When we left you last we were getting drenched in the mountains of Costa Rica. Since then we`ve been having quite the adventure. We`ve been to the carribean and back at least three times!
Moving swiftly along from our last meeting, we went to the Carribean for some much needed sun. We arrived at a place called Cahuita with the friendliest people I`ve ever met. On our way, we were misled by a gringo who was sending us the wrong way to the bus station. A taxi driver stopped his car in the middle of an intersection blocking off the traffic and gets out of his car to point us in the right direction. We were pretty unsure about this apparent mad man screaming that the bus station was 2 and half blocks in the opposite direction, but he was backed up by a woman who looked like a 90 year old prostitute. She came up to us, asked us what we were looking for and pointed us in the right direction. In the mean time, a man waiting for his bus offered to walk us down to the bus station. Like I said, friendly, helpful people.
They also seem to spend a lot of time stoned. Its not unusual to get a whiff of the whacky and look around to find a man bouncing his baby girl in one arm while handling a massive J in the other. The carribean is a pretty relaxed place all round.
Cahuita is an amazing beach town, relaxed, no fuss and best of all, beautiful beach and national park. We woke up in the morning to see a sloth hanging outside the kitchen window. We were greeted at lunch by a rhino bug the size of your face on a palm tree at lunch time and when we went for a walk through the beach and national park we saw monkeys, racoons and even more sloths. Its a pretty special place.
When we eventually decided that the time had come to head to Panama, last stop on our Central American adventure, we headed for the infamous Bocas Del Toro. Entering Panama we had to cross a pretty shaky bridge that had huge holes in it and you couldn´t walk down the pedestrain acess because the handrails had fallen in. On the Panama side we were greeted by one of the most itimidating soliders I`ve ever come across, the guy was the size of a house and didn`t look like he`d ever heard a joke in his life. I`d say he cut fun out because it took time away from working out. This was our introduction to Panama.
When we got to Bocas after many the bus and boat, it wasn`t exactly what we were expecting. The beaches weren´t great, but the party definately was. After two very tiring days trying to keep up in Bocas, we headed for the chilled out Isla Bastimentos. Isla Bastimentos is pretty much the exact opposite of Bocas. Bastimentos has no cars, no roads and an amazing beach, Playa Wizard. Playa Wizards is hidden down a mud path through the jungle. We passed snakes on our way to the beach as well as guys on horseback carrying surf boards and ukeleles. No word of exaggeration, it was a kodak moment if ever I`ve seen one. By the time we got to the beach, I was covered in mud from head to toe. I slid the whole half hour hike to the beach, Ian laughed. But the beach was worth the wait and the walk. Pretty much deserted sandy beach that streched for miles. (Miles may be an exageration, but it was very big).
We spent a full day on a snorkelling trip visiting different reefs, watching dolphins, checking out the red poison dart frogs. After which we went for a well deserved Carribean dinner. Its very difficult to explain how friendly the carribeans are, but they genuinely want to know if you enjoyed your dinner. Food was amazing, I`m not sure what was in that carribean sauce, all the chicken lady would say that its that special carribean sauce!
Anyway, we pushed on to the lovely town of Boquete. Boquete is a little town in the mountains where it rains a lot but the hiking is great and the people were friendly. We didn`t spend a whole lot of time in Boquete, all we really wanted to do there was this hiking trail which we`d heard wonderful things about. The Sendero del Quetzal. The walk up to the start of the trail nearly had us turning back, it was a very steep very windy road. Up and up and up we went until we thought we`d gone the wrong way. We asked the local goat herd who assured us it was only another 10 minutes up the raod.
A half hour later we made it to the start of the trail. We met one other person the 4 hours we were hiking. The trail crossed a fair few rivers and at one point we had no alternative other than to shimmey across a tree that had fallen across the river. It was by far the least walked trail we`ve come across. It was like something out of a horror film: Two hikers, on the trip of a lifetime. They think they`ve found paradise. They thought wrong. (Flashes to some dramatic music and shots of Anna and Ian running through the forest with looks of fear and terror.) Luckily nothing untoward happened, we just had a thoroughly enjoyable walk through an amazing forest listening to howler moneys.
