Central America South: So Much NATURE!

Costa Rica and Panama are stunning pieces of Earth. Their wildlife is the tops, and the consistency of the greens and blues is intoxicating.

Costa Rica’s national park system sets the bar for the rest of the world, and I made sure to visit as many parks as possible to experience the full eco diversity of the small country. I saw the cloud forests in Monteverde and Santa Elena, tropical dry forests and mangroves in Curú Wildlife Refuge and Carara, rainforests in Manuel Antonio and Corcovado. I saw toucans, scarlet macaws, stick birds (look them up, they are weird), sloths, monkeys, dart frogs, bats, crocodiles, jesus lizards, and impressive insects. I saw fresh footprints of tapir but have yet to see one of those surprisingly elusive (despite their size) beasts. I hiked in the day and the night, alone and with friendly street dogs, Rob, and other good humans.

While Costa Rica has a more organized national park system, Panama remains plentiful in protected, thriving, bio-diverse marine and land parks. We found our way to a number of them, swimming with bull sharks, sea turtles, water snakes, eels, and impressive fish species, and hiking along volcano caldera rims, to waterfalls, and through cloud and rain forests to see sloths, frogs, butterflies, and rare bird species, like motmots, oropendola, parakeets, parrots, squirrel cuckoo, caracara, trogon, manakin, and lapwing (that’s some name dropping for my bird nerd friends).

Costa Rica’s cost of living is shockingly expensive and Panama’s is shockingly affordable. Panama has more access to diverse goods than any other Central American country, which makes sense being the host of a world shipping thoroughfare. We dined at Costa Rica’s sodas (local economic eateries, like diners), consuming more than our share of gallo pinto and fried plantains, and at Panama’s fondas (similar to sodas), eating all of their casserole-style salads and (for Rob) meat stews. We tried new fruit, like the tree tomato. We embraced the plentiful giant mangos and massive avocados. I drank as much of the locally grown and roasted coffee I could manage. We visited a small Panamanian coffee farm, learned the process, and roasted our own bag of beans.

We anchored in remote places in both countries—notably Golfo Dulce, Golfo Nicoya, Boca Chica, Bahia Honda, and Coiba National Park. And we stayed at three marinas. I stayed in a small marina in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, for a month while Rob worked in the United States. The marina was still being developed and its docks moved with the strong currents of the estuary it occupied. I pulled plastic bottles, bags, and giant cartons out of the water every day. The hardworking marina staff told me the garbage flows from the rivers running through the towns upstream and that it is impossible to keep up with its removal. The small town in which the marina was located occasionally had an influx of cruise ship tourists, who generally rented cars and hopped on tour buses to spend their dollars elsewhere. Because tourists didn’t spend their time and money in Puntarenas, the town was different from the other destinations we explored in Costa Rica, giving me a taste of what it is like to just be in Costa Rica. The people who live there are kind, mostly sticking to themselves and to a routine of work, followed by porch sitting. And they love their local soccer teams.

The other two marinas we stopped at made us feel our class—our small sailboat juxtaposed with giant multi-million dollar fishing boats in a Costa Rican luxury marina (we could afford the slip still under development and without power), and our boat amongst multi-million dollar homes in a Panamanian resort community. That marina in Panama was actually affordable, and it offered amenities of the resort community to which we otherwise would not have access, in addition to lots of protected natural spaces. So, we stuck around, making that our home base for six months. In that time, we traveled around Panama by land and made trips to the United States. Finally, in December 2025, we set out toward another Panamanian phenomenon—the Panama Canal.

We arrived in Costa Rica and quickly embraced the national motto and laid-back attitude of “pura vida.”

The locals in Costa Rica and Panama

We never saw a tapir, but they left evidence of their existence.

Tapir tracks through our beach workout spot

Green parrots (pictured here), parakeets, and macaws regularly hung around–always in pairs.

An important but difficult thing to resist, especially for our friend’s dog…but he managed to avoid the really poisonous ones

Mapache’s (and Sarah’s) spot for a month, while Rob attended some business in the U.S., was in the small town of Puntarenas, Costa Rica.

Sarah’s office while she was in Ocean Marina in Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Puntarenas Tiburones football stadium

Sarah made some roadtrips while she based in Puntarenas (and when he got back, Rob joined on one).

The palm plantations along the central Pacific coast of Costa Rica are extensive. Workers bike along the road with poles that they use to harvest the palm fruit.

One of the trails in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica

Leafcutter ants and other insects leave some pretty windows to the sky. We loved finding the leafcutter trails–where thousands of tiny ants walking on the same path cut clean trails through the dense forest undergrowth.

