This is one of the easiest border crossings I have ever done in my life. Friends, we are in Isla Colón. This is the largest island in Bocas del Toro. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that I just got off a boat over there, it wouldn't even seem like this is an island. Look at the commerce, the hotels, restaurants, and so many cars. Also, as we walk away from the most touristy areas, you'll see the houses of the locals, because this place isn't just hotels and restaurants. People live here too. In Bocas, I even heard that there are native people here who belong to... Good morning, afternoon, or evening. I hope you're doing great, friends. We are in Costa Rica. Just look at how green these streets are. That means we are in the countryside and we are going to Panama. We are going by land, but through a less crowded border, which is the Cíxahola border, it's the border on the Caribbean side. This trip was arranged suddenly because I arrived at home and I was talking to my parents, what should we do, where should we go, to spend some time together. And we are going to Bocas del Toro. Here I go with my parents. This is my beautiful mother, my handsome father, who will accompany me on this trip. So, being a less crowded place and such a famous destination, here, at least in the country, it's extremely famous to go to Bocas del Toro. So, I'm going to show you, I'm going to show you how expensive it will be to get there. I'm going to tell you all the steps we have to follow. First of all, I can tell you that I didn't get the permit to cross the car because I feel it's not worth it. We're going to reach the border and it's about an hour's drive to reach the boat that we have to take to go to Bocas del Toro. For those who don't know what Bocas del Toro is, it's an archipelago, a place full of paradise islands that we'll be seeing more of later. So, I didn't get the permit and the only requirement that we always have to pay are the exit taxes of the country, I think they are land exit taxes. It's very easy to pay them, you just go to Google or your browser and type "pay exit taxes VCR" and on the first page, pay attention, you'll see the page of the Banco de Costa Rica where, without the need to have an account at the bank or anything like that, you can make the payment for the exit tax. Enter your identification number and pay eight dollars in tax. That being said, let's see what we're going to find on this journey. The first thing to know is that there are many ways to get to Bocas del Toro. I even think there are direct flights from San José, the capital of Costa Rica, to Bocas del Toro. But since we live relatively close in Carros, it's like 6 or 7 hours driving to the border and we always like to explore everywhere, so we're going by car I don't think we'll arrive today anymore, it's about 280 kilometers that we have to cover and from San José, it's about 250 kilometers if you want to go by car as well Moreover, from what I understand, there's the possibility of taking multiple bus routes, though or taking an organized tour that already arranges everything for you For a few years now, I believe, and currently, you need to be patient to come to Limón to come to the beaches of Puerto Viejo and to go to the area we're heading to because they're constructing a new road that has been under construction for a long time I think it has progressed quite a bit, I don't pass through here much but the last few times I passed through, I remember it wasn't like this that's why you see machinery and there are a lot of traffic jams, a lot of traffic you have to go very slowly, but it's also a very big construction project look, for example, we've passed many new bridges and new things they're building so hopefully, they finish it soon, but you have to know that if you come here the road with all these constructions and traffic jams feels extremely long I don't know how many hours we have, but we're finally in Limón and that only means one thing, my friends, we're going to eat mogambitos if you don't know what it is, I'll show you and I'll show it to my parents too, they don't know mogambito that's a lack of Limonese culture and here we have the mogambitos, please look at this beauty every time I come here, I always buy this it looks, it looks like ordinary fried chicken but it has a delicious Caribbean breading here and besides, the mogambito actually has everything I don't know why they didn't put everything in the bag, to be honest a lack of respect but we're going to add everything, everything mixes together but my calculations were wrong I'm out of touch with the current prices this is purchased by weight, so I ordered two thousand and it's this little bag this will only be enough for a small piece of chicken each, but let's go for more this is the process, we proceed to add all the chili basically, it's flooded with chili, if you see that there, that's the chili and now we add the tomato sauce and mayonnaise please forgive the comparison, but basically, we have to make this look like a vomit, we proceed to mix it, and it's ready now, please, honorable lady try a piece of mogambito well, Mom, we like... actually, we like chili at home that's why we put a lot of chili go ahead, give it a try, please. What do you say, Mom? You didn't make a mistake, it's really good Isn't the breading different? Very different, very good What do you say, Dad? the flavor and texture it's good bring more we'll have to go buy another bag definitely Night has fallen in Puerto Viejo, and we're approximately an hour away from... the border, but we decided to stay here because this is one of the most touristy places in all of Costa Rica. You could say it's almost the most famous spot in the entire Caribbean. I would dare to say it's the most famous spot in the whole Caribbean. Since we're staying around here, I