Costa Rica to Bocas del Toro with Kids: How to Cross the Sixaola Bridge, Island-Hop to Paradise, and Come Home Slightly Sunburned and Completely Satisfied In which we navigate a pedestrian border crossing over a river, discover that boat taxis are a perfectly acceptable school bus alternative, snorkel in a national marine park, encounter a snake of non-trivial dimensions, and conclude that Panama is best appreciated with tropical fruit, a cold beer, and sufficiently low expectations about the surrounding rubbish situation. The Bocas del Toro archipelago sits on the Caribbean coast of Panama, just across a small bridge over the Rio Sixaola from Costa Rica. In a straight line it's roughly 40 miles from Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. In actual travel time, given that you cross an international border and then board a boat, it takes around three to four hours if things go reasonably well. This is still faster than getting from one side of San José to the other on a Friday afternoon,...

Denied Entry to Mexico in a School Bus: Two Border Crossings, Zero Stamps, One Hard Lesson A cautionary tale about vehicle weight limits, bureaucratic technicalities, and the humbling perspective that comes from standing at the wrong side of a border. When people asked us about our adventures after we returned to Maine for the summer, they expected the highlights reel. And honestly, we had a spectacular one. We could have talked about Base Camp — the school bus we'd bought from the local district, gutted, and rebuilt into our rolling home after our sailboat Tiny Bubbles II sold. We could have told them about the manatees that joined us while we swam in the crystal springs of Florida, floating alongside us with the serene indifference of creatures who have never once had a schedule to keep. We could have described the world-class bouldering at Hueco Tanks , 32 miles northeast of El Paso — a 4,000-year-old landscape of pocketed syenite rock that climbers fly in from...

How We Infiltrated Mexico Twice from a National Park (And Why You Should Too) A Complete Guide to Crossing into Boquillas del Carmen from Big Bend — With Burros, Bureaucracy, and a Four-Year-Old in Full Firefighter Gear The border crossing that a U.S. Customs agent couldn't get through without laughing. I have now led my family across the Rio Grande into Mexico twice. Once on a spontaneous Sunday in 2019, in the middle of a minivan circumnavigation of the United States, with three boys, no plan, and a four-year-old dressed head-to-toe as a firefighter. And once in 2022, without our beloved overloaded skoolie (converted school bus), which had been diplomatically informed by the Mexican border that its presence was not required. Both times were absurd. Both times were wonderful. Both times ended at a video kiosk where a U.S. Customs officer in El Paso had to compose himself before clearing us back into America. This is the story of both crossings —...

Costa Rica to Nicaragua with Kids: Border Crossings, Birthday Volcanoes, a $10 Machete, and What My Boys Learned From Street Kids in Granada In which we cross a militarized border, celebrate a second birthday on an island that sits inside a freshwater lake, buy a machete at a market, and I attempt to feed every street child in Granada. Results: mixed. Nicaragua is not Costa Rica. I say this not as a complaint but as a geographic and cultural observation that will hit you within approximately four minutes of clearing the border. Costa Rica abolished its military in 1948 and has been more or less radiantly peaceful ever since. Nicaragua has had a rather different 20th century, and the presence of soldiers with actual weapons at the crossing was something our boys processed in real time, out loud, in a sustained stream of questions that didn't stop until we were well into the country. It was, in its own way, one of the better history lessons we've ever had as a family — co...