Saying goodbye to our new favorite

14th to 19th March 2018 - Costa Rica

Cahuita National Park

After our sojourn in Panama we returned to Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica. Having been to the coffee plantation and the animal rescue centre it was time to hike some of the nature the area provided. Our first trip was by public bus out to the Cahuita National Park. You pay by donation to get access to an 8km long trek along the beach on one side and dense forest on the other. The wildlife was plentiful and we came across several sleeping sloths, a bunch of white faced Capuchin monkeys, and a sleepy Coatimundi resting on a branch with legs hanging on either side and looking up occasionally. Later on while eating lunch we came across a very cheeky Coatimundi that would not give up trying to sneak up and beg for our food. Obviously fed by too many tourists. We had brought a gluten free carrot cake and Elizabeth had to move away from him to finish her half.

A lovely hike

Full of amazing creatures

A cheeki Coatimundi 

The next day was supposed to be spent at the Bribri waterfalls, but the bus driver forgot to let us off at the correct stop and ended up at the town of Bribri. We tried to walk back to find the waterfalls but were unsuccessful. It was hot and eventually we gave up and caught a bus back. We never found them.

The next day we walked from our hotel back into town to catch the bus back to San Jose for a few days before catching a plane to Cuba. On the walk we saw an uncharacteristically active sloth, presumably down from the tree on its once a week toilet trip. His efforts attracted quite a crowd as seeing a moving Sloth is very rare.

Some more photos from Cahuita National Park and back in Puerto Viejo

We had a free day in San Jose and started it with a 3 hour walking tour, getting to know the town a little deeper. We then spent the rest of the day exploring on our own, soaking in the culture, enjoying the architecture and finished the day in the early evening at the Festival of Arts & Music in Parque Nacional. Such lucky timing and a lovely day filled with sights, smells, sounds and music to finish our time in the fabulous Costa Rica.

Pictures around town in San Jose

The Festival

A Panama interlude among the Starfish

11th to 13th March 2018 - Panama

As we were now close to Panama we decided to repeat the idea we had at the top of Costa Rica when we dropped into Nicaragua. Being a short bus trip away we decided on a 3 day tour into the Bocas Del Toro region in Panama. This area consists of a chain of islands in the Caribbean sea. We arrived on the main island, Isla Colon in the early afternoon, staying at the Gran Hotel Bahia. After a busy day we just had a short wander around the town and ate at a new Italian Restaurant next door, guided on the food choices by its very friendly Italian American owner. He convinced us to eat much too much and we then ran into an Australian who was traveling permanently, so we whiled the night away with friendly banter of back home.

The next morning we took a boat tour to spend a day out at the uninhabited Zapatilla Island and its pristine beaches. This is such a small island we were told it would only take half an hour to walk completely around. We decided to test that and set off for a hike. Two hours later, after fighting through dense bush that went right up to and into the sea, we stumbled out of the trees to just barely make it on to the boat as it was preparing to leave. The boat took us to an area to snorkel but there was not a lot in the ocean to see, though we did spot some dolphins, sloths in the trees dotted around the islands and some pretty starfish. That night we found an amazing Indian restaurant on the wharf called Om Cafe with the tables right over the water.

Om Cafe

Our final day out on the water was spent at Playa Estrallas (Starfish Beach). Over a 3 hour period we found many beautiful starfish, went for a walk along the beach, discovered a mangrove forest and saw what looked like a meeting of seagulls along a line of pylons. We made some new friends, Miguel & Jolita from New York (originally from Panama and Honduras) and Paola from Argentina. The next day we left our Caribbean adventure interlude and traveled back to Costa Rica.

Jolita, Paola and Elizabeth