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Mexico to Brazil

janvier - août 2024
We are currently travelling from Mexico City through Central America and South America to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil by August En savoir plus
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  • Michael and Helen CookMexico to Brazil

    Tanagers for Lunch

    9 avril 2024, Costa Rica ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    On our drive up to La Fortuna we stopped for lunch at a place which had bird feeders. This was high in the Cloud Forest so attracted a new range of Hummingbirds and especially Tanagers that I wanted to see. The setup was really good allowing close up shots on natural branches. At one point a tanager landed on my shoulder for a couple of seconds.

    The staff had to stay alert to use a water hose to scare off the Coatis (like a Racoon) who would come to try and steal the food which was funny to watch. A couple of quite rare birds here but lots of lovely colour too - see pics. I love how accessible the wildlife is in Costa Rica.    En savoir plus

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  • Michael and Helen CookMexico to Brazil

    Sloth hunting in Arenal

    10–13 avr. 2024, Costa Rica ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    One of the animals I (Helen) wanted to see in Costa Rica was sloths. I had seen them in the rescue sanctuary in Monteverde and we saw one as a ball of fur in Carara National Park but not a great sighting. So today we went to walk the Bogarin trails as we had read there was a good chance of seeing them there.

    We could have booked a guide, which would have increased our chances but I liked the idea of finding our own (which was also cheaper). After about an hour someone pointed one out - a three toed sloth which was very active, especially considering they sleep about 20 hours a day.

    Then later a guide from another group gave us a tip of an area where he had seen one. So off we set and spotted one curled up in a tree and then a mother and baby high up in the canopy. Whilst we had some help for these it was satisfying to have located them ourselves (and save the $70 for a guide).

    We also saw lots of pretty birds!    En savoir plus

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  • Michael and Helen CookMexico to Brazil

    La Selva

    13–16 avr. 2024, Costa Rica ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    Moving on to our last destination in Costa Rica (after this we only have one night in capital awaiting international bus) we arrived yesterday in La Selva.

    Yesterday we spent a few hours at a White-Collared Manakin Lek. Photos and video attached - in order to impress the female several males will gather at a Lek site and perform a strange dance where they “jump” from one point to another making a clicking sound. The clicks are actually made by a bone in their wings.

    It has been quite wet the last few days which has forced us to take things a bit easier. But we were out for 5 hours this morning 5.30-10.30 birding and looking for mammals. We added the Sun Grebe which is quite hard to see and a close relative to the African Finfoot which we saw in Botswana. Our clothes are now hanging to dry.

    We have also seen various mammals (a Peccary relative of pigs but very small) reptiles (large green Basilisk today) frogs (several named Blue Jean Frog because of their coloured legs) and bats (amazing sleeping Honduran White Bats, they are called tent making bats because they find a big leaf and bite it to change the shape so it forms a tent for them to sleep under).

    Most of the people we meet here are on a 2-3 week holiday with a high budget. We are cooking ourselves and taking sandwiches for breakfast (while they eat fully cooked yummy things). When we get talking they are all amazed by the trip we are taking and many end up following my wildlife blog.

    This compares to Nicaragua and Guatemala where most of the westerners we met were backpackers and who were either heading north or south on long trips through multiple countries. Most the backpackers move rapidly through Costa Rica because it is expensive.

    Talking of budgets we have now decided we are not going to the Galapagos on this trip. It is very expensive and the money saved will help us continue using guides in South America which really enhances our wildlife spotting and it is also good to support local people.

    We hand the car back on 15th and then head to Panama the next day.

    Going to try a bit of interaction and invite any questions about our trip in general or Costa Rica specifically in the comments below!    En savoir plus

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  • Michael and Helen CookMexico to Brazil

    San Jose

    15–16 avr. 2024, Costa Rica ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    No one comes to Costa Rica on holiday to visit San Jose but we had a travel connection which necessitated a 5am start and therefore an overnight in San Jose.

    We handed a car back and then Uber into the city centre followed by some sightseeing and an early night.

    We are now travelling to our next country Panama and the island of Bocas del Torro    En savoir plus

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  • Michael and Helen CookMexico to Brazil

    Goodbye Costa Rica, hello Panama

    16 avril 2024, Panama ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    So we have travelled from San Jose to Bocas del Torro in Panama. We took 3 buses to get to the border.

    At the border we cleared Costa Rican migration behind a Dutch mother and daughter. They had been living in Costa Rica for four years but didn’t have residency and the daughter's passport had expired and Costa Rica were refusing them entry. Eventually we got through easily but we were leaving Costa Rica.

    The border here is actually a river and we had to walk across a bridge with our bags before entering Panama. It is quite fun walking across a border bridge the last time we did this was between Zimbabwe and Zambia with Victoria falls as a backdrop.

    Then 1 further bus and a motor boat to reach the island of Bocas del Torro. All together a 12 hour journey. Good to be back on the Caribbean and tomorrow we are planning to go diving,

    A very short video of our time in Nicaragua and Costa Rica.    En savoir plus

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  • Michael and Helen CookMexico to Brazil

    Diving, Bocas del Torro

    17–25 avr. 2024, Panama ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    We are on a small island off the north coast of Panama called Bocas del Torro which has a very sheltered bay with lots of wrecks in it which creates interesting diving. There is even a passenger plane wreck here which we will visit before we leave.

    So far we have done 6 dives including 3 wreck dives and seen a lot of interesting stuff. We are enjoying staying in one place for a while too. On the swim through of one of the wrecks I found two sleeping sharks. We also found several giant eye squid in mid water on today’s dive.

