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That's it, our Central American adventure has nearly finished. A week in Panama marks the final countdown! Like in Costa Rica, we decided to split our time between two locations. This is somewhat a diversion from the original plan to visit Bocas del Toro, then stay one day in Boquete (a mountainous region, well known for the coffee farms) and then travel by overnight bus to Panama City. Considering that the experience of the mountains in Monteverde was more than enough and that we're getting a bit tired of the long journeys on the roads, we decided to fly from Bocas to Panama and get there in an hour. That's much better!
We arrived from rainy Costa Rica to rainy Bocas town where we stayed for two days before moving to a nearby island Bastiments for the final two nights at the archipelago. There are many taxi boats transporting people between different islands and the journey can last as little as 2 minutes. This part of the world is popular for its Caribbean vibe, colourful houses and opportunities to enjoy beaches, snorkelling, diving, even some hiking, but most of all to slow down and soak up the atmosphere.
I perceived the architecture and the overall atmosphere in Bocas town as a film set with its colourful wooden houses, wide streets and yellow taxis. Just like in Belize, there is a big Chinese community in town and they hold monopoly over the supermarkets. One of them even had a huge (by the town standards) hotel built over it, with a distinctly different facade made out of ceramic tiles! The town itself is more or less one main street and a little bit around. The rest of the residential streets seemed a bit deserted and not attractive.
There is a beach around 17km away which is famous for the starfish that can be seen even in shallow water, or it used to, according to some people who visited before. I wish I didn't read all the information beforehand about how the tourism exploitation (namely people taking them out of the water to take photos, which causes them to die) hugely reduced the numbers of starfish. Knowing all this, we lost the motivation to visit this beach and support that aspect of the tourism here.
There was nothing spectacular happening for us in town. Bought some gifts, took it easy and...found a mouse walking all over our staff on the first night of our stay!! Well, that was one too many a creature on this trip, I am so ready to go back and enjoy the home comfort I'm used to (since we successfully banned the little pests from coming in)!
Oh,yes! There was one situation that stopped our breath. After just arriving and finishing our first meal in a small eatery on the main road, with some unsavoury types hanging around, we made our way to the hotel for afternoon rest. About half an hour later, I asked Semir to hand me the iPad from his rucksack. As he nonchalantly went to look for it, the realisation took place. There was no rucksack in the room...which also contained Semir's passport! We ran out of the room as fast as we could, as our hearts fluttered like colibri's wings!! We entered the place and saw some new people sitting in and, there it was! Phew! Still hanging on the chair. We walked back completely elevated and exhausted with the feeling of relief.
After 2 days at Bocas town, we packed our bags (for the oompteenth time) and took a 5-10 minute taxi to Isla Bastimento, this time an island with no motorised traffic. We observed the approaching sight and there was our hotel with the hammocks on its dock, waiting for us, practically floating over the water. It is not uncommon that the houses here are build on pillars over the water, but for us, this was the first experience of staying in one. As we approached it, the rotten smell of dump nauseated me and I thought we weren't going to make it through our stay here; but, there was a pleasant surprise. On entering the hotel and our room, we found ourselves in a very strange but clean (and not smelly) place. We heard the constant sound of the water moving bellow our feet and then saw the water between the floorboards. The place literally has no sound proofing, as there is only thin wooden wall between the rooms and no ceiling apart from the cotton fabric cover. We had the net over our bed, so we didn't worry about anything or anyone jumping onto the bed! Regardless of the noise, I fell asleep like a baby, because I found that communal feel very reassuring after a long time or being isolated in the private rooms during this journey. It really felt like we were in someone's home. It is called Tio Toms guesthouse after all. Well, I was woken up by the sound of waves right bellow us and that was the end of it.
The last beach we visited on this trip was the Red Frog beach, named after poisonous frogs (not to the humans) that inhabit the area. There is a beautiful 10 minute walk through the jungle and we saw a sign asking tourists not to take pictures with the frogs, for the same reason as the starfish. Apparently local children catch them and offer the photo opportunities to the tourists. The beach had some really big waves; I now regret a little not jumping into them, but at the time it didn't seem like an attractive idea partly due to the breezy, cloudy weather and even more so because I chickened out.
We had a stroll through the Bastimentos Old town and it was really sad to see majority of people living in the slum-like conditions. Yes, there are mainly wooden houses rather than metal shacks, but the state of some of them and the amount of rubbish we saw right on people's doorsteps was like nothing we've seen so far. And there were whole families sitting on the porch and the children playing barefoot around that rubbish. Like many times during this trip, it reminded me just how vital the education is - and how life changing an opportunity to see how people live in different places. If the locals on this island have had such an opportunity they would have been more likely to make their own place better. We found out from someone that the older generations have skills and knowledge, for example in working with land. Then the 'Chicita' bananas corporation based their plantations on the island and for a while provided disproportionally high salaries that were quite a novelty for the locals. After some time (not sure for what reason) they pulled out and the people were left with nothing to do and no proper skill or working habit. Hence, the things are as they are.
We ended our stay on this island in a most unlikely way. Our hotel owner's wife had a birthday party and all the guests were invited to her house. When we asked which way to go, we were told to "follow the music". We couldn't possibly miss the place with the club strength speakers outside and the music so loud it was almost painful. I would've described this as a much more pleasurable experience in my 20s, but I am not any more. The house was full of mainly local people, it really was true what we were told: the whole village was there. There were drinks on the tables, grilled chicken and rice on offer and people dancing to the beat of salsa. It was beautiful to watch how they feel the music and move naturally. After a short while, it was time to go if we were to save our hearing for future.
Last stop: Panama City!
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