Last post of el viaje latin america gezellig total

As you probably noticed, I wasn't really feeling like writing anymore. Apparently that's normal because everyone I met who is running a travelling blog stopped doing so after 4 months. Since I am waiting for my bus from Boquete to David, here goes the last post before I am heading back to little froggy land. It will be a short summary.

After Granada, me and my homeboy steven split ways, he was heading up to Honduras and I left for Masaya where me and a bunch of people from the hostel went to the market to check out some artesanias and had some lunch with music, the next day we visited the local volcano with smoke all over the place. I was hoping to see some lava but unfortunately we didn't.
With some frenchies I went to Leon where I spent wayyyy longer than planned, merely because it is such a nice colonial city and some nice going out going on there, as in backpackers blending in with locals and good live salsa music. The real reason actually was that the hot weather just made me really lame and lazy, even though there was a pool at the hostel.
In Leon I also went volcanoboarding which is almost as cool as it sounds and had some great falafel with a bunch of spaniards in a veggie restaurant.
After all this going out and chilling by the pool I decided it was time to take a vacation from this rough life I was leading. I bought a ticket to little corn island and skipped Matagalpa.

In little corn island, I stayed for about a week. I think I can say that that is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. White beaches, clearblue ocean, coralreef, palmtrees. And soyburgers. I also celebrated my birthday there which was really nice, we had a bonfire and at 12 all of a sudden everyone was singing happy birthday to me. I couldn't have wished for anything more. The next day a bunch of canadians bought me lunch, we played games and went swimming. On the last day (the days flew by!) I went snorkling and I saw turtles, stingrays, sharks and beautiful coral reef. Some of you might remember my almost-drown-adventure I had 3 years ago in Peru and I panicked when I didn't see our boat anymore. The movement of the waves in the water had also made me nauseous. Luckily the tourguide noticed in time and signed to the captain to pull me out of the water quickly. Unfortunately I spent the rest of the time on the boat, but felt a lot better.

After the flight and a long bustrip from Managua to San Jose, I was exhausted and decided to stay a night in San Jose. It was already about the 4th time I was there and there is really nothing to see or do in San Jose so immediately the next day I left for tortuguero. Luckily I could get myself on a free canotour and saw caimans, krabs and lots of birds. I just wanted to get my ass out of Costa Rica because I thought Id seen enough of the country and because it is so shit expensive. So the next day I decided to leave earlier and make my way to Panama. Finally.

After taking a boat to Bocas del Toro, I couldn't get to the hostel where I wanted to go to in the first place, because they were shooting a movie, with Benicio del Toro in it! Unfortunately I didn't get to see him but some people were lucky enough to obtain a little role as an extra in the movie! I hung out with a really cool Italian girl on the beach where we went to by bike, who taught me a lot about medicinal plants and who liked to run around the beach buttnekked.
I went on a chocolatetour as well in which I learned a lot about the process of making chocolate and the international organic chocolate market. Although Panama is #1 in the world in the organic chocolate market, farmers still don't get that much for their chocolate. A local girl taught us how to grind the chocolate and by adding nothing more than just sugar we already made some delicious chocolate ourselves. Hmmmm!
With a germanian I also went longboarding to the beach and the cool thing about going out in Bocas is when you are bored or hot or just feel like it, you can just jump in the water to go for a swim, because all bars are by the ocean. Yayyy!

Right before semana santa I took an overnightbus to Panama City because I knew it would be packed in Bocas del Toro. Although casco viejo is a really nice colonial neighbourhood, I also felt I spent too much time there. I think you kind of lose the energy for going from place to place after a while when you have been travelling for such a long time. I did go to see the canal which was great with a really nice interactive museum and took the train from Colon which dates from 1853 and was a beautiful sight but not really worth the 25 dollars we had to pay for it. I merely did some cooking and watched movies. (The hostel called Luna's castle had a cinema with lots of movies.)

After being overwhelmed by lots of people and lots of heat it was nice to arrive at my next stop in Santa Fe. Besides stunning hikes around mountains, flowers and waterfalls, there is not that much to do in Santa Fe and that was exactly what I was looking for. Me and my fellow Dutchie Anton went for a really short loserwalk and had great Cambodian food, and chocolatemousse! Before heading to Boquete I stayed a couple of nice at the lost & found lodge in the middle of the jungle. I met up with 3 girls who I shared the dorm with in Bocas and we went to the waterfall and brought epic lunch with us. At the lodge they also had a monkey called cloud which the owners rescued from a woman who was abusing him and they had a kinkajou who could only make snoring noises and who we could cuddle at night when he woke up. He was like a monkeycatsquirrel.
We also made a trip to a local farm by horse, the family was so nice and I liked that I could have a closer insight on how some Panameños live in el campo. In boquete I went hiking with a swissie in the woods and we saw 3 quetzales, a really rare bird! Today I did a but of present-shopping and tomorrow I'll take the bus to San Jose to take my flight back to Dutchland.

It is weird that this long trip is coming to an end. I can assure all of you this won't be my last trip. This trip has even given me more motivation to travel more and has taught me the good things that traveling does to you and that it is for sure not as expensive and hard as people think. I have learned so many things and I feel like I have changed a lot. Ive seen so many beautiful places and have met such interesting people.
I am glad to be drinking tea with my homegirls and -boys again, to be sleeping in the same bed for more than 3 days and to put my clothes in an actual closet. I'm ready to go back. Bring on the summer!