12/03/2011 Caribbean Boat Trip – Day 2

Although yesterday was a bit of a write-off today certainly made up for it.

Snorkeling around colourful fish and around a coral filled reef, chilling on another white sand beach with not another person in sight to eating the freshest lobster bought from the locals on a boat for lunch (even trying it tartare style with wasabi and soy sauce).

The evening on the island drinking rum and beer brought us company from some other travelers and they joined in on the drinking. It was a shame the two German girls were lesbians and the Ecuadorian guy was a bit of a weirdo but it still was good times until we ran outta booze – the story of my life.

This place being the most remote indigenous place in Central America it is in my opinion the most beautiful place ive scene in recent memory… and I have another 3 days cruising around these islands :).

Sailing, fresh lobster for lunch and more of the beautiful San Blas Islands (Panama)

11/03/2011 Caribbean Boat Trip – Day 1

Since everything was organized and we were all set to go Valet, Henric, myself helped the captain (Julius) with the sails and we set off on our 5 day sail adventure through the Caribbean seas to Columbia.

At first everything was going well and we were making headway until the waves started getting a little rough, nothing like the 5 meter swells that the Australian girl was vomiting around but enough for me to quickly take a travel sick pill to avoid chundering (Aussie slang for throwing up), As I lay in bed in the cramped boat that can, like sardines fit 3 or 4 more people I felt the travel sick pill fight against the swaying boat, I tried to fight it but eventually I got up onto my feet unaccustomed to the difficulties of trying to do this on a rocking boat and made my way out side to chunder.

Feeling much better after I tried to eat an orange where no more than 10 minutes I threw that up too… I gave up on eating and for the rest of the day I spent lying on top of the dingy at the front of the boat thinking I was in the shelter of the sail where I got very sun burnt, my excuse is that I was incapable to apply it because I was afraid of throwing up again.

Valet was in a much worse state than myself where he was throwing up uncontrollably meaning half the crew were incapacitated for the 10 hour journey for the day.

In the end we made it to the San Blas Islands, an area of the Caribbean scatted with small island oasis’ with pristine blue warm waters, palm trees and white sand beaches exactly like what you see in postcards.

Arriving there where the waters were calmer instantly made the sea sickness fade and my appetite to follow soon after. Julius cooked up some tasty tacos for us for dinner whilst the three of us checked out the island inhabited by a handful of local people who lived there for 3 months before moving onto another island – this way it gives time for the vegetation to replenish itself.          

The views of THE mist beautiful islands ive ever seen, cooking, cleaning and the sunburn!

Nuff Said!!!!

10/03/2011

The plan was to leave between 3 and 5 o’clock today on the sail boat toward Columbia but we were disappointed again by the captain telling us there was an issue getting our passports stamped because of Carnival Festival. Thankfully we didn’t need to pay for another night of accommodation as we slept on the boat. Julius or captain is a young Columbian guy who recently bought the boat and made a living taking backpackers and tourists to and from Columbia. He doenst speak English too well and with my broken Spanish and his broken English we can manage.

Whilst waiting for the boat to be organized I spent the day fixing pretty much everything I own, I have to give thanks to the new roll of duck tape I bought yesterday – as I keep on saying – if you cant duck it, fuck it!

In the evening me and the boys drank a few beers at the local captain hangout and had dinner bought for us by Julius as an apology for not leaving for when he said; here I met some other people who had arrived in Panama after doing the reverse trip that we were about to start, a few of them had issues on the rough seas, especially one Aussie girl who spent the first 2 days throwing up and you could tell too because not only did she look wrecked but also her lips were dried up and about to fall off – very reassuring.

 

The boys and the boat!

09/03/2011

The baby sloth at the hostel is a very cool animal, its mother was killed and so the owners of the hostel adopted it and its new mother is a fluffy teddy bear.

This morning I had to get up early enough to catch a chicken bus into the closest town with an atm to withdraw some money for the boat trip to Columbia where we were suppose to leave in the afternoon but again it was delayed because of the immigration office being closed because of Carnival Festival, I only found this out when I returned to the hostel so the whole 4 hour trip there and back was pointless and rushed for no reason.

On the return journey I was on a chicken-super-bus that was pimped out and with something else under the hood; the driver was just as insane as the bus, taking corners way too quickly and at one point I think he got the thing on two wheels.

This bus only got me to Puertobello where I found out there were no buses to Puerto Lindo which is where I was staying – thanks again to the festival. I started to hitchhike because I didn’t want to pay the $10 for a taxi. I walked for a good 25 minutes before I got a ride, I was dropped at a junction where I again walked for another 20 or so minutes and then gave up as a taxi went by and picked me up, I did save $6 though.

