Today I drove to Panama to renew my visa. Visas in Costa Rica last just ninety days so if you are staying around for more time you need to keep up with this as letting it expire carries a hefty fine of $100 US dollars a day. As one approaches out of the jungle the view of the volcano ( not presently active ) just across the border though the mist is a beautiful sight.

These guys were wielding machetes in the rice field but I wasn’t clear exactly what they were doing as generally bug rice fields like this are cropped with a combine harvester.

As one gets close to the border the road is joined by a parallel road that is actually on the Panamanian side and fruit and vegetable sellers take up residence on the centre isle to sell their goods to passing travelers.

The peace and sweet smelling jungle has transformed to a hubbub of traffic, buildings and a concoction of smells composed of delicious street food cooking and diesel fumes from the rows of articulated lorries waiting to cross the border.

You need to spend a few hours on the Panamanian side before you can return and renew your visa so today I spent those few hours drinking coffee in a street bar watching World Cup football on the wall mounted screen that usually shows the favourite Telly novellas of the day but now is World Cup football season and people here LOVE footballl so a good crowd had gathered to watch the action in the street.

I watched Morocco score an own goal just on the ninety minute mark to give a 1- 0 victory to Iran. Followed in sharp contrast by Spain versus Portugal, with plenty of goals for both sides ending in a 3 - 3 draw.

I was happy to leave the town as soon as possible and head back to the calm and beauty of the jungle and beach again. It always takes hours for me to get rid of the smell of vehicle fumes from my nostrils and it makes me shudder to think some people spend all day every day in this toxic environment!

Some hours later I was greeted back home by my first rose to have opened on a brand new rose bush I was given just a few days ago by my neighbor as a thank you for feeding her chickens for the time she was away on a mini vacation. It is a fabulous little rose bush that I expect great things of in the future. For now it is tiny with just one bud now opened. It smells DIVINE and just what I needed after the pollution of the border town.

Namaste

Our lives become beautiful not because we are perfect but because we put our heart into what we do.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

                Jungle Divider designed by Steemit graphic artist @magiccleatus