Week 35 - Cahuita, Pacuare Nature Reserve (Costa Rica)

We spent the first 4 nights of the week in Cahuita as we had time to kill while waiting for our volunteer placement at a turtle reserve to start. Cahuita is a little village on the Caribbean coast with a small but beautiful national park. The village itself is quieter and more untouched than Puerto Viejo and most businesses are still owned by locals instead of being overrun by expats.

The first full day in Cahuita we decided to head into the national park and walk the first 3.5km of the 8.3km trail (the only trail) that wound its way through the jungle parallel to the beach before cutting inland to the ranger station at the northern entrance. After 3.5km we reached Punta Cahuita, the peninsula and sat and ate our picnic there while a monkey tried to steal our crisps. On the way back down the trail we came across one of the rangers who pointed out racoons and snakes, so obvious when they point them out but invisible to us before hand. We bumped in to James and Fleur and sat on the beach for a bit before heading back into town for beers on the waterfront.

After moving hostels to a much nicer place with a lovely little tropical garden area, we headed into the national park again the next day (unlike the high entry fees to parks in the rest of Costa Rica, this one only required a small donation so we could go in and out as we pleased). The aim of the day was to walk the full 8.3km trail. Again we bumped into Fleur and James who had also come across a ranger and we joined them for a small tip. The ranger was incredible pointing out sloths, snakes, hummingbird nests, bats and all manner of other creatures every 2 metres along the path. We joined them for the first part of the walk to the river crossing where the ranger left us and the four of us continued to Punta Cahuita and onwards to the northern entrance. The trail was an easy walk, very wide and flat and after another picnic on the beach near the end of the trail we retraced our footsteps, leaving James and Fleur on a deserted beach, back into town. 

The following day Rhys had a computer day and stayed in the hostel enjoying the peace of the garden. After lunch I headed back to the park for a short walk to the river crossing to see if I could spot a yellow pit viper without the help of a ranger (no luck) and to chill on the beach with a book to make the most of the sun.

Our last day the weather had turned and it was too overcast to be a beach day. Instead we stayed at the hostel watching TV and organising things so we were ready for our week at the turtle reserve. We ventured out for dinner in the village and to marvel at the motorcycle club in town for a party, it was like a scene out of Sons of Anarchy.

At 9am we were at the bus station to meet with James and Fleur for a bus to Limon, the largest town in the area and not somewhere that you’d want to stick around. After asking around for a bus to Matina and realising it was too late for our connecting boat we ended up haggling with a taxi to take us all the way to the port just outside Matina. We got there early and ate our sandwiches in a little lean-to shack on the edge of the canal waiting for the boat. The boat arrived spot on time and we started the 30 minute journey to the Pacuare Nature Reserve where we’d be spending the next 8 nights.

The reserve was established by the Endangered Wildlife Trust, a British charity and covers 1,050 hectares of tropical rainforest. The land was acquired 25 years ago and stretches for 6km along the Caribbean coast sandwiched between the beach and the canal. The stretch of beach is the most important nesting ground for Leatherback turtles in Costa Rica. The reserve has two stations, a large station in the south that has facilities for high paying guests, school and other groups and a smaller station in the north that is much quieter and more ‘rustic’ with no internet access and limited electricity in the kitchen area. We were so impressed with the set up when we arrived, the location was beautiful, right on the beach surrounded by lush forest complete with ocelots and a jaguar and the rooms were clean and fresh. The food was delicious and fresh, although mostly vegetarian and by the end of it we were completely sick of eating beans and rice for three meals a day. After a night in the south station to settle in we were off to the north station for 4 nights after which we were due to return to the south station for our last 3 nights (we actually left two days early but I’ll leave that saga for next week’s blog).

The day to day running of the reserve is left to the two biologists, Alvaro and Isabel with Jess looking after logistics with a number of research assistants at each of the stations. Our daily activities were pretty much structured around meal times, breakfast at 9am, lunch at 1pm and dinner at 6pm. By far the most important activity was the night time beach patrols.  