told my parents to go eat first so I can tell them something. They don't know it yet, but I just booked a place that I had always seen on the internet, it's really cool here in the Caribbean, perfect for a couple, not just for me alone. So, I booked a dome for them. They still don't know that they'll be sleeping there. We're going to have some rice and beans for dinner, obviously, and then we'll see their reaction when they find out. If not, I found some cabins that are cheap We'll stay here today and leave early tomorrow. Seems like there's a lot to do around here. It looks like we're in for a bit of everything. This is where the map marks the cabins. We're quite deep in the jungle. Looks like we took the wrong turn. I'm really bad at this. Get off, they say we have to enter here. This is the dome where we're spending the night tonight. Oh, there's an entrance here. Let's see what the cabin looks like first, and if we don't like it, we'll leave. No, just kidding. I booked it for you. You thought they were going to rip us off here. I thought this was... No, I booked it for you to stay here tonight. So you can take a dip. See if we're really in nature. Let's see what it looks like inside. I want to stay here. I'm looking for a couch to sleep on. No, I booked another room. Turn on the light there. Which one do you like better? And there it is. You like this one more? And here it is. It opens. It's beautiful, to be honest. And the bathroom is back here. You'll feel like taking a shower here. We're staying, we're not leaving. And there's one more detail here. this is also reserved, this is included it's a bottle of wine to start the trip properly from me to you have you seen the dome where my parents will stay? and look at this room look how beautiful there's a kitchen here, a fridge, and a bathroom I only rented one room, this is for eight people over there, about six people can fit and here, two people can fit it also has a small pool, and look at the room inside it's perfect, it has everything you need I really like this place, previously I've been here when I come to Puerto Viejo usually I stay around here because it has good prices for what it offers, it's really nice, and also to be in one of the most touristic places in Costa Rica here they have villas starting from a hundred dollars for four people, about fifteen to sixteen thousand colones per person per night, and the glamping where my parents are staying there are several of them, starting from around a hundred and twenty dollars, I think, from a hundred and twenty to a hundred and fifty dollars, depending on the season including a bottle of wine, coffee, and breakfast for a couple. I'll leave you the contact information of this place in the description I want to tell you something that I don't know if you've noticed throughout yesterday and this morning, and that is that the weather is relatively bad. If you can see, there are dark clouds, the day is gray, and that's something we always have to keep in mind when visiting this area of the country and also when visiting, for example, Bocas del Toro, which is on the Caribbean side, in the neighboring country Panama. Whenever we visit these places, we have to check the weather, check if a tropical wave is coming or if it's going to rain because it can ruin our vacation. So, according to what I've been researching yesterday and today were the rainy days. Starting tomorrow, it should be sunny, but that's not very certain but we have a better chance of having good weather we'll find out, for now, let's head to the border, we're about an hour away from Zigzagola, let's see what happens there, let's see what we come across there to cross to the other side. I don't know if this is a bad or a good sign, tell me what you think. This is the car and when I was getting in some monkeys were passing by up there on the branches and they pooped almost on the car, but not on top... here, there, over there, back there, but this time unlike in Ozara, they didn't poop on the car, is that a good sign? Or were we too close to danger? Tell me in the comments. we're 4 kilometers away from Zigzagola. I haven't been here for years, I don't even remember when was the first and last time I came and what we found along the way since we started to reach the Limón area, it's banana farms. It's like the most characteristic thing of this area and this banana, which belongs to certain companies. I have seen it in almost the whole planet, in Asia, in Europe and actually, it's very expensive there. I have also noticed that the houses in this area are elevated because when it rains heavily here the rivers overflow, as it is very flat here, everything gets flooded. We just passed a school that has already been built with concrete and already elevated to prevent that problem. Look, this is the situation now, someone welcomed us here and gave us some guidance. If we continue straight, we will head towards the border, so I don't really know if taking this turn is allowed here, because it's the only way out and I was told to take it. So, here we go, this is Cixahola City, next to Costa Rica. Here we are going to exit and take a detour. through the tunnel, look over there, the person is still there. There is a lot of commerce around here, everything has to pass through here because Panama is very cheap, and we know that Costa Rica is more expensive, so I imagine there must be a lot of commerce from there to here. We are going to find that tunnel that the lady told us about, to find a public parking lot where we can leave the car. Here we are, purely we pass under the street, cross to the other side and well, there it says "parking," that's the public parking lot where we are going to leave the car for these days that we are going over there. I will soon tell you how much it costs and how safe it is. Here is the parking