Panama to Colombia on the Tango

My Omi always told me not to rush things. And she was right – we got to Puerto Lindo and spent all day searching for a sailing boat. There was a massive choice of a whole 2 boats. *Joy* We could have stayed in the town for a few days, or gone to another port, but we were getting anxious about having enough time in South America we hopped onto the less shitty boat – the Tango.

The Tango, our 10m sail boat.

Owned by a Frenchman, David, the Tango is a whopping 10m boat with no fridge, small beds that stank like petrol and no shower. We met the other passengers, 3 Kiwis and a German (Jochen), plus the first mate which came to a total of 8 people.  We were even more dis-heartened when a luxury catamaran pulled up with a bunch of Australians telling us how it was one of the best experiences they have ever had! FML…

We decided we should make the most of it and look at the positive side, so we cracked a beer and watched the coastline of Panama. The weather was crappy, it was choppy but worst of all it was overcast so the San Blas Islands won’t be as picturesque. We paid $430 each for this? Oh dear…

OK to be fair, it doesn't look that bad, but when you see everyone else's photos of how amazing it is, you will be bleak!

 Due to the choppiness we were all seasick except for Rob. We finally made it to the San Blas, which is a chain of tiny islands scattered along  the east coast of Panama. They are picture-perfect with white sand, palm trees and the Khuna, which are indigenous people. We camped the first night on the island for $5 dollars where we made a bonfire and chilled with Jochen.

Our tent was squeezed under the rain cover that the Khuna so gratiously gave to Jochen as a 'tent'.

 It was a really lovely island, except for the massive amounts of rubbish. It was frustrating to come to a beautiful beach and see plastic bottled, nappies and tons of other trash everywhere. We swam in the water and found a coconut, so we opened it with our machette. Out of no-where the Khuna appeared, unfriendly as anything, and demanded an extra $5 for swimming on the beach. They then wanted another $1 for the coconut and $5 for a photo of them. I’m all for supporting indigenous communities, but that’s ridiculous. We refused to pay and walked away. Things keep getting better.

The death of the coconut.

The coconut we opened with our machete and ate, with Jochen.

Haha! I have a photo of you. Try and get money from me, I dare you.

I know this blog post is very negative and depressing…I’ll make it happier. We spent the next full day on the islands where we had a fantastic barracuda braai. Sadly the captain purchased the food with a small bag of white powder and a few dollars. I was oblivious to it, but Rob noticed and I think it’s disgusting. The food was great though, a truely delicious meal, and I’m eating as much as possible to get my money’s worth (I ate more than anyone on the boat…).

Fantastic baracuda meal on the San Blas! Food always makes me happy!

Yay! We are happy after the lovely meal - jump for joy!

 That night we camped on the island again and met some other travellers who came from Colombia. They had an awesome boat, great food, showers, private bathrooms….the works. Seems like everyone is rubbing it in our faces! We had a good night though, sitting around the campfire chatting.

The next day we started sailing to the last few islands.  We got to the beautiful islands and the weather started getting better. Things were looking up, and we became comfortable on the boat, it’s not so bad. Our captain made things better when he organised huge crabs for lunch, and his cooking was amazing! We were nestled between about 5 islands, where we could explore and snorkel.  The snorlelling is not very good, starfish and that’s about it

Huge crab!

The weather cleared up and we had a great afternoon!

 Rob and I were chilling on the boat while everyone was out exploring or chatting with other captains. I stood on the deck and noticed how the other boat was moving forward. Then I saw how the island was moving too and realised our anchor was being dragged. We were heading straight for another island. Ahhh! I had no idea how to start the boat, but luckily a captain from another boat jumped to our rescue and saved us. Close call!

That afternoon we set sail into open water for the next 2 days. We were content with the fact that we weren’t on the best boat, but what can you do? I tried my best to catch some tuna – I had the lines out all the time, but no luck. I also started to wonder about the crashing tuna stocks, because we saw tons of them! Although, they were tiny and not yellow-fin… It was the most bizaare thing I’ve seen – the tuna behaved like dolphins and were riding the waves in front of the boat.  It was amazing! Their colours are also unexpected, with luminous purple and metallic blues, it was a great sighting.

