Casa Max Hostel - Bocas Del Toro

Casa Max Hostel is the first spot we stayed at in Bocas Del Toro, here is a review of what we thought about it :)

Price: 25$ US for a double room, including bathroom with hot water, fan and a balcony.

Services/ amenities : Free wifi, restaurant and bar.

Room : The room is a good medium size, pretty clean (although the walls could use a scrub), comfortable overall. Cute decor (paint and wooden furnishings). The mattress was hovewever very springy and somewhat hard, which was quite uncomfortable for a side sleeper like me. Also, the mosquito screen had holes in it.

Bathroom : One thing I really enjoyed about Casa Max is the spotless bathroom. The bathroom was really tiny, but very clean. The floor was tiled and the separate shower had blue-tinted glass door. Hot water was working well which was a very nice bonus.

Staff : Not particularly attentive or friendly, but they were nice nonetheless.

Restaurant : We didn't try it, it seemed to be empty/closed most of the time.

Overall, the atmosphere at the Casa Max Hostel was very quiet and comfortable. There was, however, two parrotts kept in a cage at the reception which would screech extremely loudly early in the morning. It was a little bit annoying, but nothing we couldn't live with. It was a nice place and the private bathroom with hot water was a real treat.

Cost of scuba diving lessons and our journey Bocas Del Toro ♥

The cost of scuba diving lessons can be really steep. The price for the Open Water certification can be anywhere between 300$ to over 600$ and more in some spots. Central America is one of the cheapest areas to dive in the world with Thailand. We went to Utila, Honduras two years ago and were very satisfied with the quality and the prices. Another place that is renowned to be cheap is Bocas Del Toro in Panama. That's why we chose to go there to hopefully book an advanced Open water class.

Getting here to Bocas Del Toro was pretty much a nightmare. We left off early tuesday to grab the 9 am bus which was suposed to take us all the way to Almirante from which you need to take a water taxi to get onto the islands. We then learned from a passenger that apparently the bus stopped at Changinola instead, about an hour an a half hour from a destination. The whole ride was supposed to take only 6 hours, but 6 hours after our departure we were just arriving to the borders.

The officials at the border gave us an incredible hard time. They wanted us to have a ticket out of Panama to let us in. We have plane tickets out of Costa Rica in a month, but that wasn't enough for them, they wanted a proof of departure. Of, course, they were selling these 12$ bus return tickets there! They bascially forced us to buy some or they wouldn't let us in. Issue was, we were out of cash and they did not accept cards. We ended up borrowing money from a mini bus driver that was there.

While this was happening (it took about 45 minutes to get everything settled) our bus left (intentionnally) without us. We were forced to grab a ride with the mini bus driver for 10$ more each to Almirante (coincidence? I don't think so!). We finally arrived at the water taxi place and grabbed a boat to Isla Colon in Bocas Del Toro where we are now. Phew! What a frustrating day X_X

After that, things started to look up, we got a great hostel (review soon!) and went out for pizza and 1$ beers at a restaurant called Black olives. The next day, we went out to look for a dive shop and found the Starfleet dive shop, not far from the hotel. We decided on taking the advanced open water classes, which include 5 dives and 2 free fun dives (it was super cheap! only 175$ per person, the reviewers weren't kidding the cost of scuba diving lessons here in Bocas is really inexpensive!). You get to choose some of the dives you will go through and we chose a night dive and fish identification!

We are on day 2 of three days for the certification and diving is exhausted! We dived twice this morning and now we are simply taking it easy in our hostel for now. We might try and find a play with air conditionning soon, it's really hot here!

Hostel Pangea [Travel Review]

Hostel Pangea was our very first and last stop of this Central American trip. We have stayed here three times, on three different occasions, every time we were in transit in San Jose.

Price : Double room with a shared bathroom and cold water, no air conditionning is 32$ US. The dorms were only 13$ per person though.

Location : Near the city centre, only 1 km away from the bus terminals.

Amenities/services : Pool, roof-top bar and restaurant, free wifi Internet, computer room, TV room, travel agency.

Rooms : The rooms are tiny, barely big enough to contain a queen sized bed and nothing else. Bare and undecorated, they are simple, but still clean and comfortable. Basically, you pay more for the ambiance and services here than for the room itself, which has nothing more than a bed to offer.

Restaurant/bar : Beer 2.50$, burger a little over 5$, plate of fresh fruits 4$. The food at hostel Pangea is not cheap in comparison to other spots in Central America. The quality is good though and they claim that they serve the best burgers in San Jose (I would hate to see what the worst one is =p) The atmosphere was laid back and pleasant and there is free coffee in the morning.

Staff : Very friendly and helpful.

Pool : It seemed very clean and well-kept, but we didn't go for a dip since it was raining.

Bathrooms : The bathrooms are shared so of course, you would expect them to be slightly less spotless. However, it was not the case and everytime I had to use the bathroom it was very clean. The showers were also very clean.

The hotel also arranges tours and offers a shuttle to the airport for only 10$ per person (we took a taxi and paid 27$, so it's a good deal!)

