After picking-up Marko and Adrian from the airport and
haggling with cab drivers over fare prices, we found a hostel in San José just
blocks from the bus terminal for Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, our first Caribbean
destination. The next morning we woke and packed, eager to get out of the big
city. We weaved through crowds of people for nearly thirty minutes to get to
the Terminal Caribe, only to discover that we had gone to the wrong bus terminal; the bus for Puerto Viejo left from the San Carlos Terminal, which,
ironically, was only a few minutes from our hostel. We were further
disappointed when we arrived to the correct terminal and there were no seats left on the bus for Puerto Viejo – the three of us would
have to stand in the aisle throughout the hot, six hour ride.
Puerto Viejo de Talamanca was a small, touristy town on the
Southern-most Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica, and was very different from all
the villages I visited on the Pacific Coast. The Caribbean Sea was baby blue and clear, and the reef was much more prevalent here than on the Pacific Coast. There was also a strong Rastafari culture, which was completely absent amongst the indigenous people on the Pacific Coast.
In addition to these differences, Tarapacky also managed to get me back on the well-beaten gringo trail. His extensive research on 'party hostels' led us to
Rockin J's, a huge hostel on the beach offering everything from hammocks ($7 US per night) to a honey-moon sweet ($70 US per night). While I stayed in the hammock, Mark and Tara opted to stay in tents. The hostel was covered in mosaics and fostered a very cool atmosphere. It was definitely a great place to start off the night.
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| Hammock City |
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| Mark in the Tent Slum |
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| Saturday night entertainment |
The highlight of our time in Puerto Viejo was exploring the area with quads. We each rented an ATV and took off down every side road we could find between Puerto Viejo and Manzanillo. While doing doughnuts in the white-sanded beaches, which wasn't so legal, both Mark and I almost flipped our quads. The boys were pretty stoked to have found some coconuts and to have learned how to properly open them to first get the coconut water and then get at the meat.
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| Marko just managed to skid to a stop before driving his ATV through the hole in this bridge |
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| Enjoying the view after several close calls on the quads |
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| Marko and Adrian working on opening a coconut |
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| Success |
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| Banana tree |
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| Our Caribbean Route: Puerto Viejo (A), Manzanillo (B), & Isla Colón (C) |
On December 16
th we headed to Bocas del Toro, Panama. While Marko and Adrian had no problem crossing the border, the official turned me down - apparently a digital picture of a Word document on my computer screen was not sufficient proof of onward travel from Panama. After an hour or so at the internet café I tried again and fortunately they let me through into Panama!
Bocas del Toro was totally different than any place I've seen in Central America to date. It was comprised of numerous islands, requiring water taxis to get anywhere. We stayed in the capital city, Bocas Town on Isla Colón, in another party hostel courtesy of Adrian Tarapacky -
Mondo Taitu Bar & Hostel. This hostel was a blast. It played great music and had a theme every night, of which our favourite was 80's night power hour - 60 minutes, 60 songs, and 60 shots of beer. Better yet was our pimp suite, a tree-house with two beds, a hammock, and a private bathroom for $36 US a night.
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| Sketchy bridge crossing into Panama |
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| Bocas del Toro, Panama |
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| Bocas Town, Isla Colón |
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| Christmas vibe in Mondo Taitu |
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| Pre-drink in Mondo Taitu |
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| Our tree-house |
The water in Bocas del Toro was the clearest I've ever seen, which encouraged us to give scuba diving a try. We completed a three-day Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) open water certification course with Freddy of
Bocas Water Sports. While Freddy said we weren't his best students, he said we were certainly his funnest. Our first enclosed water dive was hilarious - Tara had a full-blown panic attack under water while Mark kept re-surfacing due to water inhalation. Once these issues were resolved, all went smoothly other than the fact that Marko ran through his oxygen in half the time as the rest of us.
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| Marko upset to have failed quiz#1 (he managed to pass on the second try!) |
Despite these initial obstacles, we all passed the written exams (eventually) and practical underwater drills. We learned a tonne of skills, including how to equalize our internal air spaces when experiencing a squeeze, how to share oxygen in case of an emergency, how to clear water out of our masks underwater, and how to avoid decompression illness when diving multiple times in a day.
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| Marko nailing the water entry |
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| Enclosed water drills |
We completed four open water dives in Bocas del Toro: Punta Manglar, Airport, HDP and Log. Each of these spots were completely different, but our favourite was HDP by far. The colourful reef at HDP was full of life, I felt as if I were on another planet. We saw everything from sting rays and lobsters to schools of fish numbering in the hundreds.
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| Thrilled at the end of one of our first open water dives |
Scuba diving wasn't the only new experience I had in Bocas, it was here that I also surfed my first reef break - Black Rock. From Isla Colón I would take a water taxi for $2 US to the break, surf until I was tired, and try to hail a taxi once finished. This was a surreal experience. A channel on either side of the reef also made it incredibly easy to get back to the break, for I wouldn't have to battle breaking waves on my way. Adrian and Mark got hooked on surfing, and it appears I may have a couple of surfing pals for my future trips.
Pura Vida
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