Pacific to Caribbean in 4 hours!

Back in the Caribbean again :) And fortunately far enough away from any nasty hurricanes.

The drive from the Pacific Coast, departing from the amazing Johnny Fiestas hostel at Las Lajas over the mountains to Bocas Del Toro, was gorgeous. The western side was a beautiful open hillside with some big trees, but at the 1,000m top was cloud forest and then down into lush tropical rain forest. It's definitely warmer this side, and we spent a hot night in a parking spot waiting to get the early boat out, and leaving Elvis settled.

We're arrived in the islands of Bocas Del Toro (literally mouths of the bull) and after a bit of trouble found a room that would take Maya. I call it a room but at midday it was more like a sauna, so headed out to find the nearest beach. We were pretty unimpressed with this hot & expensive party town so jumped in a water taxi over to Bastiamento Island, and it was a different world! No cars and just a couple of paths winding across the island - much like Little Corn Island in Nicaragua.

We lucked out and got a fantastic room built out over the water, so instant dips to cool down and a lovely breeze. The first day we walked 20 minutes across the island to Wizard Beach, which makes it into our top 10 beach list - and considering how extensively we have travelled that's quite an exclusive list! The next day we chilled, and on the 3rd day we kayaked out to hospital point on the next island over for snorkelling and relaxing in a private bay.

A couple of quick water taxis and we were back at the van, having picked up a guy we shared a boat with for the drive back across the mountains. Guess where we ended up - Johnny Fiestas of course!Read more