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The alarm clock went off at 430am indicating it was time to leave Central America behind. Instead of going back to Nicaragua overland, we hopped on a short flight from San Jose to Managua. We were hoping to connect to or next flight in Managua without having to pass immigration, but that was not the case. We dished out another ten bucks each for a three hour stay at the airport and got stamped in once more. Our next flight wasn't until noon, so we had a Nicaraguan breakfast and enjoyed the friendly people. When it was time to get stamped out, we ran into a bit of an issue with immigration. Our entry stamp from today was dated as September 15th instead of October 15th, which really confused the immigration lady. After some back and forth, with the help of our recent plane arrival tickets, we were able to make the mistake clear to her. She voided that stamp and gave us a new one. The flight went by fast and we arrived to the same long queue in Mexico City as before. Ashleigh predicted a two hour wait and it was nearly that long. When we finally got through it was almost time to board our last flight home to Calgary. We are now on our last leg back and have had some time to reflect back on the last two weeks. We both feel as if we have been on the road for months now and have seen and done so much. It is a nice feeling coming back to the comforts of home, feeling satisfied with what we have experienced. It was an amazing trip with many good and some challenging times. It has reminded us of how we like to travel and why we are so passionate about it. We enjoyed all places, even though some more than others. We will end this last blog entry with one of our favourite quotes: "Who lives sees, but who travels sees more". Thanks for following us and until next time!
Today was our travel day. It involved taking one boat, minibus, public bus and taxi. We left Bocas Town at 8am and took the speedboat to Almirante on the mainland. We stood around the dock for half an hour before a minibus picked us up and drove us to the Panama - Costa Rica border. The border crossing was busier since it's a weekend which apparently made us miss our public bus connection to San Jose by ten minutes. When we booked the Bocas to San Jose shuttle, we were under the impression that it would have involved minibuses in either country and not an actual public bus. The price was pretty low and even though we confirmed that we wouldn't be going back to Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica, in order to save time, everything seemed to backfire. The border guide that is included as part of the shuttle price proved to be useless and was only interested in tips. He didn't mention that we had a bus to catch, nor did the driver seem to care. This meant we were stuck at the border for an extra two hours before boarding the next bus to San Jose at noon. The ride was slow going and without any cool air, we were melting in our seats. Of course we ended up going back to Puerto Viejo and wasted a bunch of time at other small towns. Two hours later and we had only covered 40kms, we were in for a long bus ride. We stopped at Limon, the port town that we avoided on the way down and gobbled down some empanadas filled with chicken. I had previously bought some empanadas from a lady through the bus window, but they were sweat and not really lunch size, so more empanadas it was. Since Ashleigh refuses to pay for public washrooms we pulled the old 'pay for one', go in as a pair trick, I pay to distract them and Ashleigh walks in. It worked flawlessly. The rest of the ride went by slowly and we finally entered San Jose six hours later. We originally planned on arriving around 4pm and connect to another bus towards the airport, but since it was dark at this point we opted for a cab. The cab driver got us to the airport hotel half an hour later and we enjoyed our last traditional dinner meal at the hotel restaurant. We survived a big travel day, which reminded us of all the previous long days we had been through in our travels. We didn't have any big travel days since we got here, and we were thankful for that. Tomorrow will be another big day as it is time to head back to Nicaragua and onwards - home.
Today's blog post will be short and sweet. We had the best sleep in our air conditioned jungle hut and woke up to all windows covered in condensation due to the outside temperature being so high and our inside being a chilly 18 degrees. The kitchen at our lodge is very slow and it usually takes around an hour to get a meal, so we didn't eat until after9am. The rest of the day consisted of lounging at the beach, swinging in hammocks or swimming in the Caribbean Sea. It was a great way to spend one of our last days and we got to relax and do some reading, which almost always results in taking a nap. We walked the beach one last time and then packed up our things for the first leg of our journey back. We hiked across the island to the dock and got on a 'free' boat with the lodge staff. Five minutes into the ride, we had to turn around and pick up one of the lodge owners who showed up late to the dock. We were not impressed, but since he was the boss we didn't really have a choice. We arrived on Isla Colon, the main island, home to Bocas town before sunset and found our hotel right away. Our next mission was to set up a shuttle back to San Jose for tomorrow. This was easy to do as well and our final step was to find a nice place by the water for dinner. Our first pick was a winner since happy hour beers were $1 and a set meal only cost $7. Prices are a lot better on this island than on the others. We explored some of the streets at night and got some snacks for tomorrow. A bunch of street drummers were performing outside, but it did quiet down around 9pm.
