Fish Catching Travel
All I can say is WOW! Of course my best intentions have been to post daily but vacation has gotten in the way. So finally this morning we have a day with no plan, just laze around the resort and get ready to head to Panama.
In the morning we will be taken by car to an old bridge at the town of Sixaola where we go through immigration to enter Panama, From there it is shuttle to the town of Almirante where we hop a ferry to an island and Boca Town where we meet a boat that will take us to our final island with a famous Red Frog Beach. Getting around in this part of the world can only be described as crazy at times.
We have been here at hotel Banana Azul for the last 4 days and it has been great. Right on the Caribbean coast I am sitting on my balcony looking out at the ocean rolling in and listening to the thousands of birds here on the lowland rain forest. This story will probably be somewhat disjointed but let’s get to the highlights.
Banana Azul
No AC. Sleep with sounds of the ocean under the mosquito canopy. Cool.
Handlining Pompano off the beach for his breakfast.
Great landscaping. Bananas everywhere in Costa Rica.
Driving in Costa Rica is insane. Double yellow lines on the highway mean go like a bat out of hell, pass as many cars as possible, preferably on a blind curve. And if you are on a motorcycle you can drive how you want, where you want, as fast as you want. Why the highway is not littered with dead folks is beyond me, but it seems to work. We left the Pacific side to come over here and that included back through San Jose and over the mountains which is rain forest and down the other side.
The madness that is crossing the mountains through the rain forest in a driving rain on the only road that crosses Costa Rica.
We are now between Puerto Viejo and Cahuita, and both played a part in the last couple of days. Cahuita has a large national park that is rain forest, so we took a morning and did about a 5 miles through the park. It is a true rain forest. I am still waiting to see my first monkey. Nancy has seen them several times, both the white face and howlers. Daylight is the time of the howlers, and their roar can be heard all across the forest and is a sound you will never forget. Costa Rica also has sloths, and again Nancy has seen one and I have not. Guess it is just not my turn. I figured the monkeys and sloths had read the chapter where they are supposed to show up on demand.
Cool whatever it is.
The trail through the park. Impenetrable rain forest all around.
Base of the giant trees that make up the canopy.
Another world.
Lots of creepy crawly things in the forest.
Hundreds of different butterflies and birds, the park is a special place.
Later that day we went in to the town of Puerto Veijo. It is quite the town. An old coastal town, it is made up of the Rasta dudes, locals, and lots of back packers. We wandered around town in the shops and got some lunch. The meal we had at Mama’s café was the best of the trip and I ate the traditional red beans and rice with chicken. It was similar to the same meal in Belize and is a staple in the Caribbean culture.
Now that is an iced coffee.
As we got back to the car a mini disaster struck. Nancy put the key in the door and promptly twisted it right off. Yikes. One word about safety in Costa Rica. Like many other places we have been you just have to be careful everywhere, especially after dark. Nothing left in the car, no flash of cash, no jewelry, the basics, just use common sense and it is usually ok.
He tried to fix it but it just didn’t happen.
So here we are with no way to get in the car or drive, and it is getting late in the evening. We call the car company, which is 5 hours away and they say we will bring you a key in the morning. Now that is not going to work. We could have left the car and taken a taxi back to the motel, no problem. But if we left the car where it sat it probably would not have any tires or rims and would have definitely been broke into. So now what?
Of all things we are across the street from an Alamo rental and the guys were great. They knew of a locksmith who just happened to be in town working from Limon, 50 miles away. So problem solved right? He comes and gets the broken half out of the door and says back in a little with a new key, great. Here he comes back and it will not work. To make a long story short he tries everything, finally he gets the key to work in the door but it will not work in the ignition. Of course he does not speak one word of English and us no Spanish so we have a failure to communicate. We are then grabbing folks walking by to try and translate, and folks are helpful, but it is dark and we are not in the best area.
