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After a couple of days break in the jungle it was time to head back to the Caribbean Ocean and make our way to Bocas del Toro up along the Panamá/Costa Rica border. Oskar, Matt and I headed off early-ish and caught a local bus to the port town alongside the islands and then a boat to Coloń Island the main island of Bocas del Toro.
Upon checking in the boys and I managed to gain the luxury of not only having an 8 bed air-conditioned dorm to ourselves almost the whole time we stayed there (2 nights quickly turned into 6), but also our own kitchen/dining area that was kind of an annex to the main hostel that we quickly took over and hosted our own shindigs in (power in numbers).
One of the nights that we were in Bocas it was Matts 30th birthday. A week beforehand everyone from the boat had gotten together and written him birthday messages and we gave him the card along with a shot glass necklace. The rules for his evening was that it needed to start with a half hour of power (one shot of beer every
minute for half an hour) for desert and then for the remainder of the evening whenever someone poured anything in his necklace he had to drink it - no matter what. Although he was not the most willing of participants he was a good sport about it and as a result did not get out of bed until 4pm the following evening.
For the night we caught a water taxi over to Aqua Lounge which was a sweet bar set over the water that had giant swings and trampolines that you could use to catapult yourself into the water and also three different natural ocean water pools. It took about 10 mins until someone pushed Matt into the pool 'for his birthday' and I managed to pour some drink into his shot glass immediately afterwards, forgetting that it was half filled with salt water - the poor thing was nearly ill all over the floor. Ops
After spending four nights on the island and doing absolutely nothing but going out at night we made the journey out to Starfish Beach to check out the giant starfish. It was absolutely amazing. In true Caribbean form
the ocean was crystal clear and the shallows up to your thighs were littered with starfish as big as my head. If you ever get to Bocas you should definitely check them out!
After a few more nights of random shenanigans (power hour to 80s music, 24th birthday celebrations back at Aqua Lounge, some amusing new friends and some of the most random conversations of my life) the three of us headed off again to make a quick dash from Northern Panama all the way through Costa Rica to San Jaun del Sur in Nicaragua, which we reached by 3pm the following day. Although I had planned on peer group pressuring the boys to stay at the Naked Tiger - an epic party hostel on the top of the hill about 3 kms outside of town - it turned out that they only had couches and hammocks available so we ended up at the Aussie run Casa del Olas next door, which actually turned out to be a much better option as it meant that the actually got to sleep at night and also had a stunning infinity pool hanging over one of the best sunset hilltop
views over the pacific that I had seen.
After our first night at Casa del Olas the guys woke me up and took me next door for my first ever 9-10am happy hour and Bloody Marys. It was a painful time in my life, but apparently it was time that I manned up and live up to my Australian reputation. Just quietly a Bloody Mary is the worst tasting cocktail I have ever had in my life no matter what the hour they are consumed!
Sunday was funday and I decided to join a pool crawl in which we were all given tank tops (more like very short dresses for the girls) and we were herded around from location to location that all had different pools. It was actually a really good day and I met some very amusing people. I also witnessed one of the most outrageous sights of binge drinking in my whole travels. This (Aussie) guy took a beer bong through a pool noodle while underwater in the pool. Oh my god he almost vomited everywhere! Easy to say I most certainly did not give that one a try!
After my stint at Bocas del Toro before heading straight to San Jaun del Sur I was definitely ready for a bit of detoxing and parted from my travel buddies Oskar and Matt in order to head off to a secluded beach for a few days.
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