Bocas del Toro, Panamá

Crossing the Border

Costa Rica to Panamá

72 Hours

 Our gigantic coach bus which brought our program and another big family was not to be trusted over the bridge at the border. So we all had to get out and walk across which didn't make me feel any more at ease! They told us there were only two border crossings to get from Costa Rica to Panamá, the other is located many hours away, so how the bus got into Panamá I still don't know! Maybe they "built a ferry and forded the river across"...(Oregon Trail reference..) 

 Don't look down or you'll be afraid of heights, but don't look up or you'll step in a hole and fall in!

 The river we crossed...

 Here's a scary part of the bridge.. and on top of the ricketyness, it's wet and do you notice how narrow it is?! So...as we were walking across we thought, uh-oh what do we do if a car comes? And sure enough...

 Notice how the people aren't even paying it any mind, although there is zero space between the truck and fence, I'm not sure how they squeezed past. I know I wouldn't want to lean on that fence! Good thing we were walking the direction it was driving so we didn't have to go around.

And on to our destination...Bocas del Toro!

Panamá, Bocas del Toro

Dec 2-4

This was a beautiful weekend trip that I would recommend to anyone if they have the time while in Costa Rica. It is really close to the border of Panamá, so the travel time is not as far as say, Granada or Managua, Nicaragua. We had beautiful weather: clear skies and sun, but not too hot nor humid. We left around 2 AM by coach bus, walked across a rickety border that crosses a large muddy river (see pictures below), and when we got off the bus, we walked across this small peninsula, Bocas del Drago, full of color and beautiful scenery, to get to a boat.

Below is a pipa tree, similar but not to be confused with coconut. It is much sweeter than coconut straight from its shell, here in Costa Rica, you will find vendors of cold Pipa everywhere even spotted every so often on their freeways. They chop off the top with a machete and stick a straw in it. Deeelicious...

This is an old boat on the peninsula, glad we weren't all fitting into this one, would've been a tight squeeze!

Here are some more pictures taken on the walk. We didn't really have time to stop anywhere, so all were taken while I was walking or stopped really quickly for a quick pic.

 After we crossed the sand path of Bocas del Drago we walked across this dock at the end of the peninsula to wait for our boat. 

Leaving the dock to another island...

 They had our own private barbecue set up for us at the beach, a couple grills, bar, and really loud music. However, as heavenly as this set-up might sound to some people I know, I wasn't too excited about the blasting nightclub music. I was at the beach to relax, it was kind of disturbing...

So I walked down the beach to a hammock, took off my shoes and sat alone for a few minutes, until someone on the beach said, "If you want to sit in the hammock it costs $6.." WHAT?! I didn't think anybody even lived on this island let alone claimed trees as personal property. O for 2. So I left. 

We rode on a banana tube and went tubing just about 7 people at a time! But if you've ever seen them, they are long and skinny (and yellow....hence, banana) so if you leave the wake of the boat, you are almost guaranteed to fall over because with so many people it is so difficult to keep your balance. The first time I went in front and got the wind knocked out of me...but then got back on twenty more times.

Story of the Sighting of Virgin Mary

On another small excursion we packed in two small vans and drove to La Gruta, which stories say there was a sighting of the Virgin Mary. She appeared in the form of a rag doll in the cave where we visited. Now, there are shrines of her statues with rosaries and many benches and an altar for masses to be held. I'm going to do some research on the story to find out more, but what I do know is that is was one of the most peaceful areas we visited.

Here's a little blurb I copied and pasted about the cave, from this webiste: http://www.isls.com/panama/destination/bocasdeltoro.cfm

"Across the street from the town's lone soda (small store) is a plain cement walkway that veers off the road and down the slope of a hill. Nestled to one side, at the bottom of the ravine, near the mouth of a cave and a fresh water spring is a shrine to the Virgin Mary. The area is shaded by a grove of trees and is quite cool even at midday in the middle of summer. Situated at the entrance to the cave, and placed all around the statue, are dozens of different colored glass candles. As you enter into the cave, the light from these candles flicker and bounce off the walls in a kaleidoscope of shifting colors. Further into the cave, it is possible to look up and see thousands of small fruit bats sleeping upside down and hanging from the ceiling. There is a quiet serenity to the place that allows visitors to relax and enjoy the beauty of its surroundings. "

 Misspelled sign directing us to the sighting of the Virgin Mary. 

Bats!! It was completely dark inside, but with a flash, you can see what's really hanging over your head!

Love the colors! A house right on the path leading to the cave.

Cayo Coral

 I've never seen water this color except in pictures of Fiji or the Bahamas , and it is absolutely beautiful!!

 We arrived here by boat and as we were driving by I asked a friend to quickly grab her camera and take a picture of this little cluster of houses. Then, the boat began to veer towards there and sure enough, we were headed here to spend the day. All day to relax in the sun, go tubing on the banana tube, scuba dive, eat, swim, and soak up the sun's rays.

 "Pura Vida!"

 Look at all the fish right here, a waiter gave us a big flat block of crackers to feed to them. Apparently one of my friends has never fed fish before, because she threw in the entire block of cracker at a time. We all laughed thinking, what are they gonna do with that honker? We think it's a little bit bigger than bite size for them. 

We also went on a dolphin tour, really hard to get a good picture but I'll post the videos of them jumping!  This experience made me realize...if I were an animal, I'd be a dolphin. You get to travel endlessly and quickly, you always are surrounded by ones you love, and you can jump out of the water effortlessly and splash anytime you want, and you can brighten people's day (most people want to see you and swim with you, I've never met a person afraid of a dolphin). So it may seem silly, but I have heard this question as an interview question before. I'm not sure if my answer would qualify as a "good" interviewee response, but for my blog's sake...I'm happy with it.

 Hmm...decisions, decisions!

Red Frog Beach

This beach got its name from the little red poison dart frogs that are easily found walking around the beach or in the brush of the trees. 

 Interesting how the trees roots are growing into the water!

 Again...look at the colors!

 We rode on the back of these trucks to get us to the beach and back to the boat which took us to our hotel..whew.

 It looks like a lot of hard work went into this boat and oar!

And the beautiful sunset as we drove by boat back to Bocas...Later on, we took a taxi boat in the pitch black to a night club that was on an island. It was pretty scary being on a boat in the middle of the ocean in pitch black going fast. . . the nightclub had swimming areas and swings that swung half way on the deck and half way over the ocean and of course, a dance floor.