Bocas del Toro is absolutely amazing! And, our hotel has air-conditioning! Our hotel was on Isla Carenero- a short $1 water taxi ride away from Bocas Town. It was right over the water and the reception/lounge/restaurant area was completely open, making for incredible views and amazing ocean breezes. We spent the evenings sitting on the couches in the lounge looking out at the water, watching the boats come and go and the pelicans swoop in and out of the water. It was so relaxing and a completely amazing way to end the day. It was just as humid as Cahuita, but the ocean breezes kept it relatively cool, in fact the temperature was perfect (and, I think the wind kept the mosquitoes away since we saw next to no mosquitoes!).
View from the hotel lobby
Oh, the food in Bocas was amazing as well! We were excited to get some spice in our lives after the very mild food in Costa Rica and we were not disappointed, everywhere we went had a house sauce with a nice kick to it! We went to one taco/surf shop and I am still dreaming about the burritos we had there. Everything we tried was incredible and there are so many unique, interesting places and all of them were amazing! We enjoyed 2-1 “Wrappy Hour” wraps at Bocas Blended, a bus that had been turned into a stationary food truck/restaurant, complete with a upper deck on top of the bus! We enjoyed a taste of traditional Panamanian food- beans, rice, meat and a potato salad with beets and carrots- another amazing meal! It seemed like everything there had a restaurant, everything was a ___/restaurant- a taco shop/restaurant, a bus/restaurant, a laundromat/restaurant… everything had a restaurant in it!
The first day we were there, the weather was perfect. It was sunny and dry, but we were hot and tired from our trek across the border and the subsequent shuttle ride and water taxi ride to our hotel, so we didn’t do much, but we talked to the owner of our hotel and he told us about some excellent tours available throughout the several islands that make up Bocas del Toro. We were very excited about one that he highly recommended- a boat trip to see dolphins and then to a National Park on Zapatillas Island for hiking and snorkeling. However, we were warned that it was only worth it if it was a sunny day, if it was a rainy day it was not worth going on the tour. To our dismay, the next day dawned rainy and wet. It stayed rainy and wet most of the day. The owners of our hotel recommended that we take a bus up to Boca del Drago and then walk down to Playa Estrella, the beach there would be great even if it was a little rainy and they said there would be huge starfish. So, that is what we decided to do. The bus ride was about half an hour and we found ourselves at the other end of the island. There were many little restaurants and even one very big, very nice looking and very closed hotel. We had no idea where we were supposed to go from the bus stop, but there was an almost path going along the back of the hotel. We followed this almost path, having no better ideas in mind and after a short walk it dumped us on the beach, so we followed the beach along. It was a beautiful walk, right along the ocean with palm trees swaying overhead. We felt as though we had walked onto a screensaver- the beach one with the white sand beach and palm trees everywhere. It had stopped raining and the sun was thinking about peeking out of the clouds. Turns out, we could not have asked for a better day. We walked about 20 minutes along the beach until we came to a sign announcing starfish beach. There were tons of little food shacks and hammocks along the beach, the water was clear, shallow and as smooth as glass, perfect for swimming! And there were tons of starfish! They were really big, far bigger then any other starfish I have ever seen (my experience is limited to the tide pools of the Pacific Northwest).
We frolicked for a few hours, looking at starfish and having treading water contests and then headed back. It was right around then that the rain picked up. We had been lucky that it had cleared when we got there, but it didn’t look like we were going to be so lucky for our walk back. We ended up getting dumped on, but just as we finished our hike. I believe that we ended up catching the last bus of the day at about 5pm. We rode back with many of the workers from the restaurants and stalls along the beach. We enjoyed a soggy dinner at El Toro Loco- a gringo bar in town and then ended the evening watching the rain from the lounge in our hotel.
The next day, we were dismayed to see that the rain was back. A tour to Zapatillas was out for sure. We enjoyed our breakfast at the hotel, slowly sipping our coffee and enjoying watching the rain hit the water. We wandered into town to look around there and purchase our bus ticket to Panama City and by early afternoon, the sun came out. We went back to our hotel and rented one of their kayaks. We kayaked around our tiny little island, stopping to swim when we got hot or saw a particularly enticing area. It was so beautiful and a fun way to see the island from a little different perspective.
In order to get to Panama City we had to catch the bus from the main island, Almirante, at 8:30am.In order to be at the bus station half an hour early we had to leave our place around 6:30. We got up nice and early and went to see if we could hail a water taxi. One of the owners came downstairs from the overhead rooms, probably to start breakfast, and chastised us for not letting them know the night before that we were leaving so early so they could have a water taxi lined up. That was when it was discovered that we had not paid. We have booked so many places and we have paid for almost all of them at the time of the booking. We really and truly thought that we had pre-paid for hotel. However, I doubt we were able to convince the owner as she sees us sneaking away at 6:20 in the morning. I felt terrible because I know that must have been how it looked. But honestly, what kind of hotel waits until you check out to make you pay?!?! We furthered discovered, like everywhere else in Bocas del Toro, they did not accept credit cards, only cash. So, with only minutes to spare before we had to catch the water taxi to Almirante, Nick left me and the bags at the hotel as collateral and hopped in a water taxi over to Bocas Town where he (I assume, having not been there to witness it) sprinted to the ATM four blocks from the taxi drop off, withdrew enough cash to cover three nights at the hotel, sprinted back, boarded a water taxi and came to drop off the money and collect me and the bags. We then rode back to Bocas Town with barely enough time to board the water taxi to Almirante. Fortunately, that was the only hangup and the rest of our trip went smoothly- it was an 11 hour bus ride to Panama City, it was long and cramped but the scenery was nice. We also missed the Germany-Brazil game which apparently shaped up to be a pretty good game!
Panama City is much bigger than we thought it would be and was much hotter than we had hoped. After recovering from the bus ride we went to visit the Panama Canal. I have to admit my ignorance here, but I was completely shocked at how long it is! I thought it was just a series of locks but the canal is 80km long, it takes 8-10 hours to get through and there is a giant lake in the middle. We were on the Pacific side at the Miraflores Locks and watched as two humongous ships passed through going into the ocean. We also visited the museum there and learned some interesting Panama Canal facts, including this gem: the lowest toll anyone has ever paid to get through the canal was $0.36 (most tolls are $300,000-400,000!!!), it was paid by a man who swam through the canal.
Things going horribly awry with Nick as captain!
Our hotel was right on the old United States Clayton Army Base, and there were not a lot of dinner choices nearby, we ended up at the closest restaurant for dinner, an Irish Pub. So, of course I got the Thai Chicken Curry because I want to be able to tell people that I ate Thai Chicken Curry at an Irish Pub in Panama. And it was pretty good too!
The view from the Irish pub. A container ship passing through the canal!
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