We were slightly gutted to arrive in Bocas Del Toro and discover that the weather was grey, rainy and miserable. Bocas Del Toro is an archipelago of lots of little Islands on the Caribbean coast, tons of beautiful beaches renowned for surfing and snorkelling and with an Afro-Caribbean vibe a generally laid back atmosphere. We caught a water taxi to Bocas Town, the main island, which was an experience in itself in a high speed boat which was so fast that we were flying all over the place and with the rainy weather got completely soaked at the same time! It did make the both of us laugh.
Bocas town is such a cute little hippy town with shack restaurants, bars and shops all over the place and a hugely rasta population. This part of the Central American coast line is massively influenced by Jamaican cultures and that was very obvious; the town was very much somewhere you could see yourself getting stuck in the chilled out lifestyle for a while. We went for some breakfast and then caught another water to taxi to our hostel Bambuda Lodge which was on Isla Solarte, a complete different island, by itself!
The hostel being so isolated and in such beautiful surroundings was like a retreat lodge. To the front was the sea and beautiful coral reefs and to the back was just jungle. The hostel was in levels with a pool and terrace looking out over the rainforest fruit trees and sea. There were loads of hammocks and it really was such a stunning hostel with the best of both.
Liv and I immediately set up on some sun loungers by the pool overlooking the ocean and tropical plant, and despite the clouds it was absolutely boiling hot and was no longer raining. The day was wonderfully relaxing consisting of swimming, dozing, reading and chatting and in a way it did feel like we had booked into a retreat for a brief period of time. The hostel was really friendly and cute, and every night did a meal for everyone - however we did not take part as we were very low on dollars, so instead we ate crackers with peanut butter on the sly and played card games.