Last night was uncomfortably hot and I woke up around 4amto step outside for some cooler air. The many jungle noises are a reminder of where we are staying and how very lucky we are to experience this, despite melting in the room. Ashleigh woke up around 7am and enjoyed the bird sounds on our balcony, while I snoozed for another hour. After breakfast, I went for another snorkel and followed the reef all the way out this time. I had to dodge numerous jellyfish, but did get to see some marine life along the reef. My highlight included spotting a good size lobster hiding in an opening. We checked out and joined a boat of people that were going to another island called Isla Bastimentos. We arrived at a lonely dock 15 minutes later and had a ten minute trek ahead of us to cross the island. We paid a $5 toll to a kid to cross someone's private land and then arrived at Red Frog Beach. The beach is absolutely stunning and the water colour is postcard worthy. There are no further islands nearby so the views were excellent. We initially booked a tent at this Eco lodge, but once we arrived and after such a hot night we splurged on a private cabina with A/C. We cranked the air con and cooled down instantly. We walked down the beach and jumped in the refreshing water a couple times. There are only a few other accommodation options nearby, so the entire beach is quiet and it only takes 5 minutes to get away from everything and have a beach to yourself. For happy hour we crushed pitchers of sangria and met a friendly guy from the Czech Republic. After chatting for some time we offered to walk with him towards his airbnb, which was literally in the middle of the jungle. It was pitch black by now, so we got our headlamps out and followed the obvious trail across the island in the dark. We got to a small junction and a real jungle trail started. The noises around us were incredible. We had to stop at one point and turn our lights off to really take in the surroundings. We didn't quite walk all the way, but did get to see a few frogs and spiders, the latter ones were not as welcoming to Ashleigh as the first. We returned to our lodge and were thankful to have a cool room waiting for us.
Breakfast at the lodge starts at 8am, which is unfortunate for us since we are always up so early! We did last until 9amsomehow and enjoyed breakfast with a view! After breakfast and before the heat got worse, we headed on a jungle trek known as hospital point. The first few meters into the rainforest were already difficult, as we had to cross a fallen tree while keeping an eye out for a large Cayman that was apparently lurking in the area. Once across safely the trek continued through dense forest and sticky mud. We had done a few different treks already, but really enjoyed the first half of this hike. While walking, we were wondering where crazy Larry's camp may have been. Crazy Larry was a former convict that had somehow landed a job at the lodge before becoming a little strange & paranoid. After harassing the lodge staff with many conspiracy theories, the owner told him to get out, but instead of taking a boat back to the mainland he managed to hide out in the nearby jungle for a month, stealing from the lodge whenever possible. Perhaps he was still in the area, so we pushed on. We got to a junction and took the wrong turn which landed us at someone's private property. The dogs were barking, but one friendly lab came after us and knew where we were heading. He confidently guided us turn after turn. He would run ahead, wait for us until we caught up and continue. At intersections he would lead the way and at one point I didn't trust him and as we took the wrong turn he came running back barking. We tuned around and listened. He eventually got us to our destination, a hidden cove on the tip of our island. A warning sign stating 'backpackers thief in area' marked the beach for all those happy visitors. We didn't jump in the water and turned back, knowing we had an hour long jungle trek ahead of us. We kept an eye out for sloths, which are frequent in the area, but only spotted poisonous red frogs. We said goodbye to our new companion when we got to his home and finished the trek alone. Once back at the lodge, we jumped in the cool pool and relaxed until lunch. Everybody was drinking mimosas with lunch and so we had one as well - it was delicious. In the afternoon I tried out the long water slide which starts at the reception and ends in the sea. It was a quick ride and a lot of fun. Ashleigh jumped in the water from the dock instead and somehow managed to hit her foot on the barnacles that were dotting one of the dock posts. Her foot was bleeding pretty hard and we went looking for first aid. The lodge worker took one look and just said "stitches", but luckily after cleaning up the cut it didn't look as bad and he told Ashleigh not to worry. He advised us to return after it stopped bleeding and once it was clean for additional treatment. We retuned shortly after to get a special jungle treatment. To seal the cut they use krazy glue, which apparently does wonders. Sure enough! It sealed the cut very well and the worker noted that once its scabbed over it will be as good as new. I haven't mentioned any of the mishaps that we have had so far, but since we spend a lot of time near or in the jungle, we both have a variety of bites. Ashleigh seemed to be the less lucky one. She has been bit by a big ant, had a bee sting her (I had the pleasure of removing the stinger), and her legs are basically covered in various bites. We are looking forward to no bugs, but for now we are to remain in this bug friendly ecosystem. At night I went for a quick snorkel in search of the reef. It was nothing spectacular and with the sun setting, visibility was poor. The many motor boats cruising around also kept my swim shorter. We got to see a beautiful sunset and are now patiently waiting for our communal dinner which doesn't start for another hour, and it's already 6:30. Dinner was worth the wait, especially the passion fruit cheesecake that followed!