I met up with the Sweds to hear the news and then we went to the beach where we chilled for rest of the afternoon – the water here is so warm!

08/03/2011

I left Panama City with Valle and Henric, two Swedish guys I first met in Bocas Del Toro. After eating breakfast and saying my farewells to all the people I had met over the past few days we hopped on a taxi to the bus terminal to board a bus that took us to Sapanita having to board a increadibly cramped chicken bus to Puerto Bello where we then got into another taxi to Puerto Lindo.

Puerto Lindo was where the Sweds and I organized a sail boat trip to Columbia setting us each back $400 lasting 4-5 days seeing San Blas Islands along the way.

When we organized the trip we looked at all the reviews of the vessels and captains from the list of ships listed at Luna’s Castle and found ‘Olivine’ to be one of the better ones.

The Hostel in Panama City take a commission of $25 for organizing these trips for backpackers but to be honest they did such a shit job of organizing the whole thing it really isn’t worth the money. For instance, it would be nice to know that there are no ATM’s in Puertobello and also in Puerto Lindo and the closest ATM is in a town an hour away. The information given to me at the hostel was – well, lets face it, I got next to nothing – all I got was the name of the captain, the name of the boat and a name of a restaurant where we had to met him but who knows at what time?

Anyways despite the lack of organization we managed to get in contact with the Captain only for him to tell us the boat was going to stay in port for another day because they still need to fill up the boat with more people before it could depart.

Valle, Henric and I had to now spend a night at a hostel and hang around all day tomorrow only to sleep on the boat that is going to leave a day after it should have.

After all the sorting out with the owners of the hostel named Wunderbar which is run by a lovely Austrian and German couple who just adopted a baby sloth we settled after a few beers and had a relaxed evening playing pool and cards. Went to bed at 8 because of a powerout – the earliest and least drunk ive been to bed in… I think since ive been in Panama.

this was the Amazing little Sloth that i took many photos of.

04/03/2011 – 07/03/2011

Panama City

What can I say about Panama City?

The entire time here I spent getting drunk drinking mostly beer and rum… it’s a nice city through drunken eyes but that’s all I really have to say about it. I only went out to see the Carnival festival on one occasion where I bumped into a few people I had met in other places around Central America – not surprisingly despite it being pack full of people but spotting out the foreigners isn’t that difficult especially someone with hair like mine.

Um, I could but don’t want to mention things about the people I met and drunken times I had but because I started drinking in the morning every morning its not worth mentioning much… sorry.

This was an easy blog post – 4 days in one paragraph – perhaps I should have done something more?

From Left to Right – Fit swiss girl (? – i should remember as i hung out with her a lot, sorry), when it rained, Mario, and Thomas

03/03/2011

Whilst in Bocas myself and two German guys (Thomas and Mario) organized to get a bus to Panama City at 8am after a very heavy night out getting back at 3 or 4 am to catch the boat back at the main land at 7.

Obviously this was very difficult but the three of us (there was meant to be 4 but I couldn’t get Joe out of bed) managed to get up and get to the dock just in time for the boat. All dazed, sick and hungover we made it to the bus station where we waited for the bus to pick us up, we had already paid the $20 for the ticket to get us all the way to the City but for some reason or another we happen to jump on the wrong bus that we later had to pay for… thankfully it was headed in the same direction but this meant this journey was going to be twice as expensive as it should have been… damn, we all make mistakes – normally I’m more tentative than this.

Anyways after 2 buses and more money spent than we should have we made it to Panama City where we found a cheap hotel for $13 each with free transportation there. At the bus station we tried to get a bit of a refund on the tickets we purchased but we were kicked around the office waiting in several times for the right person to show up.. we gave up shortly later, grabbed some fast food and got to the hotel.

Just some shitty snapshots of Panama City

27/02/2011- 02/03/2011

Bocas Del Toro

My stay here has really not much to mention because everyday was a repeat of the previous day, its suppose to be a beautiful place with white sand beaches, crystal clear Caribbean water and is where I first get to swim in the warm waters of the Caribbean but for 80% of my time here it was dreadfully bad weather with torrential downpours that I have never experienced so bad before, let alone seeing any type of rain in the past few months and because of this pretty much everyone spent all day inside the hostel cradling a hangover or continuing to drink – including myself.

I didn’t venture further than 150m down the road on the first four days only to get to the nightclubs and bars absolutely drenched but it made for a good entrance into each place.

The park across the road from the hostel turned into a lake and the deep gutters surprised people thinking they were shallow, when I say surprised I mean getting injured but watching people running through the rain that would inevitably eat shit and make a good laugh for anyone that was watching.

