Day 99 Santa Catalina

We had heard from a few different people that another stop worth visiting along the way to Panama City was a little town on the Pacific coast called Santa Catalina which was known for its good surf and beaches. The travel to this little town took almost all of the day. We missed our connecting bus and the next one was in 3 hours time so we opted for the expensive but much faster taxi out there.

We arrived into town, settled into a cute little hostel and went for a walk to the beach. The beach was just 5 minutes down the road but was nothing special at all. The sand was dark, the water was uninviting with a colour that wasn't on the blue/green scale and it had no waves and many rocks around everywhere. There was one restaurant down there which our hostel recommended NOT going to and the streets just had a dodgy feel.There was not much here. The town was maybe about the size of Playa Gigante in Nicaragua, maybe even bigger but seemed that much more remote and not as welcoming. We walked to the only general store which had 3 cokes, 2 sprites, a few beers and no water left, a few dead onions and carrots and no fruit so the cooking option was out. We grabbed the last 2 sprites and headed down the road to the next beach over which we heard had more restaurants and some possible surfing options.

After a few hours of walking in the sun to the other beaches, checking out some of the hostel options on the beach and thinking about what we really wanted to do next, we decided to skip the 3 days we had planned for here and head to Panama City the next day.I think we have been so spoilt with the beaches in Australia that it takes alot to impress you enough to want to stay in such a town. I think the fact that there was no internet and we had to make a few much needed reservations for Europe, no options for self catering and that the beaches were not what we were after all lead us to the decision to get back on that bus the next day and start the commute to Panama City. There was one thing in Santa Catalina worth mentioning, a small restaurant or hut down the road that was the only place recommended to us which served a fantastic dinner. For all of $3 we got amazing grilled fish, rice, beans and salad. It was fresh and super tasty and was the highlight of Santa Catalina.