Capurgana - By Maria

 

For spring break, we visited a small town on the ocean in the jungle. It was beautiful there, and also very hot. We were not used to the heat there.

You can’t get to this town by roads. You can get there by plane, but there are only charter flights. What we did is flew into a different town, and took a boat there. The boat was very small and since it was on the ocean, was very choppy. I got seasick on it. There aren’t any cars in Capurgana, but there are motorcycles. We got around sometimes by sitting in a trailer of a motorcycle that had seats and a cover on it. But instead of using the vehicles, we mostly just walked everywhere.   

This was our plane. It only held 19 people. 

In the trailer of a motorcycle. 

 

A bridge we had to cross made out of two logs. 

There are other towns on the coast that you can hike to through the jungle. To get to the nearest town, it was about a one and a half hour hike, and it was pretty much a mountain. You’d just go up and down, but it was beautiful. Every time we did this hike, we would see monkeys, birds, lizards, and unique bugs.

View from the highest point on the hike between the two towns.

The first full day, we did this hike. Once we got to the town, we walked a little further to cross the border into Panama. We had to climb a bunch of stairs and then go down to the town on the other side. Then we spent the day on the beach in La Miel, Panama, and then we walked back to Capurgana.

Me in two continents/countries at once! 

The second day of our trip, we took it a bit slower and we swam at the beach and we visited a natural pool on the ocean with rocks surrounding it, and the ocean waves would splash up and fill the pool. It was really cool.

Our family at Pool of the Gods. 

The wave splashing into the pool. Seth is about to be completely soaked. 

The third day we walked to an area with lots of water falls and natural pools. To walk there, we had to cross lots of little rivers. We saw Howler Monkeys very clearly, and one had a baby on its back. It was very cute.  We really enjoyed swimming in the waterfalls. That evening we took a scuba diving course to prepare the next day’s adventure.

Howler Monkeys

This was a raft used to cross the river but it just sank when we went on it. 

The next morning we started our day off going scuba diving. We saw a really big crab that was like a foot long and we also saw trumpet fish and parrot fish which were very colorful. The corals were very colorful and healthy. 

 After we went diving, we walked to a house where there were natural freshwater pools alongside the ocean. It was very peaceful there.

On our walk to the house with natural pools.

Drinking my juice out of a coconut at the home with natural pools. They didn't serve anything that produced trash there. 

On our walk home, the guy who sold drinks at Pool of the Gods gave me a coconut to drink for free. 

Our final day in Capurgana, we walked back to Sapzurro, which is the town in between Capurgana and La Miel, Panama. Once we got there, we visited lots of different beaches there, and they were very pretty. At most of the beaches, we were the only people there. We had them all to ourselves. I really liked swimming and playing in the sand. On our way back, we saw a man climbing a tree and he was shaking down a huge fruit, called soursop, and when it came down, they shared it with us, and it was sooooo good. 

  

This is a view of Sapzurro from above. 

I feel like I'm being watched. 

We had the beaches all to ourselves!

Me eating fresh soursop

 It was a hot but fun week!