Just the Canal and the Hat?

Two ships at different levels on The Panama Canal

We could tell that the islands of Bocas del Toro were beautiful but as the weather continued to deteriorate, we reluctantly decided to leave in search of drier weather and to dry out our clothes.

A swift eleven hour bus journey across the country and we arrived in Panama’s capital, Panama City where it was our intention to stay for just a few days but now we had six days to find out if there was more to it than just the canal and the hat. Most importantly it was dry with just the odd shower and about 30 C.

After the first day looking round the historic area of Casco Viejo where most of it is being rebuilt, our next stop had to be the canal where they have a fabulous visitor centre with a four storey high viewing gallery over Milaflores Locks. Like most other people, the Panama Canal has just always been there without giving it much consideration, so some interesting facts:

• It took 10 years to build and was completed in 1914
• It stretches for 50 miles linking the Caribbean to the Pacific
• 25,000 men died during its construction mainly due to malaria and yellow fever
• Each vessel is raised and then lowered by 27 metres through three sets of locks
• No hydaulic pumps are used, just gravity
• It takes 8-10 hours to navigate during which time the ships captain is relieved of his duties, much to his disgust, and a specialised Panamanian Canal captain takes the controls
• On average it costs $100,000 per vessel, $800 for a sailboat and up to $400,000 for a cruise liner

Panama city skyline from Casco Viejo

We arrived at 9am to catch the first ships pass through only to be told that the first one would be at 2pm which was odd considering on average 40 ships pass through a day. We weren’t lucky enough to witness a massive container ship or cruise liner but we saw three sizeable beasts plus a small yacht navigate the locks. It really is a spectacular sight to see vessels of this size squeeze into a lock and then get lifted in front of your eyes by nothing more than gravity.

Getting around the city is by the cheap and numerous taxis but we have learnt that our little knowledge of Spanish makes things more difficult than knowing none whatsoever so we took a break from the city by catching a boat to a lovely little island for the day. It was pretty impressive as we lay on the beach to have the Miami-like city skyline as a backdrop with the ships lining up in the foreground, ready to navigate the canal.

 

Thanksgiving....Panama Style

Our tropical home on Red Frog Beach

Somehow we managed to dodge the rain as we strolled down to the small dock to catch the boat to the neighbouring island of Bastimentos on Bocos del Toro. A very soggy walk through the jungle armed with with all our belongings including groceries for a couple of days and most importantly, a chocolate pecan pie, and we arrived at our home for the next couple of nights, Palmar's Tent Lodge.

A really basic but stunning lodge situated in the jungle and right next to Red Frog Beach, named after the poisonous strawberry dart frog that lives there. Evidently its only poisonous if you accidently eat one! We'd booked a tent which had a very comfy bed, a mosquito net, a lockable trunk, various creatures and a huge portion of dampness.

Red Frog Beach, Panama

The place is owned by a young American couple so as part of our booking we were invited, along with the other guests, staff and neighbours, to their Thanksgiving bash and all we had to bring was a small contribution.

We were a little apprehensive as we joined the other 40 or so people for the evening's celebrations as strangely enough we'd never been to a Thanksgiving before. We've no idea quite how they did it in such small and basic surroundings but this amazing spread of food gradually appeared, all beautifully laid out on the pool table, including roast turkey and ham, stuffing, macaroni cheese and tons of other trimmings. There was still plenty left over after we'd all filled our faces and all it cost us was the price of a chocolate pecan pie.

The barefoot torchlit walk back to our tent through the jungle in the pouring rain was hilarious and the evening was one of our strangest experiences but definitely one of the most memorable.

Starfish Beach

Bocas del Toro and the storm heading our way

Our clothes may have been damp but our spirits weren't as we made our final overland border crossing in Central America, from a very wet Costa Rica to Panama. We were in luck as it stayed dry as we walked across nomansland and then queued to have our passports stamped.

We'd arranged for a shuttle bus to take us to the border and collect us the other side which then took us to a small dock where we caught a boat to the islands of Bocas del Toro, just off the northwest tip of Panama.

Our home for the first couple of nights was in Bocas Town on Isla Colon, a lovely waterside town full of bars and restaurants and its where we caught the local bus to the opposite end of the island to Bocas del Drago, also known as Starfish Beach. A small, tranquil, calm and tropical paradise of a beach which for some bizarre reason is home to thousands of red and orange coloured starfish, some the size of dinner plates. They're clearly visible as you stroll along the shoreline and would have been even more visible had it not been for another deluge of rain.

Vanessa in the deluge at Starfish Beach

Undeterred, and another drenching later we headed back to town but didn't realise just how drenched we were. This time the rain had got right through our waterproof raincovers and plastic bags housing all our important documents so our room became one large fan filled drying room for the rest of the day whilst we dried out listening to a great live band at The Lemongrass.

