Costa Rica (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Matthew Firestone [447]
Complejo Turístico Mango (2751-0115; tr with/without air-con US$28/15; ) has various configurations of basic rooms with cool-water showers and an attached restaurant (casados ₡1700-2500; 7am-11pm). It is located right on the main road, on the way into town.
Run by the helpful Carlos and Miriam, the busy Restaurante Bribrí (2751-0044; casados ₡2000, mains ₡2500; 5am-5pm Mon-Sat) serves casados, chicken with rice, fried plantains and gallos (an open-faced taco). But it’s also an excellent place to ask about tours to indigenous villages, where local guides lead hikes and boat rides through the area’s jungle and rivers.
Restaurante Kaya Chökök Mlas Mlas (casados ₡1750-3500; mains ₡1750-4450; 7:30am-4pm Mon-Sat) is a pleasant 2nd-story terrace restaurant located near the Banco Nacional. It serves up superdelicious cooking, including lightly crisp fish in garlic sauce as well as the delectably carnivorous ‘Arroz Kaya’ (₡2500) – a steaming pile of fried rice studded with bacon, ham, chicken and steak, and served with salad and fried plantains. Don’t miss the searing pickled chili vegetables, which is an ideal meal in case you need to clear your sinuses.
GETTING TO GUABITO & BOCAS DEL TORO, PANAMA
Welcome to Costa Rica’s most entertaining border crossing! An old railroad bridge that spans the churning waters of the Río Sixaola connects Costa Rica with Panama amid a sea of agricultural plantations. The best part: oversized buses and trucks also ply this route – which means that, if you’re lucky, you’ll get to watch one of these vehicles clatter along the wood planks as hapless pedestrians scatter to the edges to let them pass.
From here, most travelers make for Bocas del Toro, in Panama, a picturesque archipelago of jungle islands that is home to lovely beaches, endangered red frogs and a dilapidated set from the TV show Survivor. There is a wide range of accommodations in the area – all of it easily accessible by regular water taxis from the docks at Almirante.
The border is open 7am to 5pm (8am to 6pm in Guabito, Panama, which is an hour ahead of Costa Rica) – though one or both sides may close for lunch at around 1pm. At the entrance to the bridge, on the right-hand side, get your exit stamp at Costa Rica migración (2754-2044). Once over the bridge, stop at Panama migración on the left-hand side to get your passport stamped. US citizens will have to purchase a tourist card for US$5. Personal cars can cross here (not rentals). If you are driving, be prepared for a loooong wait.
Guabito has no hotels or banks, but in a pinch you can exchange colones at the market across the street. From the border, half-hourly buses (US$1, one hour) ply the route to the Terminal Piquera in Changuinola, where you can transfer to one of the frequent buses to Almirante (US$1, 45 minutes) for the water taxi. Alternately, from Guabito, you can take a collective taxi (per person US$5, one hour) straight to Almirante. From this point, hourly water taxis (per person US$5, 20 minutes) make the trip to Bocas del Toro between 6:30am and 10pm.
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Getting There & Away
Buses arrive and depart hourly from in front of Restaurante Bribrí.
Puerto Limón, via Cahuita ₡1800; three hours; departs hourly from 6am to 7pm.
San José ₡4800; 5½ hours; departs 6:30am, 8:30am, 10:30am and 3:30pm.
Sixaola ₡800; 30 minutes; departs from 6am to 8pm.
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SIXAOLA
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This is the end of the road – literally. A bumpy tarmac leads to an old railroad bridge over the Río Sixaola that serves as the border crossing into Panama. Like most border towns, Sixaola is hardly scenic: set into the midst of sprawling banana plantations, it’s an extravaganza of dingy bars and roadside stalls selling rubber boots. You’re also likely to find plenty of expats without residency visas here, needing to take their required 72-hour visa vacations in nearby Bocas del Toro.
Sixaola is centered on the optimistically named Mercado Internacional de Sixaola, a gravelly square where you can find taxis and