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Published: June 17th 2007
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Island paradise
Scenes like this were what I was hanging out for I came to Bocas del Toro looking for the classic Carribeean island paradise. White sand beaches fringed on the one side by coconut palms swaying gently in the sea breaze, and bordered to the other by crystal clear turquoise waters with waves gently lapping in. After some trying times, I eventually found it. I also made a few other delightful finds in my time on the island.
Arriving at Bocas from Panama City after a 7 hour overnight bus, a cramped 5 hour ride in mini bus and then a 45 minute trip in a leaky boat with what looked like a neanderthal at the tiller, the only thing on my mind was finding that dreamy Carribbean beach scene as a matter of pressing urgency. I bought a map of the archipelago which had a picture on the front of what appeared to be exactly what I was seeking - a beach on the north coast of the main Bocas island called Playa Bluff with all the trimmings. After dumping my pack at the Mondo Taitu hostel (fantastic place) I promptly set off walking, impatient and wanting to be sunning myself on this tropical idyll post haste.
Whoever
Sleeping with the fishes
This sunken boat held centre stage at Barco Hundido it was that produced the map could hardly be considered a credible cartographer. Take it from a man who spent (or perhaps misspent?) much of his childhood reading the Melways from cover to cover: I know a good map when I see one and what I had before me was utter rubbish. I certainly wouldn't have decided to take the trip walking if there was some sort of scale to tell me it was about 15kms out of town along a road which in parts was covered from one side to the other in knee deep puddles of muddy water. I probably would have been even further deterred if I knew that on the way I had to walk through the middle of a rubbish dump populated by hundreds of vultures.
It was perhaps halfway through the trip (an hour or so in) that I started to smell a rat and doubt the accuracy of the map. Determined, I pressed on, figuring that even if Playa Bluff was going to be too much of a hike one of the other beaches that I passed along the way would take my fancy. They were all exceedingly ordinary, and when I
Warm water, cold beer
HJT enjoying a cold one while cooling his heels finally made it to Playa Bluff I found that it too was barely satisfactory. Having sweated profusely in the sticky Carribbean heat the whole way there and with my water stocks dwindling, the grim reality of the situation dawned upon me: I was going to have to turn straight around and walk back in to town or else face an agonising battle with dehydration. I sat for a moment pondering my despair, and then set off with my feet dragging along the ground. My condition was bordering on critical when I finally crawled back into town, and I am quite sure I have never drank that much water all in the one time before.
Shaken by my ordeal the previous day, the next morning I decided that I would seek some local guidance before setting off on another ill-fated mission. It was only then that I found out that there were in fact no decent beaches within walking distance of Bocas town and that I would have to get on a boat to find one. Initially annoyed at this, it turned out to have a silver lining as it led to me going on an all day boat tour
Barco Hundido
This was the best bar I have ever been to which was fantastic.
The first leg (dolphin watching) was a little disappointing as the cheeky devils seemed to lead us on a merry dance around the bay rather than come right up to the boat like us good fare paying tourists wanted. After that though, things improved dramatically. We stopped off at two seperate reefs for an hour each to do some snorkling which was fantastic. There were no accusations, just friendly crustaceons under the sea. In between, we visited Red Frog Beach on Bastimentos Island. As the photos show, this was that classic Carribbean island paradise that I'd been seeking - I could have stayed there for days.
The nights in Bocas were brilliant. Up the road about 200m from Mondo Taitu was Barco Hundido - almost certainly the best bar I have ever been to. I couldn't really get any great pictures of it cos we were always there after dark, but will do my best to paint a picture in words. You walk in through a white sand yard, thickly covered in coconut and banana palms. The bar begins at the water's edge, and the entire dancefloor and all the tables and chairs were on
More Barco Hundido
The photos aren't great but this place was fantastic decking over the water. In the middle, there was a big hole in the decking through which you could see a sunken boat, floodlit from underwater, with tropical fish of all colours of the rainbow swimming in and around it. The sheer beauty of the spectacle distracted me for some time from observing the other wonderful attributes of the bar, but after a while it became impossible to ignore that the fish were not the only beautiful tropical specimens on show.
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Matt & Georgia
Friendly crustaceons...
...under the seeeeaaaaa!