The north station had two shifts, one at 8pm and one at midnight, each running for 4 hours and involving walking up and down 2.5km of wet sand in the pitch black trying not to trip over drift wood. Me and Rhys patrolled together with an assistant, we went on one midnight shift and one 8pm shift at north station and we were lucky enough to come across four turtles. The first thing you see is the tracks up the beach, like a small tractor has emerged from the sea. Following the tracks you get to the turtle who goes through a process that can take up to 2 hours, digging a body pit, excavating a nest, laying the eggs filling in the hole and camouflaging the site. When the turtle is laying her eggs she goes into a trance and doesn’t notice that you’re there which gives you time to note down her tag number (and tag her if she doesn't have one), measure her length and breadth (which involves straddling her – not easy when their shells are over a metre wide and are a metre and a half long), check for injuries and tumours and last of all count the eggs and triangulate the nest position. The last job once the turtle has made it back to the sea is to cover her tracks, they make such a mess and it’s easy for poachers to see from the sea so you have to try and disguise it a bit which involves throwing and moving a lot of sand about in the dark, fighting off sandflies. 

Watching a turtle of that size was an amazing once in a lifetime experience. They’re so prehistoric looking and so powerful and determined. Leatherbacks are the largest living turtles and are critically endangered with poachers after both their eggs and meat. Adults average 1–1.75 m in carapace length, 1.83–2.2 m in total length and weigh 250 to 700 kg. The males never come ashore again one they reach the sea the first time and the females come back to land to lay every 10 days during the season, although not always to the same stretch of coast. They subsist almost entirely on jellyfish (I can’t find anywhere to support Alvaro’s claim that they only eat jellyfish gonads!!) and very little is known about their early years, their lifespan or statistics on hatchling survival.

Other than the evening patrols our jobs as volunteers ranged from sorting out the recycling to clearing driftwood and vines from the beach to make it easier for hatchlings to reach the sea. We helped to measure cliffs to see how the beach was changing for someone’s research project, triangulated nests that were due to hatch, cleaned equipment, watched assistants relocate nests that were two near to the sea and excavate nests that had hatched earlier in the week (or that the dog had dug up) and washed the buildings. The day time jobs weren’t difficult and barely took any time, generally we did less than 2 hours of work and spent the rest of the time playing cards, swimming in the sea, paddling the boat across the canal for a cold drink at the bar (the only building for miles around), reading and watching/playing volleyball.

Howler monkey in Cahuita National Park.

Cricket, Cahuita National Park.

Walking in Cahuita National Park with James and Fleur.

Coati, Cahuita National Park.

Boat trip to Pacuare Nature Reserve.

James cooling down in the sea, Pacuare Nature Reserve.

Sadie relocating a nest, Pacuare Nature Reserve.

Billy the hatchling Leatherback Turtle, Pacuare Nature Reserve.

The boys playing volleyball.  Pacuare Nature Reserve.

Adult leatherback turtle, Pacuare Nature Reserve.

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.  

Red Dart Frog in our hostel garden, Isla Bastimentos.

Sloth on the road from Almirante to the Costa Rican border.

Manzanillo National Park.

Our sandfort, Manzanillo National Park (second line of defence most noteworthy).

Rhys rocking the bike, Puerto Viejo/Manzanillo.

Week 33 - Portobello, Panama City, Boquete, Bocas del Toro (Panama)

After a busy couple of weeks, the last week has been relatively relaxed.  We woke in Panama City for a pancake breakfast before heading to the bus terminal for a bus north back to the Caribbean coast to Colon where we changed buses to get to Portobello.  Colon is a dirty scary city and we were glad to be leaving straight away.  Once in Portobello it took us a while to find the hostel owned by one of the Darien Gapster owners, just a dorm room under a bar/restaurant on the hill.  The town itself is sweet, like something out of a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movie with ruins of the old fortifications and canons scattered amongst the brightly painted wooden buildings set around a deep water bay filled with sailing boats.  When we were in town they were filming for a new Escobar movie and there were film crews on the main street.  We only arrived late afternoon and we were a bit fragile from the previous night out so spent the day in the hostel watching TV and ate dinner in the restaurant upstairs.

