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Its in the name
this little guy gave the beach its nameTHE ISLANDS OF BOCAS DEL TORO
We crossed the border at Sixaiola. This was the first border crossing we attempted on our own so given the chaotic nature of the last border we were a bit anxious at the prospect of getting into Panama on our todd with about 10 words of Spanish between us.. However, it turned out to be easy really. This crossing is for pedestrians only so you must walk across a rickety old railway bridge over a river and into Panama. Once your on the other side there are plenty of locals eager to guide you through the process; hoping you’ll use their taxi to get where you going when you’re finished. If you fly out of Costa Rica there is a $26 departure tax, but it cost us nothing to leave on foot. We ended up getting a 30 min taxi with our new friend for $10 each down to the ferry port of Changuinola where you can get a water taxi to Isla Colon, the main island in Bocas. We got an open ended return ticket for $7. The water taxi is in essence a big speed boat with wooden benches for the passengers.
The cap‘n doesn‘t hold back on the ride over so it can get a bit choppy!
After a long half hour of being knocked about like a rodeo clown on the boat we arrived at Isla Colon. We had decided to stay at Hostel Heike prior to arrival but as soon as we stepped onto dry land we didn’t have a choice; our new friend Howard pretty much dragged us from the dock to the door of Heike. We were due to meet another guy from the tour, Kenny, here. He had flown in a couple of days before. This place gets a phenomenal review from Lonely Planet and on arriving I can only imagine the author has a large stake holding in the place because its nothing to write home about. Our room was dark, dank and smelled like someone’s socks after a 3 hour gym session. Three small fans hung around the room and there was a table in the corner. Felt a bit like a spacious prison cell but it would have to do, at the end of the day we were only sleeping in there.
As we discovered (much to Yvonne’s horror) on arrival
Strange bird
the elusive man-hand bird of panama there is no beach near Bocas town. You must get a 20 minute bus from the main street up to the North end of Isla Colon to Drago beach. This discovery, combined with the severe lack of sun and plentiful rain, led to our first impression of Bocas being rather less then we had hoped. We met Kenny later on that evening and went for a few drinks to make things better. We decided to do a tour of the islands the following day, which would include snorkeling, dolphin spotting (100% guaranteed…!) and some beach time all for $15. First up were the dolphins. After floating around for about 20 mins and with no sign of flipper or his friends the 100% guarantee seemed not to be too accurate. Leading on from that disappointment was the snorkeling spot which turned out to be some random place in the middle of the bay where the boat just anchored, crappy snorkels were handed out and you were encouraged to jump over-board and hope for the best. Getting out of the boat was easy, but as they didn’t bother with any form of ladder getting aboard proved to be much more difficult. With
Like a baby...
unbelievable sleepin ability on the choppiest boat ive ever been on every one on board, after some serious effort, we headed off to Red Frog beach on Isla Bastimentos with expectations at rock bottom. The beach turned out to be pretty nice, white sand and clear blue waters. We planned on staying here for a couple of nights in the only hostel on the island, Bocas Bound, so we took the opportunity to take a look at the place. it’s a fairly new place run by some American dudes who really don’t have a clue about running a successful hostel but were friendly. The place is only 5 min walk from the beach so we decided to stay for 2 nights.
The next morning the 4 of us took one of the many water taxi’s from isla colon to isla bastimentos for $1 p/p. It was Kenny’s last night with us the night before as he was heading back up to Cancun for a few days before he went back home to Sydney. He was a great guy to have around and Panama was the 70th country he had visited!! He was an old bastard though at 58 so I’ve got a few more years to catch up with him!
anti-social dolphins
guide lookin in vein for the dolphins Elli and Tash would stay with us here for a few days before they too left to venture elsewhere (L.A., Oz and NZ). Everything was set up for all of us to have a nice couple of days lounging on the beach and getting bronzed, however that bitch Mother Nature decided instead of this we should be stranded in the hostel while torrential rain poured down for most of the day. The hostel had a nice canteen area with a pool table, ping pong and a few board games so we kept ourselves occupied until eventually we had to scrape the bottom of the entertainment barrel and play Scrabble, with Spanish letters (how many English words use double rr for christ sake!).
So after 2 non-eventful days we gave up on the beach idea and decided to head South towards Panama’s 2nd biggest city of David. We said our farewells to the 2 girls on the mainland where we went our separate ways once again. It would have been even more boring if those 2 weren’t with us in solitary confinement, they were the nicest German/Canadian/New Zealanders I’ve ever met!!
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