Caribbean Costa Rica and Panama

I arrived to San Jose at night so i decided to have a meal and spend the night at selina before moving on to my first destination

I took the public bus from San Jose to Puerto Viejo. It’s a direct bus that costs you less than 10 usd and takes about 5 hours to get there.

I left my bags and checked in to my hostel Selina Puerto Viejo and I went straight to explore the little town of Puerto Viejo. One of the best way to explore the area is to rent a bike, which will cost you about 6 usd a day.

With the bike i rented at selina I cycled for about 45 minutes until I reached the fishermen town of Manzanillo. I liked it because of its clear water and the fact that there were almost no tourists, just local people who came to spend the weekend at the beach

In the afternoon I came back to puerto viejo and took a surf class at playa cocles, ones of the main spots for surfing, right next to Selina. I am a beginner and I struggled because the waves were big and there were dangerous currents pulling you far away from the shore.

Cahuita national park is one of the most famous parks in the country, hosting unique wildlife species. It is also the only one that doesn’t require you to pay the entrance, you can just leave a voluntary offer. You can access a beautiful Caribbean beach from the park. It’s very common to see sloths, monkeys, iguanas, crocodiles, raccoons and much more.

The next stop of this trip is Bocas del Toro, an archipelago on the Caribbean shore of Panama, not far away from puerto viejo. There are two Selina hostels there. One on Isla Colon, on the main town, which is the most “party” one, and one on Bastimento Island called Red Frog, that is way more chill.

I took a 5 min boat from Isla Colon which cost me 2 dollars and I arrived to Isla Carenero, one of the main surf places but also great to just relax by the beach.

You can take a bus from Bocas town and then walk 20 minutes or just go straight by boat from Bocas town. This is one of the best beaches I’ve ever seen. Located on the north west prt of Isla Colon, it’s the typical Caribbean beach with palm trees, white sand and huge starfish.

Had dinner at this Mexican restaurant. The chicken quesadillas and the burger were delicious!

On the most fun activities to do in this island is to rent quads and explore all the beautiful beaches. We went north from Bocas town and stayed in the east coast. We went to monkey island, la piscina and blue lagoon. Super fun!

If you like Indian, I highly recommend this restaurant in the center of Bocas town called Om. We had this big dish with a lot of delicacies to try. So good :)