puerto viejo, costa rica

25 - 28 April, 2014

Why hello there! 

Time for another instalment of our adventure, this one brought to you by Damo, and focusing on Puerto Viejo which is in the south of Costa Rica. That's right, we entered a new country! 

The difference between Costa Rica and Panama can be summed up by comparing the buses. Panama buses were small, crammed with as many people as humanly possible, with luggage thrown on the roof, held down by rope and luck. More luck than rope. Cost Rica buses on the other hand are large, comfortable, plenty of space (rarely full) and luggage carefully placed under the bus. Spending hours on buses, you start to notice and appreciate the difference!

Puerto Viejo is cool. V cool. The surfers are all incredible, the weather was great (rains at night), the food delicious, and we had a very welcoming host. I'd highly recommend it next time you're in the area.  

The highlights

• Firstly, I've gotta mention the border crossing. Basically, they drop you off at one side, you get your passport stamped, you cross a bridge with your bags, stamp passport again on other side, and away you go. However the bridge is literally falling apart. It's quite high up and full of holes the size of beach balls. If you didn't pay close attention to where you are walking, you could literally fall straight through. And this is their main border crossing. Wow.
• Oh, we saw sloths (thanks for the tips Jarrod). It was at a sanctuary. Great day trip, we caught a bus there which was fine, and did a tour. However, getting home, no buses would stop for us. After waiting about an hour, I decided to try hitch hiking. After half an hour, and me showing a bit of leg, we had success (much to kath's surprise who thought I was wasting my time). The couple that picked us up were lovely, and drove us straight back to our hostel (about a 40 minute drive). We chatted about what they did, and they said they loved Australian music. Specifically Hillsong. Yep. However we were very grateful for the lift! 
• Turns out, Kath can do an amazing sloth impression from the movie ice age. Really amazing. I've had the pleasure of hearing it constantly for the last 4 days. I'm very lucky to have such a talented girlfriend. 
• We grabbed bikes and rode everywhere. One evening, we went for a surf and planned to have dinner straight after at a taco joint called Tasty Waves. We packed our gear and left. I forgot a shirt. Ate dinner, at a restaurant, shirtless. However, no one even cared. In fact, they ended up offering to help us find jobs if we wanted to stay! 
• Surfed every day, Kath yoga'd (yep, that's now a new word) with hippies above a chocolate store, and we feasted on fresh coconuts chopped down by our host and handed to us daily. Winning! 

The Summary

Weather: Sunny and warm during the day, buckets down at night. 
Surf: Surfed every day, 3-4 foot, seriously talented locals. 
Food: Cooked breakfast and lunch, ate out dinners (that doesn't sound right...). Delicious food though. 

Beverages: Coconuts, a couple of beers, but not too much alcohol. Our bodies are temples. 

People: Surfed with our host at the hostel, but didn't meet too many people. Dudes at Tasty Waves restaurant were cool though. 

Accommodation: Bungalow with private deck, hammock and kitchen. Nice. 

Budget: Came in at about on budget, slightly under. About $90 per day. 

Overall: Some seedy parts but mostly pretty chilled. Plenty of American tourists, everyone spoke English and a great beach. I'd definitely come back. 

Adiós,  

Damo and Kath 

Enjoying dinner and karaoke, without a shirt, at Tasty Waves

Our awesome bikes on the beach. Mine was the pretty pink one.

The very dodgy border crossing from Panama to Costa Rica

About to tuck in for some mini tube fun. Great photography skills from kath!

Constantly on the search for waves

Bikes day and night. No shoes. No lights. No helmets.  Oh and no shirt.

My mate, the sloth

Connecting. They both could speak each others language

Seriously want one

Baby sloth excited by a teddy bear. Reminds me of me.

They're not camera shy

The tour included a great boat ride. How romantic. 

Our view from the front of the boat. Kinda like Venice. If Venice was in a jungle. 

Doing my thing, hitchhiking. 

Our awesome host Alex, with the fresh coconuts. Mmmm.

Doing what we do best - chilling!

Kath seriously makes the best bircher! 

Our humble abode

bocas del toro, panama

20 - 25 April, 2014

Hola amigos!

Kath here. Damo's busily lounging on the hammock next to me, beer in hand and ipad on his lap. Tough life. (He's actually looking up yoga classes for me here in Talamanca - he's a good lad.)

