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.

Januari 2022 - Mexico - Mérida, Bacalar, Mahahual, Palenque

 apologies in advance - this is a long one!

Like Valladolid, Mérida is a town with a lot of colonial buildings, and is known to be a cultural hub in Yucatán. There are a lot of tourists, and therefore also a lot of air conditioned nice restaurants, souvenir shops and even a “food court”/market that directly targets tourists (serving things like pizza, burgers and sushi). As we arrived quite early in the day from Río Lagartos, we only left our bags at our hotel and then headed out to find breakfast. After wandering around quite a while, not really finding anything appealing, we headed towards the main square. There we found the weekly Sunday market which happened to include a number of food stalls. We ordered vegetarian tortas (sandwiches) and they were really good. Somewhat more energized, we went exploring the city, which of course entailed looking at churches. We walked along the famous street Paseo Montejo where all the grand colonial mansions are, and all the way up to the Monumento de Patria.

As we no longer had the ocean breeze, the midday heat was intense, and we found our escape at local food courts for some lemonade or juice. In the evening we returned to the Sunday market for dinner and tried tacos with cochinita pibil as well as a Jamaica juice (made from hibiskus flower), both things that we have seen around Mexico or read about but hadn’t tried yet. We were not disappointed! However, continuing on this trend we decided to also try esquites, which is a snack that we’ve seen all around Mexico and which is very popular among locals: a cup of corn, mayo, cheese and chili. Maybe it’s an acquired taste, or maybe we just didn’t go to the right place – we decided to go for churros instead which is always a hit.

The next day for breakfast, we found a local mercado which would turn out to be a great place for food. As they were only open in the morning, we could go there for breakfast or an early lunch, and also take the opportunity to buy some fresh fruit. Here we tried relleno negro (which gets its black color from charred chilis) and had great panuchos, tortas and huevos. 

The remaining time in Mérida we spent mostly at museums. There are a few in the center of town that are also free and very nice, including one with contemporary art, and the Palacio del Gobernador. Worth noting however is that several museums have little or no information in English, so at times we had to do with simply looking at the installations and pondering. We wanted to go to the World Maya Museum as well, but it required a bus and despite several tries we could not for the life of us figure out where to catch these buses. Everywhere online we read about Calle 60, and a local travel app also directed us there, but there was not a single bus that passed on Calle 60, so eventually we gave up.

In the evening we went to a cantina to get a feel of the pubs, and we had a very good time. The only downside was the music which was a bit too loud for comfortable conversations, but both the local beers and the mezcal we tried were good. We also got complementary botanas (nachos with a variety of dips) which were “included” but appeared on the tab for 3 pesos which is still a very reasonable price.

After Mérida we felt we had enough city life, and headed back towards the coast. We only spent two days in Bacalar, but we enjoyed them a lot. Bacalar is a small town situated by a big lagoon. The number one activity here is of  course to get out on the water. We chose to do that by kayak. It was a beatufiul morning when we headed out – and we spent the day paddling past islands, scouting for birds, paddling to and swimming in cenotes that were in the actual lagoon, and having a beer on a jetty in the rain. All in all an, adventurous day just in our taste.

Next, we headed out to the seaside in Mahahual, which is a small town south of Tulum and Playa del Carmen, and which consists mainly of a long beach and the hotels and souvenir shops along it. We booked our stay at Blue Kay, which is kind of a fancy resort but that also has very cheap and simple cabañas right by the beach. They also had a gym and free yoga classes. The beach area is dreamy and instagram-friendly, as there are swings on the beach, hammocks in the water and plenty of sunbeds. The one thing that almost ruins the atmosphere but which brings in a big part of the income to this town is the huge cruise ships that arrive daily to drop off hundreds of tourists.

The first thing we did when we came here though was to go to one of the many dive shops in town. From Mahahual, you can dive along the coast , but you can also go out to Banco Chinchorro, a reef about 1-2 hour boatride away which is the more popular location. We picked a 2-day package that would give us one day at the coast and one day at Chinchorro. But first, we get a full day relaxing at the beach, reading books and eating fantastic shrimp tacos at a seafood restaurant where we returned a few times.

Diving at the coast was pretty nice, though “cold” – a mere 27C in the water required us to put on an extra wetsuit so we wouldn’t get too cold. We saw a few nice things – stingrays, turtles, lobsters and a decorator crab. The next day we’re up early to head out to Chinchorro. Our first dive started out well with two nursery sharks that tagged along throughout the dive, but it ended spectacularly – dolphins. First two, then five, then ten, then twenty something dolphins swimming nearby, jumping and playing in the water. We were all amazed by this – not only seeing them but also hearing them, it felt surreal. When we got back to the boat, the waves had gotten pretty big so we head to a nearby island to wait it out a bit. The island was mainly mangrove and we spotted a few crocodiles while we snacked on lunch. After a while it’s clear that the weather is not getting any better, so we need to head back to town. Equipped with rain jackets to protect against the splashing salt water and the worst of the wind, our small boat took on some very big waves. Safe to say we were all grateful when we were able to put our feet in the sand again. The day left us all with a bit of mixed feelings, but in the end – there were dolphins. That was pretty damn awesome.

One of the nights in Mahahual we found a local eatery with Oaxacan food. Fun, we thought, lots of new things on the menu to try! We ordered three of those unknown dishes upon which the waitress looked at us skeptically and explained that they were all quite big. Thus, we settled for only two. When they brought out the first dish, a tlayuda, we realized we would probably have been good with only that! It felt sort of like a pizza, but with a crispy tortilla base instead of bread. The second one, a huaracha (kind of like a very big panucho) had us full to our limits.

Palenque was our last stop in Mexico, and one that we really, really liked. While we had to do some boring stuff here as well, like figuring out where to get a covid antigen test which we needed for Guatemala, the day trips we did were really worth it. Firstly, we booked a waterfall tour. This tour is a full day as they include a few hours of driving. The first of the two waterfalls, Misol-Ha, is a big one with a pool where you can swim. You can also walk along a path behind the waterfall and visit a small cave. Very impressive! The second waterfall, Agua Azul, was even better. Somewhat similar to the Kuang Si falls in Laos the light blue cascades are beautiful to look at. The cascades went on for a huge area, and while the parts near the parking was crowded with tourists and vendors, the further we walked, the more empty it got. A nice walk along the pools, a quick dip in the cool water, and walking across a suspension bridge – and a couple of empanadas with a beer before the drive back was the end of a perfect day.

The next morning we were up early, breakfast hunting on the streets near our hotel. We found a food cart selling tamales for about 12 pesos each, and we were happy to stand on the sidewalk munching on those together with the locals who stopped by on their way to work. After that we took a colectivo to the Maya ruins. Contrary to Chichén Itzá, these ruins are situated in the jungle which provides a lush and mysterious setting. We loved walking around this tranquil area in the morning sun, looking at the different temples. Before heading back to town, we decided to take a walk in the jungle following a trail near the entrance to the ruin. We didn’t really know where the trail would lead us, but were pleasantly surprised to discover several overgrown temples/buildings, hidden away among the trees, and completely by ourselves. We also spotted some howler monkeys high up in the trees. Another excellent adventure that I would highly recommend.

That was all for this long post, keep an eye out for the next one to read about our adventures in Guatemala!