On the 8th August we crossed from Panama's North coast to its southern coast and to an undeveloped archipelago which included the island Boca Brava where we stayed. The location was beautiful and quiet and was very different to Bocas del Toro with its parties and mass tourism. When we set off we thought we might have to get a taxi part of the way but were relieved to find that local transport (2 boats and 4 buses) took us the whole way in a comfortable 7 hours.

Our hotel was perched on a cliff at the end of the island with wonderful views and we found that it was for sale for only $500K - bargain.

On our first full day we signed up for a whale watching tour but agreed for it to start later (with the other guests and hotel) so we could call home and speak to James and Lucy on their wedding day. Unfortunately we couldn't get through to them so had to leave for the tour. The water taxi took us to two beautiful islands with white sandy beaches and we snorkelled from the first one. The coral wasn't beautiful but the fish were colourful and we saw some polka dot ones which looked amazing. After the first island and on the way home we spotted a mother whale and her calf (it could have been the same whales on both occasions). They were really tricky to photograph because they would disappear for minutes and then only appear for seconds. Unfortunately we didn't get any whale tail slapping but it was still very impressive. When we got back we tried again to video call home and this time managed to speak to James and Lucy and Eddie and Rachel. The signal was poor but it just about worked. Eddie also gave us a tour of the marquee and we got to see the band play. We were really really sad not to be there but we celebrated with a bottle of rum despite the distance.

On our last day we walked to a couple of the beaches on our island. We heard howler monkeys but didn't see them but did see lots of big spiders on the paths that had to be moved with a big stick before we could pass. On the beach we saw lots of crabs running around and digging holes in the sand just for the tide to come in and force them to retreat. The spiders had rebuilt their webs by the time we headed home so we had to go through the slow moving process again.

Simon