The next day in Portobello was a rain day and we were pretty happy as it meant we didn’t feel guilty about not going out.  We ventured into the village to pick up supplies for lunch but no further.  We spent a delightful day lounging at the hostel watching TV on the laptop.

Friday was Rhys’s 28^th birthday and we decided to leave Portobello and head back to Panama City.  Although not the best way to start a birthday with a 4 hour journey we were back in Panama City by lunch time and checked in to the Hard Rock Hotel in the new town.  It was incredible, we looked pretty out of place checking in, you don’t realise quite how scruffy you’re getting when you’re with other travellers all the time.  Our room was huge, on the 44^th floor with a massive bathroom, luxurious complimentary toiletries, fluffy bathrobes and views out over the skyline and into the bay where you could see ships waiting to traverse the canal.  We changed and headed to McDonalds for lunch (a treat for Rhys’s birthday!) before visiting the infinity pool for a swim and a beer (where we were politely asked whether we were actually staying there and in what room!!).  We spent the next couple of hours in our room with a bottle of gin and a bottle of rum in our bathrobes listening to music while the sun set and the lights of the city came on.  We even had a knock at the door and were handed chocolates without a word, it was a wonderful place.  Later we headed to the Hard Rock Café for dinner and a mojito in one of the hotel bars. 

We had intended to leave Panama City the next day but after a great night’s sleep in the super king bed with fluffy pillows and a feather duvet we couldn’t bring ourselves to check out until the last possible moment which didn’t give us enough time to make it all the way to our next destination.  Instead we checked out at noon and headed back to the hostel in Casco Viejo, back to a 10 bed dorm and roughing it – a bit of a downer after the Hard Rock.  We spent the day watching TV, catching up on correspondence and eating ice cream by the cathedral before spending happy hour in the bar.

We left Panama City on Saturday for a bus to David and a connecting bus on to Boquete in the highlands.  Arriving after dark we checked in to a little hostel where we were the only people and ate the baked beans Tim had brought out as a belated birthday treat for Rhys. 

It was another rainy day when we awoke and the couple who were working at the hostel were in bed and of absolutely no use in helping us plan our day (anyone going to Boquete, avoid Hostal Nomba, not only were they of little help, we had to actually ask if we could have the free breakfast were first offered a room without a working light and the room we did end up in was dirty).  We headed to another hostel, Mama Llena, where they happily gave us advice on the treks we could do in the local area.  We chose Sendero Los Quetzales and caught a taxi to the trail head arranging for a return pick up 5 hours later.  The walk was pretty, through forest and quite steep and muddy in places but wasn’t mind blowing and it drizzled all day so wasn’t as magical as it could have been.  We walked half the trail to a mirador before turning around to head back to the collection point to wait for the taxi.  That night we had a visit from James and Fleur, an Australian couple we met on the Darien Gapster who were also in town and had a couple of beers before they headed off and we had the remaining beans for dinner.

We were ready to leave Boquete and the weird hostel the next day and caught a bus back to David and an onward bus to Almirante.  From there we caught a taxi to the port and a boat out to Bocas del Toro, the main island of the Bocas archipelago.  We checked into a 6 bed dorm where two of the others had been there for so long they’d unpacked everything everywhere.  After a couple of rums on the hostel balcony we headed out for Mexican before bed. 

Rhys in the pool, Hard Rock Hotel, Panama City.

The view from our room on the 44th floor, Hard Rock Hotel, Panama City.

Sendero Los Quetzales, Boquete.