Incredible! Tuna following us for kilometers, acting like dolphins!

We spotted a pod of dolphins that played in our surf. In the distance we saw a whale, so we tried to get closer but it disappeared. David allowed us to have a quick dip in the big wide ocean. I was poep scared! All I could think of were the hungry sharks under us decideing which one of us to chomp. I’m such a wuss, so we kept close to the boat. The water was spectacular – the bluest blue and the perfect temperature. Our captain and first mate set up the sails, and everytime the first mate did so, his balls would hang out. Ewwwwww! I was the only one who always seemed to be unfortunate enough to spot it. Rob thought it was hilarious. Thanks babe. Things were greatly looking up, and we only had until the next morning to see South American soil!

Dolphins being dolphins!

Having a quick dip behind the boat, things were looking up and our boat was getting more fun!

Rob in the big deep blue sea.

Good morning Colombia! We had arrived! The trip started off really badly, but ended well with the gorgeous sunrise greeting us. Cartegena is not what we expected at all. The city was modern, with huge skyscrapers along the beach that looked like Miami or something. It seemed so first-world, it was quite

unexpected. Apart from the few mishaps on the boat, it was an experience! 

Cartagena sunrise, our first view of Colombia!

Panama City!

Arrived here not a happy chappy! The bus trip was fine, but the bus was bumpy and the driver was speeding, so our lunch packet with carefully made sarmies, snacks and juice slid away never to be seen again. To make things worse, when we eventually did stop at the lunch stop, 4 other buses arrived and the queue was so long we got to the front of the queue as the bus pulled away. Rob gets madly grumpy when he’s hungry and we were both starving on a shitty bus with every tom, dick and harry listening to their repetitive latino music on their cellphones. Seriously people, haven’t you heard of earphones?!

Got to Panama and a super friendly policeman helped us into a taxi. We stayed at Mamallena Hostel, cheap nice and clean. We met some Dutch guys there and they were so excited we could speak some Afrikaans to them they fed us drinks and our shitty day turned into a jolly night!

Next day – shopping. My lens is smashed so we went to the big shopping centre, apparently Panama is cheap for electronics due to the canal bringing in all the imports. Robbie bought me an amazing lens, we got pepperspray, an excellent torch because I lost the one Dad gave me, and other supplies. That afternoon it poured with rain so we couldn’t visit the canal.

We were getting itchy feet to get to Colombia. South America is huge and we have been spending more time that expected in Central America. So, we woke up super early and got onto the oldest train in Central America – the Panama Canal Train. It’s gorgeous but has a sinister history as over 17,000 people died building it. It follows the Panama Canal, so we got a chance to see the massive cargo ships going through the locks. The Train was gorgeous and the scenery was stunning – birds everywhere, butterflies and even some terrapins.

The Panama Canal Train, going alongside the canal through stunning scenery.

 We got to Colon, which is a super dodgy town. It looked like the stereotypically dangerous ghetto you see in movies. Eish! We got a chicken bus to a town called Puerto Lindo where we could find a sailing boat to Colombia. We are keen to get to Colombia, so apparently looking for boats at the docks are your best bet.

Boquete, Panama

Yay! We finally entered the land of hats, canals and dodgy bandits stopping the Pan-American into Colombia. This is our last Central American country, with the big and daunting South America just a boat ride away!

Welcome to Panama!

 The border crossing was…interesting. I had to swap between my SA and Oz passport, which was too much for some of the officials, who just threw their arms in the air, gasped and walked away. Eventually they just stamped my passport out of frustration. Strange.

We took a combi to a small town called Boquete ($5) and arrived at night in the rain. It’s colder here as we are in the mountains, and it has a distinct European feel. A sweet man recommended Pension Marilos ($16 a double), which was fantastic and clean. Now for some grub – we saw a little pizzeria up the road and the lady was so excited to meet her first South Africans she took photos of us. It was an amazing pizza too!