Our room had no window, so we had to set an alarm to ensure we didn't sleep all day. This must have been the first morning that we didn't eat Gallo Pinto (rice and beans) and instead ordered pancakes. After breakfast we took advantage of the diving tower and jumped in the clear water to cool off on what would soon be a very hot day. We went on a long walk along the islands shoreline and found a secluded beach to relax at. For lunch we returned to the same beach bar as before. After a long lunch we signalled over a boat and took a ten minute ride to a different island called Isla Solarte. We checked into a lodge overlooking the waterfront and backed by thick rainforest. The place was full of like minded travellers looking for a more serene and quiet place. The story of the lodge has been documented in a book and it was very interesting to read the troubles and challenges that came with opening such a place off the grid. The owners are Canadian and knew nothing about how construction in Panama or how living in the jungle was possible. The place now collects its own water, has solar panels and batteries and its own septic system. A generator is of course available for the times the sun doesn't shine or when all stored energy has been used up. Dinners at the lodge are communal and at 7.30pm all of us sat down for our meal. The options sounded all delicious and we were not disappointed when the food arrived. At night we laid down in the hammock overlooking the water and admired the stars in the night sky.
After a good nights sleep it was time to leave Puerto Viejo behind us, and Costa Rica as well. Our shuttle bus picked us up and drove us to the Costa Rica - Panama border. We met up with a local border guide named Julio Cesar to ensure a smooth transfer. We first were sent to a local pharmacy that also acted as the office where we had to pay an exit fee. The exit fee is legit and costs $7, but since we were doing it at someone's shop, we all had to pay an extra dollar. We did some research prior to the crossing and had read about different ways this fee is collected here, one of which could have ended up costing us $10 more so we were fine paying a dollar to these ladies. We queued up at the actual border crossing and got stamped out. The border guard gave Ashleigh a hard time for closing off some of her passport pages. We explained to him that the reason for it was to prevent stamp happy officials from claiming blank pages intended for full page visas. He wasn't happy about it, but stamped her out on one of the pages that already had stamps. We crossed an old bridge into Panama and lined up for the Panama border. The officials were very friendly, double checked our flight info home and let us in with a big welcome. We met a nice guy from Australia and had a good chat on the drive south. We were headed for Bocas del Toro, a group of islands off the Caribbean coast. The 30 minute boat ride was far from pleasant, as our bodies were getting abused by each wave we hit. We were seated on wooden benches and the wave impact hurt. We were all happy when we arrived on the main island. Ashleigh and I hopped on another boat and crossed the small strait over to Isla Carenero. We were staying in an overwater hotel & lounge built on stilts. The place was very unique, had amazing views across to the main island, a diving tower and a cool bar. We dropped our gear and explored the island further in search of a restaurant for lunch. The houses are simple, some abandoned, others littered with garbage. We did find a bar that was over the water and enjoyed a big lunch paired with Panama, the beer of course. Our hostel had beer pong night and the crowd was excited. The type of visitors and local staff already left a better impression on us and are more on our wavelength than the people we saw in Puerto Viejo. In the afternoon we sat on the ledge overlooking the water and noticed a couple dolphins nearby. Ashleigh was of course beyond excited to see them up close, breaching and moving around. We met a couple more Aussies and had a good time over more beers. Unfortunately Ash and I lost terribly in our first round of beer pong against the bar staff. We didn't even sink one, but managed to get a free beer out of the bar staff after losing. They probably felt bad for beating us. Once the tournament was over, we all had a celebratory shot of rum and the night continued.