    Lots of love, missing you all    En savoir plus

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  • Michael and Helen CookMexico to Brazil

    Bocas del Torro

    17 avril 2024, Panama ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    We have been staying here for a week which has mostly been spent diving - see other post.

    The other main activity we took here was a day birding by boat around the mainland and visiting bird island. I will do a blog post on this shortly.

    Bocas is currently a work in progress. They have ripped up all the roads and are replacing the drainage, pavement and surfaces but they seem to be doing this one piece of equipment at a time. Also there was a major fire a few days before we arrived and a 4 storey hotel on the waterfront was destroyed.

    Our Airbnb Accomodation was nice enough but a tad on the small side. It is a converted shipping container (quite common here) and they were a bit cheeky in pretending the bed was long ways across the room in photos (see mine).

    Tomorrow we head to Panama City so boat, taxi and ten hour bus.    En savoir plus

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  • Michael and Helen CookMexico to Brazil

    Wreck Diving in Bocas

    23 avril 2024, Panama ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    Bocas has a lot of wrecks to dive. First no there are no bodies in any of these wrecks! Most of them were planned wrecks for diving.

    We dived to a sailboat called Godewind with all the rigging and sail still intact encrusted with marine life. Quite a Pirates of the Caribbean look. Our dive master kindly took a video of us here.

    We free dove (just holding our breath) the Panama Airplane. This didn’t crash in the water but overran the nearby runway and was destroyed with no loss of life so they just towed it out into the harbour and sank it to provide an interesting dive site. It is about 6m under water.

    We also dived around the sunken Old Ferry for the island complete with car deck and a random toilet.

    Lastly we did 3 dives to a trimaran called Mystic Winds which was big enough to swim under and through finding various fish including large groupers and a couple of sleeping nurse sharks.

    I find it encouraging to see how marine life reclaims old wrecks. Not all our waste is totally useless to nature.

    All in all we have grown during our diving on this trip. At the start of the year in Mexico we tended to be lacking experience and confidence when diving, but now we tend to be quite a bit more confident and competent than the people we are diving with. Diving around and particularly through or under wrecks requires excellent buoyancy control which we have been focusing on with a speciality course in Costa Rica. So far this year we have done over 30 dives.

    We hope to dive again in Colombia.    En savoir plus

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  • Michael and Helen CookMexico to Brazil

    Panama Canal

    25 avril 2024, Panama ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    I was a child when my interest in the Panama Canal was first peaked. “A man, a plan, a canal, Panama” - my Dad taught me that and the fact it is a Palindrome (can be read forward or backwards).

    Well we have been to the museum about the canal, crossed the canal and visited the main pacific side locks.

    It is an amazing feat of engineering. 30 million kilos of dynamite were used to blast a way through the mountains (more than in any war previously). Over 45,000 workers were employed the vast majority ex slaves from the Caribbean many of whom lost their lives during the work.

    What is also interesting is how the vision for the canal actually caused the country of Panama to be formed, divided, invaded and then united!

    Formed - the USA negotiated with Colombia to build the canal and they would not agree to the US price so instead the US backed some rebels from Panama to break away from rest of Colombia. Within 15 days of Panama being formed as a country a treaty was signed for the canal to be built at a cheap price of $10 million for which the USA was sovereign over than canal and a zone 5 miles either side. The Panamanian government was told of the terms without being involved in the negotiation,

    Divided - from the formation of Panama to 1999 the country was divided by the Canal Zone which was 10 miles wide. The USA owned and ran this zone and it was quickly seen as an unjust colonial insult to Panama’s sovereignty. In 1964 students took the Panamanian flag into the zone to raise it in key locations. Violence followed and about 20 were killed. Panama broke international relations with USA.

    The USA was increasingly losing the moral argument over the canal with several UN votes going against it. So from 1979 to 1999 a process progressed to hand the Canal Zone and operations back to Panama.

    Invaded - fairly recently 1989 the USA invaded Panama to implement regime change. The president Noriega (a former CIA agent) was a liability to the US, accused of many crimes and ignoring the election that he lost. The canal could not be handed over to him. The full invasion lasted two months and many civilians were killed. Those we spoke to here said it was very traumatic but the majority of the country supported it to end military dictatorship.

    United - on 31 December 1999 the canal was handed over fully to Panama and the “fifth border” was removed. Since then the canal has been widened to allow bigger ships and it has operated smoothly. Ships pay variable rates to transit the canal from $2k for a small yacht to $1.2million for the largest ships that want to jump the queue. Today the size of many ships around the world are designed to fit the Panama Canal. The Neopanamax class (fits the new locks) are 370m long and 49m wide.

    Oh and the canal pays the Panamanian government about $3 billion a year, 26% of government income.    En savoir plus

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  • Michael and Helen CookMexico to Brazil

    The many faces of Panama City

    29 avril 2024, Panama ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    We have enjoyed being in a big city again with lots of culture, sites and food choices. Panama City is a vibrant cosmopolitan place and has many sides to its personality.

    Historic - the old town goes back to 15th century and includes churches, plazas, fishing boats and food markets. It was sacked by pirates (Captain Morgan) and rebuilt in the area we have been staying.

    Financial - this is a recent addition with the first skyscraper being built in 1996 but now counting over 60 as the banking and financial area thrived based in part on secret offshore banking.

    Industrial - based on the canal the city has a huge port and transport hub along with all the industries to support this.

    We have enjoyed this city and yesterday climbed the main hill/viewpoint and today walked and cycled around the coast to see different sides to Panama City's personality.    En savoir plus

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