Onto Bocas Del Toro

Today I was on my way to Bocas Del Toro. So, I'd be taking a short plane ride from the Pacific-side of Panama onto the Caribbean-side at the sleepy surfer town of Bocas Del Toro (Mouth of the Bull). Bocas Del Toro is on the Island of Colon.

I arrived at Boca's small airport and as I grabbed my bags I walked outside of the airport and walked toward a baseball game going on at a nearby field. As I was walking, two women on bikes approached: Ang & her sister Maya!


I was SOOOOO happy to seem them! They looked great and relaxed, beach life I pressumed. We sauntered into town and they gave me a tour of Bocas' Main St. This town was much more touristy than Panama City. Here I could here more languages around me. We checked into our hotel (which was pretty nice), and then Maya and I went to shop Ang's grocery list. We rode bikes around Bocas and I received a pretty nice tour from Maya. Bocas seemed like a very mellow and nice place.

Bocas Main St.


At the Park

For the late afternoon, we decided to head out to a beach. Apparently there was a surf competition going on, so we wanted to go and check it out. It was a bit of a ways though, so we ended up getting a cab. Unfortunately, the cab could only go so far because the road was really rough (muddy, and bog-bound), so the cabbie went as far as we could go and pointed us the direction we needed to walk. So, we were on our way.

House & Laundry

Outside Playa Mango Resort

The road was really bad. You'd need to have a big 4x4 (or a boat) to navigate down the road. We pressed on though. There wasn't much out there. We were definitely away from the city. We saw a buildings, a small resort (Playa Mango), and then started to just see beach. The walk was actually pretty nice. It was warm and humid. We walked right along the beach. The waves were small, so you could pretty much walk in the warm waters. Every once in a while we'd see a vehicle pass by. "What are these gringos doing out here?!" they were thinking I'm sure!

On The Trail

Well, the walk ended up being way longer than we though (order of an hour+). We eventually happened upon an area where there looked like there might have been a surfing gathering. There were people, firstly. There was also a booth or two, but nothing looked like it was happening. We ended up hanging out for a little bit here and then made the trek back. Granted it was now later in the day. We ended up walking at dusk and eventually night. We managed to make it to Play Mango, and we decided we'd stop here and call for a cab or a boat (which could take us across the bay). We walked in all muddy-footed, but we were received well. Playa Mango was pretty dead. There was no one in the pool are at the restaurant. We met the bartender was a European kid here for the summer. He called a boat for us and we ordered a few drinks while we waited. Then, there was darkness.

Maya Watching Surf

The power went out! Yup, we could see along the beach and across the bay that the outskirts of Bocas were all bathed in darkness. Cool! It was neat to be in such a beautiful area and no noise or light. We soaked it in .

The power came back shortly, and the staff were kind enough to let us hose ourselves down. We walked onto their dock/bar and hung out until our boat came. We had a cool time sitting out at the floating bar among the "christmas lights" and the beautiful ocean-view of the town of Bocas.

Waiting For Our Boat Taxi