Tomorrow we head over to the neighbouring island of Bastimentos for a spot of  'glamping' on Red Frog Beach.......for Thanksgiving!! You couldn't make it up.

Images of Costa Rica

Puerto Viejo

Cahuita National Park

Cocles Beach

Cahuita National Park

Sloth

Playa Negra, Cahuita

Costa Rica....Reflections

Vanessa making the most of it on Cocles Beach, Costa Rica

Rain. Not short sharp tropical showers. Relentless, torrential rain.

We walked for hours…..in the rain. We cycled for miles……in the rain.

However, it remained about 30C so it was never cold and it prevented us from spending much money, particularly as Costa Rica was never going to be much more than a passage for us as its by far the most expensive Central American country so we could never really justify spending much time there. Saying that, it was nowhere near as expensive as we thought.

Costa Rica is a lush, tropical, beautiful place and Puerto Viejo, our final stop for the last few days highlighted that. However, the new camera and walking boots didn’t get to see much of it in our short, damp stay there but we went for it in the couple of hours of sunshine that we did have.

DAYS SPENT:   8

TRANSPORT:  1 coach, 2 taxis, 2 local buses, 1 shuttle bus

NUMBER OF PLACES WE STAYED:  5 (1 backpackers, 2 guesthouses, 2 hotels )

ITEMS LOST/BROKEN:  none

FAVOURITE EATERY:  Flip Flops in Puerto Vieja

WILDLIFE SPOTTED:  sloths, white faced monkeys, snake, iguana, mangy dogs

TOURS TAKEN:  none

BEST VALUE FOR MONEY:  The rain. It stopped us from spending very much.

 

Sloth

Electric sloth

Our three night stay in the cool little Caribbean town of Cahuita, Costa Rica, coincided with a three day festival of rain but luckily for us the middle day was cancelled due to glorious sunshine so we made the most of it and visited its main attraction.

Cahuita is a tiny place but bizarrely has its own National Park, a tropical rainforest stretching for about 10 miles along the the coast, which is free to enter apart from the strongly enforced 'donation' which everyone has to pay.

Costa Rica is famous for it colourful and abundant wildlife but we didn't get our hopes up too high, at least for the first 100 yards when amazingly we spotted a sloth, moving at the speed of a passport control queue. Lizards, white faced monkeys, a snake and an iguana later and we were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves.

Not everyone is lucky enough to spot this strange creature on their visit to Costa Rica but then the strangest thing as we sat eating our pizza in the evening, another sloth but this time crawling along the electricity wires in the main part of town, much to the amusement of the other diners. There was enough time to finish the pizza and tackle a local beer before deciding to take a picture of it.

Which way to San Jose?

Our two week visit to Nicaragua ended with a couple of nights in Santo Domingo, a 4km long stretch of beach that joins the two volcanoes of Ometepe together, plus a night back on the mainland in San Jorge ready for our next Central American border crossing to Costa Rica.

We decided to take the easy six hour route by booking the International Tica Bus which apart from the obligatory mind numbing immigration bit on the border, took us directly to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica.

The sole reason for going to San Jose was to re-stock, mainly to replace my busted camera, Vanessa's hiking boots which died of old age, and various amounts of her undercrackers which were virtually destroyed by a Belizean tumble dryer. Amazingly we managed to replace everything despite having to suffer the only thing worse than listening to Chritmas music in all the shops, and that's listening to Christmas music in all the shops.......in Spanish.

Costa Rica was never going to be a major part of our travels mainly because its the most expensive of all the Central American countries. Basically its been Americanised. Subsequently, after a couple of nights in the non-descript capital city and with our mission accomplished, we caught the local bus to Cahuita, a small town on the Caribbean coast just an hour away from the Panamanian border.

They were having a festival of rain when we arrived but undeterred and with our backpacks on, we trudged through the deluge to a very cheap and very damp room, right next to the ocean. We wondered why it was cheap but then we noticed the lack of a toilet seat but we couldn't be bothered to venture back out in the rain. We may have had to squat but we were happy.

Nicaragua.....Reflections

After a slow start to Nicaragua, it picked up rapidly, culminating with our  fabulous week long stay on the volcanic island of Ometepe.  Overall, perhaps it didn’t quite live up to expectations and it certainly doesn’t compare with Guatemala.

However, from staring into the mouth of an active volcano to swimming in freshwater crater lakes we’ve have had some amazing experiences in the third country on our visit to Central America.

