On Saturday we set off from Boquete straight after breakfast. The trip to Bocas del Toro was a little simpler than the one to Boquete, due to a lack of anyone available to travel with us the Spanish school had upgraded us to a minibus that would go directly from Boquete to Bocas del Toro without going via David. The minibus arrived at the hostel and we could immediately see an issue. It appeared to be totally full of people and luggage. The drivers set about unloading all of the luggage from the bus and loading it onto the roof, something I can’t remember seeing since our time in Africa!
After a few minutes all of our luggage was on the roof and Alex, Laura, Luisa and I had commandeered the back row where we soon realised we were slightly less squashed than the rows in front of us.
Luisa is another of our classmates. She’s 19 and from Switzerland, very sweet and like the rest of the younger members of our group, very intelligent! She’s also on her gap year and aspires to become a vet. She has never studied Spanish before and so was originally placed in a lower Spanish group than us but, probably because she already speaks Italian, she has been quickly promoted through to our group! Luisa had a somewhat traumatic start to our trip with her bag being lost and then delayed for a few days. When it finally arrived everything was complete and intact, except for all of her underwear which had disappeared!
The bus ride was only a few hours, we passed it chatting and listening to music or podcasts, and before we knew it we were being unloaded into a boat to make the final journey to the island of Bocas del Toro.
The boat ride ride took us to one of the docks at Bocas from where we had a short walk to the hostel. Bocas del Toro is on Colón island and, despite the tourism, doesn’t have great infrastructure. Water is intermittent and the best hostels have water tanks to try to bridge the gaps.
Our hostel in Bocas was bigger than our previous ones, although our room was a dorm for four with a private bathroom and only two beds in use. It was still a private room as a result but with beds at weird angles, and being on the ground floor by the kitchen, it didn’t feel as nice as previous rooms.
Bocas del Toro is an island party town with plenty to do, but no beach in the town. Other nearby islands can be reached by small motor boats that populate the docks in the centre of town.
Our first night in town was a Saturday night and, although we were all tired from the journey, Alex and I decided to check out the nightlife and were joined by Laura, Thomas, and Nick.
Thomas and Nick are two of our other companions. Thomas is a 57 year old engineer from Dusselldorf who, despite being somewhat older than the average age of the group, seems happy to muck in with the rest of us and even joined us for Filthy Friday (more on that later).
Nick is Belgian and quickly became known as the weird uncle (in a good way) of the group. He’s 47, has led a fascinating life, and always has something funny to say, he’s currently travelling the world after selling his restaurant a few months ago.
What was meant to be a quick drink to take in the atmosphere of Bocas del Toro took a turn when we went into Barco Hundido, one of the clubs by the water. In Bocas del Toro there is a string of bars and clubs by the water, all of which are mostly open to the air and extend over the sea on a deck. Most also have a large open space in the deck with absolutely nothing to stop you falling into the water! Barco Hundido is so named as the deck is built around a sunken boat.
We ended up dancing for a few hours in Barco Hundido. Laura is an excellent dancer and was quickly engaged to dance salsa with a few locals. Alex and I also practiced our moves but unsurprisingly with less success!
The next day was a whole day catamaran tour of the islands. We headed to Dolphin Bay first where we did indeed see dolphins and snorkelled around a small mangrove island. The coral here was amongst the best that I’ve seen with some bright purples, blues and oranges. The fish and jellyfish here were also stunning, as were the hanging roots of the mangroves supporting a variety of life of all colours.
The day included a lot of time on the catamaran and another stop in the middle of a coral reef, where we were able to snorkel around a bit more, although the visibility wasn’t as good as the first stop.
Unfortunately a lot of time outdoors in the fresh breeze meant that by the end of the day Alex and I were both sunburned. My sunburn in particular appears to have been caused by sunlight reflecting from the water under the boat and coming through the mesh that I was lounging on, giving me a lovely lattice pattern on my back which for several days made me look a little like a pie!
After the catamaran we had dinner at a nice restaurant on one of the smaller islands. The service was very slow, but we had a nice evening and got to chat more to our travelling classroom family. After the restaurant we stumbled across some live music in the main square and then went to a microbrewery where Holly introduced us to a couple of other British guys. Weirdly enough I had connections with both of them! One reviews breweries and had recently visited Fresh Standard (our ‘local’ back home, where we’ve become friends with the owners and hosted our 40th birthday party), the other has a cousin in my team at work! Alex took Holly (who was ill) back to the hostel, and I spent an evening out with the guys culminating in some very bad karaoke.
We had a few quieter days after the weekend and settled back into Spanish lessons. Yesika our new teacher was excellent. We now had a smaller group of four which meant more opportunity to practice our speaking and Yesika was determined to drill some new tenses into us. What struck me most about Yesika was when she told us that she lives in a house with no mains electricity and only a small solar panel for lighting and charging mobile phones. This reminded me of the kind of poverty we haven’t really been directly exposed to since Africa and was a shock to find in Panamá, the country with supposedly the highest GDP per capita in Central America.
