April 2022 - Panama - Santa Catalina, El Valle de Antón, Panama City

Our next destination after Boquete was Santa Catalina, a small village on the Pacific Coast with only a few hotels, hostels, restaurants - and dive shops. Santa Catalina is known as the entry point to go to Coiba National Park, whether you are a scuba diver or just beach hopping for the day. Others come here to surf. Since it was a bit 'off', with few and irregular buses heading there, we decided to take a shuttle. It turned out though that we were only three people going with this shuttle, so it was actually a car rather than a minibus which felt quite luxurious. The hostel was owned by an Italian man and doubled as a café during mornings and pizza place during evenings (though the coffee and bread was better than the pizza).

After going for a lunch, we waited for the dive shop across the street to open, and then headed there to fill out forms and sort the details. We had originally booked only two days of diving, planning to have our third day just to chill on the beach, but after those two days we asked to extend for a third day of diving. Because it was really nice. While we again found ourselves in the "in-between" season where nothing was really in season (no whalesharks, no hammerheads...) we really enjoyed the diving here. We got to see a few different types of sting rays that we haven't seen before (some of them huge!), lots of white tip reef sharks, lots of octopuses, a few seahorses (!) also a kind we haven't seen before, some new types of "fluffy" nudi branchs, and LOTS of turtles. Unfortunately, we don't have any cool photos of these creatures as the underwater casing for our camera was leaking. You'll just have to imagine it.

A typical day scuba diving here would look something like this: early breakfast, head out on the boat around 8am, drive to first dive site (1-1,5 hours), then a break on one of the nearby beaches, second dive, longer lunch break on another beach, third dive, boat ride back, shower, snack, hammock time, dinner. And the best part was that these beaches were among the most beautiful we've seen on this trip - picture perfect paradise type beaches with palm trees, beautiful sand, crystal clear turquoise water...Spending a few days here was really amazing. And though we didn't see any of the big stuff we were kind of hoping for, we did get an acrobatic show by some dolphins our last day. Our very last dive unfortunately didn't turn out great - as we descended we ended up in a school of thousands of jellyfish - yes, the kind that sting! Not dangerous, but giving enough of a burn that it was quite uncomfortable swimming the first part of the dive. Once we got out of all the jellyfish, the current was too strong and in the end we had to cut the dive short. When we came back up on the boat, we all had very red lips and burning/itching hands from the stings. Well, it was an experience, as you say!

flying dolphin

Our very last longer stay for this trip was El Valle de Antón, a small town surrounded by the ridges of a very, very old volcano. We picked this destination for our last top due to the proximity to Panama City and the fact that we would be there during part of Semana Santa, Easter week - we wanted to be close to the city to be able to get there easily even if there weren't any buses running during Easter (there were, but we weren't 100% sure). We stayed at a cozy hostel where we could take some free yoga classes (!) and where some of the volunteers hosted a Panamanian Easter dinner with traditional foods such as baked pumpkin, chicken rice, beetroot salad, and some banana-cheese-chocolate roll for dessert. We spent our days hiking (sometimes with a cute, fluffy private guide!), and afternoons reading. 

This was also where I got to spend my birthday. I started the day with yoga, and then we went for a steep (but pretty) hike. The previous days we had lunch at a nice Colombian restaurant (with excellent arepas among other things) though on this day we went to a local place for a huge portion of arroz con camarones (shrimp rice), and then went for ice cream. In the afternoon, we went to some hot springs where you first started by doing a face mask with special mud - and then washed it off and enjoyed soaking in one of the (not super warm) pools. In the evening I had booked a table at probably the second fanciest restaurant in the area. The restaurant belonged to a hotel which was about 2km outside of the small village. We thought it might be very crowded since it was the Easter Friday, but when we came it was nearly empty and seemed to mainly be residents of the hotel eating. Although they unfortunately couldn't serve us any artisanal beer or nice cocktails due to the dry law (not being allowed to serve alcohol during Easter Friday), the food we had was really amazing: corn cobs, cheese fondue with patacones, grilled veggie salad, sweet potato tacos - and for dessert, sopapillos, some sort of fried dough filled with lemon cream and topped with chocolate sauce and cinnamon. Not a bad way to spend a birthday!

