Activity Summary
Monday 12th June - Day 284 (continued)
Panama border crossing
Travel to Bocas Del Toro
Lunch at Coco Fastronomy - La casa del Bapé
Tuesday 13th June - Day 285
Cancelled boat tour
Bus to Playa Del Drago & Starfish beach
Walk around Bocas Town
Dinner at Renny’s Pizza
Wednesday 14th June - Day 286
Travel to Boquete
Summary
Bocas Del Toro
In the end we didn’t see a whole lot of the area as a result of our cancelled boat tour, less than ideal weather and a desire not to extend our stay. Starfish beach was cool to see the starfish and the island scenery in the backdrop on our walk but otherwise the beaches didn’t seem all that.
Bocas town certainly wasn’t anything impressive and the apparent drought would have made staying on the island a bit more rough and ready than we would have liked. Felt like we saw enough in our time here but it was fleeting.
Transport
Bocas Del Toro
Private transfer from Puerto Viejo (Costa Rica) to Bocas Del Toro (Panamá) so had to do very little thinking
Hostel -> [shuttle] -> Costa Rica border -> [walk] -> Panama border -> [shuttle] -> private boat terminal -> [water taxi] -> Bocas Del Toro -> [walk] -> Hostel
Accommodation
Bocas Del Toro - Surfari Bocas
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £11
After Puerto Viejo this place was comparably amazing. Aircon, private bathroom and a king size bed was all that we needed in our lives at this point. The kitchen was a bit scabby but we made it work. Location isn’t an issue anywhere as the town is pretty small.
The islands lack of water however? A big problem. Fortunately we were leaving just as it hit defcon 1 so didn’t have all that much stress of being unable to flush a massive poop or wash off the effects of savage humidity and salt water. Nothing the Hostel could really do about it all without making some drastic changes to water usage policy, which was incredibly poor anyway (never have sink plugs to wash dishes??).
Diary
[Continued]
The Panama land border control was a bit unique in that it would have been so easy to completely bypass the passport checks. Once over the land bridge and past the army uniformed quick passport check, the actual border office was pretty well hidden to the left. It would have been so easy to carry on walking and as such not technically be allowed in Panama which would have been flagged 5 minutes drive down the road when the bus was boarded by more army personnel checking the entry stamps.
We had our guide lead us to the office so there was no chance of us missing this. They asked for accomodation and how long we were in the country and that was the extent of the interrogation. Nice and easy, but we were both extremely hot and bothered from the relatively short walk across the border.
Once the group was checked into the country we were guided to the bus waiting around the corner. We parted ways with the border guide, requiring us to make the first tip of the day for a service we had already paid for but this one we didn’t rave about too much. Luke saw an opportunity to unload all his coins.
There was a half hour wait at the boat terminal before we boarded. We got chatting to a nice French girl who was travelling and working, predominantly in Costa Rica and it was interesting to hear the difficulties in balancing the two; WIFI being a big one and it being utterly exhausting to keep moving around all the time. Not a lifestyle for us.
It was nice to be on the boat taxi with the cooling wind powering through to alleviate previous overheating. It was a nice sunny day so the mainland and islands looked great.
When we landed we were pestered for the second tip of the day. This time we really couldn’t work out what the guy had done apart from loading our bags into the boat, basically an integral part of the service but they were incredibly pushy. He would have to make do with £1.25 in Colones.
There was a little time to kill before our 3pm check in so we stopped at Coco Fastronomy - La casa del Bapé for some lunch. Food was reasonably priced and Luke enjoyed a Bapé lunch, a type of stuffed fried bread much like Belizean fry jacks.
Here we had made what felt like a final decision on the seemingly complex booking of the San Blas islands. It was a toss up between booking on booking.com (everything is controlled by the Gana Yala indigenous people) or getting a tour, the former adding the complication of having to sort travel and not really knowing what activities or food was involved. The San Blas Adventures tour company was well reviewed by a blog and gave absolute clarity about what was involved for the $220 each. We had settled on the Diablo Island tour for 3 days, 2 nights which took a bit of pressure off an activity that was constantly being put off although we hadn’t pressed confirm as we needed to sort out Panama City hostels and bag storage.
We checked into what felt like a 5* resort for us after Puerto Viejo. Our AC’d and private bathroom in Surfari Bocas Hostel was an (initial) dream come true. Nicola almost instantly showered and crawled into bed for a nap while Luke went out and sorted an island boat tour and got some cash.
Once Nicola had a bit more energy we both went to the supermarket and cooked what was supposed to be an omelette but ended up being a scrambled egg, onion, tomato & serano ham mess. Still tasty though.
In a moment of fat fat indulgence we polished off an entire tub of ice cream as if we were in the middle of a larger than life teenage breakup that can only be solved by vacuous calories. Except we were both very happy chowing away (Luke polished off the most) and relaxing in the ice cool room.
