Snorkelling Caribbean

and Pacific 

Today our friend Chris arrives, theoretically around 6pm after customs, taxi to BNB etc. It will be so great to catch up after 2.5 months.

Well of course things never go to plan – we hear from Chris that she is at airport on time but then nothing, 6pm comes and I am getting a little worried – maybe getting a taxi took longer?  Watching the   forest and and wildlife while waiting.

6.47pm hear again that taxi is lost, we send google link and other suggestions but apparently none where any good for him???? After a bit of back and forth he is apparently on his way again – we think maybe 10 mins, but no another 30 mins later they finally arrive (of course price of taxi goes up too – not sure that is quite right when he got lost..).

A couple of wines then go down a treat and tomorrow our new adventure begins.

A trip out to Monkey Island along the Panama Canal and it’s waterways.  So many massive container ships and just a tiny boat for us.

Incredible scenery and so peaceful, lots of birds and monkeys.

A bit of shopping (food) then a trip to Metropolitan Park for a walk to find wildlife, pretty good forest in the middle of a city.

Where we are staying at bottom of Ancon Hill we saw White tailed deer (Stag), Geoffroys Tamarin and Agouti’s from back yard.

Quick trip into the old town to have a look at the old buildings was interesting,  some are very derelict but there is obviously a big effort to try and preserve what is left.  The best thing was we finally found some postcards to send to the grandkids.

We thought of having lunch here but nothing really appealed (for the price that is).  The ad for this restaurant was interesting.

Having written the postcards we set off from the BNB for a walk to post them, 5 mins in the heavens opened and we got absolutely drenched – and worse Chri’s thongs broke and she had to walk the rest (20 mins) with bare feet.

More wine.

Off to another park right on the marine peninsular – supposed to have lots of wildlife. Massive Iguanas, Crab eating Raccoons and so many sloths.

Unfortunately we missed the Armadillo’s which I would have loved to have seen. Hopefully somewhere else. First racoon was licking out an ice cream carton, not good. Signs say do not feed racoons but locals did anyway.

Early start for the 3 hour bus ride to port for a trip to the San Blas Islands – we can only take a small amount of luggage but BNB hosts let us leave the rest at their place luckily.

The port is very confusing, not sure what is going on but know it will work out. The trip by boat is between 20 – 50 mins, our first island being Pelicano Island for 2 nights.

Well I had not expected it to be such a small island – you could walk right round in 5 mins (or less). Nice but very basic cabins, shower and toilet block better than expected and helpful staff (although no English).

Food not brilliant more Plaintains (fried hard bananas), but enough.

The house reef, with obligatory sunken boat was not too bad, quite a few new fish species for us and a good amount of coral.

There was a trip to “Nature’s Lagoon” but we had heard it was just a small sand island so skipped that and enjoyed the house reef instead.

Our trip on the second day is out to Holandais Caye – supposed to be the best snorkelling.

WELL…. apart from seeing 2 rays and a grey nurse shark it was very disappointing in the 2 spots we stopped at – there was supposed to be a third but that did not happen.

The first spot too was quite scary as the current was so strong that we could not swim against it, such hard work trying and now totally exhausted. The crew did not speak any English and none of the 6 of us spoke any Guna which was not helpful. Think that for safety they should get some cards made up in English so they can tell us where to go, what we are looking for and explain about the currents.

Another circuit of the house reef (we go right round the island) takes up the rest of the day.

Next day we are off to our second island for sleeping – Ina Island, well this is very different, bigger with a large local population and a lot more tourists. Also  a lot more basic, they tried to put the 3 of us in a tiny hut with 2 single beds. When we said we needed 3 beds we ended up in a dorm next to a noisy staff bedroom. (About 6 people live in the room, sleeping on hammocks).

House reef here is almost gone, not much to see at all. A walk round the island takes about 10-15 mins so a bit longer than the previous island. We are all getting quite over this trip now and wished we had not done this 3rd day – food on this island is awful and we do not even get water included like previous island. 2$ a bottle for 600ml in this heat and humidity ends up quite expensive. Beer was same price as water ?.

An afternoon trip to another island is on the agenda – we had not realised that the boat would just drop us on it and leave (for 3 hours). The reef  was the worst yet and hardly any fish either. Obviously some people like just sitting on a beach for hours but it did not really suit us (would have been fine if the reef was amazing with lots of life). Other people just went to sleep or sat reading – not sure why you would get a boat to another similar island for that purpose?

Early morning after a very noisy night we head back to the mainland and another night in our BNB.