Hostel Pangea is a great place, if a little expensive (but everything in Costa Rica is more expensive). We might return on our way back home! ^^ We came back two more time because we liked it so much!

Astoria Hotel Review : Fairfield Inn Marriott

Price : We got a great deal for our night on Priceline.com we paid 62$ US for the night.

Location : Ten minutes by car from the La Guardia Airport in New York City.

Amenities/services : complimentary continental breakfast, free airport shuttle, free wifi Internet.

Rooms : the room we had was not very large, but big enough to fit everything comfortably. It included a work area, a comfortable lounge chair, queen size bed with foam mattress, flat screen television as well as  a coffee maker, an iron with ironing board and hair dryer. In other words, it is equipped just like any standard 2 star hotel. The room was spotless, fresh and cutely decorated.

Staff : The personnel was very professional, attentive and friendly. The lady at the reception desk gave us tons of information and offered to give us maps and menus if we needed them.

Breakfast : there were quite a few breakfast options available. We had cold cereal, but everything else also looked fresh and yummy ♥ There were wsffles, sandwiches, bread, yogourt, fruits, juices, coffee and much more. The breakfast starts a 6:30 and we needed to be at the airport for 7:15 which was a little tight, but we made it! =D

Shuttle : Quick, on time and efficient but incredibly bumpy. It looked like the driver was in a hurry! XD

Overall, we had a great experience at this hotel and would probably return!

Travel Review : Fairfield Inn Mariott Astoria

Getting to Costa Rica

Getting to Costa Rica was quite the journey. I've just arrived to San Jose (well it's been a couple hours now) and we are relaxing in our room tonight so I thought I would update you all on how the trip is going so far! I'll also post two hotel/hostel reviews afterwards ^^

We took the bus for N.Y.C. monday morning to catch our flight leaving from the La Guardia Airport. The reason we chose to transit through New York (and why we always travel this way) is because flights leaving from Montreal are very expensive in comparison. It is actually much cheaper to pay bus tickets and plane tickets from New York than to leave directly from Montreal. It does take quite a bit longer though, but we are not in a hurry so we don't really mind.

We took the Express for N.Y.C and 8 hours and a lunch stop in Albany (which was suprisingly tasty) later we were in New York. We had reserved an hotel room at the Fairfield Inn Mariott Astoria (I'll add a review soon) and we were tired so we decided to get directly there by cab. The ride ended up costing 37$ because the taxi driver wouldn't use his GPS (grumble), but it was quick enough.

We went for dinner at a nice italian pizza place near the hotel (the Portobello pizzeria) which was really yummy and cheap =D and spent the evening just hanging out in our room.

I look incredibly tired here :P

The next morning we grabbed the shuttle for LGA and we got on an early flight to Charlotte because the plane was almost empty! (Yay =D airports are boring) The flight to San Jose was pretty pleasant, but we had some mild turbulences. I'm nervous while flying so I was freaking out! But in the end everything was fine  ^^ We knew it might be raining when we would be getting to Costa Rica (it's the rainy season after all) so we we're prepared for this :

Gladly I had packed our rain coats on the top of our bags!

When we arrived it was raining (apparently it rains everyday for an hour or two) so we headed directly to our hostel, the Pangea! That's how far we've got now! Getting to Costa Rica took a while, but we're glad that we are here now and that every thing went according to plan.

Leaving for Central America ♥

My boyfriend and I are leaving for Central America in less than 24 hours!

We're super excited to finally go backpacking again =) Almost everything is ready to go, so hopefully all will go smoothly tomorrow morning.

I will update as often as I can with pictures/reviews/stories about the trip!

See you in a couple of days (or maybe less, who knows ;) )

Weekend in Ottawa, Endless Summer and Dunn’s restaurant review

My boyfriend, his friend and myself went to Ottawa last weekend. My boyfriend was booked for a gig in a club called Maverick for the event Endless Summer (he is an electronic music dj ^^) there so we all decided to make a weekend thing out of it.

This is the club =)

We took a Greyhound bus to get there and 2h30 hours later we were in Ontario! We first went for coffee in a cute coffee-shop we found near the bus stop. I had my first Chai iced tea (it was awesome ♥), my boyfriend had a double espresso (apparently it was very very strong lol) and his friend had a huge black coffee.

My Chai Iced tea and the very strong espresso ♥

After that we went out for dinner at Dunn’s. The restaurant was almost empty which made us suspicious right away. Dunn’s wasn’t our first choice, but the restaurant we wanted to eat at (a texas grill place) was completely full with a 30 minutes wait for a table. We thought it couldn’t be that bad and it wasn't THAT bad, but I have to say that overall the experience wasn’t great.

