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Published: October 27th 2011
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We traveled by bus to Bocas for our visa trip. After a short overnight stay in Puerto Viejo, we were picked up early and cramped into a small mini van headed for the Costa Rica/Panama Border. After a few hours we arrived at the border crossing. Unlike any border crossing I'd ever seen, tourists and nationals enter Panama by crossing a large river via a rather long decrepit and withering bridge. After shuffling over the bridge and reading the venomous snakes and weapons warnings, we were given our stamps and once again loaded into a cramped mini van for the last leg of the land journey. Bocas is reached by a 45 minute water taxi departing mainland Panama. The ride was bumpy but enjoyable.
After arriving we found accommodation for the night and settled in. Bocas town, which is what they call the main island is basically one long street filled with hostels, bars, and restaurants, a prime spot for backpackers. The first night we got acclimated with the layout of the land and didn't do much besides.
Day 2 - we left our hotel early to find accommodation for the 2nd night. We went to a nearby island
called Caremero and found a cute bungalow over the water. After moving our bags, we took a short excursion to Red Frog Beach, off of Bastimentos island. When we got back to the cabin, James decided to cut his own hair. It was eventful. Too bad the photos don't do it justice. Lots of bald spots... Later, James was sitting on the deck and moved his foot over an uneven edge. It created a massive sliver. After what seemed like hours of screaming and us attempting to pull it out, the owner came over. She waved down a water taxi and before we could clearly figure out what was going on we were all speeding towards town in a boat full of unsuspecting tourists. In town, we got a first class ride from the local fire department to the emergency room. That was an inexperience! As a way to highlight this, the sanitizer to be poured over the open wound came straight out of a used water bottle, you know, the kind with the squirty top. After cutting out the log in James' foot the doctor who was possibly the most unfriendly person we had ever met cursed us out
of the medical facility. Oh, such memories were made that day....
At night, we grabbed a water taxi (by waving one down off the end of the hotels pier) and went back to Bocas town. We had dinner at RAW, a very cool and small sushi restaurant. After working through the entire martini list (the drinks were delicious!) we mozied into town. A live band drew us into a small waterfront bar, where we were instantly time warped back to 1980. We met a very weird but nice group of people who were extremely drunk. After a few good laughs, we made it to another disco then back to Caremero via water taxi.
We had heard that a hostel by the name of Aqua had a particularly good night life. So, before going home we stopped by to check it out; it was interesting but not much to say.. We walked home shortly after singing as loudly as we could to discourage snakes or whatever creepy crawlies from slithering out of the unlit landscape.
Day 3 - We woke up early to take a tour out to Zapatilla via a snorkeling tour in dolphin bay. After about
an hour on the boat, the tour stopped at a small restaurant on a portion of an outer island that seemed un-inhabited. The best part of lunch was that they served Old Milwaukee! No idea how a small Caribbean developed a taste for Wisconsin's best...
Snorkeling was a lot of fun. The water was an amazing shade of translucent blue. After snorkeling we jumped back onto the boat and headed for the farthest reachable island (Zapatilla). One our journey there we ran into a tour boat whose engine had died. With the other boat in tow, we slowly made it to the island. It was beautiful. You can walk the entire island in about 45 minutes. A protected island with no inhabitants and few visitors, its very easy to find a secluded place on the beach to marvel at sights and sounds of clear blue water crashing into the beach.
After making it back we checked into our hostel and had a few beers. After a horribly long dinner and an unpleasant confrontation with the waitress we made it back to our hostel and slept for a few short hours before catching our water taxi to bus to
border to bus to San Jose to rental care to home.
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