Finally after several translations it is clear we can not leave the car there so he pulls the ignition, pulls the steering wheel lock, and we are basically using a screw driver to start the car, but it is moving and we cruise back to the hotel, disaster averted. When things like this happen in foreign countries, especially less developed ones like Costa Rica you have one of two choices. It is either a complete disaster or an another adventure, and we chose adventure. This turned out to be a 3 hour adventure that I could have done without, but it ended up fine. As in many places like Costa Rica you have to exercise caution, leave nothing in the car, careful where you are when it gets dark, no flashy jewelry or cash, simple things.
The next day on the other hand was awesome. We were picked up at 6:30 by a shuttle and headed back up the mountains a couple of hours to the top and the rainforest. The day would be spent rafting the Rio Pacuare. The coolest river in Costa Rica it is one of the top 5 rafting rivers in the world. With tons of class III and class IV rapids it is a beast. The trip is 30kms long taking 4 hours with a total of 38 rapids.
They fed us breakfast and then a safety orientation as we went from the rally point deep into the jungle. This is a trip where you do not bring anything that is not attached to you, if you do you may never see it again. Our guide was the lead guide and there was 5 rafts with 5 or 6 people in each raft. Of all things we end up in the raft with an attorney and nurse from Florida and a crazy chick from Canada. So with helmets and life jackets down the river we go, it starts off with a bang and never lets up the whole day.
It is beautiful. Part of the safety orientation is how to rescue people who fall out of the boat. Good thing, as we hit the third or fourth rapid, they are awesome, I promptly get smashed in the face by a huge wave and knocked in the river. I bang on a couple of rocks, this river is humping, and finally get ahold of the strap on the raft and get hauled back in. Instead of being scary it is crazy cool! What could be better than being bounced out of a raft screaming down a huge rapids in the middle of a rainforest? I mean come on!
As we float down the river is so cool, high bluffs, Tucans flying overhead, monkeys (which I do not see again.), and gorges where it narrows down and you are almost enclosed in bluffs. There are waterfalls all over the river, many falling hundreds of feet, and of course our guide steers the boat under them to get us wetter if that is possible. Our guide turned out to be an avid fisherman who purses anything that swims and I learned a lot about fishing Costa Rica from him. I am so sorry I do not remember his name but he found my website and will send me a comment and hopefully some of his pictures, A great guy.
We stop a little over half way and eat a cool lunch on the river bank and take a break. Then it is the last part of the trip. Right after we get back in the water one of the rafts get sideways and hits a big rock, and over they go. It is a tough stretch, people are under the raft, drifting here and there, and the rescue is on. One thing they do is have 4 kayaks follow us down river to pick up folks who fall in, and someone will, so they are rescuing people, we grab a guy who was under the raft and he is looking like it wasn’t all that much fun as the guide pulls him in the boat. But it turns our well, everyone is laughing and cheering, and a great time is had by all. As I write this morning my arms and legs are aching from paddling for dear life, my knees hurt from banging on the rocks, and we are so glad we did it. What a trip.
That covers the highlights since we came to the Caribbean side. Today we will head back in to town for a short trip, pick up some coffee and presents, and just have a lazy day. The fishing opportunities are pretty limited here so I have decided to wait for Panama. It looks like there are several options on the island so that will be the first order of business. So while I will fish another day or two depending on the choices, it will be impossible to top the fishing with queposfishingadventures.com. Those guys are the bomb, and looking back a the pictures and reliving those couple of days make it all the sweeter. I am working on a story for fishermen. Capt. John and Alex were the real deal, professional, personable, and put us on world-class fish. It is an experience that is right at the top of my fishing experiences. I am already trying to figure out how to get back here. When summer comes the fish move farther inshore, and 20+ billfish a day is common, including marlin. What a place.
So there you have it for now. I will get something up when we get to Panama, and hopefully it will be some fantastic fishing adventure. This has been a crazy trip and I see no reason for it to be any different our last 4 days. So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
