Everyone we talked to who had been to Panama said we HAD to go to Bocas del Toro, a group of islands on the Caribbean side of the country. A few followed up with “But don’t go there if it’s raining”, a tidbit of advice that we chose to ignore.

We arrived at the Panama City airport at around 9am after another restful night at the Lima airport. Our flight check-in time in Lima was 3am so we thought why spend money for an entire night in a hotel when we were only going to sleep there half the night. It obviously made perfect sense to pull up a row of chairs at the Jorge Chavez International and settle down for a few hours of free shut eye.

So anyway we arrived in hot, sunny Panama City just after 9am and decided we HAD to get to Bocas del Toro as quickly as possible. Being as thrifty as we are (see above), we skipped over the $25 taxis and opted for the $0.25 local bus, which we flagged down in the road. The Caribbean-influenced tunes were cranked as we raced and rattled through the streets of Panama City where the prevailing fashion trend seems to be: wear as little clothing as possible, no matter what your size. Oh, and make sure it’s two sizes too small and suitable only for a sixteen year old girl with a bad reputation. Stacy and Clinton would be appalled.

By some extremely rare stroke of traveller’s luck, our boom box death trap delivered us exactly where we wanted to be: the Panama City bus terminal where we boarded the next bus headed towards Bocas. Many had suggested we just fly to Bocas but we are thrifty! (see above). We had to spend a night in the town of David (pronounced Da-BEED) but were up at it again for a four hour bus ride across the country to the Caribbean coast to catch our ferry to Bocas.

As our cross-country bus climbed the low mountains in the centre of Panama, a few clouds appeared and then we drove straight into a wall of blackness accompanied by torrential rain. “Just mountain rain”, we thought. “It will be beautiful and sunny in Bocas!” Well of course we were wrong but the rain did let up by the time we reached the boat and the ride over was pleasant enough. The town itself is not so nice. The closest beach is 8k out of town, reached by foot, rented bike or taxi. The expensive places to stay are along the water – no cheap Thai-style beach huts here – so we found ourselves in a little room behind someone’s house in the barrio. We had excellent but expensive food, drinkable but expensive beer, and tried to avoid the drop-out American ex-pats that seem to overrun the place. Oh, but things would be different tomorrow when we would relax in the sun on a deserted beach all day long!

That night the skies opened up like they only can in the tropics and the rain did not let up by morning. As we sat eating our overpriced toast and coffee, these words came back to us: “Don’t go there if it’s raining”. Oh yeah. Right. Well, we were sure it would stop soon. But www.weather.com was the bearer of bad news. Nothing but pictures of little black clouds and big raindrops for the next seven to ten days.

Wasting no time, we were on the next boat out of Dodge, headed back to the sunny Pacific Coast. Another night in David where we passed up an offer to attend a strip club with a creepy American on a sex tour of Central America to go to an almost equally creepy movie called “Hostel” in which all these backpackers get tortured and murdered while staying at a hostel. Then it was back to our hostel for a nice sleep.

The following day after eight hours and five buses (I use the term bus loosely), we made it to our final destination of Pedasi on the Azuero Peninsula. We were happy to find a great room at a great hostel (not a torture device to be seen) and had time for a walk around the small, clean, quiet little town before the day was over.

The next morning the sky was clear and blue and we had a leisurely breakfast in the back yard of our hostel in the small outdoor restaurant set under an enormous mango tree. Each of the next four days consisted of some or all of the following: hammock time, laying on the beach, reading, sleeping, swimming in the Pacific, meeting new friends, discovering good cheap beer, surfing the waves, eating fresh seafood, and hanging out with two Labrador Retrievers – one black and one yellow (there’s only room in our lives for one chocolate Lab!).

Most of our time was spent at Playa Venao, a huge crescent of golden sand, a 33k minibus ride from Pedasi. The only facility there was a small cantina. Breakfast menu: steak and eggs, $1.50; lunch menu: fish with rice and beans, $2.00; beer: $0.50. Paradise. The surfing was fantastic – small waves but perfect for me as it was my first time and I went crazy for it so we returned the next day at 8am and put in a full day.

One afternoon the bus back to Pedasi failed to show up but we were lucky to catch a ride with a local, Gunter, in his seen-better-days pimp-style Mercedes Benz. He was very nice, a local firefighter who spoke only a bit more English than I speak Spanish. When we got back to Pedasi we went for dinner and he insisted on paying for the whole thing. His favourite saying, which is part Spanish and part English was “Solo peace and love” (Only peace and love). The more he drank, the more he said it and by the end of the night, that was quite a lot.

Sadly, we had to leave lovely Pedasi to catch a bus to Panama City for a day and a half stay before our flight back to South America. We did not enjoy Panama City as much as we did some of the other large Latin American cities. It’s pretty spread out and we walked around a lot. It is notoriously dangerous at night and we were even warned by police during the day while walking in the hotel district just a few blocks from our hostel. We visited the Miraflores Locks, one of the three sets of locks on the infamous canal. We were lucky to see a petro-chemical tanker and a huge car carrier pass through on their way to the Pacific. A bit of shopping and many unsuccessful attempts to find some Carnaval celebrations and our time in Panama was done – time to head to Ecuador to find some more surf!

No need to exchange currency here: both Panama and Ecuador use US currency as a means of stabilizing their economies. Panama calls the currency Balboa and although none of their paper money remains, the coins are usually a mixture of US and old Panamanian. Just a little fact I thought you might enjoy.

Another side note: Although less so than in South America, language was a problem for us in Panama. Fewer people speak English in the countries we have visited in Latin America than in any other region we have visited. Kevin’s knowledge of Spanish is virtually nil and I bought a book, “Spanish in 15 Minutes”, while we were in Canada over Christmas but what I didn’t realize was that it meant 15 minutes EVERY DAY for 12 WEEKS. Who has that kind of time? “Spanish in 1,260 Minutes” is what is should be called. Anyhow, not only is it a barrier when trying to converse with the locals, but it can make buying anything from lunch to bus tickets a frustrating experience. My vocabulary is expanding but not as quickly as I would like. My advice to you: Buy the book AT LEAST 12 weeks before you travel to Latin America. Oh yeah, and don’t go to Bocas if it’s raining.

B.

Photos:
Kevin Surfing
Brandy Learning
Friends at the Cantina
Hammock at our Hostel
At the Locks