The diversity and density of green in the Costa Rican cloud forests

Near my hotel in Santa Elena was Ficus La Raiz, a huge strangler fig tree that is estimated to be over 100 years old and forms a natural bridge with its crawling roots.

Sarah hiked to the Continental Divide in Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica.

Another example of the dense and diverse cloud forest. This time in Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica

Costa Rica has over 50 species of hummingbirds, the majority of which call the cloud forests their home.

A hummingbird at the Hummingbird Garden in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica

Sarah also roadtripped to the tropical dry forests and mangroves near Jaco, Costa Rica. The hotel she stayed at was also a favorite spot for iguana.

An iguana along the Jaco Beach, Costa Rica

Sarah hiked to El Miro, which is an abandoned mansion that is now an artists’ canvas. It overlooks Jaco Beach, Costa Rica.

Rob and Sarah roadtripped to San Isidro de El General, Costa Rica, which is home to the country’s largest farmers’ market.

The avocados and mangos are giant in Costa Rica.

The mangroves in Curú Wildlife Refuge

A capuchin monkey in Curú Wildlife Refuge

Capuchin monkeys are experts at making giant leaps between palm fronds.

A view of the Pacific from Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

Hiking the well-maintained rainforest trails in Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

Mapache, anchored in the giant, calm, and beautiful Golfo Dulce

A Common Potoo (stick bird) in Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica. They will sit completely still for most of the day, while patiently waiting to catch insects.

Rob, Sarah, and a giant strangler fig in Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica

Spider monkey in Corcovado National Park

We saw these everywhere in Costa Rica and Panama. We love the detailed patterns in their leaves and flowers.

Mapache in Golfo Dulce — photo by Sailing Alegria

A group of sailing buddies, enjoying a float behind Mapache, just before we all leaped out of the water in response to a very close lightning strike

Marina Pez Vela in Quepos, Costa Rica — Mapache is a little out of place next to all of these fancy fishing boats

Taking a break at the pinnacle of our hike above Golfo Dulce

Golfito was our final stop in Costa Rica. The town was developed as a company town for United Fruit (now Chiquita). They utilized trains and boats to transport their bananas from the nearby plantations from the 1930s through 1984.

Our first stop in Panama was Boca Chica. The scenery of its Golfo de Chiriqui is stunning.

We had our own dock party in Boca Chica, Panama, on one of the nearby hotel’s dinghy docks, which nobody was using because it was off-season.

A view across Golfo de Chiriqui, Panama

We rented a mini van and took a group road trip inland to Boquete, Panama.

We visited one of the many coffee farms in Boquete, Panama.

Sarah, swimming one of the several waterfalls that we found along our hikes in Panama

A fishing boat near Islas Secas, Panama

Coiba National Park, Panama, is a magical place, known as the Panama’s Galapagos because of its biodiversity. The reason that its incredible biodiversity has persisted is that it was a penal colony, meaning that, besides the prisoners and guards, people did not inhabit the island from 1919 through 2004, when it became a protected wilderness area.

A prisoner’s view of Coiba, Panama

We saw amazing animal species on land, in the air, and in the water at Coiba National Park, Panama. Pictured here is a black box fish

These fish have perfect white dots leading to their yellow tails. They school in Coiba National Park, Panama.

The parrot fish were giant and thriving in Coiba National Park, Panama.

Sarah, swimming with one of the many turtles in Coiba National Park, Panama.

Interesting butterflies were another common sighting in Panama and Costa Rica. Here is an Owl Butterfly, so named because its markings look like owl eyes, which ward off predators.

Even the moths are impressive.

Our hiking companion that volunteered himself to accompany us along the ridge of the caldera that wraps around El Valle de Anton, Panama

A view of Bahia Honda, Panama

Bahia Honda resident, Kennedy, brought us coconuts and showed us how to crack them with a machete.

Sarah enjoying the fresh coconut water.

Us and our new friend, Kennedy. We spent significant time with him as some of the few people he sees, apart from his family, in the remote Bahia Honda.

Fresh fruit from Kennedy in Bahia Honda. We traded clothes, kitchen utensils, and some basic tools for fruit. This was important to Kennedy and his family, because the remoteness of the bay makes it very difficult for them to obtain such items.

Peaceful Bahia Honda

Parade for the annual Sombrero Pintao Festival in La Pintada, Panama. The Pintao hat is the real Panama hat (the “Panama hat” that most think of is actually an Ecuadorian design).