The Peanut Butter Chronicles

Throughout our travels and since we have been back in the states, several people have asked us what our favorite place or activity was. After traveling for three months through seven different countries and countless cities, it is hard to pick just one. So instead we have put together a “best of” list that highlights just a few of our favorite parts.

Best Budget Accommodation: Black Cat Hostel in Antigua, Guatemala

Best Eco-Hostel: Totoco Ecolodge in Balque on Isle de Ometepe, Nicaragua

Best Hostel Ambiance: Iguana Perdida, Lago de Atitlan, Guatemala

Best Splurge Accomodation: Hickatee Cottages in Punta Gorda, Belize

Best Beach Experience: Tobacco Caye, Belize

Best Sustainable Concept: Garbage stuffed in plastic bottles which were then used to build walls

Most Affordable Meal: Pupusas in El Salvador

Best Rum: Flor de Cana aged 7 years

Best Macro/Local Beer: Moza Gold in Guatemala

Best Craft Beer: Pale Ale at D&D Brewery in Los Naranjos, Honduras

Best Steak: Hacienda Real in Guatemala City, Guatemala

Best Indian Food: Om Café in Bocas Town, Bocas Del Toro Panama (but the curry chicken fries at Flannigan’s Pub in Antigua, Guatemala get an honorable mention)

Best Vegetarian Food: Homemade veggie burger and smoothies at a little café in Hopkins, Belize

Best Pizza: La Forchetta, Casco Viejo, Panama City

Best Mexican: Café No Se, Antigua, Guatemala

Best Value Food: Casados in Costa Rica

Best Bus Ride: from Juayua to El Zonte, El Salvador

Best Cheap Backpacker Activity: Hiking at the Lost and Found Hostel near Chirqui in Panama

Best Sunset: 3-way tie between Tobacco Caye, Belize…

Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica…

and El Zonte, El Salvador

(No picture available as we were too busy enjoying the view from the ocean!)

Best Mountain Town: Boquete, Panama

Most Beautiful Location (Overall): Lago de Atitlan

Best Border Crossing: Guatemala to El Salvador (didn’t even have to get out of the Tica Bus!)

Most Intense Border Crossing: Costa Rica to Panama City

Best Shower: Kim’s place upon arriving in Panama City after a 15 hour bus ride, dirty with hundreds of bug bites

Best Community Activity: Drum Circle in the City of Knowledge in Panama City

Best Near-Death Experience: Boat Ride from Tobacco Caye to Dangriga during a wind storm

Best Adrenaline Rush: Pulaphanzak Waterfalls in Pena Blanca, Honduras

Best Market Experience: ChiChi in Guatemala

Best Historical Adventure: Tikal in Guatemala

Best Last Minute Decision: wait…all of our decisions were last minute and amazing!

The trip as a whole was a blast and we are both so glad that we were able to do it!  No regrets!

Time to wrap up the Central American part of our blog.  Here’s what went down the final few weeks in Panama…

We spent an afternoon in Gamboa with Kimberly and Pacora (that’s the dog) at the Rainforest Discovery Center. We got to climb up a tower that had a viewpoint at each level of the rainforest. The top level looked out over the treetops!

We took a trip to Playa Santa Clara. We taught Kimberly how to play Yanif (a card game that we learned from other travelers).

We also enjoyed some fresh ceviche and fried chicken - it went very well with our Panamanian rum and beer!

Volunteered with SembrArte for their March ARTBLOCK mural.

David was able to exercise his creative muscles.

We hiked to the top of Ancon Hill, which was where a lot of American soldiers and government folk lived when the US occupied Panama.

We had brunch at a cool art gallery in Casco Viejo called Diablo Rosso.

We went to a live art event in Casco themed ‘Dali’s Revenge.’ 

And we attended a drum circle at the City of Knowledge

Thank you to Kimberly and to everyone we met in Panama City for such a wonderful adventure!

Although we had driven the same road only the day before, the drive back to Chirqui was a completely different experience.  We gave a ride to some fellow travelers who were headed to Boquete and spent the ride relaying different stories of our travels.  The rainy weather from Bocas seemed to be following us and we spent several miles driving through intense fog where we could just barely see the road in front of us.  Once we passed the dam however and crossed the continental divide, the weather completely cleared up, revealing still weather and blue skies.

