4) Puerto Viejo and Cahuita

From Bocas del Toro we booked transport towards Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica. Some queuing at the Panamanian emigration office to leave the country, paying some absurd fee to pass a bridge that wasn't repaired for ages. Seriously, this bridge is dangerous! It isn't its height but the unstable walkway. When walking on the instable wooden parts your are safest as the wood crumbles from small cracks before breaking... but on the side you have metal walkways which are eroded. They suddenly can break beneath your food... so be careful ;) A funny American helped us get past the long queue at the Costa Rican border. Just pretend to be a group and that there is some sort of privileged service for groups... that surely saved us an hour of waiting^^
We arrived in Puerto Viejo and stayed at Pagalu Hostel - another German owned one :). The hostel was great, best we've seen in town! After some relaxing on the bed we rented bicycles to see the beach. A charming spot :) At the evening we ate at Flip Flop restaurant - another German owned place as we were to find out the next day^^ Delicious food and good prices!
The next day we took the bus to Cahuita and visited the national park. It is a great park located directly at the coast. Absolutely easy to walk and you quickly are lucky to see animals like the sloth :) That one quickly became one of Franzi's favorite animals^^ As easy as the park is to walk, don't forget your mosquito repellent! While Franzi went to buy some Mosquito repellent I had a funny encounter with a raccoon. Some Cappuchin monkeys later we saw the first sloth. Later in the park another - lucky us :) We also went for a swim towards the end of the path. At the end we saw the tourist police relaxing on a palm tree - she couldn't resist to take a picture with them^^ As the park was about to close, some of the wardens picked us up with their car and drove us to the exit - friendly :)
Back in Puerto Viejo they were having a fest. Everyone was on the streets, especially many people came with their horses. We were explained that this was some special festival. We joined the salsa-party later :P

border crossing Panama to Costa Rica

Beach at Puerto Viejo

First sloth we saw at Cahuita National Park

cute :)

A raccoon recklessly stealing food :P

The next sloth - Oi! don't you wake me!

A huge lizard

beautiful Cahuita National Park

meeting of hermit crabs on a coconut

who is first to have a meal? :D

Franzi with the tourist police

Sunset at Puerto Viejo

People come out for the fest