We had stayed in dorm rooms for such a long time while traveling the world and only had a few bad experiences. Last night was the worst of all. We had never encountered more disrespectful travellers along our previous journeys. They were of course 'suitcasers', that special breed of wanna-be-backpackers one can find outside resorts and that have no manners or mutual respect for sharing spaces with other travellers. We were unfortunately stuck with four of them last night. It started with them having full and loud conversations with all lights on, while we were trying to sleep. They then left to go party and conveniently forgot to turn off the spotlights. I climbed down from the top bunk and turned them off. Once they returned in the early morning hours, they all used the washroom loudly and left the door open and lights on (once again). It was Ashleigh's turn to get the lights. No further details are needed, but there were more disturbances throughout the night. Rant over, and so we got up at 6am and slammed the dorm room door behind us loudly. We had a typical breakfast and drove to a sloth sanctuary. We spend the first part of the tour navigating swampy canals in search of animals. Our guide spotted a few caymans, frogs, lizards and many birds. The ride was peaceful and quiet, giving us the chance to appreciate the life of the rainforest from a different angle. The second part of the tour was all about the sloths. Our guide was engaging and informative. We got to visit the permanent residents of the sanctuary, all of which were in no condition to be reintroduced to the wild. We didn't know much about sloths previously and the amount of fascinating & random information the guide provided, left us full of sloth knowledge, which we can gladly share and which would deserve an article in itself. After the tour we went looking for a waterfall near the Panamanian border. We did find it eventually and parked at a locals home. We paid the voluntarily parking toll and hoped that our car would still be there upon return. We hiked down to the waterfalls and were excited for a cold swim. We had the bigger waterfall to ourselves for a while and enjoyed the fresh and cold water on such a hot morning. All of a sudden two thug-looking fellows appeared waving us into shore aggressively. I did go up to them and they kept wanting to shake my hand, while mumbling things about how it was their waterfall and how they would be going in commando. They both looked like they were up to no good and the smell of alcohol on their breaths didn't help my bad gut feeling. I told Ashleigh to get out and start walking back. The two local men made some comments, but we left them behind to avoid any unpleasantries. There was a smaller waterfall farther down and we quickly jumped in, before heading back to our car. I tend to trust my gut feelings, especially when in foreign places and when spotting these two guys near our stuff, trying to grab our attention and acting all weird, bells were going off in my head. There wasn't much worth taking from us, since we didn't bring anything with us, but the thought of getting into any trouble gave us reason enough to leave. Our car was still there in one piece and we drove back to Puerto Viejo. Since we didn't intend to drive around Costa Rica any further, we dropped the vehicle off two days early and are now left with our backpacks once more. We strolled into town for lunch, sat by the beach, listened to Bob Marley, which by the way is playing at every second place, and enjoyed the mid afternoon heat. We were promised a private room at our hostel this morning, but when checking back in, our reservation had disappeared along with the guy working at 6am. They finally sorted it out and gave us a deluxe room with balcony. The balcony is great, but we would have preferred that they left our ensuite bathroom unlocked instead. This place is very interesting and boggles our minds. Because we were supposed to get a private room with a shared bathroom, they decided it would be alright to just lock our ensuite bathroom door and make us walk to the showers two stories below, out back. We are definitely moving on tomorrow! We went for a final walk to the beautiful beach, jumped in the warm Caribbean water once more and admired the many monkeys on the jungle walk back. For dinner they brought in a hoard of expats, or perhaps American retirees living in Costa Rica and made us listen to a jazz band. The band was good and we preferred it over the pool party any day! The fun was over at 8pm at which point the hostel screened their weekly Sunday night movie. We didn't stick around for it, nor did anyone else. It was an eventful day, with the sloths being our favourite part!
