My Wild Travels

We sleep really well and decide to go for an exploratory walk before breakfast and before it becomes too hot. It is already 29C and only 07.00. Surprisingly, for such a tiny location, Drake Bay has a small police station set back from the beach. We presume it is necessary because this is close to the Panama border and very remote and would be an ideal location for drug running. That is only our guess but would seem likely.

We see pelicans flying in formation above us and vultures are abundant in the trees and on the beach.

I’m particularly grateful to this guy who lets me get really close.

There is no jetty so all boat trips involve a wet embarkation.

At the end of the beach we divert to the road that then turns into a track with a path off through the rainforest.

We see the hugest bamboo and beyond that we enter the forest. Birds and butterflies dart from bush to bush. Tantalisingly difficult to photograph.

We’ve been walking for an hour or so and are now hungry. We stumble across a luxury hotel and decide breakfast here would be an excellent idea.

Feeling much refreshed we set off once more. Paul spots a couple of green parrots in the bushes. It’s takes me a while to see them. They are so well camouflaged.

This tanager is not so well-camouflaged but still hard to spot!

We cross a very rickety hanging bridge and can see monkeys in the trees above.

The path now went steeply uphill but at least had some crude steps and a handrail to make life a little easier. We then go the same distance downhill and arrive on a beautiful deserted beach.

Above us I hear squawking. I am being watched by a cheeky red macaw.

Hermit crabs scuttle along the sand. We sit and watch them for a while and soak up the magnificent view before heading back to our hotel.

We now change rooms and are delighted to find that our deluxe room is a huge improvement. We have a balcony with chairs. It is yards from the beach with a lovely view and breeze. We even have bedside tables. Hoorah!! Still no glasses though….. We skip lunch and drink beer and eat nachos on our terrace. We then swim in the sea and laze on loungers until it is sundowner time. We head down the beach in the opposite direction to this morning. We find a bar with a great view where we sit and drink our pina coladas.

We find a little restaurant tucked away behind the beach where we have a really excellent meal. There are specialist coffees here and the affogato to finish was delicious.

Our next port of call is very remote and 217 km away. This does not sound that far but we know that the last 33km from Rincon to Drake Bay will not be on good roads. We make good progress for the first section down to Palmar Norte. Here we turn off the main highway expecting to find a pot-holed track but are delighted and surprised to find a good road, albeit bendy!

This takes us all the way to Rincon where we stop by a beautiful bay to have lunch.

There is very little at Rincon but we find a tiny and very welcoming little restaurant.

We feast on freshly cooked snapper and homemade lemonade. Delicious.

Feeling fully replete we set off and shortly turn right on our final leg. Shock and horror. This road is terrible and goes from bad to worse. Loose stone and huge quantities of dust. Very uncomfortable and vibrations that shake you from top to toe.

This road progresses to include steep inclines with apparent ravines running down them. This is not for the faint-hearted and 4×4 is essential. I could not take photos as both hands were required to hold on. Very extreme terrain and apparently in the wet season is almost impassable. Still despite the complaining we do like a good adventure!

2 hours later and we make it to Drake. Unbelievably the road has deteriorated further. There is a steep descent down to where Waze tells us we’ll find our hotel.

Well, without Waze I think we could still be looking for it. No signage whatsoever, just a beach restaurant with reception as an office at the back of it. The road into the hotel is the worst of all with a broken drainage pipe that you could not see. We hit it hard and there is a loud bang as the front of the vehicle crashes over it. It sounded like we had done a lot of damage but it appears the running plate had detached and clipped back on easily. Phew!!

However by this time we were hot, tired and not in the best humour. I could not book the same room for 3 nights so we have a superior tonight and deluxe for the last two nights. It is hard to see what was superior about the room. Granted it was clean and newly re-furbished but it was really spartan with only the bare basics. Just a bed and towels. Not even a cup or glass…. To cap it all, as Paul points out, this is the most expensive place we are staying.

We lie on a lounger, have a beer then walk down the beach to find a back-packers bar that serves the best cocktails. We’re starting to feel much better. Palm trees, blue sea and rum can have that effect.

We go to the restaurant for dinner where we are ignored and sit next to a large group who are talking loudly. We look at each other and say “What are we doing? Dinner isn’t included. We can go anywhere.” We don’t want to walk into the town centre as it is up a rocky 1:3 slope so we drive up. This place looks dreadful. Really tatty and rundown. Paul says he will eat anywhere that looks like it has a soft seat. Strange way to choose your dinner venue but that is what we did. We found padded chairs, there was music, efficient staff and great food. Never judge a book….

We stocked up on water in the adjacent supermarket and then slept and slept.

Today’s drive is scheduled to take 3.5 hours. We have coffee on the terrace and leave at 08.30 with the intention of breakfasting on route. We watch the abundant bird life and an agouti grazing on the lawn.

We are travelling on the intercontinental highway and initially we make good progress, even on the sections that are single lane and under construction. We had some great views on this section.

