Bubble Wrap and Nutella: Puerto Viejo and Bocas Del Toro

There wasn't much going on in terms of weather or other people on the Pacific coast of Costa so anticipating a bit some sunshine and friends we decided to make the move over to the Caribbean coast, to Puerto Viejo in particular. We rolled into Rocking J's, the wild hostel we'd been hearing about everywhere http://www.rockingjs.com/ . This place is insane, basically like a compound of tents, hammocks, some dorms and private room, a bar, restaurant, 2012 bunker, all of it covered in bright tile mosaics and painting done by the crowd this place attracts. It was actually kind of off putting at first because the whole hippy thing was just so in your face and not exactly what we were expecting. Fortunately though, that evening a few like minded travelers grouped together and we fired up a game beer pong which turned into Canada vs the World flipcup, which turned into $1 shots of the local hard alcohol (disgusting), which turned into a dance party at a nearby bar called Tasty Waves.
Had a pretty fun night and met a bunch of people from all over the world like Australia, Murica, Canada, Netherlands, Germany, and who knows elsewhere. This was pretty awesome because we hadn't really met any other travelers yet and that always makes things more fun. When we showed up we were told about people being held up and robbed by guys with machetes in the forest, one guy was even cut when he tried to chase the bandit down. Still, we braved the wild road (not actually wild at all) and road some bikes to the Jaguar Animal Rescue Centre. I'm going to have to do a separate post for that since I took a bunch of great photos on my real camera and cant really find anywhere that has a computer with a working usb port and fast enough internet to handle large photos. Still, it was cool as hell. We got to see some spiders, snakes like boa constrictors and vipers, got to play with howler monkeys and spider monkeys, saw sloths, green tree frogs, falcons (saw one get fed a live mouse), an owl, two ocelots, and all sorts of other cool animals I've never seen before. I totally recommend seeing this place to everyone who travels through Puerto Viejo as it was definitely one of the highlights for me so far.
We rented surf boards one day an attempted to surf some small Caribbean waves with little success. I did manage to stand up a couple times though so it was worth it, don't expect a surf career from this guy anytime soon though.

From Puerto Viejo we headed down to Panama to check out the islands of Bocas Del Toro. After a long wait in line at the border, we were sitting in a shuttle bus waiting to get going when our two Aussie mates J-Rod and Jim randomly rolled up. We teamed up with them and ended up staying at the same place in Bocas called Aqua Lounge. Aqua is by far the coolest place I've ever stayed at http://www.bocasaqualounge.info/ . Basically it's a hostel/bar that's built on the turquoise water... There's a set of swings and a trampoline set up right beside the water, dedicated beer pong tables, free pancakes every morning, and some of the biggest parties in Bocas. Soo basically heaven for me. One day we went on what was supposed to be a snorkel trip to 5 different islands but turned out to be more of a boat tour and one hour of snorkeling.. We still saw some cool fishies and coral as well as the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. Once again I'm sorry to say that I'll have to do a separate post for the snorkel tour because all the photos are on my Gopro... Other than that we spent our days at Aqua Lounge jumping off stuff into water all day and all night, playing beer pong and flip cup, and taking advantage of $0.50 happy hours with our Aussie mates and other pals from around the world.

I have a lot more photos to add that actually have some thought behind them soooo stay tuned for when I find a better computer!