San Blas – Guna Yala

The best way ending a long trip in Central America is to get yourself on to the islands of San Blas (Guna Yala). The images tells it all, almost – is that a starfish in the Caribbean Sea looks more beautiful than a plastic trash. The lack of proper waste management system in the area was conspicuous, just so you get the point that all the scenes aren’t this beautiful.

Tourism in the area is quite new and the local indigenous Guna people are basically running all the services for tourists on the coast and the islands. The region is autonomous, so Guna people have their own laws and everything; one of the laws is that only Guna may own land in Guna Yala. Their culture and traditions have remained mostly unchanged through years mainly because they have their autonomy and the society is fully endogamic. Continue reading

Worth the money 💰 to know beforehand 

USD is good in Panama and Nicaragua, in Costa Rica with Colones the prices are a bit better than with USD. 

If you’re traveling from Europe leave the euros at home. It’s hard to find a place to change euros to local currencies or to USD if you travel outside of bigger cities. And then the money exchange companies like globalexchange.co.cr will hustle your euros if you let them. Also the rates are ridiculous – at Bocas Del Toro the rate was EUR/USD=0.85 so no way for buying dollars with euros.

I took US Dollars and Colones with me but for some reason I took also 520€ with me for just in case. Then I tried to change them to USD at the airport of San José, Costa Rica. First I went to Global Exchange’s desk and asked the cashier for the change and at the same time handed in the 520€. But then I got an answer that first euros must be change into Costa Rican Colones and only then to US Dollars 💵. A bit weird. Then I asked how many dollars I would get then. Answer: $440 (don’t remember the exact amount but around 440). Me: give me my money back please, I’ll find out how many US Dollars I can buy with 520€ from BAC (a real bank) which was close to Global Exchange at the airport. Then the cashier tried the scam and said to me with my euros in hand that they do the change just like us. Yeah right! Got my euros back and headed to BAC and checked out $539. Almost fell into a corporation scam so I had to get back to the Global’s cashier for some feedback. BTW this Global Ex-f*%#ing-change is third biggest exchange company globally – well done ✅ 

520€ -> $539

The tourist coast

We moved few days ago from chilly Monteverde to hot Pacific coast. More specifically to Quepos / Manuel Antonio, which is one of the most popular tourist regions  in Costa Rica 🇨🇷. No wonder cause the Pacific coast line comprises numerous beautiful beaches and sceneries with bullet proof sunny weather around 30°C.

During our trip route we haven’t have a need for a car at all until here. Maybe the immigrants and tourists from US have something to do with this. But ok, you may manage with the local busses for sure but we found it a bit difficult as our resort was located in rainforest at Portalón so we rented a car.

Playa Linda

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Monteverde – Night Tour at Valle Escondido

Being in a tropical forest at night is spooky as you know there’s a chance to face up with anything. Big cats, poisonous snakes, tarantulas you name it. The latest puma spot from the area was only three months old.

We got only bright led lights with us and then into the woods. A Colt in the other hand would have felt justified at that point. But our guide Miguel took this justification away with his talent. Basically he knew the most species around and their behavior and how to spot them. We spent two hours in the forest and spotted over 10 species excluding the bugs, but unfortunately not the big cats this time. Although there was a bit scary moment as we were inspecting a scorpion with UV-light and suddenly we heard a bigger animal very close to us. At this point Miguel showed some human reflexes and was scared of what it was for a few seconds until we got the fella into the spotlight. A male White-nosed Coati who went already further from us and didn’t seem to care much about us.

A scorpion in UV-light

The real National Geography moment was when we spotted a tarantula, about a palm sized, in action. It was waiting it’s dinner at it’s door behind a leaf and we got to witness it to catch a smaller tarantula for dinner.

A tarantula waiting for dinner behind the leaf

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Monteverde – The Cloud Forest

We woke up at 6am with high expectations because of the day’s visit to The Cloud Forest, although we were told it’s knowingly not the best place to spot animals. The animals spend most of the time at lower and a bit warmer areas but only visit the peaks of cloud forest for some fresh food. So in the end we saw only few fellas up in the forests: an aguti (dog sized rat), few white-nosed coaties (nose bear), a motmot (beautiful bird) and few other birds and a monkey.

Besides the low count of animal spots we got to enjoy the marvellous sceneries in the forest. We walked about 10 km by the different paths. The best view over the forest was from the place called La Ventana, the window. From there you can see the clouds hanging over the trees, sometimes reaching the ground too when it’s very moist. On paths the visibility is not very good as the forest is quite dense.

A Ficus tree with hanging lianas

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