lot, the gates have been opened for us. The lady said it's safe, and it looks good, to be honest. It's like a private one, there's someone guarding it. As for the roof, I'm not sure how much it covers, but we're going to park here. The guy who assisted us here is telling me that this parking lot costs 5000 per night and there's another one that costs around 6000, so they sent us to the good one. And besides, the guy is helping us as part of the same service, staying here in the parking lot with all the information. He already told me that it's really easy to get to we're going to cross and I'll continue explaining how the situation is going to be. Here, I present to you Freddy, who is the one helping us right now. What do you say, Freddy? Good, all good. Freddy, in fact, on the way here, I was noticing that everything here is built on the second floor. Actually, look, the Sen store in front of us is on the second floor, and the supermarket over there behind us is on the second floor too. Everything is built on two levels. Why? Because, well, when there's a lot of rain, the river rises. And it overflows all over the town, there's no place it doesn't reach. The water. So everyone builds with the double floor in mind. To protect their belongings and possessions, we have this wall where we place vehicles and valuable items that can be lifted onto the wall because here the water usually, well, when it's really high, it has reached up to two meters, three meters. So we manage to place valuable things, vehicles there. All the animals have to be taken out pigs, cows, well, as we say here, right, like we say in Costa Rica, pigs, cows, dogs, everything, everything, everything we bring up here to protect them. Some farms also do... what they do is they build their own mountain and bring the animals up there That's incredible, and we're almost about to cross the river that overflows, one of the rivers that also overflows It's curious on the side of Puerto Rico to find so many sales of shoes and t-shirts because theoretically, the cheap ones are in Panama, but Freddy is telling me that even Panamanians cross here, and some buy shoes here because of the quality because these shoes are made of real leather, which is good and leather on this side is a little cheaper and since they are shoes made here in Costa Rica and Nicaragua they cost like twenty-five thousand colones, fifteen thousand colones for students. So despite the fact that there are better prices over there which we're going to see if it's true that the other side has better prices, Panamanians also come here to buy that. This is one of the easiest border crossings I've ever done in my life. And what catches my attention is that we've been at the Peñas Blancas crossing, which is with Nicaragua, and we've been to Paso Canoas as well, and there are many more controls there. There is police presence, but here they only asked us for the payment of the tax, which I already showed you how to pay. If you have that already paid, you go straight to get your passport stamped. They didn't check anything, not even the car, there were no controls. And now we're crossing. This is the bridge that divides Costa Rica and Panama, and this is the river that floods this whole area. In fact, this bridge is new. I'm not sure if it's in this exact location, but there was a viral video where the river once washed away the previous bridge. And on the other side is Panama. We go through the entry process there, and that's it. I was also watching Freddy, who came here all calm with us, and I don't know they didn't give him a passport, absolutely nothing I was wondering, what's going on? Freddy, go get checked and he tells me that there's a treaty with Panama that Panamanians can enter 300 meters into national territory without needing to have their passport stamped, and Costa Ricans can also enter 300 meters into Panamanian territory without needing their passport stamped. That's why trade becomes so easy here at the border, and many people come to take advantage of the prices they say are on the other side, which we'll confirm. I'm intrigued now. Since we are entering the country and we will be staying here for several days, we have to go to the Panama migration to have our passports stamped upon entry and be officially legally in Panama. Look, it's interesting, the guy who received us in the parking lot actually provides that as a service. I offered him a tip for helping us or something, and he told me that it's really a service for using the parking lot and such. Then he left us here with all the information and left. These little buses around here are the ones we have to take now to the port where we're going to catch a boat that will take us to Bocas del Toro. Watch this, I'm enjoying it, we're already... understanding. We came across a little bar where beer is... at 560 colones, around a dollar. Now that's... the exchange rate. Smirnoff is also 560. What a marvel, right? I don't want to leave anymore. And listen to what happened to me just now, on our way here... As we were entering, it was almost midnight. I mean, we were doing fine... with time. Now we're going to have lunch, you know... We crossed the bridge and it's already one o'clock in the afternoon. How... did I lose an hour of my life? Just by... passing by Panama, my phone automatically adjusts to... Panama time, and here it's one hour ahead of Costa Rica. The time has changed. I'm also realizing that this thing about entering the 300 meters, this Latin American awareness is not very conscious, so to speak. There's no real awareness. It's not like there's a checkpoint verifying that you've crossed 300 meters. One can easily go further, even though it shouldn't be done. There's no kind of control. This place here is called Guabito, how nice. I'm going to see if I can record some of the prices here at