How to Travel the World for Free by Michael Wigge

Author:Michael Wigge [Wigge, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626360310
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing (Perseus)
Published: 2013-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

10

ON THE RUN FROM

DR. LUCK

Although I have two connecting flights on my way to Costa Rica, the trip passes quickly and without problems. It’s a funny feeling to fly over the Rocky Mountains one hour, then over the South Coast in the next, when it took me weeks to make my way from Ohio to the West Coast. I also find that flying is naturally relaxing; but also, accordingly, boring.

When I land in San José, the capital of Costa Rica, my tension starts to come back. I have no place to stay for the night and the parks are not very inviting for sleeping in at night. Although San José has a population of just 340,000 people (which makes it look like a village compared to other Latin American cities like Caracas or Mexico City), there is a very high crime rate. At a nearby newsstand I catch a glimpse of the front page of a tabloid paper showing a close-up photo of a dead body. I look even closer at the disfigured victim in the image: lying in a large pool of blood, the victim had received several shots to his upper body and one to the face. The press here seems to be much cruder than in Europe, where brutal and violent photos are not printed. I read the caption under the photo and can translate only one word: violencia, or violence. I start to get nervous because I still don’t know where I am going to sleep and I want to avoid wandering through San José at night without money. However, despite the capital city, the rest of the country has a good reputation.

Costa Rica is often called the Switzerland of Central America: first, because it resembles a tropical version of Switzerland with its mountains and forests; second, because things here are economically quite stable and relatively peaceful. In 1983, then-president Álvarez proclaimed permanent and active neutrality, which most likely caused the relative calmness. There is also no official army in this country. For these reasons, I am confident that I will be able to make my way by hitchhiking outside of the capital city.

I have sent over twenty couch surfing inquiries for overnight stays in Costa Rica and Panama but have received only one response in Panama City. Therefore, there is nothing else for me to do but leave San José immediately and travel to the capital of Panama, and fortunately, hitchhiking goes better in Costa Rica than in the United States. Still, I am annoyed with myself for not having done a little more pillow fighting while there. A bus ticket from San José to Panama City costs only thirty dollars, which would have been three hours worth of ludicrous pillow fighting in San Francisco.

I spend the first night in a truck that travels along the coast of Costa Rica. Then, the following day, cars, a school bus, and a Colectivo private minibus take me along. These minibuses are built to hold a maximum of ten people, but usually up to twenty people crowd into them.

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