May 4, 2018 – May 8, 2018
Bocas del Toro is the name of a province in Panama, it is the name for a set of islands that are part of that province, and Bocas del Toro (known as Bocas Town to avoid at least SOME confusion) is also the name of the capital of the province. We hadn’t planned on visiting the islands of Bocas del Toro (translates to Mouths of the Bull), but when we saw how close we were to them, we decided we had to go.
April 24, 2018 – May 4, 2018
One more beach camp on the Nicoya Peninsula, this time near the town of Malpais. And again, heavenly. We walked down the beach one night for a drink and some ceviche as we watched the sun set. On one afternoon, we walked to the nearby town to a little store, then returned to our camp by the beach, not seeing another person until we neared our campsite. Riders on horseback would occasionally wander past between us and the shore. It was beautiful and peaceful and so, if you are not tired of seeing them yet, here are some more beach and sunset pictures.
April 21 – 24
So what does your perfect beach look like? A crescent bay with wide flat sand? Warm, gentle waves that occasionally ramp it up for a bit of fun? Backed by rainforest where howler monkeys play? Maybe a few nice restaurants near by? Shady camping? What about throwing in a few wild horses and their colts that occasionally make their way past your camp along the sand?
We hope you have a fantastic day!
April 20 – 21, 2018
We drove through the hills of Costa Rica towards Monteverde. The area has a high population of Quakers. Apparently a group of Quakers had been jailed in the US for refusing to fight in the Korean war. When they were freed, they started looking for a new place to live. They considered Canada, among a number of other countries, and finally decided on Costa Rica, partly due to the fact that Costa Rica had abolished it’s own army in 1948. The Quakers began cultivating the land and started dairy farms, but also wisely put aside a section of land for conservation. That land, today, is the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve.
April 16 – April 19, 2018
The crossing into Costa Rica on the Nicaraguan side was chaotic to say the least. We had no idea where we were supposed to park, which building we needed to head to first and we were immediately approached by “helpers”, people who hang out at the border, walk you from one building to another and tell you what you need to do next, all for a propina (tip). We had not used one since we had accidentally used one when crossing into Belize (we thought he worked for the border agency and didn’t realize we needed to tip him until the process was almost complete).
April 14 – April 16, 2018
We were nearing the border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and decided we needed one more beach stop before we crossed. We headed towards San Juan del Sur, a touristy beach town, and, as it turns out, also a cruise ship port.
April 13 – April 14, 2018
We headed back to towards Lago Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua) to take the ferry to La Isla de Ometepe. Ometepe consists of two volcanos, the active Concepcion (which hasn’t done anything in probably about 70 years) and the inactive Maderas, which ages ago became joined to form a single island.
April 8 – April 12, 2018
We left Lago de Apoyo and headed towards the city of Granada, only 20 or so kilometres away. We had planned to camp in the parking lot of the Red Cross in Granada, as we had read that they allowed overlanders to stay there for only 100 Cordoba a night (about $4) and it was close to the city centre and had some facilities.
April 6 – April 8, 2018
We headed towards the capital city of Managua, hoping to avoid the city as much as possible on our way to Volcan Masaya, and active volcano that you can drive to the rim of. We arrived at the gates and they explained that we would only be able to stay at the rim for 5 minutes and that we would not be allowed to do any of the hikes in the park, as the volcano was particularly active right now.