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Bus Pass Wanderers

December 2018 - May 2024
An open-ended adventure by Pete Read more
Currently traveling
  • 52footprints
  • 8countries
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  • Pete MooreBus Pass Wanderers
    Day 17

    Cartegena, Columbia

    January 15, 2019 in Colombia ⋅ 🌬 30 °C

    We broke our usual rule here and took one of the ships tours. A bit of a mistake really as we could have got a taxi into the old town and simply wandered through the beautiful streets. However the horse drawn carriage ride was relaxing and saved energy on a hot day, 32+ degrees!
    A bit of a tourist trap is the old town with hawkers pestering you all the time but at least they were good natured. Our only purchase was a colourful t-shirt ready for the tropical evening on board that night. Our table did us proud and hopefully you will be able to see some pics in a later footprint. Good Abba show last night followed by the pool party.    Read more

  • Pete MooreBus Pass Wanderers
    Day 19

    A man, a plan, a canal, Panama

    January 17, 2019 in Panama ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    The city of Colon is not very salubrious to say the least so we were glad we clubbed together with several others and hired a taxi to take us to the AguaClara Panama Canal Visitors Centre. This overlooks the new locks that have been built and showed a short film in English with lots of impressive facts and figures that are instantly forgotten but were interesting at the time!
    Out taxi then took us on a tour of parts of Colon. Oh dear, a very sorry place. Everywhere was boarded up or wrapped in razor wire or protected by electric fences. The roads were terrible and the traffic chaotic. Not a place I'd recommend spending time in!
    Another evening, another show after another lovely meal and then retiring to our cabin after some classical violin in one of the bars. In case you are wondering - it's a palindrome !    Read more

  • Pete MooreBus Pass Wanderers
    Day 20

    The Day!

    January 18, 2019, North Pacific Ocean ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Yes this was the day when the ship transited the Canal. I suppose it was the main reason we booked this cruise and likewise for many of our fellow passengers we have discovered. The day was beautiful, and we stood most of the day watching the whole thing from the upper decks.
    The transit takes around 8 hours and is a very slick operation. Trains called 'mules' keep the ship in the centre of each pound (3 on the way up to Gatun Lake and 3 on the way down to Panama City and the Pacific Ocean) but the ships engines actually drive the ship through. A small yacht from Holland was in front of us on the way down. We towered above them of course but they were very friendly and didn't seem at all phased by the huge scale of things.    Read more

  • Pete MooreBus Pass Wanderers
    Day 21

    Sea day 4 - a dogs life!

    January 19, 2019, North Pacific Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    You know we really like sea days! All you have to decide is what activities to do and when and what to eat and drink!
    We decided to do the morning quiz- 2nd yet again and the a lecture on a camper van journey through Europe, Turkey, Iran, the 'is tans' , Russia and back to UK! 4 months travel and 19000 miles! Interesting!
    This was followed by lunch with the 4 Cyprus couples on board! Interesting!!!
    Then the next canal presentation. This time on engineering features on canals in UK. Interesting but I knew most of it!
    A formal gala dinner followed the usual show and then a late night Beatles session in one of the bars.
    The dog was our stewardesses contribution to the day!!    Read more

  • Pete MooreBus Pass Wanderers
    Day 22

    Swan song

    January 20, 2019 in Costa Rica ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Ok the towel tonight was a swan! This footprint should have been 'Puntoarenas' as we were there all day and a lively beach resort place it is to! I was off the ship before 7.30 enjoying being able to run on a promenade and sandy beach instead of the machines on board. There were already plenty of people in the sea and families gathering for a Sunday on the beach.
    We wandered through the small town, looked at the cathedral and then headed for the beach ourselves for a swim. Boy was it crowded by then! The sea was lovely and we found a couple of seats in one of the many noisy beach bars. The locals were really partying and the atmosphere was great. I found my first decent sized beer of the trip, a 750ml bottle - that's more like it!- and after several of those and another swim staggered back to the ship for a very late lunch.
    We had an enjoyable evening with our table and finished off at the pool party on deck with free cocktails. Then back to the cabin to find the swan!!    Read more

  • Pete MooreBus Pass Wanderers
    Day 23

    Ship to shore

    January 21, 2019 in Costa Rica ⋅ 🌬 22 °C

    A quick getaway from the ship. We were off by 8.20 and found our taxi waiting at the gate. An hour and a half later we were dropped at the Hotel Colonial and soon checked in by very friendly staff who printed out a map for us showing the route to the eye clinic where I had booked for my injection.
    We sat over a coffee and caught up with emails etc and then ambled through this busy, bustling city towards the clinic. We stopped for lunch ( our first Costa Rican 'Plato del Dia', a hearty meal with soft drink for about £3) and then went to the eye clinic.
    Doctor Rubinstein was very helpful, he did some of his training at Stoke Mandeville, and the injection was done, enough said!
    We wandered back through the shopping streets, stopped for tea in the National Theatre and then back to our room.
    We ended up in a very local restaurant that night for a small snack before an early night lulled to sleep by the constant din of car horns!!    Read more