Week 32 - Turbo, La Miel, San Blas, Panama City (Colombia, Panama)

After a late night ice cream in Cartagena, we were up early to walk across town to the meeting point for our travel group to the Panamanian border.  Along with 7 others we jumped in a minibus organised by the Darien Gapster team to Monteria, 5 hours away, with Rhys perched on the bitch seat (definition – worst seat in a vehicle).  Once in Monteria we swapped to another van for the last 4 hours to Turbo.  Turbo has a terrible reputation and you wouldn’t want to explore the streets after dark which is part of the reason why we’d decided to join the travel group rather than making our own way to the start of the boat trip.  

The next morning we headed to the port to catch our boat to Capurgana a few hours away across the bay.  It was a beautiful little fishing village surrounded by lush forest and we wished we’d got there a few days earlier to explore.  We spent a couple of hours there waiting to get our passports stamped to leave Colombia, the electricity was out so we had to wait for the guy to text all our details to his head office to get clearance.  While waiting we ran into the oddest American guy ever, one of those people who should never have been allowed to travel alone, if you’ve ever seen Shooting Stars and are familiar with the character Angelos Epithemiou you’lll have some idea.  When our passports were finally stamped we boarded another smaller boat for a short trip to Sapzurro where we met our captain, Adam, on the dock and loaded our big backpacks into the boat for storage. 

From Sapzurro a short walk over a hill took us to the Panama border and down into the small bay of La Miel where we were to spend the night in hammocks at a hostel owned by the Darien Gapster team right on the beach.  The hostel is still in the process of being built so it’s pretty basic but is on a beautiful little beach with warm sea and lush green forest – although the end of the beach away from the hostel is completely covered in plastic litter.  To get there you pass through military checkpoints and past avocado trees full of fruit.  Once there we headed out to swim in a natural pool in the river in the forest behind the hostel before walking back into the village to grab some lunch cooked by some woman in her home kitchen.  That night we met the other 9 people who we would be spending the next 3 nights with and spent hours sitting on the beach drinking rum spotting shooting stars.

The first day of the Darien Gapster we walked a short distance to the next bay where we climbed aboard our boat.  The first stop was at Puerto Obaldia, essentially a military check point where we bumped in to the crazy American again and spent a couple of hours waiting to get our passports stamped by a very friendly chatty immigration guy.  Adam then spent another hour trying to convince the military that they didn’t need to empty and search the entire boat and managed to persuade them to find the sniffer dog to check it over.  Finally we were off and on our way to the San Blas.  We stopped for lunch at a deserted island and spent a couple of hours snorkelling and sun bathing before heading to Caledonia, a Kuna village where we were allocated hammocks for the night.  It was a great experience; we were the only gringos there and nothing had been put on for show, people were just going about their daily business.  We wondered around the village watching the kids play football and ate wonderfully fresh seafood in a small restaurant (and the only one on the island I think), Rhys had conch and I had octopus.  That night a lot of rum was drunk.

Our second day on the boat we had the longest at sea, a 3 hour trip to Isla Iguana.  The island was stunning, white sandy beaches, palm trees, coconuts and warm Caribbean Sea.  Other than a Kuna couple who looked after the coconuts we were the only people on the island and strung our hammocks in little huts.  We spent the afternoon on the beach and snorkelling, although the reef was a little way off the island and Rhys got stung by something unidentified.  That night was a lot more chilled, a campfire using the driftwood found along the beach (Rhys was in his element), dinner, a few rums and we were in bed relatively early.

