Panama
We went to Bocas del Toro, Panama, a group of islands off the Caribbean coast of Panama, not too far from the Costa Rica border. The Panama-Costa Rica border is this super old bridge that you feel dangerously close to falling through the whole time you are walking it. Sketch!
But Ray Lewis was crossing the border with me so I felt safe
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| This Panamanian guy had no idea what he was wearing |
Day 1: Hike!
We went on this pretty long and pretty difficult but amazingly beautiful hike through the jungle and beaches to the highest point of the island. At the top there is a Finnish woman who runs a chocolate and coffee farm. We bought vegan chocolate coconut truffles that were the most delicious thing I could have eaten after 3 hours of hiking in the muddy jungle. Next to her property there is this restaurant where this European guy cooks you Thai food from local organic vegetables. He only charged us $10 each for 2 amazingly delicious courses and a coconut cocktail!
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| The beginning of the hike |
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| Delicious truffles! |
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| View from the Thai restaurant |
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| Danielle and I with our free cocktails! |
Our hostel was awesome (and only 7.50 a night!) and had all of these activities that we could sign up for. We decided to do the kayaking and snorkeling tour that went through the mangroves and to this really small Panamanian village on the island. Eating at the village was really cool because we were able to support the local economy there and it was really interesting to see how the Panamanians live. Panama is a lot poorer than Costa Rica and there are a lot more small villages like that.
The kayak trip was a tonn of fun and snorkeling was sooooooo cool!! We saw so many cool marine communities and sweet fish! Such a good day!
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| Our kayak group! |
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| Kayaking through mangroves |
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| The restaurant that we ate at in the small village |
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| Starfish! |
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| Touching this cool jiggly sea thing |
We changed location to go to the main Bocas island for the final 2 days of the trip. The main Bocas island is a little more touristy but very cool. When we got there, we rented bikes and went on this long beautiful (and hilly!) bike ride up to this cool cave. We didn't go too far into the cave because the bats were flying at our faces and we were not into that. At one point during the bike ride, it started pouring down rain which was really really really cool.
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| At the entrance to the cave |
Later that night we went out. The bars in Bocas are so cool. They all have big holes in the middle of their decks where you can swim around, and one that we went to had a swing where you could swing into the ocean! Awesome.
Day 4: Playa Estrella
Our last full day in Panama we went to Playa Estrella, or Starfish Beach. We got some sun there and snorkeled a bit. There were so many starfish in the ocean, it was awesome!!
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| Panama is a desktop background |
After we left Panama, Danielle and I spent a couple of days in Puerto Viejo, the Caribbean beach town in Costa Rica that we went to on our first weekend. Since it was Semana Santa, all the Ticos were spending their vacation there! It was so different from the first time we were there and it was almost all foreigners.
This past week
This past week in Heredia has been so much fun! It's not always a blast here but this week certainly was. Wednesday was independence day so we didn't have class, so Tuesday we all went out downtown to celebrate Kate's birthday. It was super fun. And then Wednesday we went to an international soccer game-Costa Rica vs. Honderus!! It was awesome! There were a lot more people than la liga game we went to a couple months ago and the crowd was loco.
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Saturday morning, me, Danielle, Catherine, and 2 guys we met in Puerto Viejo from Europe/Australia went to the Braulio Carrillo national park, which is the closest park to San Jose.
Some history on the Braulio Carrillo National Park: Before the 70s, the only road that went from the Pacific side to the Caribbean side was a really long road that went along the south side of Costa Rica, along the Panama border. The government wanted to build a road that would cut through the center of the country, but that would involve destructing a lot of natural forest habitat. Environmental lobbyists agreed to let the road be built, but on the condition that all of the area around the road remain protected-no turning it into agricultural land. So Braulio Carrillo is this giaaaant protected area of a million different kinds of habitats, however there is a highway that goes straight through it.
There are a few hiking areas in the park, and we spent the day hiking around. It was unbelievably beautiful, probably the prettiest hike we have done in Costa Rica. So green and untouched and different and absolutely full of life. The noises of the birds and insects were so loud, it sounded like someone was playing "jungle sounds" sleep music on full blast.
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| This tree was giant!!! |
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| El rio sucio: The river is colored this way because of deposits from volcanic minerals |
Next weekend=WWOOFing on a chocolate farm!! Can not wait =)
Pura Vida!
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