The Easy Days of Bocas
Day 94
Writing about time spent on a beach and island hopping around a tropical paradise is tough. Really it is, its tough to make it all very intersting to you the reader without you the reader just getting upset. I’ve heard all about the long, cold and record breaking snowfall in Toronto this year. While that was all happening Norm, Vikki, Jordana and I spent a week island hopping, exploring deserted blindingly white sand beaches and snorkelling the bluest water I have ever seen. See what I mean? It a challenge to make that interesting without losing my readers.
Right, so here is a rundown of our time around Bocas del Toro. We spent a day sitting on Bocas del Drago, one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. Norm and Vikki seemed to really enjoy it as well. The sand was crazy white, the water clam and crystal clear. Not to mention we pretty much had our own stretch of beach to ourselves. The only development on the beach is a small restaurant where we had a great fish lunch.
Our nights were mostly a repeat of night one. Dinner, than happy hour at the same bar and same table with Jonathan and the Calgary crew. After we would head to the main street to watch the drunken Carnival festivites. The locals are so friendly here and love to have a goodtime so it was contagious and man can these folk drink! The parties were non stop 24 hours a day. One morning I woke up at 7am and the club down the street was still blasting out the music. We had a goodtime but to be honest our nights ended no later than midnight.
One day Jordana and I headed to another island, Isla Canenero. Norm and Vikki decided to take it easy at the hotel. It was a good thing they did. We took the short boat ride over to the island where we planned to walk to Red Frog Beach. A remote and untouched beach that has been called the most beautiful in the region. We assumed it would be an easy trail to follow and it looked that way at first. Soon we disappeared into thick jungle and deep mud. We wondered how this could be the way, so many people do this walk. How could it be so tough? We decided it was time to turn back to town when I tried to leap over a muddy spot only to land in waist deep mud. We were filthy, mud up to my waist and as we walked back through the village it must have been quite a sight. Needless to say we then opted for the boat. Jonathan and the Calgary crew were already at the beach when we eventually arrived and had a good laugh at our navigation skills. The beach was beautiful, white sand, blue water and backed by jungle. It was worth the troubles. We walked back the proper way with everyone else and were shocked at how easy it was.
Our last day in Bocas was the most enjoyable for everyone. We charted a boat for the entire day to take us to different islands and reefs for snorkelling. It was the 4 of us, Jonathan and the Clagary crew again. We first entered dolphin bay where we actually saw dolphins. I figured it was just a name. It was a great sight seeing the dolphins pop their heads up out of the water. Looked like they were watching us as much as we were watching them. From dolphin bay we moved to a spectacular spot for snorkelling. A small resturant has been built on stilts over the water on a small island that has nothing else on it. Actually the restaurant isn’t even touching the island, its completely built over the water. We had a fabulous lunch here, best food I have had in awhile. Not only is the resturant built over the water but directly in front is a some coral that is excellent for snorkelling. Actually there were so many fish visible right from our table that you didn’t even need to get in the water. This was great for Norm and Vikki who don’t snorkel. It was a perfect spot, everyone had something to do. We snorkelled in the clear water for close to 45 minutes, seeing fish I had never seen before. So many colours and diffrent fish it was some of the best snorkelling we have done anywhere. We finished the day with another snorkel off a beautiful beach. We swam out to a 50 foot wall that dropped off deep below, but the visibility wasn’t so great so we just turned back to the boat and all had a beer from the boats cooler. Beer always seems to improve a situation. We were all in waist deep water, so watching everyone try to climb back onto the boat without the help of a ladder was quite a laugh. If I only had video of Norm flopping aboard, it was quite a sight to see.
Our last night in Bocas we had a decent dinner although our waiter forgot our order so it took 2 hours to eat. Funny thing was when we eventually recevied our meals the original waiter was nowhere to be seen, we speculated that he was probably fired mid-shift. With Carnival over the town returned to its quiet laid back self, a nice change from the non stop party of the last 3 nights. We said our goodbyes to Jonathan and the Calgary crew, unlikely that we would meet up again this trip. As for the 4 of us we were off again in the morning, this time back to Boquete. I looked forward to the cool mountain air again. Although our time in Bocas was magnificent, its definetly one of the areas that I would love to return someday. A real tropical paradise.
Tags: Panama
Michael Coroneos
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.