 

The next day we hopped on the bus(es) to the capital - Panama City. On the bus ride to the hotel we passed the bank district and watched the skyscrapers in gold and glass panels from the window. Not the most fancy hostel (our "private bathroom" was only private in the sense that we were the only ones using it - it wasn't actually situated in our room), but good enough for two nights. After a quick lunch we decided to take the long bus ride out to Miraflores, the famous spot for watching ships pass through the Panama Canal. Of course, this must be one of the main sights in the city, but we were still surprised to see the amount of tourists there. The actual museum part was closed when we were there, but for the $10 entrance we got to spend around 30minutes as a big ship was being transported through.

In the evening we managed to find a nice food truck selling burgers - our veggie burger had a patty made from rice, coconut and black beans! - and some nice local craft beers. Our last day, we went to Casco Viejo, or San Felipe, as it's also called, which is the old colonial quarters in the city and offering some cute, fancy coffee shops, monuments, and stalls selling souvenirs and Panama hats. We also got a nice view of the city skyline. We stumbled upon some Easter celebration outside of a church, and randomly ran into our friends Alex & Sarah, who we met in El Salvador (and in Honduras). We enjoyed a fancy coffee, had a pretty amazing lunch at the fish market - pescado de la hembra (breaded fish covered with shrimp in coconut sauce) with patacones, of course - and lastly, called an Uber to take us to the airport...

And this concludes our three and a half month backpacking trip through Central America!
Where to next?

April 2022 - Panama - Bocas del Toro, Boquete

 Our first stop in Panama was the paradise-like islands of Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean cost. A shuttle and two boat rides from the border took us to our hostel on the island Bastimentos. Bocas Town, on the main island, is known to be a bit of a party place which was why we opted for the more tranquil option. I was a bit surprised to discover that the main village on Bastimentos did not feel touristy at all, but this might be because a lot of tourists who go there stay at nice hotels or resorts on Red Frog Beach - known to be one of the prettiest beaches on the island.

We spent a total of five nights here, to enjoy the beach and relax. Our first day we walked over to Wizard beach, another well known spot and the beach closest to the village. It did require a bit of a hike over the hill, and since it had been raining some during the night, it was quite literally a slippery slope to get to the beach. The second day, we originally planned to hike to Red Frog Beach, which would mean that we took the same trail as to Wizard Beach but keep going for another 20 minutes or so. However, the trail was not very well marked, and due to the heat and humidity we gave up and instead stayed on a more remote part of Wizard beach, which we had more or less to ourselves.

In the evening, we discovered what would become our favorite restaurant on the island, Guari Guari, conveniently located just across the street from our hostel. With cheaper prices than most of the other ones, the women who owned and ran the place whipped up some really good local food dishes, like fried fish or shrimp with patacones (of course).

The next day we went on a boat tour, organized through our hostel. However, I think we got a bit unlucky as the guy who were supposed to take us hadn't got any other bookings, and rather than take only us we got dropped off in Bocas Town to go with another tour agency - where it turned out that both the captain and the others in our group spoke mainly Spanish. While they would try to answer any questions we posed directly, none offered to translate what the captain was saying which led to some misunderstandings and frustration. 

First, we went to Dolphin Bay, which, as the name suggests, is where you go to see dolphins. The boats will take turns driving in circles to let the dolphins play in the swell and around the boat. Next, we went to some houses on an island to fill up with gas, and where we were offered to order some lunch. After some probing, we managed to figure out that we would only order, and then would come back later for the actual meal. We didn't realize though that we wouldn't have the meal until 3,5 hours later (and it was already around lunch time). 

