Got 15 hours layover here. Should've done more research and seen that COPA allows stopovers up to 15 days for no extra charge on your itinerary. You need to book through the Panama Stopover website, however, which means your "free" stopover might still have a higher fare than that skyscanner link you clicked. People are so much friendlier than in Asia. A little 5'3" light-skinned cutie sitting in the row behind me seemed infatuated, she kept giving me doe eyed looks. When we were waiting to deboard, she stepped out to stand very close to me and looked me right in the eyes, we both broke out into a grin. There was a pretty white girl in the same row as me, the other women thought we were together. Funny how "muh white incel" culture simply melts away once you visit Latin America. Of course it doesn't magically solve the problem of not knowing how to carry a conversation with a girl after such a long pussy drought, but you feel that a fair number of girls here want you to chat them up out of the blue instead of scorning you like Indian or Thai bitches in public.
>>2914414>a brown goblina looked at me, the west is saved!
The metro staffer in his booth saw me trying to figure out the machines and came over to help. Card is $2 but the rides are 50 cents or less, even when going across the entire city. A fellow passenger then helped direct me to the right platform. Panamanians are remarkably polite and considerate, though they do honk a lot, throw litter, steal things and engage in other Thirdie behaviors. Lots of police presence here. The neighborhood near Loteria is a shithole full of $20 hotels, a few bars, etc. It's only 9 pm, so I want to go out and explore a little, maybe get a drink. Yes you do have to watch your back here, it's definitely not NPC land like the USA where you can just ignore everybody around you. I noticed how alert some local guys were when I walked past them on a mostly deserted street. Soon as they noticed movement in their peripheral vision they went alert, then relaxed seeing I was just a gringo traveler.
"Backpackers Hostel" my ass, it's a cheap dump for local transients like every other place in the area. Noisy busted up window A/C was running when I arrived, barely cools the room at least it blows right on the bed. The cuck chair is a must, can't have a room without it. It's definitely shittier than you get for $20 in most Asian countries...there is no outside door handle on this room, so you must pull the door closed with the deadbolt key. Rates are posted, so don't try to bargain. Door is open 24/7, buzz to enter. Nobody wants to make change, so rooms are all $20 in this neighborhood. Panama mints its own coins including 1 balboa coins equal to $1, but uses USD for everything. All right, time to see the gritty neglected streets, maybe the Pacific waterfront as well. It's not far away.
The parks here are very nice, but some are overrun with homeless and others with raccoons. Teenage girls sit in their lovers' laps on park benches; unlike Asia, getting frisky in public is the norm in tropical America. I heard Brazilian teens even bring a blanket and have sex in the backrow seats of city buses. Women do seem very empowered, but unlike white cuck countries they are not obsessed with emasculating their men in the name of feminism. Lots of mentally ill characters wandering the nighttime streets of the market too. One guy came up behind me fast on a pedestrian overpass, hurried on by, stopped right past me but then seemed to reconsider whatever he was thinking and just stared vacantly over the railing while I continued on. Of course I am 6' and reasonably broad-shouldered despite lacking in overall muscle mass. Most of the crazy mutts in the dirty market streets just make noises at me or else ignore me. The vendors who are out late all look harried and stressed. There are a shockingly large number of hotels in the market area...I'm used to there being no hotels in the shitty market parts of town, but not here. Nicer mid-range rooms charge $40 per night.
Typical cheap sit-down restaurant here. You can get cheaper food at a fonda (street stall selling food at $3 a plate), but it often sits out in the display case all day greasy with old brown oil.
Fruits and veggies from street stalls are a thing in the market, even late at night. I got a sack of rambutan looking fruits for a single dollar.Beer at dive bars is also cheap, as low as the convenience store. I paid $1.75 for a 590 mL bottle of Balboa. That's less than you pay for a similar bottle of beer at a Thai 7-Eleven. The roastie bartenders were unfriendly, but this 67 year old guy I sat down next to was drunkenly exuberant until I expressed my dislike for his sappy jukebox playlist. Time to get a shower and some rest anyway. Tomorrow commences another no-booking adventure in Costa Rica. Fuck these booking sites, I'm done with their 14% tax for a Netherlands based gigacorporation doing what I damn well can do in person - hand money to a hotel manager.
