I left Puerto Viejo early in the morning, it was pouring rain. It only took about an hour to get to the Panama boarder, had to pay $9 exit tax fee, walked accross a bridge and through immigration. Drove another 45 minutes which took us to a small boat to Bocas Del Toro main island. I arrived to the docks and it was simple getting a taxi to my hostel, Pica Loca Bay Hostel, on the other side of the island near the airport. As soon as I walked into Pipa Loca I felt more at home and it's run by this American couple from California, really sweet couple. There was an Argentinian couple there that was somewhat obnoxious because they would be talking on the phone with their friends or family pretty loudly. Then there was another couple from France that was sweet and the guy working at the hostel gave me some great suggestions eventually. The afternoon I arrived, I went to this local restaurant, Tom's Restaurant where I had fish and plantain patties that were super good but I had to make sure not to eat the bones from the fish. Then I had to decide if I wanted to dive in the morning because I was only supposed to stay one night there but then decided it might be better to stay two if I wanted to dive. The next morning it was raining and I still couldn't decide if I wanted to dive at first, but just decided to give it a shot. I went to try to get coffee beforehand but the coffee shop that the girl at the hostel suggested wasn't open and so the diving instructor said me and this other girl that was diving could go to this German bakery. We were running around trying to give it and eventually found this small local coffee shop. The other girl diving was experienced and had her certificate (from NC) and was at Bocas to work at the Smithsonian Triopical Research Center. She gave me some pointers but was just butchering me about my plans and what I was doing there. Eventually I go put in a small room with this other girl from France who also was new to diving and we watched this short film on how to dive for the first time. I wasn't nervous about the diving aspect, I was nervous about my ears because I've always had ear issues (since I was little I would always get ear infections and even got surgery-my tube removed when i was 5 or so). I didn't mark that on the waiver because then I wouldn't have been able to dive! Anyway, we finally got out on the water, the two instructors and the 3 of us girls. The first time being 4 or 5 meters down, I could tell me ear drums weren't too happy and I tried to relax and move my jaw around and swallow, and do all the things you're supposed to do to avoid ear problems. It hurt for like 5 minutes and then eventually went away. We practiced the equalizing as we kept going deeper and eventually started swimming around the coral. The coral was beautiful, nothing I've ever seen before. Then we found a huge lobster and crab and schools of fish and then after about 50 minutes, went back up to the boat. We drove to another location and went next to a ship wrek and went further down under (12 meters) where we saw a lot of sting rays, different looking fish and then my instructor saw a hammerhead shark right infront of him but I didn't see if becuase it moved too quickly and I was worried about the sting ray (which I later found out the sharks were hunting for so it was definitely hiding from the shark). We ran into other divers and it felt sort of cool to be under the the water, in this whole other world, in a community full of divers. I can see how people obsess over diving because there really is a whole other world to explore. Once we got back up, my right ear was clogged so I did everthing I knew how to do to get rid of the water out of my right ear. As soon as we got back to land, I tried to get water out again and it wouldn't get out so I knew I needed to go back to the hostel. As soon as I got back to the hostel it started irritating me so I thought to put drops I had for ear wax in my ear. I had the girl working at the hostel put some in and it still didn't help. It hurt even more so I tried looking up what else to do and was about to go get more alcohol but asked the hostel if they had any and they did so I used theirs and had the girl put some in. It didn't help and then the power on the island went out so I was stuck with no communication with my family for 2 hours, listening to reggae music playing on the streets (it was a Friday and everyone was starting to part) and trying to sleep. Eventually I got up after trying to let it drain for hours and it was still draining. I had to go back to the diving place to get my rings I had forgotten and had told the French girl, Marie, that I would meet up with her so I stopped and met up with her but she was with a guy so I left after a beer, bought frozen pizza and a green pepper, organized my backpack and called it a night. I had planned to go biking that afternoon but it actually worked out the next morning I went because the hostel guy had suggested I go to this lake on the way to the other beaches and I did and saw a Caiman! I stopped at the hot spots (Pika Point-local and Sharkeys-American), and ended up getting lunch at Pika Point because it was local and it was just super relaxing to sit and watch the surfers and drink a couple beers on the beach. I could tell this was off the grid, not a lot of people go all the way over here from the big island, would be a nice couple trip to go here on a romanic getaway. I had to leave at 5pm to go to the next island/hostel so I got back around 3 and then met up with Marie at La Buga and we chatted for a bit and then I was off to Bambuda Lodge. The only other person on the boat over was this 22 year old girl from Austira, who ended up having scars on her right leg from motorcycle accidents in Bali/Thailand! I was shocked because they were big and actually looked like birth marks haha but what a coincidence. We chatted about all the places she had been which was mosly Asia and she loved New Zealand so she gave me a lot of pointers and then we arrived Bambuda. My first impression was excited to be in a new environment but then it was all these groupls and couples and then we were like the only single/solo travelers. It was definitely a party scene so I was kinda of disappointed because that was the last I wasnted to deal with with my ear and I was tired. I figured I had two nights so make the most of it, sat at the community table for $13 dinner and talked to this girl from Australia who gave me some pointers about where to surf there and called it a night. The next morning I selpt in really late and had a nice chai seed bowl breakfast and then me and Tabea (the Austrian) went to another island to somewhat get away). She snorkelled and I sat a drank a pina colada...we basically had the whole place to outselves. The water in the bathroom didn't work and there was no toilet paper, the drink was $6.50 so we headed back after a couple hours and hung out by the pool where we met these other guys who had come for the day (one from Scottland-had lived in DC for a couple years and a German). We sat and talked about world politics for an hour and I learned a ton about what's going on with Brixit and other parts of the world, basically the same with what's going on in America (capitalization). Loved having this conversation, all four of us from different countries basically agreeing on the same position and also at the same time scared for our future. Had pretzels for dinner and tried going to bed early but couldn't and then it stormed really hard that night I could feel the thunder underneath me. I woke up early and did yoga (had done yoga the day before) and it felt nice to get back into it. I can tell that when I don't do yoga, I'm not as connected and it really does affect me. I was ready to leave that place and finally did the next morning I set off to the sister Bambuda Castle. I ran around the big island to get some more cash and a shirt, sweating my balls off, I made it to the boat and met these two 22 year old French Canadian girls. They gave me tons of pointers on South America, it was great! And then met this American girl from Colorado (33) who had been traveling from Guatemala, down South who also gave some good pointers on Central America. We were waiting for an hour for the shuttle when the driver told us he would buy us some beers in exchange for waiting. We went to this little bar with pounding music playing and there were these locals drinking out on the dock. We got a beer each and kept chatting about out travels with loud reggae music playing in the background and the locals getting hammered. It was quite the scene. Then it was finally time to go after a couple hours total of waiting and a small white car pulled up. Apparently there was an Uber protest that day in panama so no shuttles were driving for a couple days. Had no idea. Thankfully we had our own private car but did have to stop at this one place and wait for 30 minutes where I got some rice and an empenada.