The captain drove us first to El Zapatillo, one of the biggest draws. El Zapatillo is a small island with very pretty, postcard picture beaches - white sand, palm trees and turquoise water. Most of the boat tours go here, so it was quite a lot of people, but we did manage to find a little more quite spot. After three hours on this beach, we finally got to go back to the restaurant to eat. As we started to drive to the next destination, we tried to ask about snorkeling, which we had been told was included in the tour, and which we had figured out was nearby. It turned out that the rest of the group wasn't really up for snorkeling, and that they were going to skip it completely if we hadn't asked. In the end, one other guy joined us for a couple of minutes of swimming around the boat. The last stop was not on Starfish beach, which I had thought, but near a small mangrove island where we could spot a couple of starfish in the water. As the captain drove back to drop us off on Bastimentos, it became apparent that we would also skip Sloth island (you guessed it, to see sloths). To be honest, even though we had a nice day overall, I found it hard to enjoy it; I mainly felt stressed because we never really knew exactly what was going on and no one wanted to tell us, so I found it a bit disappointing.

El Zapatillo - pretty beach but cloudy day

small snake that we nearly missed because it looked like a stick

Our last day, when we were having breakfast, one of the owners of the hostel called on us to show something in the garden. Two tiny, poison dart frogs, red with dark spots on their back (who have given Red Frog Beach is name, though supposedly they are more rare to see than they used to)! 

We decided to spend our day hiking to a spot on the Northwest side of the island which was supposed to have some good snorkeling. Along the trail was a café/farm (closed when we walked past) at the top of the hill - and it seemed that very few people had continued further on the trail after that. We were pretty amazed when we walked only a few minutes more and started see little frogs hopping about in the leaves on the ground. We started to see more and more of them, and in every shade from pale yellow to bright red, with different patterns on their backs. That morning we had been so excited to see those two frogs at our hostel, and now we saw them everywhere!

Fact is, we were so busy admiring and taking pictures of the frogs that we nearly walked right past a sloth! Just by the side of the road, a sloth with a baby on its belly was making its way up a tree! This was amazing, we really felt that we got to experience something special. As we continued along the path however, it got smaller and smaller and more difficult to follow, until we had lost it completely. We had made it more than halfway and decided to try to make our way through the jungle until we reached the coast. It became a careful treading, as it was sometimes steep, and zigzagging trying to avoid walking into any of the hundreds of spiderwebs woven between the plants. When we eventually made it out to the water, I was exhausted and shaky from trying to tread carefully while constantly having spiders all around me. Valle handled it better, of course, but we both agreed that it turned out a bit more adventurous than we had expected. A well needed dip in the ocean to wash off the sweat and dirt, and then we spent the rest of the afternoon resting and relaxing on the beach (we never made it to the snorkeling spot). We spotted another sloth with a baby high up in the trees near the beach, and were not so sad to had missed out on the Sloth island afterall.

The next day rain was pouring down, but somehow we managed to miss the worst of it as we made our way south, arriving in Boquete two boat rides, one taxi, and two bus rides later. When we arrived, we went for lunch at one of the local restaurants with a "point and choose" style that seemed to be the standard in the cheaper local places. Overall, I would say that we didn't find Boquete to be very special.  While it offered several hiking paths, it felt like more of what we had already seen a lot of. Our first day we walked a trail to three waterfalls, one in which we took a cold and refreshing swim. Another supposedly were a good place to spot the elusive quetzal birds, though we never managed to see one. Our second day we hiked a trail called El Pianista, which brought us up to a nice viewpoint.

Lastly, a slow day walking around the small town, and looking forward to head down to the Pacific coast for some scuba diving.

Mars 2022 - Costa Rica - Tortuguero, Cahuita

 The Caribbean coast was definitely our favorite part of Costa Rica, with beautiful nature and fantastic opportunities to spot wildlife. To get from La Fortuna to Tortuguero, we took a shuttle (minibus + boat) since going by public transportation we wouldn't even be sure that we would make it the whole way in one day (4 buses + boat). The shuttle service was expensive; despite the many shuttle companies in the country it was not possible to pay anything less than $60. At least, we really enjoyed the trip. The boat tour, which was about an hour, was almsot like a sightseeing tour, as the captain would slow down in several places along the river so we could spot crocodiles, caimans, birds, iguanas and various other lizards. The small village is quite touristy but had a really nice atmosphere, with just a single "main street" with some restaurants and shops on each side.

