This past Wednesday I awoke before the sunrise to begin my mini-vacation to Bocas Del Toro, Panama. I was instructed to be at the airport in Tamarindo at 6:30 AM which required a 6 AM taxi and $30 of my precious dollars. I arrived at the airport and waited for an hour and a half until the plane arrived. The plane was small, it fit about 18 people if I counted correctly. The trip was two legs. A 45 minute ride to San José, where I had to wait for 2 hours before the 50 minute flight to Bocas Del Toro. The flights went well, although it took me a few minutes to get used to riding in small, prop-planes. The ride is a bit bumpier and the seats are smaller but the view was amazing as you can see from my photos.
I arrived in Panama to warmth and partly cloudy skies. I proceeded to a hostel recommended by a friend of a friend and was pleasantly surprised to get there cheaply and without hassle. Aqua Lounge is
located across the bay from the main town in Bocas, with a great set-up including a pool and swings off the dock. The prices were reasonable, the rooms clean, and the people very friendly. I spent two days at the hostel without doing much. Drinking a few beers, swimming in the water, working on my tan, watched The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and slept a lot.
On Friday I decided to change hotels because I wanted to actually do something during my trip and found a nice hotel on the main island located away from the bars and partiers. I also met up with my friend from school in Flamingo, Emma, and her friend from home. We traveled to Bastamientos Island, about 15 minutes by boat, to visit Red Frog Beach, named for the strawberry-poison-dart frogs that inhabit it. Unfortunately we didn’t see any frogs but the beach was beautiful despite being hit by a recent storm. We spend 4 or 5 hours there and got a bit too much sun. We then headed to the little town on Bastamientos to grab a late lunch. In my pictures you can see the restaurant with the reggae theme,
that is the old town of Bastamientos, North Bank. We then headed back to the hotel (Olas de la madrugada) to try and catch the sunset but it was too cloudy to see much. We grabbed dinner at a faux Mexican restaurant run by and expat from Texas. The food was surprisingly good and during our dinner it started to pour. We hadn’t even considered this possibility and had to wait a bit for a break in the rain before running back to the hotel. We played some cards and then called it a day
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