The morning was stunning. The rain had stopped and we could see the pine covered mountains surrounding us. This is a great place to relax. Apparently Yugoslav farmers settled here back in the day, followed by Swiss. It’s tranquil and sweet here, so we decided to take a walk to the many waterfalls. We walked for about 4 hours, found the waterfall and the entrance to the Quetzales Trail, which was ridiculously expensive ($90) but also closed (apparently).

Lovely stream running through the forests.

These little caterpillars were everywhere!

One of the waterfalls in the background.

 We met a really awesome guy, Ryan, from the States who is researching languages. We walked together and hitched a ride back to town where we sat under a bridge by the river and had a few beers. The water was cold but refreshing, and we had just a fantastically relaxing day.

The next day Rob and I went to find the Quetzales trail, but got a wee lost and ended up at a gate where we paid $3 each to enter the farm with a waterfall. It was gorgeous, tall trees, ferns and moss everywhere. We stayed there for a few hours and chilled all day. Travelling makes you exhausted, so this was a lovely break before heading to the bustling Panama City.

Getting jungly in the northern part of Boquete, on our way to the waterfall.

The waterfalls trickling down the cliff. A lovely spot for lunch!

Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

The Pacific coastline of Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio, is voted one of the best destinations in the country. A 6hr bus trip ($6) through grasslands and hills later we arrived in the gorgeous beach town, which is tiny but covered in thick coastal vegetion. The beach is beautiful with little islands in the distance, and some trees on the sand providing shade.

The beach by Manuel Antonio.

We got off the bus and looked for a hostel when a beach bum teenager showed us to a really lovely place Costa Linda Backpackers ($10/night). We spent four days here, relaxing, reading, getting in touch with friends and family and best of all, enjoying the National Park.

Inbetween the relaxing on the beach, watching squirrel monkeys playing in the trees, and eating cheap and delicious meals at our hostel we also planned to visit the National Park that is so highly recommened by Costa Ricans. Unfortunately, it was pouring with rain on the day we wanted to go, and decided to have a quiet day in.We needed time to recharge, the last few weeks have been quite intense!

Finally we had a chance to get into the Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio. Woke up at 7am to be the first in the park, ($10 each). People were asking for private guides to 'help spot animals', but that's a lot of money and I'll take my chances. I had to see a sloth, and it's face! Michael saw a baby sloth and rubbed it in, so I have to see one now!! We walked in the park, there are very clear roads and paths to follow. It's a tiny park, only 16.24 km. The guides were pointing out birds, monkeys etc, but nothing we couldn't see ourselves.

A zebra-look alike Grasshopper.

In fact, I was a machine! I was so desparate to see a sloth that I kept my eyes peeled, and we saw so many insects and birds that were very enjoable. While we walked towards the 'mirador' (lookout) we saw a whole bunch of monkeys. Sweet! Then we crossed a tiny wooden bridge and as I looked to my left I saw...a SLOTH! I almost squealed I was so excited! It was a perfect sighting, he was moving around, climbing down (and eventually up) the trees. It was amazing seeing such an active sloth and he looked right at us several times. It was the most dopey looking animal! We watched him for about 15min, he did his sloth thing by hanging upside down, and we could see the three-toes (with massive claws) very clearly.

Our first sloth face! It was climbing up and down for ages. Fantastic sighting.

Within those 15min not a single tourist walked past us. When the little guy disappeared into the thick vegetaion a group walked past. "Damn, you just missed a sloth!"..."It's ok, there are many here, we are in the rainforest", that's the response I got. I don't understand people like that. They didn't give two hoots about it, go back to the city, why are you even here?!

Anyways, we went to the mirador, where a really beautiful view of the ocean exposed a distinct line in the ocean. We don't know what that's from, maybe currents?

The ocean view, with the distinct line.

We walked back and the sloth was on his way back up the tree, in full view. I was waiting for people to come past so we could share the amazing experience with them, but of course, no-one came. Eventually a German tour group walked past and I said in my best German there's a sloth (Faultier) and they were rather excited! Yay, great success...

