I feel like a lot of posts I have written on this trip have mentioned how hot it has been, turns out those places were nothing compared to Santa Catalina. Just existing here is unpleasant and you are covered in sweat from sitting in the shade. Unfortunately for us, the hostel we had picked was a thirty minute walk from the beach in the baking sun all the way and there was no pool or Aircon or restaurant at the hostel. Just one fan for a room of 9 people.
On our first day we decided to walk down to the beach in the hope of getting some food, we tried to shorten our walk by heading down various side paths that all claimed to have restaurants down, but every time they were either closed or super expensive. After an hour of many detours we reached the beach, by this point we were absolutely dripping with sweat and had discovered new revelations about ourselves in the heat. Apparently when I’m uncomfortably hot I start puffing out air and sound like a pissed off horse huffing away, gryace on the other hand sounds like a pissed if sailor and swears and curses anything that moves and a lot of stuff that doesn’t.
When we reached the town by the beach, most of the restaurants were closed as it was now nearly 3pm. We noticed an elderly couple from our hostel at a restaurant at the far end of the town waving us over as it was still open, so we hobbled over and sat down. The main meal was nice although the waitress slammed the food and drinks on the table as if we’d personally offended her by daring to order food at her restaurant. That didn’t stop us from ordering dessert however, as we were determined to fill up on enough food that we wouldn’t need to make another long trip down for dinner. Unfortunately for us the cheesecake we’d chosen to share lived up to its name a little too well and tasted very cheesy indeed, accompanied by a chewy rubbery texture. The dogs on the beach were well fed that afternoon!
We chilled out on the beach for a bit hoping the temperature would start to cool off but around 5pm it was still baking hot so we syked ourselves up and started on the walk home. It finally cooled down from the high thirties to the low thirties/ high twenties around 1am and we finally got some sleep.
The next day Grace had booked a scuba diving trip and I had paid for a snorkeling trip, both of which were in the national marine park. The older Dutch couple from our hostel, Peter and Madeleine, who we had seen at the restaurant the previous night were on the snorkeling trip too.
The guide had promised we’d see a lot on the trip, however our first sighting was very unexpected indeed… We spotted the president of Panama! He landed in a helicopter right next to the pickup point for our snorkeling trip. There were special police everywhere. With grey camouflage on and black balaclavas with just a slit for their eyes. They looked very much like baddies from a bond movie, but we were very impressed they hadn’t already roasted to death inside head to toe clothing.
Our second spot of the day came on the boats out to the reservation islands. We saw dolphins as they swam and jumpued out of the water right next to the boat! It was very cool to see!
The first island we visited was a tiny thin split of land surrounded by coral reefs, we saw lots of cool colourful fish and also a reef shark. Although sadly I also ended up telling one couple on our boat off for standing on the corals. I mentioned this to our guide who also reiterated not to do this, the coral grows only a cm each year so standing on it and breaking it cases decades of setbacks, it’s also full of bacteria that you really don’t want in your foot.
The second spot we headed to was another island, this time with lots of trees on. The reef here is a cleaning spot for turtles, they stop by and tiny fish nibble at their dead skin. Although these fish aren’t picky and will also nibble humans as well as I found out! I have been to the fish feet spa so I assumed fishes nibbling me in the water would feel the same. However, after swimming over a dense part of the reef my legs were absolutely covered in fish, I assumed if I started swimming and kicking my legs this would stop the rather forceful nibbling, it did not. It was a rather unpleasant and unsettling feeling and I swam as fast as I could for 10+ minutes to get far enough away from the reef that they would leave me alone! After catching my breath I swam again to the edges of the reef, careful to avoid any fish, and I was rewarded by seeing not one, but two huge turtles! The guide remarked after they were some of the largest she’s ever seen.
Our next stop was onto the largest island on the reserve, here we climbed up to a viewing platform and our guide explained how the islands on the reserve used to house prison buildings and no boats were allowed in the area to prevent escapes, this is why the area is so untouched. There is also a huge crocodile on this island called Tito that the locals feed and it will appear if you call for it, but none of us fancied making the call, especially as we had nothing to feed him, we didn’t want to end up his snack!
Our last stop was at another island with lots more colourful fishes and here we also saw a sea snake and a puffer fish, so we definitely got our money’s worth!
I had spent most of the day chatting to the Dutch couple, they were really nice and told me how they were retired and spent a month of every year traveling around a new country. Madeleine also insisted on creaming my back for me so I didn’t burn and also asked if I would like a lift to town for dinner as they had a car! Very nice people indeed! That evening we couldn’t resist a free lift in an air-conditioned car so myself and Grace got a lift from them into town and we ended up having a nice dinner together, chatting about all the different places they and we had been. At the end of the evening they kindly offered to take us half way to our next destination in two days time as they were headed in a similar direction.
The next day we decided to chill on the beach, this time walking down super early when it was at least slightly cooler and finding a spot of shade to hide from the sun in. It was honestly too hot to do anything that took us too far away from the water. In the evening we got chatting with some girls at our hostel, we were all going to go out to a party although none of us could stay late as the girls had to catch the 7am bus and Peter and Madeleine had offered us a lift at 8am (although they later said they were happy to leave at 10am so we could have fun at the party as they’re complete babes!).
We ended up losing track of time and sat chatting until midnight, at that point none of us could be bothered to do the sweaty walk into town and, as it turned out we would all be staying at the same hostel in the next stop, we decided to call it a night and go out at the next town.
So we had an early-ish nights sleep and a beautifully air-conditioned journey halfway to our next destination, El Valle de Anton. Which meant we didn’t have to get up at 6am and we only needed to get two buses instead of four!
I’ll tell you all about El Valle de Anton soon, lots of love, Alice x
P.s. I almost forgot to tell you about the unluckiest person we met while traveling. A German girl in our dorm here. Santa Catalina was her second stop on her holiday and not only did she also end up in this booking hot Hostel in the middle of nowhere she managed to get diarrhea on her first day in a dorm where all 7 of us shared one bathroom connected to the room, there is no keeping that one to yourself. That evening the girl in the bed above her accidentally unscrewed the top of her water bottle in her sleep and it all leaked out onto this German girl in the bed below. She didn’t realize it was water and thought the girl above had wet herself so she slept on the floor. The next day she decided to go to the beach and got bitten by a dog, the local hospital patched her up and gave her a tetanus shot but she needed to take a 8 hour bus the next day to Panama city to get a rabies shot. Then on her final night before she left for Panama city a big wooden slat from the bottom of the bed above her came loose and fell on her head leaving her with a huge bruise! Honestly talk about being unlucky! I only hope her luck improved in Panama city!