My break began with a trip to Bocas del Toro, Panama. I left on Friday, and came back on Tuesday to meet up with my Mom and David for part 2 of my break.
The trek to Panama was VERY long... a solid 9-ish hours of travel in total. The worst part definitely was crossing the border, a very long process with a lot of unnecessary waiting.
Diana about to cross the (sketchy, unstable) bridge into Panama!
After taking a bus to catch a taxi to a dock, we took a boat to Bocas Town
Bocas Town:
Our hostel, Hostel Heike, where I stayed with my friends Ryan and Diana:
We arrived pretty late the first night, so we just hung out in town. The next morning the 3 of us went in search of a beach, and eventually did find one. The water was so calm, so blue, and so salty, it made for perfect floating. The second day there, we decided to go on a snorkel/boat tour.
First we saw dolphins:
Then we stopped for a little bit at this small port thing, where we passed the time looking at all the fish in the extremely clear water, and checking out these sweeet scarlet macaws!
Snorkeling was pretty cool, saw a bunch of cool fish and coral. And didn't see anything scary haha. Our final stop on the trip was a beach called Zapatillas, which our tour group had all to ourselves. It was located on an island that definitely reminded me of scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean. The water looked unreal.
At the end, the tour boat dropped us off in our second Bocas location, Bastimientos Island, an island with only some villas, our hostel, and beaches. No grocery stores, no bars, no restaurants (besides the one at the hostel). But the hostel was definitely one of the nicest that I've stayed at.
The next day, we ventured to the main beach on the island: Red Frog Beach, one of the nicest beaches I've been to, and quite possibly my favorite. It had everything! Clear water, white sand, fun waves to play in, and a volleyball net! I spent the day swimming in the ocean and playing lots and lots of volleyball.
Hike down to the beach:
A red frog! What the beach is named for.
But yeah... it was beautiful
So that concluded the first part of Semana Santa, and so Diana and I headed out back to Heredia to meet up with my mom and stepdad, David.
Our first stop was Playa Flamingo, in Guanacaste, a solid 5 hour drive from Heredia. When we got there, we learned that there was a red tide, and that we probably shouldn't swim in it. What a shame! The beach was so beautiful, except for the dirty water.
View from above:
A small sample of the red tide casualties (this did make the beach kinda gross):
Beautiful cocktails on the first night:
Because we couldn't do much enjoying of the beach with the dead fish everywhere and not being able to swim in the ocean, so we looked for other options. One day, we went down to Tamarindo, a beach south of Flamingo, which was pretty nice but super crowded:
My lunch in Tamarindo, shrimp salad in a pineapple bowl:
Our next adventure was white water rafting!! I'm so proud of my mother for being adventurous! It was everyone's first time rafting, but it was an overall success with the one exception of David falling out of the boat and hurting his back.....
I love this one to compare the difference between the faces in the front and the back of the boat.
We saw a lot of wildlife too! At least 6 toucans, a bunch of white faced monkeys, cool birds, and bats!
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Diana and I had a lovely time talking in Spanish to all the raft guides too. They were trying to convince us to come back in the future and be raft guides! Ha!
So as we had given up on Playa Flamingo, we decided to relocate, to Manuel Antonio! So we got up early the next day to head down there.
Diana and I doing what we do best:
Cool bar/restaurant with an old airplane in it which was converted into a bar!
View from the bar, it would have been a nice place to watch the sunset if it wasn't so cloudy!:
Our second day there, I went with my mom and Diana into Manuel Antonio National Park, where we took a tour and saw lots and lots of animals!!
This sloth was so low to the ground and like 7 feet off the path! So cool!
Squirrel monkeys!
White-faced monkeys!
My mom and I at the beach inside the park:
After 2 days, we had to head home. My mom and David didn't leave until Tuesday, so we had all day Monday to do something. We decided to go see Volcán Poás. At first we couldn't see any of the volcano because it was so cloudy, but after waiting around about 15 min, it cleared up!
And that concludes my spring break adventures! I'm so glad my mom and David were able to come down to visit and see a good portion of Costa Rica!
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