Bocas del Toro Archipelago

Last weekend I found myself in Bocas del Toro.  The Bocas del Toro Archipelago is on the Northern Caribbean coast of Panama, quite near to Costa Rica.  It is made up of hundreds of islands, some inhabited and some still paradise.  It was about a 4 hour trip from Boquete to Bocas Town, the largest city in Bocas del Toro where we stayed.

Wizard Beach

The trip was absolutely breath taking.  It was winding roads through lush jungle covered mountains.  A carpet of green, upon inspection the mountains are covered in many types of shrubs, palms and mosses.  There were no towns along the route we travelled, but there was many Indigenous people.  Indigenous houses in this area are basically stilted roofs to provide a covered area.  About every 30 miles there was a school, which was a small cement square with ‘Escuela’ painted on the front.  It was quite strange to see young school children in what looked like uniforms against this remote jungle background.

Boats to Bocas Town

From the mainland you have to take a 45 min boat ride to Bocas Town.  I spotted a Chiquita Barge Ship, which I loved because on the drive we had passed countless little trucks stacked with bananas.  Indefinitely bananas are a large crop for Panama and I saw them being transported around the world. 

Dolphins!

The first day we hired a boat driver at the dock and set out to explore the endless Islands.  We visited Dolphin Bay and it was incredible!  Dolphins were jumping out of the water and playing in the bubbles from the boat motor.  I am not sure the variety of dolphin, but they were much smaller than the ones I have seen on the Pacific Coast in more northern regions.  The largest was probably only about 4 feet long.  I even saw a baby which couldn’t have been over a foot long.  Our driver said that it was probably less than a week old.

Red Frog - Size of a Thumbnail

We went snorkeling in a few different spots around the islands.  The fish were plentiful and bright, and there was vibrant coral in purples and oranges.  Unfortunately it seemed like a fair bit of the coral was bleached.  After working up an appetite swimming we had lunch at a little restaurant in the middle of the sea.  We ordered beers and chilled in hammocks while they caught our lunches…fresh!  I had pulpo (octopus) with of course fried plantains and rice.  Others had lobster and fillets of fish.    

Chilling Before Lunch

Restaurant in the middle of the Carribean

In the afternoon we visited Bastimentos Island and enjoyed Red Frog and Wizard Beach, both of which are deserted paradises.  To get to Red Frog Beach we had to hike a short distance, during the hike we spotted the itsy bitsy famous red frogs.  They are no bigger than the size of your thumb nail, and after the fact I found out, very poisonous!  We also spotted sloths in the trees, they sleep hugging the tree branches, pretty cute.  Before the hike back we refreshed ourselves by scoring coconuts from one the many palms on the beach, luckily our Capitan had a huge knife help out!

Ocean Swing at Agua Bar

There is a huge amount of restaurants and bars to check out in the evening, many of which have live Reggae and Calypso music playing.  It is a chill Caribbean atmosphere - a lot of the people actually speak Créole, not Spanish.  We made the rounds over the weekend, but my favorite places were Casa Verde, a hostel/bar/restaurant with incredible views over the water and the perfect place to spend a sunset; Mondo Taitu, our hostel which constantly kept the party alive; and Agua Café, another hostel/bar/restaurant built on stilts that has swimming holes cut into the middle of the bar patios and swings out over the ocean water, pretty cool! 

Bocas Ninos

On our last day we visited Bocas del Darago on the eastern side of the main island.  It is famous for Playa de Estrella (Star fish Beach).  It lived up to its name with dozens of orange star fish sunning themselves in the shallow water.   We swam, got some sun, and ate fresh mangoes from mango trees.  Waiting for the bus back to town, a Pina Batida (Pineapple Milkshake), at a beach shack topped off the entire experience as just about perfect!

Banana Boats