Lucie & Rhys´s Honeymoon Adventure: Week 34 - Bocas, Puerto Viejo, Cahuita (Panama, Costa Rica)

Taking a gamble with the weather we decided to start the week with a boat trip. The first stop was at Dolphin Bay, an area with a labyrinth of shallow channels formed by the mangroves. The Archipelago of Bocas del Toro is home to a semi-permanent population of Bottlenose dolphins and you are pretty much guaranteed to see them. After watching for a while the boat continued to Coral Cay where there was a cluster of restaurants built on wooden stilts over the water. As the best snorkelling spot in Bocas, we were due to return there later for lunch and snorkel time but when we headed further out to try to reach the beaches at Zapatillas Cays the rain started, we were drenched and the waves were choppy. Our captain made the decision to snorkel now and try the beach again later. With the rain still hammering down we jumped into the sea, grateful for the bath temperature water. There was an abundance of tropical fish, coral heads and colourful sponges and the waters were pretty calm and clear considering the weather. After lunch the rain stopped and we tried again to reach Zapatillas Cays. Located in Bastimentos National Marine Park, the Zapatillas Islands are generally considered the most beautiful islands of the Bocas del Toro Archipelago and they were pretty but nothing compared to the San Blas. We walked a lap of the island and chilled on the beach before heading back to Bocas Town.

That night we had arranged to meet up with a group of people from the trip and after a drink in the sports bar, we caught a boat to Isla Carenero, an island 200m from the island we stayed on where there is a bar with ‘legendary’ Wednesday night parties. The bar had been described to us as an ‘Adults playground’ and I was expecting a bit more than a trampoline and sea swings. Nevertheless we had a good night, ran in to Roland who we had met in San Blas and headed back to the hostel a little worse for wears.

We woke up and decided to move to another island in the Archipelago – Isla Bastimentos, a short water taxi trip away. I immediately liked it more than Bocas Town, it was like being in a little village, away from all the tour companies and restaurants. We checked in to a little wooden cabin in Beverly’s Hill and as it was raining we settled on the veranda to watch movies on the laptop for the rest of the day stopping only to play with the old man dog and the puppy.

The rain seemed to be holding off the next day so we decided to walk from the village to Red Frog Beach on the other side of the island. We got halfway, to the highest point of the island and the weather turned. Luckily there was a little eco-café at the top where we stopped for mocha’s and chocolate brownie. With the rain and the slippery muddy tracks we gave up and headed back to the cabin for more TV.

If we hadn’t already seen several of the famous red poison dart frogs of Red Frog Beach around our hostel and at the café we may have stayed another day but since it was looking like rain again we decided it was time to head north to Costa Rica. We caught a boat back to Boca’s Town and another boat from there to Almirante. We were planning on taking local buses to the border but there were mini-bus shuttles that made the journey easier. We’re so glad we took the mini-bus as halfway we stopped and the driver jumped out to pick up a sloth and move him out of the way of the road – seeing a wild sloth that close up was incredible. The border was easy, we’d been warned we needed to show our exit ticket and were not carrying anything to show them but when the immigration guy asked Rhys for his ticket he acted dumb and just kept saying “ten, ten” until he was waved through, I told him we had a flight from Mexico and was also waved through, happy days. Once in Costa Rica we caught a bus to Puerto Viejo, a backpacker beach resort full of hippy boutique shops, hostels and restaurants. We checked in to a hostel with a huge room and hot water (!!) and had a walk around town to orientate ourselves.

Although the weather forecast was predicting storms we decided to risk it and hire bikes for the day to cycle the 12km to Manzanillo recommended by the ‘Rough Guide’ as one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the country. We cycled to the end point, the Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Gandoca-Manzanillo and chained the bikes to a tree to hike through the park to one of the small bays for our picnic lunch. We’d hoped to snorkel but the waves were rough so we entertained ourselves building a sand castle and watching the surfers. On the way back to Puerto Viejo we stopped at a little eco-café near Playa Chiquita for ginger lemonade before heading back in to town.

The next day we hired the bikes again and cycled along the same route but stopped after about 8km at Punta Uva. We ate lunch on the beach before walking through the jungle up to a mirador to discover a far nicer beach on the other side. We decided to go back for the bikes and head over to the second beach where we snorkelled around one of Costa Ricas last few coral reefs. It was a shame the sea was quite choppy as visibility was poor and it was tiring swimming against the waves. After snorkelling we headed back to our hostel in Puerto Viejo.

On Tuesday we decided to catch the bus to the next town along, Cahuita. It’s far smaller than Puerto Viejo with far less tourists, just a little village with dirt roads bordering the Parque Nacional Cahuita. We spent the morning running around Puerto Viejo trying to buy new torches so we didn’t get to Cahuita until after midday. We checked into a hostel and explored the village and stretch to Playa Negra before turning in for the night.