May 4, 2018 – May 8, 2018

Bocas del Toro is the name of a province in Panama, it is the name for a set of islands that are part of that province, and Bocas del Toro (known as Bocas Town to avoid at least SOME confusion) is also the name of the capital of the province.  We hadn’t planned on visiting the islands of Bocas del Toro (translates to Mouths of the Bull), but when we saw how close we were to them, we decided we had to go.

We parked the truck in a secure lot in the town of Almirante and boarded a panga (local name for all sorts of smaller power boats) for the 45 minute ride out to the main island, Isla Colon.

Bocas Town glows as you approach it from the ocean; hostels, restaurants and bars all brightly painted with inviting oceanside decks.  Inland, Bocas Town is variable, some  buildings have been lovingly restored, others near collapse, and the farther you get from the port, the poorer the houses in Bocas Town become.

The islands of Bocas del Toro have been inhabited for at least the last 2,000 years, but for most of the last 200 years or so, the economy of the island was dependent upon the health of banana plantations.  At one point, Bocas Town had 5 foreign consulates and 3 english newspapers.  The one-time-grand colonial buildings throughout the town give glimpses into how prosperous this island once was….not that the indigenous people saw a lot of that money, but this place was really hopping with the banana trade in the past, with a heyday in the first decade of the 1900s….green gold.

Repeated devastation of the banana crop in the twentieth century toppled the economy on the islands, and it wasn’t until surfers and backpackers started showing interest in the islands that they became much of a tourist destination.  Many Americans began buying property in Panama early this century and many chose to buy on the main island or one of the neighbouring ones,  so Bocas del Toro now has a strong ex-pat community as well.  There was a lot of construction going on while we were in Bocas Town, and I suspect it will look very different 10 years from now.

We settled in to our apartment for the next 4 days, went for dinner, walked around a bit to get a feel for the area.  The next day, we took Piper for a walk on the beach close to town (a bit garbagey but a good place to let her run), then put her into the air conditioned apartment for the afternoon.  We took a water taxi ($2 per person) to the nearby island of Carenero, walked part way around the island and back, swam in bath tub temperature waters, then enjoyed a late fish lunch in a restaurant built over the water. Incidentally, Carenero is where Columbus repaired his boats after arriving in the Bocas del Toro area on his third and final voyage to the Americas.

We signed up for a tour for the following day.  We met the operator at 9:30 in the morning, and after a lot of administrative inefficiencies, we were off in the boat with about 10 other tourist to Dolphin Bay. The boat was’t much to look at and there were some flex cracks as we cut the glassy swells but with a 250hp mercury outboard this thing could move Derek was thinking waterskis before we were out of the harbour.  We didn’t spot any dolphins, but it didn’t matter, the scenery was beautiful.

We idled through some narrow passageways in mangroves and enjoyed seeing star fish in the shallow water on our way to our next destination, the Coral Gardens.  We arrived and were told we had 1/2 hour to snorkel, and were given advice on the best area to swim.  We got in the water, and at first, we saw a few pieces of coral, a few fish….ah well, it’s nice to snorkel in nice warm water.  Then, the coral started to get thicker, and more colourful, and soon, we must have been right on top of the highlight of the area.  The coral was outstanding.  We saw red.  We saw light blue.  We saw dark blue.  We saw orange, green, pink, purple, black and white in splashes of colour that looked like melted wax crayons.  We saw brain coral, coral in huge flutes, there was stout coral and thin twig-like and throughout, some kind of worm things that looked like Christmas garlands draped around other corals (no idea what they were). There were anemones of various types and throughout it all were some very pretty fish.

Derek signaled to me that it was time to return to the boat, and when we got there everyone else except for one woman were already on board.  We could have stayed out there for hours.

Next we motored along to the island of Zapatillas.  Along the way we saw a few pods of dolphins.  Zapatillas looks exactly like what you think a tropical, Caribbean island should look like.  Here are some pics for you.

We walked around the island, swam, then got back into the boat to go for lunch.  We ate and chatted with F. and I., then got back in the boat for a few last sights for the day, more starfish, an island inhabited by several sloths, and some exciting high speed boat maneuvers through some more mangrove cayes.

That night we enjoyed a tasting menu dinner at a restaurant called Azul, and it was fabulous.  Derek ate off of the beef menu, I chose the vegetarian option (what can I say, there was a lot of goat cheese dishes on it).  We had bread, three appetizers, our main course, and two deserts, plus a bottle of wine, for about $60.  And it was delicious!  Just a smokin’ deal, and we ran into F. and I. again!  Small island!

Our final full day on the Isla Colon, we took another water taxi, this time with Piper, to Isla de  Bastimentos, here we hiked across a narrow part of the island to Red Frog Beach, so named for the large population of Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs found on the island (you should google these guys and look at the images, they come in all sorts of colour combinations!).  These tiny frogs (size of your thumbnail) are found all over the Caribbean, but Bastimentos is supposed to have the largest variation of colour and size (referred to as morphs) of these frogs.  We did look for them among the debris at the bases of the trees but didn’t actually see any.  We did however enjoy a wonderful day playing in the water and walking along the beach.

We ended our last full day in Bocas Town with a nice dinner at one of the restaurants overlooking the water. The next morning we left our air conditioned apartment and headed back to our truck camper and the mainland.