Advertisement
Published: January 11th 2005
Edit Blog Post
The Water Taxi
Through the Golfo de Chiriqui between Isla Boca Brava and Boca Chica Well, I ended up staying a whole week in Boquete. The town was packed on Friday for the beginning of their international Feria de las Flores y del Cafe and we decided to stay and check it out. The party that night was unbelievable; the fairgrounds themselves were huge, probably as big as the town itself and there were these two nightclubs that set up openair dance parties, which, for any of you who know me, was right up my alley. There were live bands and then they also played salsa, merengue, and house music and there were little tables set up through the whole area so everyone grouped around them and had their bottles of rum and coke to mix their own drinks. And everyone was generous to the two foreigners that closed the place up. Ita is fun to go out with; it´s hard to find someone on the road who likes to dance for 5 hours straight as much as I do. After the places closed at 5 am, we went back and made grilled cheese sandwiches and crashed. For the first time since arriving in Boquete, I was able to sleep past 9 o'clock since the obligatory
daily blasting of Beyonce and Jay-Z didn't start until a generous 11 am that day. Ita and I decided to stay another day since we had had such a blast the prior evening, and Darr had returned AGAIN when his travel buddies bailed on him in David, so the three of us went to the hot springs again. However, we got a late start and ended up walking back through the woods and the gravel road in the dark. Without a flashlight. How I managed THAT without spraining an ankle was something akin to a miracle, even with Darr's night vision to guide us. We got a ride back to the highway from some guy in Caldera and Ita and I were in the back of the pickup and saw this thunderstorm in the distance, so it should have been no surprise that the evening's festivities ended early due to rain. We never even made it out since we all laid down at 10:30 for a "quick 10 minute nap" that lasted until 2 am. Our hunches that the rain had cleared out all but the most die hard and/or stranded festival-goers was proven correct by a quick walk around,
so we returned to bed and got to sleep quietly again since the rain was a deterrent to outdoor spèakers blaring in the early morning once again.
After taking our sweet time to get up and make omelettes, we finally bid farewell to the wonderful staff at Pension Doña Kata (highly recommended to anyone going to Boquete) and the three of us caught the bus to David, where Ita and I parted company with Darr to catch a bus/taxi/ferry to arrive at Isla Boca Brava.
The weather was a little junky, and when we arrived at the dock we quickly realized that this little restaurant and hotel was all there was on this island. Frank, the German owner, was about the most scatterbrained person I have ever come in contact with and it took him a full hour and a half to actually answer our question whether or not they had room for us. The island itself was nice and there were tons of birds and it was a laidback atmosphere. However, one started to question whether or not one was actually in Panama anymore, what with the primary language spoken being German (along with Frank's mixed Spanish/English/German
sentences which were all but unintelligible) and Warsteiner beer posters on the walls and frankfurter sausages on the menu. So, after my first night sleeping in a hammock (not so bad! especially waking to rainforest birds and the sound of waves on the shore) and a leisurely late late breakfast, we decided to head off to Panama City already. We finally made it into the city last night, but have yet to do much exploring since we slept really late and it has been storming this afternoon. However, I think we will stay until the weekend to get it on the nightlife action here before heading off to San Blas, so there is plenty of time. The area of town we are staying in, Bella Vista, is terrific; it reminds me a lot of the neighborhood I lived in while in Rome.
Well I'm off to the bakery and to explore, the rain has finally stopped....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.023s; cc: 13; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0451s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
sergei
non-member comment
I was just in Boca Brava and stayed on island for five days. What an amazing place. I went out to some of the islands and couldn't belive it. The idea of a totally deserted beach was a dream come true. I can't wait to get back. S