great free travel info

I'm leaving for the airport in 2 seconds. My flight departs at 7:35 pt. I'll have a lovely view of George Bush International for about 50min of layover in Houston. Then on to Tocumen International in Panama City, where I am scheduled to arrive around 6:50 pm (est). Woo Hooo! I'll try to refrain from making any pyrotechnical comments en route (TSA gets sooo fussy about that). Must book hostel for tomorrow night, still. Get up on the 23rd and hit the TICA buss for San Jose, Costa Rica.
Incidentally, here is some relatively good, free travel advice for my destination.
http://wikitravel.org/en/Panama

more R&D

So I didn't really do any more planning as I should have today. But I do plan to go to Tamarindo right away. Apparently the Tica buss leaves around 10 or 11 am, every day, which goes to San Jose from Panama City. According to the guidebooks, this trip should take about 16 HOURS, so I will need serious entertainment, because I am not the most patient person on earth, and I HATE driving, sitting, being crowded, stupid people, and I will be fresh off a plane. So if anyone has awesome ideas for entertainment, worthless, mindless reading materials as well as low budge lodging suggestions near the transit center, please share. I am also taking suggestions for activities, trekking, sight seeing under consideration. Also, I'm working on figuring out how to get into the releasing baby turtles thing. I like turtles, I'm told they taste like chicken :P
Which brings me to my next item, food. I've already been instructed by my sister to bring back some green salsa that is probably available in the ethnic food isle anyway. I also intend to try all the tropical fruits, and judge them. If anyone hears about strange/bizarre foods of this region, please advise so I can judge them too.

R&D

It occurs to me that I know very little about Panama and Costa Rica, so I thought it would be prudent to learn a bit before showing up with my ususal lack of preparation.

So here's a map. Note that it has a lot of blue, that's because panama is an isthmus, a narrow strip of land that connects two large land masses. I'm just glad that I can easily find Panama City by looking for the big star. This is where my trek will begin and end.


And, here's another map of Balboa's travels to the pacific c 1513. Really, I just wanted free maps on my post. There will be more.