Once we got to Boquete we realised that we were going to have to speed up our trip through Panama in order to catch our boat to Catamaran to Columbia. We ended up rushing to Santa Catalina on the Pacific Coast so that we could dive the world famous Isla Coiba. Santa Catalina is a tiny beach town that becomes the centre of the surfing world once a year when it hosts the ISA World Surf Masters. That will give you a clue to the amzing surf on offer here. We were there at the wrong time of year for surfing, (they were too big) but we definately made it out to the Coiba National Park for some diving.
Now the lonely planet says very little about Santa Catalina and the Coiba National park, which from what I can tell is a big pity. Some people have described the diving in Coiba as rivalling the Galapacos or the Coco Islands. Not having dived either of those, I can`t compare, but it was very very good. The boat journey out takes an hour and you pass some of the most beautiful coastal landscapes I`ve ever seen.
Well after an hour´s boat drive we jumped into the water. We did two dives out there and saw a lot of cool stuff. Schools of barracuda, there were literally thousands of them, turtles (the first we´ve seen while diving on this trip), eels swiming around our fins, sharks swimming around our fins. I´ve never seen an eel swimming out in the open water before, here I saw maybe ten of them. There was a group of maybe 15 sharks swimming around us hunting something or other, completely unbothered by us or our bubbles. For those of you not into diving, sharks normally don´t like people, they usually get a little scared by them and they definately don´t like divers bubbles. All in all, the dives were pretty spectacular. The dive guide was another matter (our worst guide so far) actually he was down right dangerous and as for the gear, it wasn´t great either, in fact it was shit. All in all, a positive experience.
Well since we knew we were getting a boat to Colombia, we figured we should push on and head straight for the Capital. So off we went to Panama city. Panama city is probably the most cosmpolitan in the whole of Central America. The skyline is spectacular, skyscrapers the whole way down the coast line. Coming into Panama city you drive over a huge bridge that takes you across the Panama Canal, the view is something else.
What´s more is the personality of Panama city. The whole way across Central America, different places have had a different personality. Things like in Mexico city, everyone had the shiniest shoes no matter how much money they did or didn´t have. There were guys to shine your shoes on every street corner. In Guatemala, the street food vendors were something else. In Panama city, at every street corner there are at least 5 sets of women doing pedicures and manicures. Every single woman in Panama has the most elaborately painted toenails you´ve ever seen. They´re not just painted, they´re decoarted with intricate pictures and designs. Everyone sits down on the street corner getting their nails done exchanging gossip and having a good time. If the weather in Ireland were better, some enterprising person could make a fortune!
Anyway, we got up to lots in Panama city, it has a lot to offer. We went to casinos and won some money, we then went back to the casino and lost some money. We walked around the old walled part of the city. Some of the Casco Viejo as its called is being regenerated and its becoming fashionable, but walk two blocks in the wrong direction and you´re asking to be robbed and potentially attacked. So its a fine line, but it is an absolutely enchanting place. (I´ve been running out of words to describe how cool some places are, and I haven´t used "enchanting" yet, suggestions for other positive adjectives would be greatly appreciated!)
But yes, the Casco Viejo is an enchanting place. The rest of the city is big skycrapers and shopping malls, but the Casco Viejo is quiet and reserved, and the buildings that have been restored are really impressive. Other than the old city, we also visited the famed Panama Canal. Ian was obviously in his element. We got out to the Miraflores locks right when a whole load of huge freight ships and car ferries were going through. The Panama Canal is very impressive, I know I say that about lots of things, but this is a canal that spans the width of Central America, divides a country in two and was built about 100 years ago. Impressive.
The last thing we did before leaving Panama was to take the train from Panama city on the pacific coast to Colon on the Carribean coast. We got up at 6 in the morning to get the train, so we were both pretty sleep. The only reason you get this train is for the journey, because the town of Colon is a bit of a kip. The train follows the Panama Canal the whole way so you get some brilliant views of the canal. Ian was delighted because you can see where they´re extending the canal and building the new locks. (Which incidently was why we weren´t able to dive the canal because of the dredging thats going on to widen it.)
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