Bocas del Toro, Panama

I think the Costa Rica/Panama border crossing goes down in the books as one of the most interesting border crossing I have ever gone across. The border is an old train bridge with a rusted metal frame and rotting wooden boards laid across the slated for people to walk across. The bridge crosses a river where you are in one county on the one side and in another on the other side. I took lots of pictures; and I wasn't the only one.

After you cross the border, it's a forty minute ride to Almirante, where you hop a 30 minute boat trip to the Bocas del Toro archipelago. This region encompasses sections of the mainland (in both Costa Rica and Panama) and nine islands. Bocas is the main island and Isla Colon is the main city were most travelers are dropped off and tend to stay. Many of the other island contain clearer beaches and beautiful villas for rent, but they all require additional boat trips to get to. It's not too bad though as water taxis are everywhere and relatively cheap. We stayed on Isla Colon, but I wouldn't mind coming back some time and staying at one of the more remote locations.

In another example of the world's concept of six degrees of separation, it turns out that one of Cammi's high school friends (that she hasn't seen in 15 years), moved to Bocas a few years ago and was thrilled to see us and show us around when she wasn't working. It's definitely a lot smaller of a world than we all think.

Bocas is also known for it's surfing and other water sports. It's not considered one of the best places in the world for diving, but when the conditions are right, it's supposed to be great. Cammi didn't care either way and on the recommendation of Kamron (her friend from high school), she sought out a local dive shop almost as soon as we'd dropped our bags at a hostel. She booked herself for a night dive and then a two tank dive the next morning.

When she came back from the night dive, she was raving about the bio-luminescence that was everywhere and how she now was in love with the town and could stay here diving forever. I think she was just thrilled to finally get a dive in.

We meet Kamron in the evening at a Rap Off, hosted at the Bookstore, which may have actually been a bookstore at one point, but now is a bar with books that you can buy and a ping pong table. This event was held in the street in front of the bar (since it wasn't that big) and consisted of four guys each composing their own raps on the fly (think 8 Mile with Eminem). When the guys weren't rapping, the band was singing covers from various different genres. It was fun to watch.

The next morning Cammi had signed up for a two tank dive, and not wanting to be left out, I signed up to go snorkeling on the same trip. I was the only snorkeler on the trip and therefore spent a lot of time swimming around by myself in not the most ideal locations for snorkeling as the boat was stopping in places that were good for the divers (i.e. further out to sea). I did however see a bunch of coral and different species of fish. I even got to float in the middle of a school of Sergeant Major fish and stalk these juvenile fish that glowed a bright blue (I really wanted to take one home).

On the trip, Cammi and I became friendly with a few of the other divers (Meryl, Simona, and Jackie) and all of us decided to spend the rest of the day together. After changing and grabbing some supplies, we all caught a water taxi to Bastimonti, another island in the archipelago. This island is mostly known for Red Frog Beach. Before heading to the beach, we stopped in town because we were told that there was a restaurant, The Firefly, that was not to be missed. After transversing the town, we found out that they were only open for dinner. Although the place was adorable and we were disappointed, the workers pointed us to a local spot, Alvin and Kesha's. The was a house on the water run by three generations of the same family. We has an eight year old girl as a waitress that was just as likely to bring you your food or clear the table as she was to start telling you about her pets and favorite subjects at school. It was beyond cute and the food was great too. Turns out this was a pretty good alternative to the other restaurant.

With full bellies, we commandeered another water taxi and headed to Red Frog Beach on the other side of the island. Once on land, you have to pass through a control desk that has signs gleefully telling you that while the beaches are all free, the lands surrounding them are private and you need to pay to cross them to get to the beaches. We each shelled over our $3 and followed the groomed paths and manicured jungle to a picturesque beach that made you forget the fee instantly.

After playing in the waves for a bit, we retired to the bar and enjoyed Rum Punch and Coco Loco Surprises (these were wonderful and served in the coconuts that were used to make the drinks). We all lost track of time and actually had to have a water taxi called from the main land to come and pick us up and a take us home.

Showered and refreshed, we all meet back up for a nice dinner out on the town. We went to Lemongrass, which had a good facsimile of Thai/Indian food, but I didn't think the portions matched the prices much at all. The atmosphere and company were good and Simona and Jackie were calling our waiter Senor Guapo (Mr. Handsome) and that's really all that mattered.

The final activity for the evening was to take another water taxi to the Aqua Lounge, the happening spot for a Wednesday night. This is a hostel that turns into a crazy party place with multiple bars at night (I haven't figured out yet if it's just a few nights a week or every night). The place gets it's name because the patio outside the hostel is built over the sea and has various areas cut out so that you can either swim if you feel like it or fall in if you drink too much.

I ended up going home around 2 am, while the others stayed to close the place down. I heard the next morning that I made the smart choice. The water taxi that the other girls were all taking back capsized while they were getting in (too much weight on one side) and they all got an unwanted bath in salt water. The worse part though was that while they were trying to get out of the water someone stole Simona's purse and everything that both her and Jackie had. I didn't see them again since they were supposed to be leaving for home the next morning, but they assured Cammi after the incident that they would be okay. I hope they are. I think it's deplorable that someone would steal shit from others when they're already in a crappy situations (i.e. dunked in the water).

Our last day in town, we meet up with Kamron again for a day of bike riding and exploration of Bocas del Toro island. This island is a lot bigger than the town that most tourist only ever see. We rented some beach cruisers and then proceeded to take them essentially off-roading. The road out of town that wraps partially around the island is only paved for so far. The path then goes across the sand, through the jungle, across a river, and along various not so crappy bike friendly paths. It was fun though and the sites along the way were great. We stopped at a few of the beaches for a quick dip in the sea and an attempt at snorkeling (failed every time). We even rode past the old airfield that was possibly an illegal air strip used to funnel drugs or people out of the country in the 70s. The only thing left is a few structures. You can't even tell there was a runway there, but Kamron assured us that there was.

Eventually, I called for refreshments and we hit up the last bar/restaurant on this part of the island. I had an amazing Mahi Mahi sandwich and a homemade Basil Ice Tea that was excellent. If I hadn't gotten sunburned (even with many many liberal applications of 70 SPF sunblock), I would say that this was an ideal low key day.

In the evening, Cammi grabbed another night dive with Meryl and I had some time to catch up on my blog entries. Even though Bocas was great and we were enjoying ourselves, it was time to move on.

SIDE NOTE: On my first day in Bocas, I received an email that told me to call my new employers because some things had changed. In changed, they really meant that my position no longer existed. The company rushed to have me sign up and fill out a contract and get ready to come home and then they had the meeting with the government and were informed that the government did not want any latent print people whatsoever on the new contract. They sincerely apologized for any inconvenience that this may have caused me and then told me to enjoy my vacation. So now I'm definitely a little peeved (mainly cause I bought a last minute plane ticket home and the company says they won't reimburse me cause it's not their issue), but on the upside, I get to continue wandering (now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do).