the border. But I'm going to tell you one of the most important things in this video if you're going to come to Bocas del Toro, and that is, right now we're doing it this way because it's not high season. Probably if it were high season, we wouldn't have found parking, or transportation to the port, or boats to get to Bocas del Toro, or even a hotel because I'll tell you later, it was even difficult to find the hotel we wanted to stay in. So if you come during peak season, like Easter week or something, you have to be very careful with that, you don't want to end up not being able to go. The border is also famous for perfume prices, I don't really know many prices, I only use one and that's the one I buy, but for example, this Nautica is 16 dollars, which is about 9,000-10,000 colones. A bottle of Jager, which is almost a liter, is 12 dollars, which is like 7,000, and I'm taking this one. This is one of my favorites. The Black & White whiskey, a liter, also around 7,000 colones, 12 dollars. I think there are very good prices here, at least for all these liquors we're finding, and many of them have promotions. if you buy more quantity. for example, here one costs 6 dollars and two cost 10. I have no reference for this but for example, this goat hair coat is 44 dollars a brand blocker that normally is quite expensive is 17 dollars, about 9,000 10,000 colones, 240 milliliters. look at this marvel, take for example smirnoff in a 24-pack, it costs around 580 colones per smirnoff and over there in Costa Rica, they cost about a thousand, eleven hundred, if I'm not mistaken now you may wonder if the business is so good why isn't everyone here buying and taking in quantity to take it there, it's because it's not that simple. in fact, as far as I know, it's not even allowed to take things they may allow people to bring in two liters three liters of liquor, for example, 24 beers that would be considered for personal consumption, but for business purposes, buying here and taking it there is not that simple, it would be an importation and you have to pay taxes and all that. that's why it's not such a simple business although it's cheap and all when you come through here and take advantage and buy some little things that's what I would think. but once you get here cross the border and all, I already told you that over there there are colectivos that you can take for 10 dollars per trip according to what I was told, you pay 10 dollars you get on a colectivo where more people get on and they take you to the port where you take the boat. but you can also negotiate, you can negotiate with the people there or with taxis always being very careful, we had the reference from Freddy who told us we could negotiate with this person, they are trustworthy. so here in a restaurant where we met we negotiated with someone and they gave us transportation for 40 dollars so since there are three of us, it's almost like paying a little over 10 dollars each. here we go with Oscar, who will take us to Almirante, and he's telling me it's about a 40-minute drive more or less, it would be faster if the road were good, meaning the distance is short, but right now it's about 40 minutes, and along the way there's a town that is the most important in this area called Changuinola We arrived at Puerto Almirante and just look at our luck, now that we arrived a colectivo is leaving here, colectivos also leave from here it's very touristy, so it fills up with different people and it's really cheap to go there, I thought it would be more expensive. that's the situation here, people simply arrive buy tickets from different companies, this is one, and here are the boats. we buy the ticket and we go on a boat to Bocas, and the guy is telling me that the one-way trip is 6 dollars, so if we buy a one-way and then the return, it would be 12 dollars and if we buy a round-trip ticket right away, it's 10 dollars. We save two dollars and the return is undefined, there we'll decide on what date we want to come back, so it's great, it's about an hour or 45 minutes by boat to get to the island. The captain told me that usually boats depart about every half hour and the last one leaves at six in the evening so people don't get stranded. Friends, we're on Isla Colón, this is the largest island in Bocas del Toro. In fact, if I hadn't just gotten off a boat on the other side, it wouldn't seem like an island. Look at all the commerce, the hotels, restaurants, and so many cars. There has to be a ferry. This is an island, the only way all these cars can get here. I don't know if there are tourists who come by car, because I know this island is very large and you can drive around and reach some of the main beaches by car. But there is also public transportation and a lot of boats. Here we are, finding the hotel where we're going to stay. Look at this beauty in front of the sea. I hope from up there we can see the little beach over there. We decided to stay here on Isla Colón for the first few days, to see what it's like because, as I said, we have nothing planned at all. So we want to see what's nearby. This is where you can easily get everything, all the tours and transportation. We'll explore Bocas del Toro a bit in the next few days and see which other island we like, because I think there are over 200 islands or so, let's see which one we like and if we'll move to another one. They told me at the reception that this is one of the oldest hotels in Bocas del Toro. It's really nice, don't you think? It looks totally colonial, doesn't it? It looks old, right? Yes, it looks old. Yeah, it looks old. They were telling me, I didn't know, this was one of the few options available. Apparently, it's fully booked even though it's the low season. It was one of the few things we found, and this hotel with everything I'm about to show you, with these two beds. Let's