So, Bocas del Toro, Panama. Our first experience of the carribean! We were excited. And expecting lots of white sand, tropical seas and palm trees. It didn't disappoint. But it wasn't exactly as we'd expected. It was like the carribean had made island babies with Venice, Bali and India. Yes there were pretty white beaches, tropical waters and palm trees in Bocas, but there were also groovy party bars, filthy shorelines, romantic candlelit restaurants on the water, vibrant villages with playful local children and a plethora of speed boats zipping people between all these different activities. It made for a fun filled five days.


The highlights

• Carne! For weeks the only meat we've been eating is fish and the occasional shred of supposed chicken or ham. But in Bocas, we ate steak like kings. The best was at our hotel's onsite pier restaurant (boca boca), closely followed by the pork fillet that came as part of a set five course meal we had at Guari Guari - the best holistic culinary experience we've had so far on this trip. Yum.
• Our island,  Caranero. It's such a hybrid of villages, hostels and untouched carribean beaches. Walking around it was the best adventure - blue crabs, puppies, kiddies playing, stilt houses, pollution, beauty, simple restaurants, parties, palm trees, jungle, surf. The lot.
• Red Frog beach on Bastimentos Island. Wow. The epitome of our carribean expectations came to life here!
• The isolation. You wouldnt think it, but this place is isolated! I liked it - no American fast food chains, no cinemas and nothing fancy given a little speed boat is the only way to get things in and out of the place. That said it also meant restaurants were usually missing about 70% of their menu. Gah. Always had steak though. Winning.
• Sundowners. My favorite part of the day. Made especially awesome thanks to the huge waterfront deck of our b&b.
• Surfing. My little wave chaser Damo searched every island for good waves. We met some local guys - JJ and Jose - who took him to a fun little wave at Paki Point, but other than that, surfing was either an epic boat ride away or a hike to a slightly dangerous beach. Not ideal.
• Yoga. I took an incredible class on Colon Island - the teacher was brilliant and the view over the water was so idyllic! 

The Summary

Weather: A bit of everything. Reading on the deck during a massive rain storm was nice, and most days it was hot with sun-cloud. 
Surf: Surfed every day, perhaps 2-3 foot but fun and minimal crowds. 
Food: Steak! No cooking, we ate all meals out. It was good. 

Beverages: Wine time! Oh, and smoothies. Mmmm. 

People: Only met a couple of people, some surfers and the lovely people that ran the hotel. 

Accommodation: Quite fancy! A/c, breaks and two beds. Not bad! 

Budget: Came in at 96% of budget! That's about $100 per day. Winning! 

Overall: Mix of everything, really enjoyed our time in Bocas! 

Adiós,  

Kath and Damo

One of our favourite restaurants so far. No name. No menu. No other patrons (sadly for them but not for us!). Best.

Hey little fella.

Watch out. He likes to nibble ears.

Red Frog beach with this hunk.

Falling out of the water?! Wow.

My jump back flipping photos didnt come out so well. 

Poor D, no surf here either buddy.

Wave chasers,  Damo and Jose.

Bocas Town.

Paki Point. I'm pretty sure the boys "go surfing" just so they can talk about girls and their hair. Yeah, I'm on to you...

Done for the day.

You can see why we enjoy sundowners yes?! Our b&b deck, beers on the way.

Our jetty and the hotel restaurant - Boca Boca - where we enjoyed our first steak. And the chef enjoying his smoko break.

The jetty where we get on and off the water taxis.

Boats. Here. There. Zipping around everywhere. 

A day in the life of Caranero Island. 

A cute little cafe on our island. 

Jungle boy. 

D carving it up like a pro. 

So many.

Sundowners at the restaurant with no name. 

No fish? Steak it is! Took an hour to prep too. Special service at the restaurant with no name. 

Yoga spot.

Enjoying the one minute boat trip to Bocas Town. 

Jumping in Bocas Town park. 

Our last supper. Guari Guari was epic. A half degustation. And a different menu every night. Amazing. 

santa catalina & lost and found

14-20 April, 2014

Hola me amigos!

This latest blog update comes from the relaxed hand of Damien, as Kath is busy with a glass of wine. Very busy.

Santa Catalina (SC) and Lost and Found. Wow. Very different, but both awesome. SC is a beach side, small community, which took 3 buses, a taxi and about 8 hours of travel fun to get to. Lost and Found is a one hostel community, in the mountains of panama, which took 3 buses and 12 hours of travel to get to. SC had surfing, wine, and warmth. Lost and Found had jumpers, wine and trecking. Very different. Except for the wine.