What started as a perfect place to stay took a rather unexpected turn. We woke up and while downstairs making breakfast and lunch were told the island & hostel had more or less run out of water as a result of there being insufficient rain for the start of the rainy season.
Interestingly we weren’t told about this dramatic development until it almost felt like it was too late. We were therefore told to not flush the toilet when urinating, showers would be turned off until 7pm and basically pulled together to try and save what little water remained in the premises with the hope that a downpour would save the day. This wasn’t much of a problem for us and agreed to do our bit but was certainly a first for us.
The day was forecast to be cloudy with a bit of rain so it didn’t make for perfect boat tour weather but it wasn’t windy and would have been fine with a bit of the less than perfect conditions. At the tour office we were hit with two options, postpone to the next day as apparently the others had done or cancel and get a refund, citing ‘bad weather’. In Luke’s pessimistic opinion, we were the only two on the tour and they didn’t want to go out.
We ended up sitting down for a while reassessing our future plans as we had planned to be leaving Bocas the next day, making a rearrange slightly more complicated in that we would have to extend and take days from other places. At this point the true risk of going to the San Blas Islands in the rainy season hit home, and citing the large cost to then possibly have a terrible time being rained out with no escape or anything else to do we decided it wasn’t worth it.
Our revised plan would take us to Santa Catalina and extend our stay in Boquete. Based on a bad weather forecast the next day and risk the tour would not go ahead again, we decided on the refund which would turn out to be a great decision for the sole reason of the island running out of water (actually it was quite a nice sunny morning on Wednesday so nice island hopping weather). A little on that later.
Now a couple of lost tourists without a plan we went off some loose guidance given from the hostel and that we could get a local bus to Bluff beach for $2.50. The weather wasn’t great and it’s not a swimming beach due to the massive swell but the orange sands are supposed to be cool. When arriving at the bus station by the Bocas town park we found one going to Playa Del Drago & Starfish beach so decided to do that instead, the latter beach potentially being more entertaining as it was a stop on our boat tour.
The ride over would have been a nightmare if we had decided to traverse in our own vehicle. Most of the roads are mud & dirt tracks and under construction. A combination of the wet weather and heavy vehicles had turned parts into a mud course, Rico & Chops would have been beached like a big fat stranded whale. The shuttles did pretty well to get through.
By the time we arrived at Drago it had started to rain very lightly and fortunately didn’t go full Central America rainy season on us. Rather than get the $1 water taxi to Starfish beach we opted for the 20 minute walk along the coast / coastal jungle which was easy enough, minus a weathered bridge on the verge of collapse. In hindsight it would have been more fun to get the boat across and walk back.
Starfish beach wasn’t much of a great place to chill to be honest. The shore is littered with numerous food & drinks huts that take up pretty much all the beach space. At the far end was more space should people want to relax for free but there weren't masses of it. We walked close enough to this space and perched for a spot of lunch.
Luke ran into the sea like a little kid and went starfish hunting. Ended up seeing 3 big boys & some yellow snappers but the rain had made this quite tricky.
There was little appeal in staying long so once Luke had achieved all he wanted to animal hunting, we walked back to the bus stop and had a short wait. We did see a pelican successfully dive for fish from a massive height which was super cool. There were some questions over the hourly arrival times as the next 3 hour times on the board had been eroded by weather but this turned out to be all good.
We were back in Bocas town by the early afternoon and spent a bit of time shoring up our onward travel plans.
Initially we had toyed with the idea of going across to the closest island but we couldn’t be bothered and instead had a walk around Bocas Town with some window shopping. Not an overly exciting place to be honest.
Back at the hostel room we had some much needed quick showers to get rid of the salt water while there existed some water reserves and went for dinner at Renny’s Pizza. The thought of cooking and washing up without a confirmed supply of water was too stressful.
We watched an episode of Race across the world & The Whale over which Nicola got quite upset over. Luke’s dead inside so naturally shows no (/ hides his) feelings.
That decision to not extend our time in drought hit Bocas was reaffirmed by the pungent aromas coming from the bathroom after a day of not flushing. Big fans of showering away salt water and sand and considering beach was the sole activity, this wouldn’t have been a pleasant day. The hostel did give us bottled water to assist the flush at least.
We were packed and out of the room by 11am, chilled in the communal area for 30 minutes before making our way to the boat taxi terminal. Once again we had paid for an all inclusive private transfer to take us to Boquete without hassle.
The boat was another calm ride across the surprisingly still sea and had the displeasure of requiring to tip a guy at the other end for a service that actually couldn’t be identified. Luke carried all the bags from the boat to the van and for some reason this guy wanted money. As he wouldn’t get out of the way of the bus entrance, he gave him a dollar and eventually stepped aside.
The bus took about 4 hours to get to Boquete. It was, however, a pretty nice bus, with aircon and plenty of space from not being at capacity so we could stretch out. There was a short stop in the middle to use the horrific restrooms and potentially get some canteen style food that was quite expensive but we were prepared with sandwiches already.
Yorumlar