The rest of the week was relatively quiet, we had quite a lot of rain which limited outdoor activities and we once again had Spanish and dance classes both of which were excellent. On Wednesday Alex, Laura, and I went out late in the afternoon for a walk around the coast stopping at a beach bar where we had Tinto de Verano and ice cream after a quick dip in the sea.
On Thursday the weather was a bit nicer and we went across to a small island, Carenero, to walk around the perimeter, in theory a nice 45 minute walk. First we walked through the local village, a collection of small shacks with a lot of rubbish on the ground and dogs and children everywhere. We continued along the path and the houses soon became more expensive and larger, with private grounds and beach-front access. There were lots of fun signs around, which made things a bit confusing where we saw a ‘dead end’ sign, we thought it was another joke sign. We carried on, passing a couple of locals coming the other way. We ended up scrambling up a bank and into the jungle as the path had worn away to nothing. Luisa then managed to break her flip-flop and was walking barefoot through the mud! Thanks to satellite view on Google Maps, we managed to navigate on some tiny tracks through the vegetation and come out on the other side of the island after about half an hour. By this time we were all a bit tired, sweaty, and muddy! We had a splash in the sea and a refreshing drink at a small beach bar before heading home.
Friday night in Bocas del Toro is known as Filthy Friday due to a multi-island bar crawl that occurs every Friday starting from 11am. We opted for the more sensible option of joining at the penultimate venue after a few drinks at the hostal from 16:30. This was the first time that we’ve really seen the girls drink, and the Norwegians finally lived up to their (self-confessed!) reputation with enthusiastic drinking games. We went to our first stop on another island and partied as a large group for a few hours while watching people queue up to jump into the sea, and an enthusiastic fire display from the staff, before moving to the last venue by boats to continue the evening. It was pouring it down with rain at this point which made for an exciting journey back across the water! Thanks to the early start when Laura, Louisa, Mimi, Alex and I left just before midnight we were the last ones standing!
Saturday was our final day in Bocas del Toro. Mimi, our guide during the first week and again for our 3rd week had suggested renting bicycles and cycling to Bluff beach, around an hour’s cycle around the coast. Eight of us set off together in basic rental bikes which all featured back pedal brakes, which most of the Europeans were used to but Alex and I have rarely, if ever, used. The first half of the path was flat and concrete which then gave way to a rough potholed road which a few of the girls struggled on. Near the end of the ride there was a small hill, which felt like a big hill with no gears, and a few of us waited at the top for those who were pushing bikes up. Coming down the hill was far scarier as I struggled to brake sufficiently with the pedals and sped down at speed. Alex wasn’t quite as lucky however, ditching into the verge when she realised that she couldn’t stop and was only accelerating. Luckily she escaped with only a few scratches and a bruised ego.
We arrived at the start of Bluff Beach and Berglin’s local friend climbed a coconut tree to pick Pipas (young fresh coconuts full of water) then proceeded to smash them open for us so we could drink them. We then cycled further down the beach to a beachside hotel where we had a drink and a bite to eat before chilling on the sand. Laura and I had hoped to surf, however the waves were far too strong so we kept ourselves amused by sculpting a turtle and then Alex joined us for a walk up along the beach. A few hundred metres up the beach we saw what looked like a ball of fur but turned out to be a sloth walking between trees. We watched it crawl to the next tree and then climb up, while getting some fantastic photos and video.
Alex was getting tired of the beach by this point so she left with most of the girls, and Laura and I stayed behind with Mimi and the guys who worked for the hostel. We had to get the bikes back to the rental shop for 6pm however so it wasn’t too long before we headed back as well. Laura and I sped ahead near the end, dropped off our bikes and went for an ice cream. On the way we bumped into an American who we’d been hanging around with in the hostel, and a short while later Alex joined us for some light souvenir shopping.
Our last evening in Bocas del Toro was spent at the hostel chilling with a few of the people we’d met there including the American, a couple of German guys, and a Finnish lady.
At the end of a week in Bocas del Toro what did we think?
It’s a party town and for the first time in a while we had nightlife and restaurants on our doorstep which was a nice change. The infrastructure isn’t great in the town and the intermittent water wasn’t a lot of fun. Without Spanish classes keeping us busy, a week would have felt like a long time, however if we’d stayed outside the chaotic centre of town I think we would have enjoyed a very relaxed week! Overall it was a nice change and, despite the nightlife, we still learned a lot from an excellent teacher while feeling like we made the most of our last week in Panamá. Next week we move to Costa Rica for our final week with our weird little international family!
