Panama is an amazing country with so much to do. It has incredible islands with white beaches and transparent water, cloud forests, jungles and volcanos. It is the only place you can see the sun rise over the Pacific ocean and set over the Caribbean sea. Getting there and away: From Costa Rica: crossing the border at Sixaola in Costa Rica to Panama was very swift and painless. We were coming from Puerto Viejo and heading to Bocas del Toro. Get the bus for 45 mins from Puerto Viejo to Sixaola. Walk from the bus station to what looks like a shop someone’s house to pay the exit fee of $8 and walk to the bridge to get stamped out of Costa Rica. Walk across the bridge and fill out a form in immigration. Walk to the immigration office and get stamped into Panama. All took about 10 mins in total. Getting to Bocas del Toro you will need to take a collectivo to Almirante to take the boat to Bocas main island. They will charge you $10 but try haggle to $7. The boat to Bocas will take 40 mins and cost $10 open return or $6…
Thinking of traveling around central America but not sure how much time and money you need and where to go? Hopefully this post will help you! Central America is relatively small compared to neighbouring North America and South America. You can get around it easy enough on public buses and shuttles and cover alot of countries in a matter of weeks. Its cheap too, not south east Asia cheap but cheap. Guatemala and Nicaragua being the cheapest countries to travel in, maybe that’s why I spent the longest time in both of those countries but they were also my favourite countries too. Time of year to visit The dry season is from Dec to Mar and the high season with dry warm days and cooler than the hotter, wet and humid months from May until October. How long do I need? I spend just over 3 months in total in Central America and felt it was the perfect amount of time to explore the highlights of each country, get off the beaten track slightly and emerse fully in the culture of the countries. Of course I could have spent a lot longer and ideally I would have loved…
There is a reason why this country is known as the “rich coast”. It has everything from surfing, farming, volcanos, cloud forests, adventure activities and national parks home to 6% of the world’s total biodiversity. It is a small country and easily seen by car or public bus. Although the public bus system can seem a bit chaotic as there is no one local company or central station in San Jose. Getting there from Nicaragua? There are lots of shuttles and the public ticobus going from the cities to San Jose or popular destination such as Tamarindo, Monteverde or La Fortuna. We are tight, broke backers so we opted to cross the border at Penas Blancas on the chicken bus and continue to La Fortuna by chicken bus. However the chicken buses in Costa Rica are nothing like the old school buses elsewhere in Central America and you will usually get a seat and I haven’t yet been sat between a breast feeding woman and a man holding a box of baby chickens. From Panama: buses go direct between Panama city and San Jose. If you’re coming from Bocas del Toro…