I did meet some fantastic people here on the island of Bocas del Toro, one girl especially mentioned named Alex from Quebec, one of the coolest and most beautiful girls ive met in recent memory and after spending several days hanging out with her I really would have loved her to mention something about her boyfriend well before I tried all my efforts to impress her; although disappointed I did have a good time hanging out with her.

Whilst here and like everywhere else I travel to I ended up bumping into many people I met in previous places including two girls Amber and Laura(?) who I had fun with back in Guatemala both at the same time; it made for an awkward moment when seeing them in the hostel – for them anyway, I was fine with it.

There were also a bunch of other people who I can mention that I ran into but its just going to make a long list, for not a very good read.

The one time I ventured away from the town was to get to Starfish Beach on the other side of the island with a bunch of people who I met at the hostel. The beach was not nearly as nice as those postcards pictured it but this was the only time where the weather was sunny - recommend place if the weather is not pissing it down.

26/02/2011

Fucking border crossings – Sorry, im not going to bleep out this word.

It was a confusing day for Joe, Tommy and myself; it didn't start well when looking for the bus station to take us to the border, we were taken around the not so nice looking city searching for the right station after attempting two wrong ones to get us where we needed to be.

The 6 hour journey was fine but when reaching the border we were immediately stuck by people ripping us off, the three dollars for the entrance into panama was fine but the other thing needed to purchase was a ticket out of the country if you didn't have one. Obviously this was a scam and the only option was to buy a ticket back into Costa Rica despite having a flight from Columbia. A losing argument with officials and $12 later I was able to get my stamp and continue onwards to Bocas Del Toro – an apparently amazing party island with white beaches and sun.

Crossing the border – it was a very sketchy bridge with trucks passing inches from the pedestrians and me.

25/02/2011

Yesterday I organized to leave San Juan del sur with Joe who I first met in Leon and his friend Tommy, we were all headed in the same direction to panama rushing our way through costa rica because of all the negative things we have heard about it especially about how expensive it is there.

It was suppose to be an early start to catch the 5am bus, but because it was such a heavy one drinking last night we postponed leaving pacha mamas (the hostel) at around 7.

We ended up taking a taxi to the border where yet again we had to deal with the locals trying to sell us departure cards that you get for free in the immigration office anyway. The other thing that's a hassle when crossing into a new country is the new currency, if you don't do your research you can quite easily get ripped off.

With only a little bit of confusion we crossed over into costa rica setting us back only $3 as a departure fee.

Whist waiting for a bus to take us 6 hours from the border to San Jose we grabbed a quick breakfast. One thing to mention while waiting for our food was that there was a fat American guy yelling at locals asking where the washroom was, he obviously didn't speak any Spanish so I tried to tell him how to ask it in Spanish and he completely disregarded what I told him and started shouting "WASHROOM" at the locals - Stupid fat American.

The bus journey to San Juan was unbearably hot and where on two occasions locals stepped on my cut up toe making it puss and bleed all over place.

Arriving in San Juan a taxi took the three of us to the backpackers hostel, it was a nice hostel but lacking any type of vibe and at $13 for an uncomfortable dorm bed it was very expense compared to the rest of central America.

As always I did my rounds around the hostel meeting all I could and later went out to dinner with two Norwegian girls (Kathrine and Marian). It was a good night drinking with the boys and with these two girls especially drinking from a beer bong with a tap. I called it quits around midnight although I did want to spend more time with the girls drinking more beers.

21/02/2011 – 24/02/2011

San Juan Del Sur

What a place, a place to get drunk for cheap and have a great time nursing your hangover on the beach or in a hammock the next day only to do it all over again.

I spent 4 days here and I havnt got too much to mention other than what I talked about above.

I did run into many people who I had met in previous places in and around central America and even a guy who I met in Thailand last year.

Arriving at the hostel (Pacha Mamas) which I found to be the best hostel I stayed at in central America I instantly fell in love with the place because not only did the hostel feel welcoming and fun there were so many fit woman about including one brunette Swedish girl named Amanda who by far was THE hottest girl I had seen in a while. I wish I could talk more about her but I only briefly met the girl before she left, damn!

Unfortunately I didn't have any luck with the women in this place partly because on the first night I got belligerently drunk and asked any girl who expressed anything to me if they, how do I put this?.. 'if they want to get involved'. Fun times but not when you walk home alone with a bloody foot from stubbing it badly on a step.

Anyways I would highly recommend this hostel and place, I would have really enjoyed staying a little while longer but I now have 2 months to get down to Columbia and I want to see Bolivia too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunset at the Beach – San Juan Del Sur

 

Day the the beach with Zara, Peanut (the fit one) and a French Guy, also the pic top left is about 20 people jumping out of a pickup

    

A special Mention for Gandalf, the best hostel dog in Central America