Some of the market alleys look like great places to get mugged...
>>2914421That makes me happy im not a poor, that looks like AIDs just checked into a four star hotel myself. Panama is one of the shittiest places in the world, hot, dirty, full of Africans and creaturas. Gross.so is Costa rica
It's not as awful as you make it out to be. Even with the limited time here, it felt so relaxed and easy to visit, easy to interact with everybody because so many people are in a good mood. Some off duty airport security ladies were laughing uncontrollably about some private joke heading through security to their jobs. Lovely to be around people who are actually enjoying life. I didn't see any other tourists in the city, so my presence was notable. Only 1 hour 15 minutes to get from the city center market to the departure gates...I gave myself 3 hours. There are a lot of light-skinned women who look like AOC in Panama City, as well as many African or Native admixed girls. Much less obesity than I expected. Lots of fitness enjoyers on the cinta costera. As always you can stay in the wealthy areas if you want a whiter experience. No shortage of nice hotels in the Casco old city, which has a bridge out in the sea going all the way around it. Lots of impressive infrastructure here, but also vast sprawling hoods of red-roofed houses. The lower classes aren't shy and demure around whites like Asian poors, that might bother timid Timmies. Total cost of my visit was $30 USD.
Departing the city on the metro - two very different ways of life visible in one photo. Guys are polite here and don't rush on board to snatch seats like Indian men do. Older people almost always get offered a seat. Women are mostly at ease in public, though the richer ones still have some fears of robbery when they are out in the street late at night.
Street food is pretty gross, albeit cheap and widely available. Greasy meats and doughy flavorless empanadas with pineapple juice drink...but I had three balboas to spend, so I got some. The operators were kind and helpful, to everyone not just me. There is a lot of social engineering here teaching people to be considerate and respect each other; evidently it is working. When people are treated kindly no matter their appearance or affluence, they treat others kindly.
The hilly slums and mist-shrouded jungle mountains beyond the city made me want to explore, but that will have to wait for Costa Rica.
>>2914551Is that Slumbo Lu? That nigga has been on my mind. No cap, I been thinking about that time when I barebacked him raw in a Topeka hiking trail. That shit had to be the tightest, whitest, wettest boy pussy I've ever laid pipe into. I swear to God, the most heavenly high is gargling that wonderboy's nuts while going fist deep into his shitter. I had Slumbo Lu screaming in the sheets with head too ridiculous to ignore. That nigga frotted my cock until he busted on my mouth, I had to return the favor. That nigga Slumbo Lu and I been fucking non-stop ever since, but keep that shit on the DL. He does that shit for free. If you're gonna ask me how to "long" Slumbo Lu, I'll be deadass. All you gotta do is ask, be straight up, and get physical real quick. Touch his nuts, get on ya knees, talk your shit. He doesn't play around with no pansy-ass niggas either. He likes his men manly, and his dick thick. Dark skin, 6'5 is the minimum and I ain't talking about height boy. That nigga Slumbo Lu stole my heart and drank my seed.
$15 for a bunk here in Alajuela, and the place doesn't even have a kitchen, only a restaurant with $11 burgers and $8 quesadillas. Tiny water bottles in the lobby fridge are $2 — yes Costa Rica has its own currency, but using the posted rate it would be cheaper to pay in dollars because the colón has been so strong lately. I got the real exchange rate however and paid in colones. The airport ATM charged a $7 fee, thank Schwab. The 20,000 colon notes dispensed are worth over $40 but feel as cheap and plasticky as a 20 baht note.Not gonna stay more than one night in this place, although the old building is sovlful. The climate in this highland valley is lovely, but there is a bus station nearby. Tomorrow I think I'll go somewhere on a whim...keeping losging costs down will be tough. Muh low season, hah you should've seen the flood of tourists in the immigration line.