Our plan the next day was to get the 8am or at worst 9am bus but somehow it ended up as 10.20 – far too late for a long journey, finally arriving in Santa Catalina at 6.16pm and an epic accommodation fail.

We had booked a place that looked lovely – it did say you had to wade over a small river (but cars drove through it) no problem we think. BUT we had to get off bus in town, it is then a 2km walk to the river (no taxis or other transport in town), then due to unusually high tides (right at time we arrived) the water would be up to our thighs. We can not take our bags that far on rough roads so had to forgo the money paid and find another accommodation. Tiny tiny a frame hut which mattress completely filled. Luckily just a night.

Not sure whether to be excited about Coiba National Park or not – it was the one place I wanted to snorkel and is supposed to be great – but then so was San Blas…

15 mins into the 1 hour boat ride the Captain spots something – Dolphin/Whale. Off to investigate – turns out to be a pod of Short Finned Pilot Whales. The crew are so excited, they are all busy taking photos (they just happened to be sitting on the right side of boat) that Steve and I could not get shots, luckily they worked it out after a while and moved so we could. Quite incredible to watch and certainly unexpected – they are not common here apparently and none of the crew had seen them before.

10 mins later we find a pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins – they were so quick and flighty though that pictures did not happen.

Already this trip is so much better – the scenery is also amazing. At one point we go past a stunning beach with a backdrop of rainforest and mountains (apparently it is Mel Gibson’s private getaway), nice to be rich.

We are overnighting on the main island in Coiba National Park so our boat (6 staff) and us (3) heads to the beach were we are to camp. After dropping all the gear and 4 crew off we head off for our first snorkel.

Tents setup just behind the little gap.

Well what a difference to San Blas, fantastic coral and heaps of life.

2 different snorkel spots before lunch were both amazing and the beach where we had lunch was stunning with a lot of birds, lizards and other wildlife around. One more snorkel spot, also really good (although today in general is very cloudy so visibility for photos not amazing).

Off to the main beach where the rangers stay for a hike up to a viewpoint and a go at trying to find the endemic birds and animals of this National Park.

Disappointingly the 2 crew members (even with us trying to slow them down) just kept us going straight up at a rate of knots – no good for finding wildlife although we did find one bird that we had been looking for. View was fantastic but would have liked to spend a lot more time on that walk.

Getting back to camp – wow what a setup, makes our camping back at home look positively basic. Even supplied beer and rum!!!

Nice Sunrise.

The only bad thing at this point is when we got off the boat for the evening I asked whether we should take all our stuff – they said leave snorkelling stuff on boat.  We all had our stinger suits hanging up but a little later the Captain came and said one was missing (mine).  So annoying as many stingers in the water.  The company did not appear to care, did not offer anything (thought they may offer one of their own rash tops at least, but no.

Another full day of snorkelling – 4 more locations and although also really good (with clearer skies) we had taken so many pictures the day before and of course unable to charge that on the last snorkel at the best sighting of an octupus, the camera battery was dead, so disappointing as have never seen an octopus that has turned bright green to blend in.  I had to swim in my trousers and shirt (not stinger proof, they got inside all over), not fun and harder work.

There was however on the second day a lot more coral bleaching over huge areas as the sites were nearer the mainland and shallower. Such a shame and a worldwide problem due to climate change – something really needs to happen fast.

It was an amazing trip overall and so glad we did it.

A night in town before heading of on another long journey at 7.30am. This time we chose a shuttle bus rather than standard bus as route is shorter (plus standard bus would have been 3 changes and taken for ever). Even then a delay happened, about 30 mins up a road there are palm leaves put across the road (standard road closure sign). Locals were having a protest about something and had closed the road for a day so back we go, adding about 1 hour to the total trip.

David is a large town and we have only stopped here to break the journey, 5 hours is enough in one day in busses, shuttle or otherwise.

Another shuttle, 4 hours followed by 1 hour boat to arrive on Colon Island in Bocas Del Toro. Small boat from a small local port. 

Stunning scenery.

1 night in town in a hostel before heading to another (quieter) island. The town was interesting though, lovely colourful buildings.

It is quite a trendy town, full of young tourists and with that lots of partying till around 3am – hard to sleep with music and shouting everywhere. Off to Solarte Island great place lots of bird noise, lots of Manakins,


unfortunately also full of young posers getting burnt.

Snorkelling OK, not amazing but pleasant with some interesting corals and fish.

Back to Costa Rica tomorrow!!!!!