We stopped briefly for breakfast and then hit a jam slowing our progress. The journey eventually took 5 hours. We did make a second brief stop at the crocodile bridge where we bought sublime fruit smoothies and eyed the large crocs in the river below.

We arrived at our hotel at 13.30 but the room was not ready so we headed to the restaurant for lunch, which was good. I stayed here before on my trip in 2020 and knew the accommodation was of a decent standard. Our room was lovely – close to reception and with a small pool outside.Even better there are comfortable loungers with big fat cushions. Luxury. We have spent a lot of time sitting on hard seats. Nowhere seems to believe in cushions and our bottoms require something soft. Our terrace is quite shady so we head down to the main pool for a swim and afternoon siesta.

We head for sundowners at El Avion which is a cool bar with an aeroplane but it was pretty noisy. We had a painkiller and took some sunset shots.

Then we drove down to the beachfront in Manuel Antonio where we found an excellent restaurant, with efficient staff, great ambience and live music. We ordered the special – snapper with salsa topping cooked in a banana leaf. It was delicious washed down with a cheeky chardonnay, which was the only wine option!

After a full on day yesterday we decide to do very little today. This is a holiday after all! It’s a glorious morning. We have breakfast of pancakes & fruit then hit the road. We are heading down to Canas just south of the continental divide where the weather should become more stable. The road from Canó Negro was much better than expected although not without a few impressive potholes. The scenery is pleasant and the trip fairly uneventful apart from the encounter with drovers and their herd of cattle.

The weather changes dramatically as we pass between the mountain ranges. Here it is much drier, hotter and a brisk breeze is blowing. We stop at a supermarket to buy essential provisions of wine, beer and snacks and are hit by the heat and wind as we exit the car.

Waze took us to our entered location of Hacienda el Pacifico. It did not feel right and clearly was a working farm and nothing like the booking.com pictures. We re-entered our destination – this time with Hotel in front of it and were pleased to see we were only a couple of miles away from the correct destination.

Our room isn’t ready so we relax by the pool and drink the recently purchased beer. The grounds are tropical and it is easy to relax.

We have lunch which is bigger than required then just chill. We swim and hear howler monkeys close by. We also spot an agouti in the nearby undergrowth. We have sundowners on our terrace, where we play music, drink wine and watch deer grazing on the lawn outside our room. It’s particularly enjoyable as the terrace has leather rocking chairs. So comfortable!

A pretty perfect day….

Another early start today. Up at 04.30 to meet our fishing guide for 06.00 departure and we are told it is a 45 minute drive. It is a only about 7km but the road is terrible with huge potholes. We also have no address – just a pin mark on google maps and it does not appear to be on a road….

It is still dark and as we head north we are surprised by the amount of traffic. There are farm workers but also giant lorries which are completely unsuitable for the dirt road. It is slightly un-nerving to confront them in the dark just as you are trying to avoided half a dozen potholes. According to Waze we reach our destination in about 20 minutes but can see no likely properties. We drive back and forth. I suggest phoning our guide but Paul insists that, as he is a bloke, he can find it unaided. A man suddenly appears with a torch and it turns out to be our guide Napoleon. Annoyingly Paul was proved right – no call required! A bit fortuitous admittedly.

Napoleon greets us warmly and escorts us down to his boat. We set off in pursuit of tarpon. They feed in the morning and late afternoon and can be spotted rolling on the surface. The river is beautiful and teeming with life. Huge flocks of birds are roosting in the reed beds, herons and cormorants are already fishing and caiman and crocodiles laze on the banks.

It seems that every tree has iguanas roosting in the branches and large males show off the their vivid mating colours. Howler monkeys are abundant too and call loudly as we pass below. Howlers are usually black with a tan back but we spot an unusual orange one sleeping in the branches.

We anchor in a likely spot but nothing bites so we move on. This is Paul’s lucky day. We see tarpon jumping around us and Napoleon says this is a good spot. Almost instantly a tarpon bites. It is actually quite exciting and this one seems big and strong. I follow the action keenly with my camera as I want some good footage of it jumping. My patience is rewarded. It makes a run for it and leaps. It is huge. Napoleon thinks 60kg!

The tarpon was so heavy that it broke the line as Napoleon was lifting it from the water so no shots of Paul holding it but he is still very happy. The weather changes by the second here. Sunshine, cloud and occasional torrential rain but it is always hot. We even had a rainbow.

Napoleon takes us back to his house for lunch. He has a wonderfully manicured garden leading shown to the river with an abundance of tropical flowers. He feeds the birds bananas and they fill the garden with their song and bright colours. We have rice and scrambled egg for lunch which is actually very good with fruit juice. The rice has had herbs added so is very tasty. Napoleon says’ Mi casa es tu casa’ and leaves us the run of the place as he goes to pick up his wife.

I have fun photographing the garden and bird life. Paul chillaxes.

We set off again at at 2.15. Paul catches another tarpon but this one is really huge and gets away. It’s a lovely afternoon nevertheless and so much more enjoyable than the fishing experience at Tortuguero.

We thank Napoleon for his hospitality and great fishing and head home. We are shattered so have an early dinner and head straight to bed.