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Published: April 21st 2007
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Here we are in Bocas Del Toro in search of Drea´s perfect man. After our 6 hour bus ride from Boquete, and 1/2 hour boat ride we arrived in sunny Bocas del Toro. Drea and Mandeja went straight to the airport to book their flights to San Jose and Panama City (respectively) to catch their flights back to the states, and avoid enduring the arduous journey by bus. We immediately noticed the existance of US military troops on the island, which we found a bit odd for a tourist island in Panama. We were told they were working on a water project for the island, which we still found strange but ´que sera, sera´.
We decided to start our journey in the Bocas region on the less populated island of Bastimentos where we stayed at Beverly´s Hill (there were no hillbillies). It was encompassed by a vast garden which isolated it from the rest of town. This was much appreciated, as there were almost an equal number of postives and negatives about the island.
The first negative floated by as we ate lunch on our first afternoon on the island. As Drea was seriously contemplating jumping into the
Out House
All along the surrounding islands you´ll see outhouses, such as this one, dumping untreated sewage into the water. Yum!! refreshing water, we saw it. What was that something special that caught our eye, you ask? Human feces.... yes, my friends.... the sewer system is a direct line into their harbor of the Carribbean Sea. Luckily we saw this floating warning sign (DON´T SWIM HERE!!!!) before Drea decided to cool off.
The second negative point was that there was a lack of water on the island. Brushing your teeth, showering, and even flushing the toilet are done out of buckets of rain water, and even those were in short supply.
The Bastimentos Super Highway does not exist, to our pleasure. There was only one paved walkway through the town, and not a single car or road. The island seems to have a very strong community that gets together often to play baseball and soccer in the town center. Unfortunately, only about 1/3 of these people were friendly towards us. Of that 1/3, many were trying to sell us drugs.
There is one great reason to come to Bastimentos. The beach. Wizard Beach is an unspoiled paradise located on the opposite side of the island from the town (FINALLY WE CAN SWIM!!). If you´ve seen a gorgeous beach
Beverly´s Hill
One of the rooms at our place on Bastimentos on a postcard it may have been of Wizard Beach on Bastimentos. Also, our hotel was gorgeous while rustic, and the owner (Simon) was very laid back and welcoming. It was also the only environmentally friendly hotel in town (read: he uses a septic tank). We included a picture of his beautiful daughter Naomi in our blog. She was too cute!!
One more noteworthy thing on Bastimentos was the food. Surprisingly, for a town where many buildings are falling apart and the only song you hear all day is "I like to smoke da marijuana and drinka da Hennesey" the restaurants were quite good. The Italian restaurant at the end of town is definitely worth a visit. It´s amazing where you can find a great Sicilian chef.
After a couple days without showers and sleeping under mosquito nets, we decided to head over to the main island for Drea´s last night travelling with us.
Drea and Mandeja decided to splurge on a spot slightly out of our price range for the night, so Adam and I cruised the island seeking more cost friendly lodging. We found Casa Max all the way at the other end of the
town of Bocas after visiting about 12 other hotels. For $25 we had a room that our moms would have enjoyed. This included a large balcony with a hammock, and a view of the sea. Save for the noisy bar/hostel across the street (Mondu Taitu) it was perfect. Well, moms may not have loved the geckos, but the geckos eat the bugs. They have become our favorite little critters on this trip. Our room had wooden carved geckos above the windows which was a nice welcoming touch for us coming from the mosquito nets.
Drea and Mandeja treated us to a scrumptious dinner on the island on their last night. So lobster it is!! Thanks again guys 😊 After feasting on seafood we had to say goodbye to our fellow travellers, and started our last leg of our journey. UPDATE: Drea unfortunately did not find the fellow of her dreams. She is still seeking .... her landscape architect with an interest in holistic health.
We stayed in our clean, cheery, hot shower equipped room for a couple more nights in attempt to get set up with volunteer work on a turtle refuge nearby. Finally, we heard back from
Clara, the volunteer coordinator for the turtle refuge, with the news that we were all set to go for that day. We hopped on yet another ferry boat for quite a wild ride toward Changuinola from Bocas. Lily pads reigned supreme as this lush water world rushed by us. The boat came to a halt at Playa Soropta on the mainland where we were to spend the next 3 days hiking up and down the isolated beach in the middle of the night trying to help save Leatherback Turtle eggs from poachers. We saw, in total, 6 majestic Leatherback Turtles on our 14km nightly treks. These animals are truly beyond words.
Adam was nearly entirely consumed by the chitres which are the flea sized, blood sucking, little critters that flourish on this beach. He must have had at least a hundred bites on each leg when we left. Jill just doused herself in bugspray (with deet-very un-charachteristic). We´re still waiting on the toxicology reports to see if she´s suffering from deet poisoning. All in all we had a great time bonding with our turtle friends, and cursing the chitres and mean ducks.
You can pay thousands of dollars
Wizard Beach
The side of the island that isn´t their sewer drain. to volunteer here if you sign up with many online volunteer recruiters, of which little reaches the organization. Or you can contact them directly at the following e-mail address for more information (turtlevolpanama@yahoo.com -Clara´s phone number (507) 65842451), and pay $20 per person per day including food (which is very basic Panamenian food, so bring snacks if you typically eat a lot), and basic lodging.
From here we´re headed back to Boquete. Adam is set up to take some Spanish classes, and the Spanish school has a few options for volunteer work for us. Wish us luck!!
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Denise&Steve
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Welcome Home!
I hope you had a fantastic trip! Once in a lifetime... I suppose we will see blog entries continuing to come up on the site for the last 5 weeks of your trip. Kinda like postcards that are received after people are already back from vacation. teeheehee :-)