  • Pete MooreBus Pass Wanderers
    Day 24

    San Jose in a day

    January 22, 2019 in Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We had one day to see the sights so set off for our first stop, the National Museum of Costa Rica. The ticket was expensive but if you included all three of the cities main museums it worked out a bit cheaper. Did we really want to go to the Jade Museum? So we started at the National. 2.5 hours later we thought coffee was in order so walked the 100m to the Jade museum and sat in the coffee shop. Well while we are here we may as well take a quick look! 2 hours later we emerged back into daylight absolutely delighted with all that we had seen!
    The last of the trio was under the National Theatre so we walked there and took in the theatre tour which fortunately was only 45min. This gave us just time for an hour round the Gold Museum before the obligatory 4pm cup of tea!
    Well another 2 hours later we surfaced having seen a huge collection of priceless gold, bank notes and coins all beautifully displayed in this underground 'vault'.
    At last Chris had her cup of tea and we went back to our hotel to await the arrival of Chris's sister, Tricia and husband, Graham.
    They made it by 7pm and we all walked to a local restaurant for a bite before turning in for the night ready for an early start in the morning.    Read more

  • Pete MooreBus Pass Wanderers
    Day 25

    Take the Rough with the Smooth

    January 23, 2019 in Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    An early start! We (all 4 of us now Tricia and Graham have joined us) were picked up at 6.30 and drove the busy road north towards Limon. This was smooth and a pretty modern highway so no problem. However shortly after the breakfast stop we turned off and stated the 20km journey to the boat landing stage. That 20km took over an hour of rocknroll potholed road so I was feeling very queezy by the time we reached the boats.
    It took nearly three hours to reach the lodge stopping to see wildlife regularly and at the last village called Tortuguera after which the national park is named. No roads lead to it, just the delta canal system so things are a bit more expensive but two bottles of Chillean red and a corkscrew only came to $12 and we enjoyed the first on our adjoining balconies before dinner that night.
    We had a swim in the turtle shaped pool and a short walk along the beach before dinner as well.
    Our guide told us to meet at 5.45am in the morning for another boat trip so we cut the evening short and retired around 9pm.    Read more

  • Pete MooreBus Pass Wanderers
    Day 26

    Jungle or rain forest?

    January 24, 2019 in Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    I suggested to our guide Manuel (it had to be! Que?) that the difference was just Hollywood but he explained that jungle was immature rain forest where the canopy still let in enough sunlight for undergrowth to thrive hence the need for machetes in a jungle but not in a rain forest where the undergrowth has disappeared as no light reaches the forest floor. So now you know and I'll bore you further with the day's activities.
    The morning boat tour was a 5.45 start! Back around 8.15 for breakfast. Very quiet and peaceful at that time and we spotted a good selection of wildlife. Several species of heron, egrets, vultures, waders, toucans, etc. We watched both spider monkeys and capuchin monkeys but have yet to spot a howler. Other wildlife spotted were Cayman , crocks and a water snake.
    After a leisurely breakfast we met our guide at 10 for a jungle walk. Here we saw the infamous poisonous red dart frog and several others, a viper, several species of bats, spiders and, of course, more spider monkeys!
    We had a lazy afternoon round the pool and once again retired quite early as it was another fairly early start in the morning.    Read more

  • Pete MooreBus Pass Wanderers
    Day 27

    Escape from the jungle

    January 25, 2019 in Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Up at dawn, breakfasted, packed, checked out and on the boat by 8.30! Ah hour and a half later we arrived at the boat terminal to find no bus waiting. It turned out one broke down so a second bigger bus picked up all the 'incoming' so was 30 min late getting to us. Not so bad though as it was a more comfortable ride and we made up time on the rough road. We stopped for lunch and there said goodbye to our guide before being dropped of at the car hire depot.
    We have a big 4 wheel drive Hyundai with an Internet 'hotspot' included which makes finding our way very easy!
    We reached our next stop 90min later and found tea making facilities in the rooms much to Chris's delight! After a drink and a snack we retired to the rooms and watched the first half of 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' before turning in early again as we wanted to be back in the jungle by 7 at the latest next morning.    Read more

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