We finally found the signs to Lost and Found, a tiny hostel that required a fifteen-minute hike into the rainforest after leaving our car at the foot of the hill.  When we stepped out of the car the air was warm and there was not a cloud in the sky. Not all travel decisions pan out the way you want them to, but we were happy that we had decided to leave Bocas in search of a new adventure.

As soon as we arrived at Lost and Found we were saddened that we could only stay for a night. The hostel was in the middle of a reserve and had several different trails to follow. They also offered several tours and even a treasure hunt where you could win a bottle of wine or rum if you followed all the clues successfully.

Wanting to make the most of our time there, we immediately hit the trails to head to a spectacular mirador where we could see the entire valley below.

We also hiked down to the river and spent some time sunning ourselves on the huge boulders in the river.  David couldn’t resist leaping off Kicking Mule Jump into the icy blue water.

After a delicious home-cooked meal in the company of a sunset behind the mountains, we spent the rest of the evening in the library-by-day/bar-by-night competing in the foosball tournament.  

With three-story double bunk beds and do-it-yourself snack stations, we felt like we were treating ourselves to a night at summer camp!

The next morning we got up early to spend a couple hours on the trails and at the river before heading back to the bustle of Panama City.

Backpacking requires a flexibility and patience.  It also generates a love/hate relationship with your guidebook.  Everyone seems to have a book, and follow it to varying degrees.  Sometimes our guidebook led us to places that no longer existed, sometimes it led us to utterly amazing experiences.  Like most everything in life, following a guidebook takes some balance.  With only a few days left before our impending flight back to the states, we wanted to make the most of our car rental splurge and decided to head to the last place listed in our book - Bocas del Toro, somewhat strangely translating to the mouths of the bull, supposedly in reference to the many islands and coves in this northwestern province of Panama.

The drive from Boquete to the islands of Bocas took us through the western highlands of Panama, through cattle land that seemed to stretch for miles, to the lush rainforest bordering the Caribbean coast.  We took a break for lunch near a dam that, as we found out, supplies a significant amount of hydroelectric power to the surrounding areas.

As we drew closer to Bocas we encountered rain and grey skies, some of the only bad weather we had seen during our trip.  We left Cinnamon Roll at a secure car park (just $3 a day) and took a water taxi over to Bocas Town, the largest town on the Bocas islands.  Bocas was in a state of paradox.  A former vice-president of Pamana, Guillermo Ford, had passed away the day before, therefore inspiring a national day of mourning that shut down the banks and many other businesses…including the bars and liquor stores.  Bocas Town is known for being a “party town” especially during high season.  The spring breakers and surfers staying at our hostel seemed frustrated and unsure of what to do with themselves and the dreary, chilly weather didn’t seem to help matters.  We managed to find a store where the cashier was willing to look the other way and let us buy a bottle of rum “on the sly.”

Bocas Town:

We stayed at a funky little hostel called Mondo Taitu where we paid $24 for a private “room” aka a shack with plastic walls covered with tapestries.  Really more a bar than hostel, our favorite thing about Mondo Taitu was the number of quotes and bits of wisdom plastered throughout the bathroom stalls by the staff and fellow travelers.

Here’s one we liked:

We treated ourselves that night to an amazing Indian meal at Om Café (thank you guidebook!), certainly one of the best meals we had throughout our travels.

We also had a chance to work on our “Best of Central America” blog draft which we will be posting in the next couple of days.

The next morning, after several hours of indecision, we finally decided to leave behind the spring breakers and the gray rain of Bocas and go to a hostel we had seen advertised at various hostels.  It had a pretty good review in our guidebook, so we wanted to give it a shot.

Our next destination on our road trip: Lost and Found, an hour outside of Chirqui.