see how the bathroom is. Oh, but we have a bathtub and everything... No, it's really nice, actually. Bathtub and hot water. We paid about 255 dollars for three of us, for two nights. In Costa Rican colones, it's around 75,000 colones per night approximately. But since we're three, it's fine, and breakfast is included. Watch this, it's a process that I don't know if you've seen before. Ever in my life had I questioned it until now that I'm seeing it. This is how the boats are cleaned. Obviously, it's too expensive to take them to land, so he puts on a snorkel and cleans it right there in the water, see? That's how it's done in case you were wondering. Obviously, we're going to have a first impression here of the island, and look how clear the water is. I don't know if the sky will actually clear up tomorrow because it looks grayer than my future in love, but hope is the last thing you lose. If the water looks so clear with bad weather, imagine how it is here with sunshine... we could see every microorganism that's there at the bottom probably. Also, look what I was telling you, the street is behind us, and from there inside the island and since there are no properties, we can see the sea, otherwise it would seem like a completely normal city. Randomly, let's check the prices here at a restaurant that's by the street, by the seaside. We found that fish fingers are ten dollars, six thousand colones, chicken fingers are five thousand five hundred, fish ceviche is six dollars, almost four thousand colones, pasta with shrimp is fourteen dollars, around eight thousand colones, the whole garlic lobster for whatever you want, between eighteen and thirty-five dollars. I imagine it depends on the size. And very important, beer for two dollars... the beer price is okay. It's maintaining the beer price. Everything looks colorful and all the houses are made of wood. It's really beautiful in this little town. Dad, what are your first impressions of Bocas? What do you think? It's a very, very interesting city. It has a great potential for tourism, and I think people here have also made an effort to develop this place. It's still under construction, and the locals are very welcoming to tourists. That's a good sign of a warm welcome from the authorities themselves. Everyone who lives here, those who receive us, have welcomed us with a smile and have been kind and respectful, which is very important when aiming to develop and take a place like this to the next level in terms of international tourism development. Take note of that. Look, this is an outlet to the sea that we found here, and apparently, this is the pier. Here are all the boatmen who take people anywhere they want to go on the island. Even to beaches or to the other side, where I see another island. Well-developed with nice hotels all along the shoreline. It's called Carenero Island, over there. And right next to it, there's a nightclub. They say they throw big parties here. Look, this is the nightclub we were seeing over there. It's called Sunken Ship Discotek. "After beach party" every Sunday. Today is Monday or Tuesday, I don't remember anymore, but I feel like staying until Sunday. Also, as we walk and move away a bit from the most touristic places over there, you can find the houses of the locals because this is not just hotels and restaurants, people actually live here too. In Bocas, I even heard that there are native people here who belong to the nove so it would be really interesting to be able to venture there, but this area becomes a little more local, it's more houses of the people who live here. Many times people ask me where I got, for example, the idea to take a car and go to explore places without having directions and stuff like that, most likely I got it from my parents... they are the ones excited about exploring around here, I didn't tell them to come to this area. I simply remember from when I was little that wherever we arrive we go out to see everything around, to experience how people actually live in the places we visit. Obviously, at least in a superficial way, sometimes we go really deep, but right now at least in a superficial way we get to know the houses of the people who live here, their occupations and walk around here we arrived at the island's park. It seems it's called Simon Bolivar Park and it's really nice, it has different games here for children, I saw that they are even selling street food over there Here on this side we found a statue this has to be... yes, this is a statue of Simon Bolivar and beautiful and huge trees around here, it's really nice. Well, my friends, so finally here the video for today ends, to be honest I'm very excited, a little worried about this gray sky that doesn't seem like it's going to change but hopefully the weather improves, tell me what you think, if you thought it was cheap, if you thought it was too expensive, to be honest I expected it to be much more expensive to come here. The taxi 10 dollars, the boat 10 dollars, everything relatively cheap to be honest. And there are quite cheap accommodation options here including hostels, I always tell you to explore all the options and see which one fits your needs and tell me what you thought of this guide that we hardly did on the channel and as a final reflection, I want to tell you that I believe one of the most beautiful things you can do in life, if you like to travel, of course, is to travel with your loved ones, whether it's friends, family, or your parents, if they are still alive, so I'm very grateful to God for being here with my parents. I hope you enjoyed this video as much as I did, don't forget to subscribe, share it if you liked it, and see you in the next video. Pura vida and kisses from someone who forgot they were bad at riding boats and here everyone gets around by boat, even the trip here was challenging.
