We arrived in Bocas del Toro, an island off the Caribbean coast of Panama, planning to spend 2 days there. How plans can go awry... It was so nice there we ended up staying 3 nights, and left wishing we could have more!
We booked into this amazing hostel, which was probably one of the most chilled out places. It had a roof terrace with hammocks, from which you could see the dense jungle on one side, and on the other the main plaza, with the ocean behind it.
On monday we decided to head over to Isla Bastimentos, home of Red Frog Beach. We got a water taxi over, and it felt like we were sailing down the amazon, so surrounded were we by mangrove-shrouded shores and greenish water. On our arrival at Red Frog we were greeted by these boys carrying leaves in which they had trapped (slightly cruelly it could be perceived) two mini (poisenous, it should be noted) frogs! The beach itself was incredible - lying down, the jungle was 3m behind us, and we could hear the insects going mad. The water was azure blue, and there was a sand bank so not very deep. We bumped into some people from the hostel there which was nice as we hung out with them. Lily jumped off the rocks into the water with one of our new-found friends which, despite being slightly worried she would smash her face in, was highly enjoyable! Apparently Jack Nicholson tried to buy this island, of untouched primary forest, to build a golf course on..,. Unbelievable!
We went out that night to a moustache, cleavage and ballerina party at another hostel which was fun. We had some caiprinha's which were nice, if a tad strong.
The next day, we got a bus across the island with different people from the hostel (so many mates...) to Starfish Beach which was amazing. It was soooo hot on tuesday - a day with high tanning potential! We walked along the beach until we found a nice spot, it felt like the Maldives. There was white sand,and turqouise water that you could see to the bottom... perfection. We did a bit of diving but there wasn't much to see. Then we knocked some coconuts out of atree, cut them open and drank the milk. All while listening to reggae, as someone had brought speakers. Sooo nice. And we're nice and tanned now that the burns we acquired that day have faded! Healthy...