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Published: October 14th 2012
On the way to Starfish Beach
On the first day we were in Bocas we went to a beach called Playa Estrellas, or Starfish BeachPanama
After having spent three weeks or so in Costa Rica things began to feel repetitive and we wanted to go somewhere else for a while. If you look at a map you realise there aren't many places to choose if you wish to leave Costa Rica overland. If you then add that Emma has already visited Nicaragua and preferred to go somewhere else we were down to only one option - Panama.
We entered Panama at the Sixaola/Guabito border crossing. We were told that this border crossing is the main gateway for visitors to Bocas del Toro archipelago, a popular place to go from Costa Rica. Therefore we were very surprised when the official checking our passports started asking a lot of questions and wanted us to present a valid flight ticket out of Panama. There are thousands of people crossing the border at Sixaola/Guabito every week and not a single one has a flight ticket. He must have known that. Eventually they let us in but we still don't understand the point with all the questions. All we know is that he was not fishing for a bribe.
Just like so many other people who
Bocas del Toro archipelago
The coastline in Bocas del Toro archipelago near Playa Estrellas cross the border at Sixaola/Guabito we were heading for Bocas del Toro. Bocas del Toro is an archipelago in the northwest part of Panama. Most people who come to Bocas del Toro do so because they wish to enjoy white beaches and blue sand. If that had been our main purpose for visiting these islands we would probably have been quite disappointed. To our untrained eyes, we don’t spend much time on beaches because we get bored too quickly, the beaches didn’t look very interesting. But there were several other things around to keep us happy so we had a good time anyway.
On the first day we were in Bocas we went to a beach called Playa Estrellas, or Starfish Beach. The name of the beach comes from it being the home of a population of large starfish. The beach itself wasn’t very spectacular but it was good fun to snorkel and look at the starfishes.
The beach was not overcrowded by any means but still popular enough to have a small restaurant on it. We asked around and managed to get a man to take us from the beach to a coral reef a few kilometres
Sand and palm trees
To our untrained eyes, we don’t spend much time on beaches because we get bored too quickly, the beaches didn’t look very interesting further away. After we had swum around the coral reef for a while we went back to the beach. On the way back the man with the boat made a small detour and gave us a small tour of a mangrove forest nearby. It was possible to go with the boat several hundred meters into the forest in what can be described either as a tree lined canal or a mangrove tunnel.
When we came back to the beach we had lunch at the restaurant there. We had a dish that was the first for both of us, spiny lobster also known as langouste. It was good fun to try it and it tasted good. But we can’t understand why some people pay such ridiculous prices just to eat lobster at some restaurants. We paid roughly the same for our lobster lunch as we would have paid for any lunch in any half decent restaurant in Panama. It was definitely worth the price. But no lobster in the world can be worth the price that was paid a few days ago at an auction in Gothenburg. Someone paid 43.000 crowns, equivalent to 6.200 US dollars, for a single lobster.
Starfish at Playa Estrellas
The name of the beach Playa Estrellas, or Starfish Beach, comes from it being the home of a population of large starfish The next day in Bocas del Toro we went on a boat tour. This was one of these tours that have several stops where each stop might not be very spectacular but the package as a whole makes it good value. The tour stops were dolphin spotting, sloth spotting, mangrove forest watching, swimming among corals, a stop at red frog beach and storm watching. Now that we think about it the storm watching might not have been a regular feature of the tour. What makes us think that is the fact that the tarpaulin on the boat was not entirely waterproof. When the rain was pouring down we had to cuddle up in the centre of the boat to avoid getting soaked.
We noticed that sloth spotting is much easier than dolphin spotting. Sloths are very slow, sit in the top of trees and in general don’t move more than two or three trees away from where it was last seen. Dolphins or the other hand spend much of their time under water and are fast swimmers and move over large areas. Even when you lurk around the dolphins' favourite spots you can’t be sure to see them.
Starfish at Playa Estrellas
The beach itself wasn’t very spectacular but it was good fun to snorkel and look at the starfishes At red frog beach we saw a small poison dart frog. Poison dart frogs are very cute but trying to kiss one would be a really bad idea. A poison dart frog when it gets kissed is much more likely to turn into the grim reaper than into a prince.
After Bocas del Toro we went to Panama City. We felt that we couldn’t leave Panama without seeing the Panama Canal and Panama City is one of the best places if you wish to see one of the most important shortcuts in the world.
We went to the Miraflores Locks just outside Panama City. The locks that are in use today are the same locks as when the canal was opened for traffic for the first time in 1914. The entire project of building of the Panama Canal was a lengthy affair. The first section of the canal was dug back in 1881 by France. The French ran into problems they weren’t able to solve and were forced to give the project up a few years later. Then for more than a decade little or none progress was done in building a navigable waterway across the narrow
Coral at the coral reef
A man took us from the beach to a coral reef a few kilometres further away. strip of land separating the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. In the early 20
th century the USA bought the rights to the canal from the French. A decade later they had finished the canal and it was now possible to go with a boat from one coast of Panama to the other, a distance of just over 80 kilometres, without passing the Cape Horn ten thousand kilometres or so to the south.
The largest ships permitted into the Panama Canal are known as Panamax. It is the locks that limit the size of the ship. And it is mainly the width of the locks, not the length, that stop ships bigger than the Panamax from entering the Panama Canal.
When the biggest ships enter the locks they can not use their engines to navigate because it is too narrow and tight. Instead the ships are pulled by powerful locomotives running along the side of the locks. When we visited the canal we were lucky enough to see a Panamax ship, a vehicle carrier named Grand Orion, entering the Miraflores locks. It was fun to see one of those ships up close.
We also spent some time
Mangrove forest
On the way back the owner of the boat made a small detour and showed a mangrove forest nearby. It was possible to go several hundred meters into a mangrove tunnel in Panama City. There are two different sections of Panama City, one was the Historical District and the other Downtown, that interested us.
The Historical District is the oldest section of Panama City. The historical importance of this district has earned it a place on the World Heritage List. When UNESCO put the old town on the Heritage List it was probably in a pretty bad condition. When we were there all of it more resembled a construction site rather anything else. It was still worth it to walk around there for a while but it was sad to see how badly maintained some of the houses were. When the restoration works have been finished we believe the Historical District will be very nice but at the time of our visit it wasn’t.
Downtown surprised us a lot by looking like a miniature Manhattan. Before we arrived we had no idea that Panama City was such a wealthy city. Later we were told that it actually isn’t and that many of the skyscrapers of downtown Panama City are empty. According to the man who told us this the fancy buildings have been built by drug lords from Colombia
Spiny lobster or langouste
When we came back to the beach we had lunch. We ate spiny lobster also known as langouste. who needed to laundry money. We have not been able to confirm this though.
There was one thing about Panama we didn't understand - their obsession with the character
Rocky Balboa from the Rocky movies. They have named all kinds of things after him. There was Balboa Beer, in Panama City there was a Balboa statue, we found a street was named Balboa Avenue, an entire district in Panama City is named Balboa, a sports shop was named Running Balboa and even the currency is named Balboa.
Someone did tell us that it wasn't
Rocky Balboa they had named all these things after but some
other dude named Balboa. But that can't be right. In our world there is only one Balboa and that's Rocky. By the way, if the currency is named Balboa it should of course be divided into 100
Rambo.
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