Bocas del Toro, Panama
As I was in the north eastern corner of Costa Rica and the highly regarded Bocas del Tora a few hours away I decided to pack up and do a quick country hop to Panama. My prior trip to Panama consisted of the capital city and the canal so I was thinking that a quick in and out would be fine. The trip was supposed to take only about three hours so it really wasn´t a significant detour although I was supposed to be heading to California and hadn´t been doing such a good job at it.
I grabbed an early bus and quickly teamed up with a retired engineer from Washington state. He was a very friendly character and was just finishing up a two month trip through Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and now Bocas. He spent most of his time in his home in Washington but would do a month or two long trip per year. We had hit a lot of the same places throughout the world so he seemed like a good travel companion.
Our first leg from Puerto Viejo to the border was rather painless cruising through more untouched tropical jungle. At the border we hopped off and made our way to the border post for the usual stamp outs and in. I had been warned that the Panama crossings were notorious for being long winded with times when the place would shut down for lunch. It took about an hour before we got our Costa Rican exit stamp as there was only one person working the window for both exits and entries. Al my new travel buddy was a talker and chatted up everyone who was within ear shot. We met a couple of Swiss girls in line and since we were headed the same way we decided to team up for better deals on taxis and such.
Getting to the Panama side was a quick walk along a dilapidated bridge and a small concrete building. There were about thirty backpackers and a mix of locals all strung along the wall of the building, many of them sprawled out on the ground as if they had been there a while. Apparently we had just got there at mid lunch and nothing was happening. We got in line with the others and hung out for the half hour before the window opened. As we got closer a man came along side asking people if they were American or Canadian. I told him that I was and he told me to follow him. The word was out that there were scammers at the border posts and to not utilize their “help”. We declined and he shook his head mumbling something as he left. Watching the line ahead I noticed a few of the people in the backpacker groups were sprinting off down to the store area below and then running back up to the window. It was odd, but we were standing our path. The Swiss girls went to the window first and were stamped in without a word. When it was Al and my turn, things went down hill. The lady asked for our Tourist card and proof of exit. Shit, what a scam. Apparently, as an American or Canadian, we are required to buy a $5 tourist card from the guy who had approached us earlier. Even though we had our flight info for departing from Costa Rica, they required proof that we were leaving Panama. They sent us running down those stairs we had seen other people going down to a little portable bus stand where they sold Boca del Toro to San Jose bus tickets for $11. The tickets of course were non-refundable but the only way to get proof of departure. Back at the window we were finally stamped in and out minus $16. Unfortunately I had not known about this crap otherwise I would have printed up some fake documents and saved the bucks. Oh well, it was an experience. The next scam was the taxi vans waiting to scoop up backpackers as there really wasn´t any noticeable transportation options. We luckily saw where the public bus came and got the local $1 bus versus the rip off tourist van.
To get to Bocas del Toro from the border required a bus to the first main town where we transferred to another bus which took us the hour drive to the ferry town where we they hopped on a little speed boat and another hour later we finally made it to the islands.
Bocas del Toro turned out to be probably one of the most modern touristic place that I had been. It was nice having a resortish place to hang out, but the negative was that the cost for places were crazy. Neither one of us were into dorms and since Al was on his last leg he was looking for more comfort. I was looking for something in the middle and the girls were more interested with a lively active place. On the taxi boat ride we ran into a long time expat who knew about the island so he walked us around showing us a bunch of different options. After a couple of hours of hauling our packs and being shocked at the prices and the double surprise that many of the places were full. Finally, we found a newish hotel right across where we landed that had one room for $15 and another next door for $30. Al was fine with the upgrade so I took the cheaper one and he covered the more expensive.
Hanging out with Al was a good break from the normal travel that I had been doing. He was very outgoing and for some reason all these packs of girls knew him. We would stop at a cafe for a drink and girls were constantly coming up to say hello as they had crossed paths from the southern route. Even when we were at dinner, a couple of girls just came and sat down to have a chat. As we were finished eating, they ended up buying dinner for themselves and drinks for us. It was great. We went to a Ladies night club and the Swiss girls were scamming drinks for us. Al was better than a little puppy.
Activity wise, the Bocas had the usual island activities. We spent one day doing a 35 km bike ride to the other side of the island where we spotted my target species of Sloths, a bunch of monkeys, and a plethora of birds. The beaches at the far side were totally empty and picture perfect.
At the far side of the island we stopped for a break and ran into a guy with a nice bike and all the traveling accoutrements attached. Although he was carrying a bit more than usual as he was doing some sort of documentary of his trip from Los Angeles to Argentina including on board attached video camera and digital Slr. He was going to sell it when he was down in Argentina and had about ten grand invested. The bike really peaked my interest until fifteen seconds later while traversing a sand patch he dumped it and was basically trapped underneath. We had walked our bike around a curve to a little cafe and only heard the horn beeping for a long time. The bike was so heavy he couldn´t get it up and had to have a couple of local guys to help lift it up. The bike came down on the side of the camera and it looked like someone dumped a pail of wet sand on the top of the attached video cam. It was a quick reminder that maybe smaller is better.
After a day on the bikes, a sore ass, aching legs, and a burned back, we decided to take water taxis around to the local islands for a bit of old school island hopping. They offer a standard boating package for $15 where you spend the day visiting four islands, snorkeling, and a bit of trekking. I wasn´t interested in being locked up for a full day so we just took the local water boats whereby you would just walk out on any pier and wave them down. We stopped over at the neighboring island to meet up with the Swiss girls for breakfast as they stayed at a cool backpacker which had rooms over the water with a bunch of cutouts in the planks for a sort of portable swimming areas . After breakfast, we took a trek to the far side of that island which ended in barren jungle and some secluded beaches. We then flagged down another boat and headed farther out to another island village. We grabbed a fantastic lunch at a little moms house before doing this ill advised trek over the island to the pristine beaches on the far side. The trek wasn´t recommended by the police as there had been a few muggings and also since it had just rained the trail was one big mud pack with roots intertwined throughout. Al wasn´t quite the most adventurous type and was really worried about the possibility of getting mugged. It was really funny when we ran into a couple of girls struggling their way over the top. I fully expected Al to turn on the charm, but I guess fear trumped his good nature and he basically barreled past them with his head down and probably happy that the muggers would probably chase after the two girls rather than him. In the end we made it across although both my sandles were destroyed in the mud and it was an hour of walking in mud saturated in horse shit. The beaches were nice with some great surfing waves. We ended up staying there to the afternoon and hitched a ride with a group of surfers back to town. Although the outdoor adventuring was nice, I will remember the Bocas for the best damn pizza I have had on this trip ($7 and included a can of soda), and the lower story of every hotel being a Chinese run grocery store with fresh baked pastries out front. I was pounding down the chocolate brownies every time I left or returned to my hotel.
It was a nice place to hang out but Al had to get back to San Jose for his flight home and I wanted to head to my next destination in the rolling hills of central Panama.
Tags: 1, Panama
