CENTRAL AMERICA
March/April 2013 - Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama
no skinny dipping before 9pm
I learned two very valuable lessons in Central America: 1) knowing some basic Spanish goes a long way, and 2) three weeks is never enough, especially when you're backpacking across three countries (Nicaragua/Costa Rica/Panama). After landing in Managua, Nicaragua (not recommended), I made my way over to Little Corn island to meet up with travel buds Kevin and Kayla. Little Corn was a vacation in itself, and we spent almost a week here, laying on its beaches, scuba diving its pristine reefs, and drinking delicious Toña. From here we flew to the opposite coastline to visit San Juan Del Sur - a funky colourful surf town which seemed to have a wee drug problem - before heading to the small town of Montezuma, Costa Rica via taxi, boat and bus. Montezuma was a town built in the hills, and was comically infested with blue land crabs - roadkill was a common event. A day bus to Puerto Viejo via San Jose took us through an incredible transition of landscape - central Costa Rica is literally Jurassic Park. The flora and fauna here was next level - it seemed many of the backpackers missed out on the national park an hours bike ride down the road. My last stop took me into Panama, where I spent three nights in Bocas del Toro, an archipelago off of the East coast of Panama consisting of the softest, whitest sand beaches I have ever stepped foot - and some of the best fried chicken!
+ Little Corn: night dive with rays, eels, nurse sharks, octopus and the ostracods string of pearls (amaze-balls); night-time Jenga; ruining all three pairs of shorts in the first two days of my trip
+ San Juan Del Sur: vendors offering you "sunglasses", then "watches", then "blow"; the greatest little coffee shop, El Gato Negro; fish tacos and football with the local dogs at Playa Maderas
+ Montezuma: not getting Montezuma's revenge, cooking breakfast with a serious view, hiking and swimming in waterfalls, running from blue crabs
+ Puerto Viejo: crushing ceviche dishes; staying at Rockin J's Guest House; jungle treks with sloths, poison dart frogs, jesus lizards, toucans... I could keep going; getting good at freediving while surrounded by schools of fish
+ Bocas del Toro: Trits ice cream sandwiches; bars with open water swimming holes; a boat run to Starfish and Red Frog beach; coconut tossing competitions
