As our Amazon tour was cancelled we had a week free so decided to head into Panama. We went to a provence on the Carribean coast called Bocas Del Toro which is famous for its beautiful beaches.
To leave Costa Rica we had to stand in line for about an hour carrying our huge backpacks in 30+ degree weather. This is when you start to realise you have overpacked. That was painful enough, but we get to the Panama side and the line is huge - hundreds of people and they had been waiting in this crazy heat for hours and hours. The Panama system was down and it was a nightmare. Our bus driver had dropped a group of people off at the border about 2 hours earlier so he decided to sneak us in line to where this group were, which must have cut at least 2 hours off our wait. After another couple of hours we get near the window, where is one man stamping the passports of every person going into and out of Panama. It was mayhem, dozens of people crowded around one window pushing and shoving to get their passports stamped. Luckily I have lived in London for 4 years and I have pushed myself onto enough tube carriages to be in my element in this situation . If I wasn't there, I am sure Jolly would still now be at the window politely waiting.
We ended up getting to Bocas in the late afternoon and checked into the hostel Jolly had booked us for the night. He assured me that he didn't choose it because they advertise themselves as the party hostel, but somehow the night we got there it was party night and it was not good. Jolly has realised he is no longer 18 years old, and after a very long night we checked into a much nicer place early the next morning.
Bocas was lovely, we stayed on an island called Careno which is a much smaller island with only a few hotels and resturants on it and no cars. To get between each of the islands you call a water taxi and a someone will come over and get you for $1pp. The town itself is built on the waters edge of the main island but there isn't a beach, instead you take water taxis or buses to different beaches. I think that might be why the beaches are so lovely though - there is very little development near them and not very many people so they stay pristine. On one of our first days there, we went to Red Frog beach which was a stunning beach - wide white sand, clear warm water and hardly any people at all. The beach is named after the little red frogs that live there, and local children now carry them around and try to get tourists to pay them in order to see them.
Another day we went out to Starfish beach, which as I'm sure you can guess has heaps of big orange starfish who call it home. These beaches were incredible and the owner of our hotel was telling us that the entire Carribean Coast of Panama is covered in stunning beaches that are vitually desserted as the locals don't really go to the beach.
We ate some really great food while we were in Bocas which is something we didn't expect. One restuarant is particular was amazing - you arrive and it looks like its on the porch of some local persons house and you are surrounded by jungle. They don't have a menu, they serve an amazing 6 course meal which changes all the time. The food was incredible, and the service was fantastic - it was like being at a 5 star restuarant in London except eating it on a porch in the jungle in the middle of Panama! It was one of the coolest things we have done here.
After a pretty indulgent and relaxing week, we headed back to Costa Rica to get our flight to Ecuador! See you soon Quito