Lima and Arequipa: We met our Berkeley friends and ate incredibly well

After our rest days in Panama we followed our trip to Peru. Our first stop was Lima, where our friends from Berkeley, Alvaro, Julen and Eli, picked us up from the airport. We spent three days with them and they really took care of us. Thank you guys! They might have thought we were too thin because we spent most of the time eating really good food! We were surprised by the great quality and reasonable price of the restaurants. We went to Cala, Jose Antonio and San Antonio, where we had an awesome breakfast.

Jose Antonio restaurant

Cala restaurant

Besides eating we also visited some touristic attractions: the "Fuerte Real Felipe" and "La Punta". In our last day, we took the touristic bus from Miraflores, Mirabus and we visited the Cathedral. We didn't know that the remains of Pizarro were kept in there. If we had to do it again we might take a taxi instead of the touristic bus, because for 2 people is more cost effective and more flexible.

Fuerte Real Felipe

Fuerte Real Felipe

La Punta

In Mirabus

Pizarro's remains

Farewell at the bus station

That same night we took a 16h bus to Arequipa, the longest we have taken so far. Tired from the trip and carrying our backpacks we started to walk around Arequipa. We visited a couple of hostels but were full. We discovered that there was a mining conference and most of the lodgings were full. Then, we sat at a cafe and called all the hotels listed in the Lonely Planet. We were lucky that the last one in the list, "El Tumi de Oro", had empty rooms. The hostel was managed by an old endearing couple and we felt like being their grandsons.

At Tumi de Oro

We liked Arequipa very much, especially the Plaza de Armas, Sta Catalina's monastery and "Juanita", an inkan girl who was sacrificed in the Ampato mountain and whose body has been perfectly preserved due to the low temperatures of the mountain.

Calle Cordoba inside Sta. Catalina Monastery 

In Arequipa we also ate wonderfuly well. We specially liked the ostrich fondue in Zig Zag and the creps, coca tea and apple tea of Crepissimo, both restaurants from the same group. Crepisimo also had a nice terrace upstairs from where you could see the cathedral and the monastery.  

Fondue at Zig Zag

Mate of Andean herbs in Crepissimo

Views from Crepissimo's terrace

From Arequipa we took a 2 day tour to "Cañón del Colca". We spent the first night in Chivay. On the road we found alpacas, Vicuñas and Llamas, the local camelids. We also went through a pass of 4910m above seal level, the highest we,ve ever been. At this altitude we felt the lack of oxigen! We stopped for a Coca tea and to see the stacks of stones, which were offerings that local people gave to the mountain. We had dinner in a traditional restaurant in Chivay where there was a Preuvian band playing. Victor was asked to dance twice and he was dressed with traditional clothes.

Four Vicuñas

Dancing with traditional clothes

The next day we went to actual Canyon, which is one of the deapest in the world, being 4100 m deep, twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. We had some stops in the towns next to the road and some view points overlooking the pre-incan terraces. Finally we stopped at the Condor's Cross, where we could see a group of spectacular Condors flying very close to us.

Condor's cross

In that trip we met two spanish girls from Madrid, Vane and Tere. They had some problems with our guide because she left without them twice in that trip.

Then we went to Cuzco. We took it easy speacially to get used to the altitude. Luckily we had some medicine for the altitude and we didn't feel much besides the lack of oxygen when we had to climb the steep stairs to the hotel. We spent the first night at Los Niños hotel whose owner was Dutch. The rooms are around an arched patio and it is very eco-conscious. Some of the profits go for a non profit organization that deals with kids in trouble. 

Stairs to Loki hostel

Since Los Niños was a little bit pricey for our budget, we moved to the Loki hostel, the biggest hostel we have stayed in. It is very well organized, it has a pool table, a ping-pong table, there are activities everyday and it even has a travel agency inside. The only problem is that every single night they have the wildest parties in town until 2 am. We specially suffered that when we had to wake up at 4am the day we left to the Salkantay trek.

Cafetin at Los Niños

Patio at Los Niños

We took a day tour through Cusco and we saw the Cathedral, the Qoricancha (Incan Sun Temple) and the 4 archaeological sites including the incan walls of Sacsayhuamán. Our guide was a crazy old man who liked to tell  his own metaphores about love and liked to tell set phrases. A woman in our group had altitude sickness and had to stay in the car. She ate an entire bag of coca candies that made her delirious (or she already was) and even called the guide poet and philosopher.

Cuzco's  Plaza de Armas

Incan windows in Qoricancha

12-sided stone

Laura with a baby alpaca hat

The restaurants we liked the most in Cusco were the Inka Grill and Limo. The first one had live peruvian music and in that restaurant we won a price to eat a $35 menu in the second one. 