After a couple of weeks in and around Panama City, we wanted to make the most of our remaining days in Panama by backtracking and visiting some of the areas we bypassed on our 14-hour bus ride from Costa Rica.  True to the spirit of our travels, we maintained a very loose itinerary.  We did, however, elect to change our mode of transportation.  For this last adventure, we rented a car and treated ourselves to a bit of comfort and flexibility.  Because the interior of the car smelled like a CinnaBon store, we dubbed our Toyota Yaris ‘Cinnamon Roll’ and headed west for the mountain village of Boquete.

When we arrived in Boquete, 6 hours later, we were immediately greeted by much fresher air, probably 20 degrees cooler than it was in Panama City.  We checked into a great hostel called Mamallena’s and took a drive into the surrounding hills for some astounding views.  Here’s the town of Boquete below:

In Boquete we also visited a place called “Mi Jardin es Su Jardin” or “My Garden is Your Garden”.  Here, someone had converted a few properties into one enormous garden, free to the public.  It was nice to see that someone had made such a commitment to enriching the surrounding community.  The paved entrance was beautiful:

But it only got better:

This place was huge!

And wonderfully quirky:

Then we got to see a rainbow on the way out:

The next morning we hit the road again for Bocas del Toro.

Getting a little complacent with the comforts of Panama City, we decided it was time to get back on the road and visit some place new.  We hopped on a bus to spend the night in a mountain village called El Valle, a weekend retreat popular with Panamanians.  Unfortunately, we got on the wrong bus!  We’d only been off the backpacker circuit for a week and a half, but that was long enough to get out of the traveling mindset…though we did ask the driver if we were headed to El Valle.  Luckily it was only an hour-long detour through a random suburb of Panama City, so we returned to the main bus terminal and got back on track.  We arrived in El Valle with plenty of time to explore the town that afternoon.

The next day, we spent most of our time just walking around, soaking up the mountain air and admiring the many beautiful villas around town.

We ate at a funky cafe, BamBusillo, that featured vegetarian dishes as well as crafts by local artisans.  We enjoyed tostadas and picked up a few souvenirs.

yummy….

We also went horseback riding, something we’d wanted to do at some point on our trip.  And the rates couldn’t be beat - $15 got us two horses and a guide for an hour!

Even though the trip to El Valle was short, it felt great to be traveling again.

OK faithful readers, we are back safe and sound in the states.  We’ve been pretty busy running around and getting adjusted back to American life, but we are excited to update everyone with how the rest of our trip went.  And so…

Panama City!  Our experience in Panama City was very different from any other Central American city that we visited.  We were surprised when we experienced a little culture shock when we first arrived.

After traveling for almost ten weeks where our stays typically only lasted 2-3 nights per place, it was odd to have a room of our own with clean sheets (thanks to Cristina’s sister Kim!), access to a refrigerator and washing machine, hot showers, and not having to repack our bags every day.  The grocery store had many imported items as well and, to David’s excitement, an amazing selection of imported beer.

View from Kim’s apartment:

We got to celebrate Cristina’s birthday with her sister!

Mmmm, sushi:

After a couple days to recover from our bus ride we wandered out to explore the city. The city boasts numerous skyscrapers with several more under construction. There is an odd American influence throughout Panama City due to the history of the Panama Canal which was controlled by the US for most of the twentieth century. We encountered many ex-pats and people who spoke English.  We even got to attend a Panamanian baseball game!

The city has many different areas and we spent a good bit of our time in Casco Viejo, or San Felipe as it is identified on many maps. Casco Viejo is a collection of crumbling colonial facades and beautifully restored buildings boasting trendy restaurants and hotels. Since the area was declared a World Heritage site in 1997, the buildings now require very particular permitting and many are still home to squatters who took residence after the buildings were abandoned.

Cool light show in Casco:

One morning we volunteered at one of the oldest orphanages in Panama City. We heard about the orphanage from a friend of Kimberly’s who has been volunteering there for over a year and has been working on three different initiatives to help the orphanage: a consistent volunteer base that now visits the orphanage almost every day of the week, a diaper drive to ensure that annual diaper needs are covered, and a god-parenting program that allows parents interested in adopting to visit with different children to ensure a good fit.

We spent a couple hours with the toddlers. To respect the wishes of the orphanage we cannot post any of the pictures from our visit, but we can tell you all that these little characters made quite an impression on us!  Instead of leaving the orphanage discouraged and sad, we left feeling inspired by how much a difference one person can make.