My walk from the airport, past the Walmart and Starbucks and Burger King. To Costa Rica's credit, their urban streams are First World clean. But the infrastructure is more decrepit than I expected.
>>2914589Brokie is finding out how expensive central America is
The owner's son (a fat 12 year old boy) got upset that I would go out on the restaurant terrace to snap a picture of the view when the restaurant was closed. I just said "that's okay, I'm not hungry". So far I'm not seeing the friendliness in Costa Rica that I experienced in Panama.
>>2914596Almost $3 for this scrawny little drumstick with a packet of disgusting fake mayo & fake ketchup sauce at a chicken place in town. I ordered a muslo (thigh) but got a drumstick, she said the drumstick is a muslo and refused to change it. Better get used to scrounging for food when I get hungry, like my first overseas trip to Colombia. No glut of dining options awaiting me here. Hopefully the fruit is good and cheap...customs threw away the rambutans I bought in Panama.
Nice street fight right outside my hostel. The big dude completely dominated the smaller dude and said he is a dead man before people intervened and pulled him back. This town definitely has its rough edges. Businesses aren't exactly prospering; the dorms here are 80% empty, and most restaurants sit empty as well. Prices remain quite high, though you can eat cheap if you want to...a substantial burger can be had for $3, combo $6. No street vendors or sidewalk shacks here. Local girls are often petite and cute but seem indifferent. Beggars pester you with their well rehearsed rapport-building exercises. Save it for the dumb white bitches, you can't fool me güey. Not far away is a town called Grecia with a cheap hostel. I'd like to check it out, but first need to figure out where the regional buses depart from. It's tucked away in the hills, not on the principal route. Best buy of the day was a nice sack of assorted fruit for ¢2500. I pay colones cash for everything, but many redditors use credit cards exclusively.
Jestermaxxing dork and his thicc girlfriend at the airport
>>2914637you wish that was you, cuckboi
>>2914641Nah, there's something wrong with her proportions; the straight-haired girl who flirted with me on the plane was more slender and had a prettier whiter face. She was soo short though, like barely 5'.
Central America ranks surprisingly high on this COL aggregator. Higher than Germany? Kinda shocking given that Germany is so much neater and better developed, with much higher average salaries. Property owners prosper here, they all have cars and dine out regularly, but the non owning class basically lives hand to mouth. No wonder they have that feral opportunism that can only be kept in check by fear of consequences. Most common robbery story here:>I brought nice things to Costa Rica>I left them in my room>When I got back they were goneNot having nice things means that I feel relatively safe here, though I still have to be careful with all the cash I carry. But I don't feel eager to spend a bunch of money as a solo traveler, especially with no income opportunities waiting. Same boat as my first trip to Colombia; with low financial security it's too easy to lose motivation and spend the day lounging indoors or on a park bench, passing time doing nothing.
>>2914761Well developed infrastructure and supply chains, efficient markets and the scale effect have deflationary effect on col. Latam simply doesn't have it outside of a few enclaves so the bang for the buck is not as good here.
>>2914876So much has to get imported here in Costa Rica...unlike South America which is more self-sufficient in agriculture and industry. When I visited Colombia it seemed like everything was Hecho in Colombia. Import-dependent countries can't escape global inflationary pressures.
>>2914980>global inflationary pressuresWhy do retards moan over this when its irrelevant to a particular situation
>>2914987They think it makes them sound smart
>>2914987It's not irrelevant when foodstuffs are being purchased on the global market instead of being grown locally; that's why a Big Mac combo is $10 here. Real estate investment also causes upward pricing pressure on hotels, rentals and other properties. Thankfully I found an owner-operated hostel here which offers very pleasant accomodations for a rate which I bet he has only hiked 10% since he opened it in 2021. Far less than greedy fucking investors who jack up the price of everything they sink their jew claws into.
>>2914987When prices go up, that means prices go up and it makes life more difficult. You're fucking retarded since you think that's some offensive political comment.
>>2915104Somehow this comment is even worse than the last
