07/09/2022 Santa Catalina
After around 5 hours by shuttle (big jeep, backpacks wrapped in garbage bags on the loading board, shared with one other Spanish girl), we made it to Santa Catalina.
What to expect
Santa Catalina
Santa Catalina is a cute little town with two main roads that is known for two things in particular: surfing and scuba diving in the nearby Coiba National Park on an island.
In the evening we went to “Fonda la Arena” and had fresh fish with salad and yucca fries (finally good prices again: $6 each).
I think we went to bed around 8.30 pm and slept for over 10 hours – much needed after hiking up the volcano the previous night.
08/09/2022 Santa Catalina
Acting like sloths all day
Our bodies still felt exhausted! Our hostel “Bodhi Santa Catalina” has some cute cottages, but they are a bit musty and hot from the inside (unfortunately a problem we’ve experienced in a lot of humid places in Central America).
We enjoyed the free pancakes with fresh fruit in the morning before exploring town aka. the two streets and the beach.
After our morning walk it was time going back to our hostel hammocks to rest. Since the power was out in the entire town (which almost happens on a daily basis for a few hours in Santa Catalina), we both read and journaled in the hammocks.
Go surfing
Afterwards we walked to another beach in Santa Catalina which is known for its great surfing.
Stay (or relax) at Hotel Santa Catalina
We ordered a fresh coconut at Hotel Santa Catalina and stayed at their infinity pool overlooking the ocean for the afternoon. Watching the surfers while enjoying our coconuts was quite the contrast to hiking up the volcano only 30 hours earlier.
In the evening we went back to the same fonda from the previous night for some fresh shrimps and fish. (We had already “forgotten” about our cooking ambitions from Boquete again…)
09/09/2022 Santa Catalina and Coiba National Park
Today was another highlight for me: scuba diving in Coiba National Park.
Go scuba diving (or snorkeling) in Coiba National Park
A “good” day to go scuba diving
When I walked to the dive shop at 7.30 a.m., I was greeted with the words: “We are expecting a big storm today, so the waves will be massive and the current will be strong!” Great…
This is our dive boat?!
It was the first scuba dive for me where every single diver was German speaking, including the dive instructor who moved here six years ago.
When the seven of us walked to the boat and hopped into the little nutshell that was just big enough to fit us all in, my naive blonde head was thinking that this tiny boat will take us to the real boat. Turned out it didn’t. This was the boat we would be stuck in for the next seven hours… The dive instructor wasn’t lying: the waves were high and while we were riding to Coiba National Park for over an hour, it was raining so so heavily! Thank God, I took some seasickness pills before the start. I was holding onto everything I could and the whole time I was thinking: “Why am I paying for this again?!”
Millions of fish
But when we got to the dive site (and it also stopped raining), I knew why: the views under water were incredible! We saw so many whitetip sharks, one turtle, lots of eels and honestly millions of fish all around us!
Tropical deserted islands in between dives
Once we had some fruit in between the two dives on an empty island, we even saw whales in the background!
Whale-alarm!
When I did the backroll into the water off the boat for the second dive, there was a whale about six metres away from me! So awesome!
The second dive wasn’t as special, we had quite the strong current. But we still got to see sharks and fish and even heard the sound of whales underneath the water (first I thought it was my own breathing – maybe not).
After lunch on another deserted island, we drove back to Santa Catalina. Again, it started raining quite badly. (In the end it always starts raining when I am/ we are on a boat, remember? 😉)
Unwanted candle-light dinner
When we got back to Santa Catalina, the power was out again for the entire town. After a beer with the other scuba divers, Blake and I had a candle light dinner (unwanted, but what can you do without power 😉?!) at our new place Tiki Lodge. (Blake was kind enough to move all our stuff when I was out diving.)
The sounds of nature
In our little cabana we fell asleep to the sound of rain and what seemed like a million frogs and woke up to the cock-a-doodle-doo of roosters in the next morning again. Don’t you just love nature?! 😉
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