Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Bocas del Toro was to be our first destination in Panama, our seventh and final country in Central America. After an uneventful bus journey to the border, we were greeted by a rather odd border crossing procedure. We were told by a man hanging around the migration office on the Costa Rica side that we needed to pay to leave and we needed to do this in a shop down the road. We didn't believe him as there was no mention of this in trusty Lonely Planet, and it seemed dodgy that we had to go to a shop rather than pay in the office itself. However, off we went, and checked this out with a police man who confirmed this odd procedure, so we went into a little shop about 100m away from the border, which apart from taking payments for leaving, also acted as a pharmacy, stationery shop and I imagine several other important services too. Imagine arriving at Dover and being directed to a little newsagents to pay a fee before you can enter the immigration queue- bizarre! While we were waiting in line at migration, Simon brokered an excellent deal with one of the tourist shuttles that would take us to the ferry in one (rather than two) buses and much quicker. Excellent until we had to wait for a Mexican family who were also travelling in the shuttle and seemed to be having problems with leaving Costa Rica. We were told something to do with them travelling with a child who wasn't theirs and didn't have a passport... But we eventually made it into Panama before being stopped at a police check and having to wait five minutes while the police scrutinised one of the Mexican men's passport before asking him to step outside to answer some questions. Fortunately, they eventually decided he was ok to continue.
The short ferry trip over to the island was straightforward at least, as was finding and booking into our first choice hostel in Bocas del Toro town. We wandered around the not-so-pretty town and booked ourselves on a tour for the next day so that we could see some of the prettier sights.
Our tour first took us to try and see some dolphins but we didn't see any. We then went to sloth island, a small mangrove island that the sloths have commandeered for themselves, and we got to see three of them, one really close and asleep in the branches of a tree. We then went to our main destination, a really small island called Zapatillo 2, in a marine park, where we had lunch and some free time to walk on the island, swim and snorkel. The island is beautiful with perfect beaches but there was a strong current in the water so I only snorkelled a bit near the shore whilst Simon and some others went further out (they could still stand up a lot of the time as it was really shallow) but reported that the coral was pretty damaged so they didn't see much. After this we tried a new activity called deep boarding where several people are pulled along slowly behind a boat, holding onto a plastic/perspex board which allows you to stay above the water or go underneath to view marine life. It was quite fun but as I spent the whole time frantically trying to stop my bikini bottoms from coming off from the force of the drag, I was unable to enjoy it to its full extent! We finished our trip on the way back by doing a bit more snorkeling where we saw a few colourful fish, then were luckily able to spot several dolphins swimming around which was a great end to the day.
On our second day, we took the local bus to the other end of the island and walked along a beautiful coast path to starfish beach, which we had been told was the most beautiful beach on the island. We were imagining a deserted beach but instead found that most of the beach was taken up by small restaurants which was a shame as it meant there wasn't really anywhere to sit without buying things in a restaurant, so we only stayed for a little while. Although the actual beach was not great, the water was stunning; really clear and calm, and we saw lots of starfish. We decided to head back to find our own secluded bit of beach and on the walk back, saw several dolphins off the coast. A couple of times, one jumped clear of the water. We finished off a nice day by going out to a restaurant for a good meal and a few drinks (we had been making use of the hostel kitchen a lot as it turns out Panama is a bit more expensive than we thought!)
Although Bocas had some nice bits to it, it wasn't our most favourite place. After seeing so many nice places now throughout our trip, it's easy to get picky about the quality of a place!
Katy
- comments
Diane Malone Hi, I loved Panama so much when there years ago. Hope you are able to get to the San Blas (sp) Islands they are wonderful. And very layed back. Remember to buy a mola or two the women work so hard to make them. Keep on keeping. djm
katie You saw dolphins!! : ) fantastic, really loving your blogs Katy and Simon. Mum is enjoying them too - she says it's like going away to these beautiful places every time she reads them! Xx