We spent the rest of the days resting and getting ready for our NEXT STOP: the Salkantay trek.

Panama, living in a lonely island

Our next stop was Panama! We stayed in Panama just for four days and we visited the Kuna, the indigenous people from Panama who live in the San Blas islands.

kuna woman

We took a plane from San Jose and again we got business class seats. For some unknown reason our travel agency booked these tickets!

After 10 days in Costa Rica we were exhausted and decided to take it easy in Panama. We had a reservation in Marparaiso, which is in a shady neighborhood, but one of the cheapest options in the city, as they also pick you up from the airport! To get a decent lunch we had to leave that neighborhood by bus and go to the Albrook mall.

The next day, we took a flight to San Blas (Kuna Yala) leaving from the other smaller airport in Panama. Luckily, our flight was delayed to 7:45 instead of leaving at 6:00 am and we were able to sleep a bit more. When we were at the check in counter the lady discovered that we had a double reservation and that we actually paid twice. Were able to get the money back.

The plane was tiny with only 17 seats. From our seats we were able to see the pilots moving the dials and pressing buttons.

After 45 min we landed in Playon Chico on a track made of cracked concrete were the kids were playing football minutes before.

"the" plane

"the" airport

the airstrip

A community of 3000 Kunas live in the largest island close to the airport. The kunas are the owners of the 350+ small islands in the archipelago, which only about 40 are inhabited. They still conserve most of their culture and religion and live in huts made of wood and palm leaves.

Women are dressed with colorful clothes, paint their faces and nose and decorate their arms and legs with long bracelets.

We stayed two nights at Yandup Lodge which is in a small island close to the village. The island had only 10 cabins, a dinning room and palm trees, it was like being Robinson Crusoe! 

The Yandup Island

We had breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Same restaurant for the two days we stayed there. However we didn't get bored because they cooked different food everyday, usually fresh seafood picked from the sea the same day.

our cooks!

a jumping lizard during dinner (see Victor´s hand)

With the room we had two daily tours included. The first day we went to a beach in another island. We spent the morning snorkeling and we found many fishes and also jellyfish that didn't sting and we were able to grab it with our hands! However, other animals bite us: chicharras, very small insects, whose bite hurts pretty badly for three days!

jellyfish

In the afternoon we visited the village. What surprised us the most was that they have a high percentage of albinos. The guide said that there are more than 30 in the town. They also gain surface on the island by accumulating the trash on the shore.

albino kid playing with other kids

The next day we went to a beach in a different island, but this time without chicharras. In the afternoon we visited the cementery. The traditional funeral consists on hanging the body in a hammock inside a very deep hole, so that the body doesn't touch the earth. Then, they cover the body with his belongings and sand, leaving it with a bumpy shape that represents the belly of mother earth, as they believe that they will be born again in a spiritual life.

That night we had dinner alone on the beach looking at the sunset. We had lobster that had been fished by a kuna hours before.

The next day we returned to Panama City and we visited the old part of the town (Casco viejo). It is very colonial and you can find good restaurant options. We walked through paseo de las bovedas, from were you can see the skyline of Panama and also the channel with a long line of boats waiting to cross to the Atlantic.

Next Stop: Peru!

Costa Rica: the Rainforest, turtles, monkeys and the crocodrile hunter

We landed in San Jose and our friend Federico was waiting for us at the airport. We spent to nights at his parent's house and we loved the home made food and how they took care of us. Thank you Fede!

The first night we went to a typical costarican bar called "El Picadero" where people were dancing veeery good and singing with the karaoke. We were giving a farewell to Fede's cousin who was going to Amsterdam.

The next day we went to Cachi, which is a natural rock that you can climb, but it really looks like a gym.

After the good exercise we ate at Bocadito del Cielo where we tried the famous tortillas de queso, tortillas con queso and queso empanizado. That area is know for the Turrialba cheese and we had cheese for the entire week. That same day we celebrated Fede's dad birthday going to an italian restaurant. We found out that San Jose is like a town because Fede's family knew everybody in that restaurant!

The next day we took a bus to Tortuguero. Before getting on the bus, the driver warned us that there were thieves, and actually 4 police men got on the bus and tried to arrest a guy that looked very suspicious, but they finally didn't do it. When we arrived to Cariari, that same guy run away with the bags of two poor spanish tourists with their money, cameras and passports.

We took another bus to la Pavona and there we had to take a boat to get to Tortuguero. The boat ride took about two hours because the water level was very low, but we enjoyed the views. We saw crocodiles and Jesuschrist lizards that are able to walk on the water.