We kept walking and two Augouti's were browsing in the undergrowth. We spotted some vultures and a woodpecker. The path lead to a little beach protected in the cove. There were hundreds of little hermit crabs scutteling around - I love them, we had them as pets in Australia. We played with them and Rob and I had Hermit crab races. I won, it's my superior experience of knowing which hermie to choose :)

An Augouti, a large rodent.

Quick dip in the beach.

One of the many Hermit Crabs we played with.

Hermie!

A quick dip later we kept walking around the park. We decided to leave the park and on our way on the main path (a road) we saw a tree slanted down with a grey fluffy thing dangling in the middle. As we walked closer we realised it was a baby sloth, looking confused, dangling eye-level in the middle of the road! We couldn't believe it! What luck!! They are adorable, I want one! He was about 6 months old and hadn't learnt the art of camouflage or hiding for safety. It was so sweet, we watched it for about 30 min. So many people came, 'oh a sloth *click' and kept walking. Hmmm....not as excited as me. It's not a zoo, it's in the wild, and it's special.

As we walked out we saw 2 more sloths, and a ton of monkeys. We definitely didn't need a guide, and in fact the German tour guide came to me afterwards and thanked me for pointing out all the birds and animals. Years of going into the bush has paid off :) I love it!

The three-toed sloth in Manuel Antonio National Park.

The rest of the time we spent on the beach. We origionally wanted to go to Panama, but the only ATM in the town wouldn't accept my bank card so we had to borrow $1 from a car guard to get the bus to the main town (Quepos) to get money. Shame, what a sweetie. We are such hobos, bumming money form a card guard, but he offered....We gave him $2 back, so he doubled his cash. The last night we stayed in a hotel by the bus terminal to get a bus to Panama at 5:30am. *Joy*

San Jose, Costa Rica

After a long but beautiful bus trip to the capital city we met our friend Franscisco that we met in Tulum that one night we slept on the beach. He's really sweet and we stayed at his house. His mates and us went out for a few drinks to celebrate meeting again and to have a proper send-off to Michael, who is leaving at the crack of dawn.

Franscisco made us a wonderful Colombian breakfast, a kind of soup with eggs, potato and coriander.

We met a Korean! It was fantastic, we had soju, spoke Korean and reminiced about that wonderful country. We had a great night out and met a Costa Rican girl who had visited South Africa. It was all in all a great night. The next morning Mike left, and we slept in. We wanted to leave Costa Rica, as we are spending more time in Central America than we planned for, but the digsmates convinced us we can't leave Costa Rica quite yet. Franscisco helped us buy bus tickets to our next destination, while we walked through markets, streets filled with restaurants and coffee shops and watch kids being arrested for selling drugs. Just a normal day in San Jose!

Butterflies & Frog Garden, Costa Rica

Today's our last day in Monteverde, and Mike wanted to do something, anything, that didn't cost an arm and a leg. Last night he went on a night walk (we decided to save money and stay in) and he saw a baby sloth - and it's face!! I was livid :(

The only thing we found to do was the Butterfly and Frog Garden ($21). We had a little tour with a lady, and she showed us some amazing things. I thought of my wonderful godmother & friend - Ruth and Illa a lot. Wow, butterflies aren't just pretty fluttery things, they have evolved some highly detailed and fantastic patterns to evade predators, get mates and blend into the environment. They were in cages, so it was a little hard to photograph them, but we really enjoyed it and learnt a lot. Here is a photo 'tribute':

A butterfly on my head, it's good lucky I hear.

Pretty patterns.

Zebra Butterfly.

This is my favourite species - it looks like an owl!

The female.

The Morpho, it's so blue and beautiful, but you can never capture it on camera when it's flying!

See anything special?

It has adapted to look like a snakes head to scare predators. Fantastic!

The red-eyed tree frog, just waking up from it's siesta!

Pura Vida! The flagship spcies for Costa Rica posing perfectly for us!

Big fat toad that dogs get high on and go crazy for.

Blue jeans poison dart frog. Not a great quality picture, but a pretty and deadly little guy.

There he is in his favourite place, inside a bromelia.

And this little guy, cute tree frog relaxing on the leaf.