10:11PM     Arrive at Tica Bus Station in San Jose, Costa Rica to check our backpacks and  wait to board.

11:03PM     Board Tica Bus, surprisingly on time and are greeted by artic temperatures on the bus…it’ going to be a long night…

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2:27AM     Bus is quiet and dark, most people are asleep or at least pretending to be. No position is comfortable. Cristina finds that tank top, sweater, fleece, and one blanket are not sufficient.

3:36AM     Bus pulls over on the side of the highway for awhile somewhere in Southeast Costa Rica to wait for the pouring rain to lighten up a bit…or did we just imagine that?

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5:20AM     Startled awake by loud tape recording in Spanish that tells us we are about to reach the Panamanian border and that we need to be awake in order to talk to the officials.

6:30AM     After standing in line for 45 minutes at Costa Rican immigration, the official finally arrives in a taxi looking very hungover and very pissed off to be working the weekend of Carnivale.

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7:59AM     Finally reach the immigration window for entrance to Panama only to be told by the not-very-amused official that it is Panamanian law to have a return ticket when you enter the country. Have to buy open-ended return tickets from Tica Bus back to Costa Rica on the spot so we can enter Panama.

8:45AM     Back on the bus and over the Panamanian border. Served breakfast of hot dogs and flapjack type pastries. Bus is not quiet as frigid.

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11:01AM     Almost finished watching “Australia” on the tiny Tica Bus TVs. It is becoming more and more apparent that the air conditioner is not really working…sweating ensues.

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12:34PM     Guy diagonally across from us takes off his shirt. Fleeces and sweaters were discarded a long time ago. Tica Bus worker is going through the bus opening all the windows. The air conditioner is officially broken.

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2:13PM     Drive through Panama countryside and witness crowds of people partying in the streets for Carnivale. We are getting closer.

3:27PM     Finally pull into the Albrook bus terminal in Panama City - dirty, itchy, hot and delirious. Cristina had never been so happy to see her sister!

After Playa Hermosa we had a few days to kill before our bus from San Jose, Costa Rica to Panama City, Panama - our final destination in our trip where we would meet up with Cristina’s sister Kimberly.

We decided to visit Alajuela, a little town outside of San Jose, to rest for a few days before heading into the capital for a night. We found a neat cafe/bookstore and were able to chill out there for a few hours with some cappuchinos.

Once we arrived in San Jose, we found some time to walk around, soaking up the sunshine and enjoying all the beautiful parks scattered throughout the city. 

Live music in Parque Morazan:

We also spent an afternoon at a biodiversity museum just outside of San Jose that highlighted some of the wildlife and sustainable initiatives in Costa Rica.

Cristina standing in some of the BioDiversity Museum´s gardens:

The museum seemed to be more geared towards little kids but we had fun all the same:

That night we packed up our bags and headed to the Tica Bus Station for our overnight bus to Panama!

Nicaraguan rum on a Costa Rican beach — a Central American happy hour:

Our trip took an unexpected detour in Playa Hermosa, when we were given an opportunity to get off the backpacker circuit for a day.  As we were walking from our hostel in search of the grocery store, we asked a guy sitting by the side of the road if we were heading in the right direction.  He told us where to go, then asked how we’d like to spend the day at a nearby resort.  We looked at each other like, “What’s the catch?” and tried to figure out what this was all about.  The guy seemed nice enough, and we didn’t have to pay or volunteer any credit card or contact information, so we signed up for his tour.

As it turned out, this was a marketing ploy for a nearby resort, and we had signed up to hear their pitch.  It was amusing to go from trying to spend less than $30 a day to thinking about buying ‘fractional ownership’ aka a time share at $90,000.  We went along with it, met a nice retired guy from Florida who showed us around the resort, and kicked back by the pool with some free cervezas.  While we were impressed by the skilled pitch-makers, we had to inform them we just weren’t ready to buy — despite the “guaranteed special price IF you buy today.”

Nevertheless, it was a totally random experience we won’t soon forget!

Out-of-place, but content, backpacker: