California to Panama in a T100
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Traveling 2gether Journal
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Way cool! Thanks. We don't know where our journey will end, but it may be back in Maui. It's a pretty awesome place to live. Enjoy it!
Traveling 2gether Journal
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BajaSurfRig
Well-known member
Digging the photos guys! About to be heading south of the border for five months leaving August 1st you guys are getting me psyched! Loved your most recent video too. Hope you guys are scoring some waves.
Traveling 2gether Journal
Adventurer
Then we settled into a little dirt lot at Playa Hermosa where we met a nice couple of travelers "down the line" and "John and Mandi" happened to stop by for a couple of nights as well. Its funny how we learn to refer to our fellow travelers by their instgram or Ioverlander handle and then it kinda sticks even after you meet them.
We waited around a few days for a swell to arive but the waves never really got good.
Our new friends, Down the Line are also surfers, so we talked them into a search mission to a river mouth south of Hermosa that I had checked out on google earth.
The trail to the river mouth got a bit narrow for the Ford, so we hit the beach.
We camped down by the river on our own little chunk of natural beach. There was definitely some surf out on the sandbar. Matty paddled out and managed to catch a couple but I threw my back out trying to set up my bigger board and spent the day on ice. To be honest though the wave was a bit intimidating since it was about a 1/4 mile paddle out in front of a river known to have crocs and if something happened we could only drive out at low tide. Still a cool camp site
We waited around a few days for a swell to arive but the waves never really got good.
Our new friends, Down the Line are also surfers, so we talked them into a search mission to a river mouth south of Hermosa that I had checked out on google earth.
The trail to the river mouth got a bit narrow for the Ford, so we hit the beach.
We camped down by the river on our own little chunk of natural beach. There was definitely some surf out on the sandbar. Matty paddled out and managed to catch a couple but I threw my back out trying to set up my bigger board and spent the day on ice. To be honest though the wave was a bit intimidating since it was about a 1/4 mile paddle out in front of a river known to have crocs and if something happened we could only drive out at low tide. Still a cool camp site
Traveling 2gether Journal
Adventurer
Nice! 5 months is a solid chink of time. How far south do you plan to go?
BajaSurfRig
Well-known member
Not sure yet. Maybe just Baja maybe further south. We are going to just cruise and follow the waves.
Traveling 2gether Journal
Adventurer
nice, I'm sure you'll have a blast.
Traveling 2gether Journal
Adventurer
OK. Been disconnected for a while now, but will try to get caught up
We had a killer time in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica. There was wild life all over the place. We got to see our first squirrel monkeys right outside our hotel room.
Amie contacted a couple tour companies and we were invited to do some activities for free with Tucanes Tours that would have broke the budget. (maybe the youtube channel will pay off after all)
We did a kayak tour through the mangrove around Isla damas. It was pretty cool and something I wouldn't do with out a guide since we would have been lost for sure. We got to see howler monkeys, bats, crabs, birds, and lots of bugs. The guides are locals, but with good English speaking skills, so we were able to understand as they explained how the different mangrove plants lived in the environment and how the eco system works.
We also went white water rafting on Rio Savegre. It was a beautiful river with good guides and good equipment. When we were there we were told that we were on class 3 rapids. It's the same class rapid we did in Mexico, but I felt like this one was more intense, faster water, and more fun. We tried to surf a wave and flooded the boat. Amie and I were up front and spent a few seconds under water. We didn't fall out though
We had a killer time in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica. There was wild life all over the place. We got to see our first squirrel monkeys right outside our hotel room.
Amie contacted a couple tour companies and we were invited to do some activities for free with Tucanes Tours that would have broke the budget. (maybe the youtube channel will pay off after all)
We did a kayak tour through the mangrove around Isla damas. It was pretty cool and something I wouldn't do with out a guide since we would have been lost for sure. We got to see howler monkeys, bats, crabs, birds, and lots of bugs. The guides are locals, but with good English speaking skills, so we were able to understand as they explained how the different mangrove plants lived in the environment and how the eco system works.
We also went white water rafting on Rio Savegre. It was a beautiful river with good guides and good equipment. When we were there we were told that we were on class 3 rapids. It's the same class rapid we did in Mexico, but I felt like this one was more intense, faster water, and more fun. We tried to surf a wave and flooded the boat. Amie and I were up front and spent a few seconds under water. We didn't fall out though
Traveling 2gether Journal
Adventurer
From Manuel Antonio we headed to Dominical. Along the highway we got to see out first sloth!! It was an active one too. Well, as active as can be expected for a sloth.
We arrived in Dominical and found several road-friends already camped out, so we joined the overlandia wagon circle right on the beach. There was some fun surf and lots of hanging out talking with our friends about camp chairs and tires or whatever overlanders talk about We even treated ourselves to some drinks at the local brewery before saying good bye to our friends and heading for the Osa Peninsula.
We took a small detour to a waterfall above playa Uvita. The main fall/pool was kinda busy with people jumping off rocks and having a good time. We opted to walk 5 min down the river and found our own quite swimming pool. The fresh water felt great after a few days of wild beach camping.
We arrived in Dominical and found several road-friends already camped out, so we joined the overlandia wagon circle right on the beach. There was some fun surf and lots of hanging out talking with our friends about camp chairs and tires or whatever overlanders talk about
We even treated ourselves to some drinks at the local brewery before saying good bye to our friends and heading for the Osa Peninsula.We took a small detour to a waterfall above playa Uvita. The main fall/pool was kinda busy with people jumping off rocks and having a good time. We opted to walk 5 min down the river and found our own quite swimming pool. The fresh water felt great after a few days of wild beach camping.
mccustomize
Explorer
Costa Rica looks amazing, I'm slowly catching up on your youtube channel, good stuff!
Traveling 2gether Journal
Adventurer
Costa Rica has been a blast. It is a stand out country in Central America thanks to their conservation efforts.
Thanks for watching the channel. Slowly is definitely the way to watch since we're only releasing an episode every 2 weeks
We'll pick up the pace when we get settled back at home, but for now, we're too busy having fun
Traveling 2gether Journal
Adventurer
The border crossing from Costa Rica to Panama was an interesting one. I thought it would be easier since Costa Rica and Panama both seem pretty on it with tourism and infrastructure, but it was more of the same. We checked out of Costa Rica with their self checkout machine(this was nifty) but still had to wait in line to get stamped and get the TIP put on hold. Then we drove a couple blocks through busy markets to get to the Panama side.
We got our visas easily as usual, but than had some confusion with the car. I had to get insurance before I could get the TIP, but the insurance office was around the corner and down the street on the Panama side of the border. It was all simple enough once I figured out that I was supposed to enter Panama to get the insurance then come back to get the car inspected and stamped in.
The dog was a similar story. They didn't want to take the paperwork that all the previous borders had excepted so Amie had to walk the dog INTO Panama, find a "veterinarian", get a stamp, walk back to the border to show the stamp and pay $130usd so that the dog would be allowed into Panama.
All in it was only a 3 hour process. The fees for the dog were way more than any other country and some people were getting pretty mad about us blocking the 1 traffic lane available for leaving the border and entering Panama since we were taking longer than normal with the dog and all, but we couldn't go anywhere until the border officials stamped us in. Not a big deal. Just added a bit of unnecessary stress to the situation.
We got our visas easily as usual, but than had some confusion with the car. I had to get insurance before I could get the TIP, but the insurance office was around the corner and down the street on the Panama side of the border. It was all simple enough once I figured out that I was supposed to enter Panama to get the insurance then come back to get the car inspected and stamped in.
The dog was a similar story. They didn't want to take the paperwork that all the previous borders had excepted so Amie had to walk the dog INTO Panama, find a "veterinarian", get a stamp, walk back to the border to show the stamp and pay $130usd so that the dog would be allowed into Panama.
All in it was only a 3 hour process. The fees for the dog were way more than any other country and some people were getting pretty mad about us blocking the 1 traffic lane available for leaving the border and entering Panama since we were taking longer than normal with the dog and all, but we couldn't go anywhere until the border officials stamped us in. Not a big deal. Just added a bit of unnecessary stress to the situation.
Traveling 2gether Journal
Adventurer
We spent a couple days in the city of David getting some maintenance done on the car.(oil change, new front break pads, front seal on rear diff replaced, new oil in rear diff) It wouldn't have taken so long but we were getting the gringo runaround. In the end they put in the wrong viscosity engine oil and the rear diff started leaking again with in a 100 miles, but the breaks are good and that was the main concern, so whatever, we got back on the road and found this killer camping spot.
We were in a little group of palm trees right on the beach with nothing for a mile in either direction and a fun beach break right out front. Plus we got our first starry night in a long time since it rained almost every night we were in Costa Rica and Jagger made a new friend.
We were in a little group of palm trees right on the beach with nothing for a mile in either direction and a fun beach break right out front. Plus we got our first starry night in a long time since it rained almost every night we were in Costa Rica and Jagger made a new friend.
Traveling 2gether Journal
Adventurer
We left our deserted beach camp after a few days and headed for the other side of the Azuerro Peninsula. We landed in Playa Vennao where we camped behind a beach front hotel and had a couple of fun surf sessions.
We went exploring further out to the tip of the peninsula looking for some uncrowded surf and wild camping. We timed a swell, but the weather didn't cooperate and we ended up hustling our way back to civilization for fear of being trapped and possibly washed away by the rising water level in the rivers.
That marks the turning point in our trip. The southern end of the Azuero Peninsula is the furthest south that one can drive without crossing the Darrien Gap and is the southern most point of our trip.
We were considering going to Panama City, but we had both been there before and I spotted a swell in the Caribbean, so we crossed the country heading to Bocas del Toro. We saw another cool sloth along the way.
Inorder to get to the Island with a car you must take a ferry. You can not repurchase tickets for the ferry in advance and the line to get on the morning boat starts forming the day before, so we had to park in line and sleep on the street in a sketchy town were we saw several drug deals, plenty of intoxicated guys wondering around, and a couple domestic dispute shouting matches in the street. We happened to be parked next to a gas station and bar where we met a lovely couple of girls from the states. They had been sailing charters on their tall ship and were currently stuck here with their boat out of the water doing repairs. We all enjoyed the company and a few beers before Amie and I returned to our car for a poor nights sleep.
We made it on the ferry the next morning and saw this sticker advertising the services provided on this bus.
On arrival we went strait to a break called Paunch for some fun surf. Amie didn't want to dance across the urchin covered reef to get in the water, but I think she had a good time on the beach
The island was beautiful and we got a second swell a couple days later before the ocean went flat. The swells had turned up the water making for poor diving, so once the swell was gone we decided to leave too.
The ferry back to the mainland doesn't arrive until evening, so we had to spend another night in that town. Lucky we got in contact with our new sailer friends and got to park in the boat yard. Here we are next to their ship.
We went exploring further out to the tip of the peninsula looking for some uncrowded surf and wild camping. We timed a swell, but the weather didn't cooperate and we ended up hustling our way back to civilization for fear of being trapped and possibly washed away by the rising water level in the rivers.
That marks the turning point in our trip. The southern end of the Azuero Peninsula is the furthest south that one can drive without crossing the Darrien Gap and is the southern most point of our trip.
We were considering going to Panama City, but we had both been there before and I spotted a swell in the Caribbean, so we crossed the country heading to Bocas del Toro. We saw another cool sloth along the way.
Inorder to get to the Island with a car you must take a ferry. You can not repurchase tickets for the ferry in advance and the line to get on the morning boat starts forming the day before, so we had to park in line and sleep on the street in a sketchy town were we saw several drug deals, plenty of intoxicated guys wondering around, and a couple domestic dispute shouting matches in the street. We happened to be parked next to a gas station and bar where we met a lovely couple of girls from the states. They had been sailing charters on their tall ship and were currently stuck here with their boat out of the water doing repairs. We all enjoyed the company and a few beers before Amie and I returned to our car for a poor nights sleep.
We made it on the ferry the next morning and saw this sticker advertising the services provided on this bus.
On arrival we went strait to a break called Paunch for some fun surf. Amie didn't want to dance across the urchin covered reef to get in the water, but I think she had a good time on the beach
The island was beautiful and we got a second swell a couple days later before the ocean went flat. The swells had turned up the water making for poor diving, so once the swell was gone we decided to leave too.
The ferry back to the mainland doesn't arrive until evening, so we had to spend another night in that town. Lucky we got in contact with our new sailer friends and got to park in the boat yard. Here we are next to their ship.