In tortuguero we slept in Casa Marbella, a hotel owned by Daryl, a Canadian guy who also runs tours. The town is only one street without many restaurant options but we were able to find Budda Cafe, a very nice restaurant with views to the river.

Tortuguero has a conservational program to protect the sea turtles. Visitors can watch turtles nesting at night, but organized in shift to avoid disturbing the turtles. Your time and location is assigned with a lottery. We had the first shift and we had to wait for more than one hour until the first turtle came. Visitors are only allowed to watch turtles once the process of nesting has started because at this point there is no risk that the turtle will leave.

We were able to see the entire process: laying eggs, covering the hole with the back fins and camouflage the area with the front fins. A courious fact that we didn't know is that sea turtles can't hide their arms and head inside the shell.

The next day we started a tour at 6 am by boat through the channels of the national park. Our guide wasn't a good spotter and he was following the other guides. He was only good at imititating the noises of the monkeys and some birds. However, we were able to see caymans, a snake winded on a branch with a tarantula on top of it, and lots of birds.

After finishing the tour we jumped into a private van to go to La Fortuna. Right after leaving, the driver got distracted with the american girl next to him and we almost flip over. The car got stucked with two wheels on the curb and two on the road. Luckily, two cars stopped to help. One with a strong strap and the other one with a powerful engine and a fat guy to counterbalance the van. Precisely everything what we needed!!! The fat guy was very happy that his extra weight useful and was able to save our trip!

La Fortuna is the town next to the Arenal volcano, which used to have lava explosions but had been dormant for the last 10 months. The night we arrived there was an electrical storm with huge lightnings. Beatufiul and scary at the same time!

The next day we made a tour to the volcano with one of the best guides we have had so far, Leo from Eagle Tours. The best moment was when he put his finger in a termite nest and almost ate some of them. There was also a funny girl from New York who was putting in her purse all the plants that the guide said had medicinal qualities: The insect repelent fruit, the anti-itch stem, and the anti-headache leaf. She had remedies for everything!

We also went to the Baldi thermal baths at night. It was awesome because it was low season and we had all the pools for ourselves. The hottest pool was 47ºC!

The next day we went to Monteverde. The fastest way to get there is to hire a jeep-boat-jeep tour. We had the luck of having again Leo, the same guide we had in the volcano. We stayed in Pension Santa Elena, a hostel with very nice rooms if you take one of the new ones. Monteverde is known for its cloud forest and for having the longest canopy tours in Costa Rica. Victor did one of these tour, with 13 zip lines, one of about 600m and an 8m tarzan jump at the end. We only stayed one day in Monteverde because we thought we could have some relaxing days at the beach in Manuel Antonio.

We took the public transportation from Santa Elena to Manuel Antonio and it was veeery long and tiring. We took the first public bus at 6am to Punta Arenas and got to Punta Arenas at 11am through a dirt road. In this trip we saw a group of three guys that stole two bags. We felt very impotent because the only thing we had guts to do was to warn the victim after that happened. The thiefs got off in a previous stop but we saw them again in the last stop with different t-shirts ready to steal again.

In Punta Arenas we had to walk for 15 min to get to the bus that would get us to Quepos. Punta Arenas felt a bit dangerous with some people wanted to take advantage of us by giving us wrong directions and information. From Quepos to Manuel Antonio we had to take one more public bus.

Once we got to Manuel Antonio, lots of commissioners were following us trying to point us to the hostels they wanted. We were able to get rid of all but one that was very insistent. We walked directly to the National Park backpackers and told to the receptionist that the commisioner didn't help us find that place, because we didn't want to be charged for that. The commisioner got very angry at us but finally left.

National Park Backpackers was managed by Marc, a guy from Sants, Barcelona, and his wife from Colombia.The place is very new and they are still adding new services such as restaurant and additional rooms, but we felt very comfortable. They show movies everynight with a huge screen in front of the pool!

The next morning we went to Manuel Antonio park which is literally 1 min away from the hostel. There we hired a guide, Mario, because they help you finding animals with their telescope. You can even take pictures through the lens. We saw many animals and plants, but the ones we liked the most were these frog larvae:

The park is known for the sloth and the white face monkeys. It's funny because the first ones are very slow, but the second ones are very fast stealing food from tourists who are enjoying the beach.

Mario convinced us to take a night tour through the mangroove. His friend Masha is a former crocodile hunter and he catches them with his bare hands so that tourists can see them closer. We saw many crocodriles and Masha spent a lot of time walking in the dark river full of crocodiles, but he wasn't able too catch any :(

Masha caught a fish with his hands!

And Next Stop: Panama