DAYS SPENT:  14

TRANSPORT:  1 plane, 4 taxis, 2 chicken buses, 2 ferries, 2 trucks

NUMBER OF PLACES WE STAYED:  7 (2 hostels, 4 hotels, 1 homestead)

ITEMS LOST/BROKEN:  Paul’s camera, Paul’s watch, Vanessa’s hiking boots

FAVOURITE EATERY:  Finca Mystica on Ometepe Island

WILDLIFE SPOTTED:   howler monkeys, parrakeets, mangy dogs

TOURS TAKEN:  2 (Masaya Volcano, Lake Apoyo)

BEST VALUE FOR MONEY:  Finca Mystica

Images of Nicaragua

More Spanish lessons required?

Howler monkey

Isla de Ometepe

Sunset at San Juan Del Sur

Crater lake, Lake Apoyo

Punta Jesus Maria, Ometepe

View of Ometepe from San Jorge

Playa Maderas, San Juan Del Sur

Eau de Vanessa

Our week long stay on the remote, spectacular and quiet island of Ometepe continued with me getting bed bug bites for the first time. Normally my insect repellent, Eau de Vanessa works perfectly so perhaps it'll have to be changed.

Waterfall on Ometepe island

Subsequently we moved to the smaller of the two volcanoes that make up the island, to a remote little homestead called Finca Mystica in the village of Merida, run by a great American couple who grow virtually all their own food and its by far the best we've had in Nicaragua.

From there we took the sweatiest 4 hour hike to a waterfall which was actually worth it. Partly because it was nearly 100 metres tall but mainly because we could cool off and dry out our disgusting clothes. We sat there for an hour with no one else around, mesmerised by the plummeting cascade of cool water.

Our final night was a stormy affair. No rain but the winds were incredible and nothing liked we’d witnessed before. As we were based at the foot of the volcano you could here the gusts of wind start high up and then roll down the hill through the trees like a juggernaut, continuously slamming into our tin roof cabin. Not much sleep for anyone that night but quite an experience.

After three nights at Finca Mystica's, with our bellies full, we luckily left at the same time as another couple who'd hired a truck so we were able to hitch a lift and jump on the back to the village of Santo Domingo located on the strip of land that joins the two volcanoes. A couple of nights there and our time in Nicaragua will be nearly over.

Ometepe

Island of Ometepe

Three days on the beach in San Juan Del Sur and the surf dudes were beginning to wonder who we were so we thought it was time to move on despite ‘their’ beach being a perfect place to hang out and swim.

Our next destination in Nicaragua though, the Island of Ometepe belongs in a fairytale novel. It’s an island formed by twin volcanoes rising out of a lake with lagoons, waterfalls, beaches  and numerous unspoilt villages scattered around the edge.  

The one hour ferry crossing from the mainland dropped us at Chaco Verde which was very remote but right on the lake. We walked miles to a beautiful lagoon and just when we were leaving, the local funeral director pulled up in his truck  and offered us a lift. Gladly we hopped on the back and he dropped us back to our hotel and refused to take any money for his trouble. The following day we hired a couple of bikes which I’m positive used to be bikes in a former life, and a cycled on the one road surrounding the island to a couple of swimming spots. Despite the difficulty of pedalling with only one pedal and me being stuck in 18^th gear and Vanessa stuck in 1st, it was amazing to cycle along this tropical road and have the lake on one side and one of the towering volcanoes on the other whilst the local life unfolded in front of your eyes.

Surprisingly we’re going to stay on the island for about a week.

'Chicken' Bus

Local 'chicken' bus

Even after three days in Granada, Nicaragua, we still hadn't warmed to the place. In fact, despite the hot temperature it left us feeling a bit cold so we decided to make our exit but was it to be by taxi or the famous old ’chicken’ bus? At $60 for the taxi and $4 for the bus, the decision was made for us.

The local buses are the are big old iconic yellow American school buses which when retired, come to Central America to live out their dying days. A huge amount of discomfort is included in the price as well as a large slice of local life. There’s no such thing as a full bus, everyone and everything just keeps piling on and there’s a fair chance that sitting next to you will be a chicken, hence their name.

Whilst the bus is bursting at the seams, various food and drink sellers squeeze down the aisle plying their trade plus some more slightly obscure ones. Our favourites were the guy selling razor blades, another chap selling dog leads and finally a clown selling sculptured balloons.

Sunset entertainment in San Juan del Sur

Vanessa was one of four people on a seat designed for two schoolchildren and I was fortunate enough to grab the last seat on the bus. No one was sitting there because it was wet but luckily the conductor was on hand with an old piece of newspaper to wipe some of it up. Two hours later and the seat was dry after my clothes had soaked up what could have been anything from pineapple juice to pig juice.

As a bit of a sales tactic the taxi drivers warn you that you could be robbed on the bus but there is so little room that I would have been unable to rob myself let alone anyone else getting in on the act.

We arrived safely in San Juan Del Sur, a small beach town in the south of the country, popular with the surfing crowd so the atmosphere is excellent and will be keep us occupied for a few days.