We woke up early and the weather was perfect. We left La Fortuna early and started driving south. We originally wanted to stop at another volcano near Cartago, but since Cartago was heavily impacted by the recent rains and since we were volcanoed out, we kept going south. The drive was nice until we hit the San Jose - Limon stretch. There were so many trucks on the road and passing them wasn't easy at times. Limon is a large port town, and is probably where our bananas originate. We saw many large banana plantations stretching out as far as the the eye could see, many were labelled with familiar names like 'Chiquita' and 'Del Monte'. The outskirts of Limon were clogged with semi trucks and container yards were dotting the sidelines. We luckily bypassed the city and the road got better. We got our first glimpse of the Caribbean and were looking forward to some beach time. We got to Puerto Viejo around 1pm, and started looking for a place to stay. We were slightly hangry, so should have known better not to go room hunting. The first two were too expensive and the third one was a joke. They advertised 'special low price - last minute rooms'. When I asked for the special price, the answer was a ridiculous $100 for a simple wooden room. That was not special to us and so I let the receptionist know that as well! We did find a place that we liked, but they didn't have any private rooms left. We couldn't find anything else afterwards, so we came back and settled for two beds in a 6-person dorm. We figured since we had done so many dorms in the past, that we could handle it for a night. We didn't know that there was a pool party happening outside the room until midnight though. After satisfying our hunger and thirst we were ready for the water. The beach is very nice and Ash & I went for a nice long swim. I was hoping to do some surfing, but apparently all breaks were out of whack since the recent storm. The famous reef break outside the hostel was gone for now, and the easy sand break was kidstuff and not consistent. Maybe I'll get a chance elsewhere! At night we walked into town and realized that we did pick a nice place to stay and eat. Prices have been surprisingly high in Costa Rica. We knew that La Fortuna was one of the most expensive spots in the country, but it isn't any better in this popular beach town either. We do have to remind ourselves that we don't have to travel on a shoestring anymore, but old habits are hard to break. We ordered good meals for dinner, which arrived as soon as the power to the entire place went out. There were no candles and so we ate our meals in the dark. It was a rather unique experience and we didn't mind the peacefulness of it at all. The power came back after an hour, the DJ started mixing tunes and the pool party carried on
We had made plans to visit Arenal National Park and soak in some hot springs, but neither worked out today. We left town after a hearty breakfast and drove to the National Park entrance. It was closed and no one was aware of the reason for the closure, but it could be weather related. Since we couldn't enter the actual park we drove up the road and found a hiking trail that was near the volcano. The trail started off easy and soon entered the rainforest. There weren't many people there so it felt remote, even though we knew that the road wasn't very far away. Ashleigh spotted a stick bug and we admired the many birds, lizards and plant life. The trail passed a small pond and then climbed up towards the 1968 lava flow fields. There have been many more eruptions since, but this lava field was quite nice. It is of course all grown over by now, but the volcano views were excellent. At one point we were startled by a green snake on the trail! It wasn't big, but long and we watched it for a while. On the drive back we stopped at three hot springs; one was closed due to recent weather, the other one was too resort like and the last one was quite nice, but deserted. We also were so sweaty and hot that we decided to pass on hot pools. We drove back to town and contemplated what to do next. We wanted to learn more about chocolate since Granada (without having to read signs) so we drove down the road to Don Olivos chocolate plantation. We were greeted by the two sons and started the tour with a generous fruit tasting. Since the cacao trees are smaller and dependent on shade, the plantation is full of other trees. We had bananas, papaya, star fruit, oranges and pineapple. We got to press some sugar cane as well and the juice was delicious. Before embarking on a walk around the plantation we all had a shot of home made coconut rum. The plantation was quite large and it was neat to see how cacao grows and learn about the history of it. We smashed a fruit and tried the slimy beans. We got to see how the beans fermented, before the drying and roasting process. We did taste the cacao beans once roasted and they finally had the chocolate like taste. We removed the shells and put them through a grinder. I could have devoured the entire plate of the grounded cacao. Instead we made chocolate milk out of it while tasting a bunch of chocolate. After the tour we drove back to town and jumped into the pool to cool off. It was an eventful day, and even though we didn't follow our plan we still got to see some cool spots and learn new things. Most restaurants are quite expensive in this town and so are the souvenirs. I did however find a perfect shot glass and dished out more than I would have liked. Perhaps this is a sign to move on and so we did not extend our stay at this hostel.
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