The third day we packed up camp and headed to yet another stunning deserted island where we spent the morning and had lunch of fresh fish, rice and lentils brought over by a Kuna man.  This island was tiny and you could walk around it in 5 minutes.  It was a little slice of paradise.  The reef wrapped around like a half moon and offered great snorkelling with a huge sting ray.  After lunch we boarded the Darien Gapster again to head to the last island of our trip, Isla Senidup.  Still beautiful I think this was probably our least favourite stop, it had two hostels on the island, only little cabins on the beach not huge buildings or anything but still it was the first stop where we felt like we were back on the gringo trail.  Lunch was announced by a conch trumpet and we spent the afternoon snorkelling, swimming and reading on the beach.  As an addition to dinner we’d stopped some fisherman on our way to the island and brought their entire days catch of lobster and had it served up on massive platters, you’ve never seen anything like it, each lobster tail was the size of my forearm.  After dinner we went to sit on the beach away from the disco ball in the bar.  At about midnight the discovery was made of glowing plankton just off the beach so we all jumped in to splash around making the plankton glow like fairy dust in our wake.  We slept that night in beds in cabins, the first beds we’d had in days. 

Our last day we were woken for breakfast by the conch trumpet and spent the morning relaxing on the beach recovering from the previous night’s rum.  We transferred our bags to a different boat so the Darien Gapster could stay moored at the island and motored the final 30 minutes to Carti.  After weaving through mangroves, the boat docked in the middle of nowhere in the Kuna Reserve where we paid our fee and climbed into 4WD’s bound for Panama City.  The next hour of driving was like a rollercoaster the roads were ridiculously bendy.  I had the bitch seat and Rhys had to hold me in place to stop me flying around.  The 4WD dropped the 7 people in our jeep at Luna’s Castle, a hostel in a colonial mansion in the old town area of Casco Viejo where 5 of us ended up staying.  We were all pretty worn out (it’s surprising how tiring sitting on deserted islands drinking rum can be) and only ventured a couple of blocks from our hostel for dinner at a cheap café before heading to bed.

Grateful for a good night’s sleep, after a pancake breakfast we spent the morning exploring Casco Viejo.  It’s a really sweet little colonial area but is in quite a state of disrepair with crumbling buildings and cracked pavement everywhere.  There is a lot of investment in restoring the area at present and it’s starting to turn into a smaller version of Cartagena with flower filled balconies, art installations in the crumbling buildings and boutique shops and hotels lining the streets.  We spent a lovely couple of hours just wandering around and looking at the artisanal stalls and admiring the plazas and views of the skyline of the new city (which could rival some of the big North American cities).  After a brief visit to the fish market we headed back to the hostel before grabbing a cab with Caitlin and Brandon for a round trip to the visitor centre at the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal.

Although we’d been told that the Canal was a little boring we had a great time.  We saw a massive cargo ship pass through the lock followed by a tanker and some smaller fishing and tourist vessels.  The toll fees paid vary from $420k for the largest ever ship to $0.36 for a guy who swam it and the boat we saw had paid $400k – it seems expensive but apparently it would cost 10 times more and take 10-20 days to pass around the continent rather than through it.  After spending an hour on the viewing platform we headed to the theatre for a 3D showing with some great Canal facts before whizzing through the 4 storey museum and back to meet the cab for the drive back in to town.  The Canal is in the process of being enlarged, by 40% in width and 66% in length, due to complete next year and I can’t even imagine the size ships that will pass through then.

Back in Panama City we said goodbye to Brandon and stopped at a microbrewery around the corner from our hostel.  A few pitchers and a tour of the brewery later and we headed back to the hostel to find Gina, one of the girls from the San Blas, had been to hospital with a blood infection that she’d picked up from a sand-fly bite – scary stuff.  We spent the rest of the evening in the hostel bar in an outdoor courtyard making the most of $1 happy hour vodkas.

Isla Iguana, San Blas, Darien Gapster

Isla Iguana, San Blas, Darien Gapster

Isla Pelican, San Blas, Darien Gapster.

Sting Ray,  Isla Pelican, San Blas, Darien Gapster

Rhys with our lobster dinner, San Blas, Darien Gapster

Isla Senidup, San Blas, Darien Gapster

Panama City, view from Casco Viejo.

Cargo boat traversing the Panama Canal