This is the Dunn's we went to

First of all, the waitress seemed really annoyed that we were slow to order, which to be fair might have been our fault. Since we don't know their menu and we are not used to ordering in English, we were a little confused and slow at first. Then, every time we would tell her something from the kitchen wasn’t right (it happened twice) she seemed increasingly fed up with us. I’ve never had a waitress get impatient because I told her something I ordered wasn’t right, it’s not like we we’re being rude either we were very polite about it. =O

First we ordered two appetizer plates : bbq chicken wings and hot chicken wings. The bbq wings were great, but the hot ones were raw, cold and bloody inside. Knowing how many bacteria there is in raw chicken this is obviously unacceptable for a restaurant, so we asked her to put it back in the oven for us. After that the wings were fine, but my boyfriend felt ill all evening afterwards.

 We then ordered ribs, which were good if a little dry. We had a choice of two sides with that and I chose fries and fried mushrooms. Our friend, on the other hand chose double fries, but was served only a couple fries more than I did. He asked why double fries wasn't actually a double portion of the fries and of course that really annoyed our waitress. Oh well =s

My ribs and fried mushrooms

Anyway the food wasn’t all that bad, but the cooking and service wasn’t very good. I don’t think I would return! Plus, the food was really expensive.

Our friend brought his huge Quebec flag to Ottawa, yes he did. XD Kept things interesting!

My boyfriend and I at the restaurant. I'm so pale and the picture does not even wash me out O_O

We finally went to the party and had a good time then returned the next day! I was a pretty good weekend overall even if the food wasn’t great!

My boyfriend mixing =D Yay for Dj Matduke ♥ His set was amazing

I've added a video of a little bit of his set! The sound quality isn't very great, but it's fun anyway ♥

Travel toiletries for backpacking

One of the most important parts of planning a backpacking trip is to make sure that you have everything you need to be comfortable while you travel. However, since you will be carrying everything in your backpack, toiletries and other items need to be carefully chosen, multi-purpose and compact. If you are traveling for a couple weeks, you will probably want to have a couple essentials handy.

Of course, most toiletries are available abroad and you can purchase pretty much everything once you arrive. I have, however, found it quite difficult (and/or) expensive to get travel-sized products while I was traveling which is why I prefer to leave prepared. Also,  if you like a particular product for your hair or face, chances are you won’t find it where you are going, so I like to pack minis of my favourites!

Here is all I’ve prepared to bring with me on my backpacking trip. I’ve divided the items into several categories for easy reading!

First are my body toiletries. We have my favourite soap, the Olay body wash in Vanilla Indulgence in a small container, then a travel-sized Aveno body moisturizer, deodorant, The Body Shop body butter and a pink washcloth!

Next are my face products. I am bringing a mini St-Yves apricot scrub, a Clean & Clear spot treatment, my face moisturizer which I put in a small Body Shop container and makeup wipes.

This is everything I bring for my hair. I have very long hair so I have two small bottles of my Aussie conditioner and one of my Trèssemmé shampoo. I’ve purchased empty generic travel containers and filled them with my products.  I also bring travel-sized baby powder to use as a dry shampoo and my Chi Silk Infusion which I cannot live without (no kidding my hair would probably look like straw without it). Of course, I also need a small brush and a wide tooth comb. The latter is essential for me since I’m not bringing any styling tools and unless I comb my hair while it’s wet (brushing wet hair is damaging) my hair won’t air dry properly.

That’s everything I need as far as hair removal while I travel : a disposable razor, travel-sized shaving cream and tweezers. As I said before you could skip the shaving cream and use conditioner instead, but my legs are sensitive so I like to have shaving cream with me.

These are all my teeth and lips toiletries (I couldn’t find a better suited name to describe them, it sounds a little awkward, please ignore that =p) I have my toothbrush in a travel case, my favourite travel sized tooth paste and lip balm with SPF.

This is all the makeup I intend on packing. The amount might get reduced though since I’m still undecided whether I should bring all my brushes, the foundation and the mascara (which isn’t waterproof btw, but since I’m definitely not going to wear it while I’m doing anything but going out to dinner and shopping, it doesn’t really matter *but it isn’t that useful either*). The large rectangle with white inscriptions is a big travel mirror ♥ perfect for rooms and bathrooms in cheap hotels which do not have a proper mirror to get ready with.

These are all the items I need to keep my nails tidy. Two nail polishes, a file, nail polish remover pads and nail clippers.

Those are products that are needed for sun/bug protection and treatment. Of course, I also bring anti-malarial medication, but I would classify those as medication which I did not include in the post! Tell me if you’re interested to see what’s in my travel emergency first aid kit! The picture is pretty self-explanatory: I’m bringing SPF, insect repellent with 30% DEET and sting relief cream.

Finally here are the toiletries I’m bringing that are geared towards hygiene and disinfecting: wet Ones moist antibacterial wipes, hand sanitizer, tissues and cotton buds.

These are all my travel toiletries! There is quite a bit in here, but remember that when you are backpacking, you do not have access to any products unless you stay in a high end hotel (which I won’t). Plus, I’m leaving for a month so I do need quite a bit a stuff =D

Would a clothing/first aid kit/misc items for backpacking post interest you guys? Let me know in the comments!  Also, if any of you has already traveled in the past, is there anything else you would bring that I did not mention?