The highlights (combined for SC and Lost and Found)

• Surfing! SC had some of the best waves I have ever surfed! The main place is called The Point which can only be surfed at high tide due to the incredibly treacherous rocks that it breaks on. But when it breaks, it's breathtaking (literally!). 
• One morning I woke at 5am for a surf. This meant walking through town, in the pitch black, jumping off rocks into a black ocean, lit only by the moon, and surfing at least half an hour before sunrise. However, what a feeling! 
• Speaking of surfing, Kath grabbed a board and had a free lesson (by yours truly) at the beach break. She totally nailed it too! Move over Steph Gilmore! 
• Food, glorious food! Kath made Bircher muesli each night for the next days breakfast. She could open a cafe with those skills! Lunch was whatever (actually we're mastering the tuna sandwich these days). But dinner was mostly at Penguinos (we went 3 times in 4 days). This great water side shack that nailed pasta. However, it wasn't all good. The first night I poured as much Parmesan cheese on my pasta as they gave me. Oh man, this was gonna be good! First bite brought tears to my eyes. It wasn't Parmesan cheese. It was salt. 
• Walking along the road at night consisted of avoiding crabs, who were eating other crabs run over by cars, only to be run over themselves, and in turn eaten. A vicious cycle. 
• The people however really made it. We hung out with our mate Luc who joined us from playa Venao, but also met a bunch of other awesome people - Mike (hotel owner), John and Elena, our roomies, and fellow traveler Magnus. All a winning combination, and all we had plenty of time for. 
• Kath enjoyed a local yoga class. She could have taught it better. 
• Then we hit up Lost and Found, which required a challenging hike, in the dark. It was really difficult carrying our luggage. It's getting really heavy. Hurts your back. Painful for days after. At least that's probably what the porters we paid to carry our bags would have thought.  
• We played with a honey bear. I think he loved me. Probably wouldn't last though, people would think it was weird. 
• We started doing a treasure hunt but got lost and ended up trekking up a massive hill for a great lookout. Then it was time for hammock. And wine. My hammock broke under me. But don't worry, I didn't spill any wine. Phew! 
• Food was more porridge for breakfast, $6 dinner, followed by jenga (Martin Harper style). Kath did well. By well, I mean lost. But I'm not competitive... 
• We're also keeping our minds active (believe it or not). We're both studying Spanish, Kath is also studying yoga books and I'm reading 1984 (which on the inside I have concealed a comic book. Oh Archie, always up to shenanigans). 

The Summary

Weather: Almost perfect. Rained one day, sunny the rest. 

Surf: Amazeballs. 5-6 foot, slow peelers. Dangers paddle out though, received 4 dents and a lost fin. 

Food: A mix of cooked breakfast, sangas for lunch, penguinos for dinner. Mmmm. Salty. 

Beverages: Beer, wine, whatever we could find! Enjoyed some red at lost and found. 

People: Totally cool. We had a great posse. 

Accommodation: Slight stuff up in SC but resolved with a winning upgrade. Lost and found was in the middle of the jungle. Windy and loud at night. 

Budget: Pretty good. About 50% under forecast. Averaging $50 a day. 

Overall: Highly recommended. Surf, chill, food, friends, fun, both SC and Lost and Found had it all! 

Adiós,  

Kath and Damo. 

Penguinos, how we love you. Kath studying yoga books here by day. 

Jumping for joy at being so awesome at surfing a short board! 

There was a pony parked outside our humble abode. 

Paddling in after a big session at the Point.

Our housemate (and landlord) John fetching some veggies from one of many utes that come by selling their goods.

Had many a beer on the porch, this time with Luc and Magnes. 

Penguinos!

A blurred dead crab. Gross.

Two very satisfied customers at Penguinos. And you can't see, but there is an epic lightening storm happening over the ocean behind us. Amazing. 

Damo ate a lobster. 

The lass at Penguinos knows us well. 

Our SC street.

The treasure hunt at Lost and Found.

View from our summit hike!

Enjoying a muesli bar at the top.

The volcano. Seen from the brekkie table. 

Our hut.

Hummingbirds!

We cuddled Rocky.  The honey bear.

Warm oats, local coffee and ponchos!

Best bus stop ever.

Winning jenga. 

The eco villa. Hammocks, communal dining, honesty system for taking food, toilet blocks, shower blocks, huts and animals, it had it all.