In the evening we went looking for something small to eat, since we had had a late lunch. We found some street food (which generally seems quite uncommon in Costa Rica) - some grilled chicken skewers, or tortilla stuffed with a big piece of cheese and some sourcream. At one of the restaurants, we ordered a plate of patacones - smashed plantains, fried, and served kind of like fries but in a different format, and with a few dips, like guacamole and pico de gallo. Patacones soon became a favorite snack or side dish, somewhat reminding us of the tajadas we had in Honduras, but quite different still. Getting fried bananas with your burger or fish might seem like an odd idea, but it was so good. 

The next day we were up extra early, to head to the national park. The main area of the park has a walking trail, but also consists of waterways that can be traveled and experienced by canoe, kayak, or a boat with a silent motor. Most of the guided tours start at 6 am when the park opens, and though we decided to go by ourselves (and by kayak) we opted for the same time, hoping we would get the opportunity to spot some more animals. I can say that this was one of our top 3 experiences of this trip. One of the first things that happened when we started to paddle towards the canals was that we saw an otter in the water! As we paddled on, there were quite a few guided groups around, and this meant we were sometimes able to see caimans, or a sloth high up in the trees, that a tour guide pointed out.

The main benefit of going by ourselves though was that we could keep going when the tour groups turned around to head back, since we didn't have a time limit. As we paddled on, further into the river system, we saw several lizards, including the green basilisks, turtles, monkeys, and - a tamandua! A small, tree dwelling anteater with a long tail munching on a termite nest high up in the trees. That was a really cool experience, and one of my favorite wildlife encounters. On top of all that, the environment was incredibly beautiful and it was pretty amazing just paddling around in the quiet, serene jungle.

Tamandua! yeah, you might need to zoom in a bit...

Since the national park entry was valid for a full day, we took the walking trail in the afternoon. We spotted some green macaws cuddling up in a tree, and two guilty-looking raccoons crossing the path, but most of the trail was just a path by the beach.

The next day we went to another, smaller part of the national park which meant we first needed to take a boat taxi to the small village San Fransisco. Around the entrance and along the path were plenty of big spiders, which we assumed were not venomous (although quite creepy...) since they had let them be. This area is known to host red poision dart frogs, so of course we went scouting for them along the trail. We found two of them, very small and cute! The short trail went up a hill and provided us with a pretty view of Tortuguero, but spent about as much time waiting for the boat back as we did walking the trail. In the evening we had a very nice dinner, having shrimps in coconut sauce with pineapple rice and (of course) patacones. 

View of Tortuguero

The transportation to our final stop in Costa Rica was also a prebooked shuttle - which included a three hour boat ride, just as beautiful as all of the Tortuguero area, and then a short taxi to Cahuita. A small village, right next to a national park, but with a bit more touristy and expensive restaurants. Our first afternoon we decided to walk to one of the beaches in the area, and on the way we saw two sloths! This was the first ones we spotted by ourselves, and close enough to the ground that you could actually see for certain that it was a sloth.

In the morning, we woke up to the sound of howler monkeys, loud enough that I almost thought they were in the hostel garden. After breakfast we prepared some lunch sandwiches and headed to the park, which nicecly enough had a donation based entry fee (i.e. pay what want). The trail was 8km long and went through different types of nature which was really nice - the only downside was that it wasn't a loop, meaning we had to walk all the way back again (unless we wanted to try to catch a bus or a taxi). Along this trail we saw several sloths, monkeys (howlers, spider, and white faced capucins), raccoons and toucans. The beaches here were incredibly beautiful, so we also took the opportunity to spend some time on the pretty, white beaches until the park rangers came to shoo everyone out around 3pm.

We decided to come back again the next day, to do a shorter walk and spend most of the day on the beach. Despite our lunch sandwiches being safely stored inside a backpack, we were visited by both monkeys and raccoons sneaking up silently while were reading our books. We had learned the day before that trying to eat anything in the beach area would attract cheeky, thieving monkeys (and clearly raccoons as well, though they were much more timid), so we had to walk a bit further off in order to eat our lunch in peace.

Aside from the beautiful surroundings and beautiful beaches, Cahuita provided the best sloth encounters in Costa Rica as we saw many of them, and several close enough to the ground that we did not need binoculars to see them clearly. Walking around the cloud forests scanning the treetops is not necessary at all, if you plan on going to Cahuita.