I have always dreamed of a World without borders, without nationalities, a World where nobody is Venezuelan, Costa Rican, US citizen or Mexican, where people are just citizen of the World. Yes, I know, I’m a little bit of a hippie and yes, I know my idea is not that original, on the contrary, there’s a bunch of people that dream about a world without so many geopolitical limits. In the end, all of it is only a fantasy and there are divisions and limits between all of those areas that we call countries.
And so, back to reality, I’m Venezuelan and for the past two years I’ve been living in Costa Rica under a temporary residence permit. But as every utopic dream, it must have an escape valve where one can mix a little of this and that, fantasy and reality, and not lose everything, my valve for this dream is to travel and, even more interesting, by land with that mix of emotion and fear when you realize that in one moment you’re in a country and five meters ahead, you’re in a different one.
As an immigrant, I have emotional debts related to my country of origin, my family and my people. My parents are in Venezuela, as almost all of my family and I have a brother with wife and kids living in Panama.
All of this said, is not rare that for our first vacations since we came to Costa Rica, I had the great idea of making a road trip from Heredia, Costa Rica to Panama City. But now, I can’t continue this story without taking you back two weeks before the trip began where a car, a 3 years old baby girl and my husband will get on the road during about 15 hours until we reach our destination, Panama City.
My parent’s arrival
My parents arrived to Panama on October 14th and only two days later my daughter, my husband and me were giving them a warm welcome in the Juan Santamaria International Airport, in Costa Rica. They came to stay for two weeks with us and then two more weeks with my brother in Panama. Our plan was to join them there and have a couple weeks together making family tourism in Panama City.
On one side of the square is the National Theatre, pride for the “ticos”, open by the first time in 1897 and with neo-classic architecture, the lobby shares it space with a small Café and a souvenir shop.
Knowing the undesirable effects that the sun could have in my parents, we invited them to go discover the Theater and have a coffee to escape the King star and build up some energy, but I wasn’t expecting that it were already too late for my mother, who sadly suffered a severe blood pressure drop that actually scared us during a few minutes that seemed endless.
After the incident, we decided to go back to the car and go for a ride with the coolness of the air conditioner. Then, we went to the road to the Poas Volcano, without any intentions to get to the actual volcano because it’s a demanding activity and with the Café incident we had more than enough.
Nevertheless, the road to the Poas is worth just because of the road, the view, the vegetation and the clean air. On our way, we stopped at Poasito (“little Poas”), where the mountain weather and light rain left behind the memories of the strong heat of that square in San Jose.
We ate, bought a couple souvenirs and those things that we never miss on that zone, some fresh, delicious and big strawberries and a ball of “Palmito” cheese that reminds us of our so missed Venezuelan cheeses. After that sour sweet day, we decided to change some of our plans and do something like “Tourism for the 3rd age”, even more tranquil, relaxed and without any demand at all.
The following weekend we went to discover some small towns and communities inside the Big Costa Rica Metro Area. That’s how we arrived to Santo Domingo de Heredia, visited the Central Square (or Central Park as they call it locally), we entered the “Nuestra Señora del Rosario” Church and the “Santo Domingo de Guzmán” Basilica, declared as architectonic legacy back in 2013.
The next day we went to Cartago, next to the road to the Irazu Volano. During that trip we enjoyed a beautiful view, a lot of farms with crops, we met a very small town known as “Cot” and then when to Cartago Downtown to visit the “Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles”. Basilica, which construction started back in 1912, with byzantine style and romantic influences is the main religious peregrination center in Costa Rica.
At the end of that visit, the hunger was overcoming us, so we decided to eat in a humble restaurant on one of the sides of the Basilica; it was a nice surprise to find in that very place one of the best pizzas that we have been able to taste during these almost two years in this Centro American land.
During my parents visit at home, there was a lot of family love, quality time, cuddling from side to side. Not a lot of adventures or time out, but there were some magical and beautiful memories for everyone. They were delighted with those rides, the tranquility around this small big country, in this huge town called Costa Rica. We, are thankful for their presence, for being able to take care of them for a few days and give them “live” the love that we have had limited through Skype. Now we missed them, but I have satisfaction of having given them all the kisses and hugs that I had time to give them.
On October 29th they departed to Panama. My baby girl and I said the farewells in the airport, without tears or long goodbyes, since the following day we were going to follow them by land. We still had 12 more days to enjoy their company and this time it would have the added joy of my brother and his combo. It was time to finish packing, getting everything in the car, checking all travel permits to avoid any trouble at the border and to go to sleep as early as possible. We had a long way ahead. Panama surprised me, in a way I even fell in love with it, but that is the second part of this history. Thanks for your company during this travel!
