lunch. Some other visitors were (quietly) nearby, when we heard the herd coming. The other people around us all looked at each other with huge wide shocked eyes in horror and disbelief- “Who ARE these people?!?” was their expression. Naturally, they ‘took over’ our picnic spot and we all fled our separate directions in disgust. I later saw one of them with a cruise ship sticker on their shirt- then it all made sense. This was the cultural excursion from being nonstop fed and entertained- do a world-class archeological site in two hours (and leave, thankfully). We’ve noticed this theme before- Early AM, no problem; mid-morning to early afternoon, ignorance personified; mid-afternoon on, almost deserted. So note to others visiting similar attractions, arrive early (that’s usually when the animals are active anyway, and it’s cooler), take a siesta when the babbling tourists invade, then have the park practically to yourselves in the afternoon. In addition to other factors, I suspect this accounts for at least some of the coolness received from the other travelers. We had not encountered many other Americans traveling the way we did (compared with many other European backpackers observed), and this is probably the usual impression of Americans received. Coarse, loud, disruptive, obnoxious, and ignorant TOURISTS, and few mature travelers. On the one hand, I’d think real travelers would avoid prejudgment (like prejudging us for example), but on the other hand, I can’t say that I blame them too much as I also often avoid my fellow country people as well.

Palenque (Mexico)- See my Tikal section, exactly the same situation there.

A FEW (more) WORDS TOURISTS
I’ve complained so much about tourists during our trip, I thought a separate section may be in order. Regarding terminology, I define "travelers" as people (similar to ourselves) that seek to become part of the culture and travel experience. "Tourists" on the other hand, bring their own "culture" with them, impose it on others, etc. The "Ugly American" abroad is a typical US tourist. Tourists are typically in groups, and a group mentality often prevails.
I recently read something (that I respected) however that praised tourists. I must say that tourists from Japan for example are much more composed, mature, respectful, etc than many others encountered. Then there were the German tourists, similar to the American, but not nearly so offensive. And the American tourists, true spectacles- see the Arenal and Tikal sections for more elaboration.

posted by Rob and Anna @ 1:41 PM