Making a break for Panama
When I think of the Caribbean, I think of overpriced hotels. I think of honeymooners walking hand in hand down the beach, but many people don’t know about Panama’s caribbean paradise — Bocas del Toro.
Bocas del Toro is a group of 9 islands, which is a mix of African, Mexican and American influences. On Colon, our first stop, it’s a party vibe, with backpackers coming in from everywhere in the world. We arrived into a busy throng of Friday night gap-yah kids, which we decided not to join in with, due to a fairly raucous night before in Puerto Viejo.
Getting here was a hilarious series of mad events, not made any better by the band of steel drummers banging away inside my head.
In a 3 hour journey, we were passed like a rugby ball between 10 different people.
Person 1 sold us shuttle tickets to get us all the way here. 8am we jumped into person 2's shuttle bus, which turned out was the wrong bus. Person 3 showed us into the correct bus, drove us to the border and pushed us out to a little cafe, where person 4 took some money for Costa Rica exit fees. From his little booth, he pointed us to person 5 who was a border official. Passport stamped, we crossed the border.
The way across to Panama is over the Sixaola river. Until recently, you had to cross using the footbridge, which is an old steel bridge with missing or mouldy wooden decking.
A grant of $10million was given to the Costa Rican government by Mexico to create a new bridge to improve import/export options and to reduce the increasing likelihood of death. A grant I am very thankful for: Our crossing was a more leisurely stroll.
Person 6 was a Panamanian kid on a bike who wanted to help us on the Panama side — clearly wanting a tip. The Costa Rican’s perpetuity to help tourists was so amazing, that it was a real shock to be flung into the Panamanian’s ‘do nothing for free’ lifestyle; people would grab your bags and demand a tip.
On the Panama side, we spoke our finest Spanglish, which got us through person 7's passport stamp. The kid then pointed us to person 8 where we had to pay an entrance fee. Person 9 grabbed us as we were finishing up, took us to his van and drove us to Bocas del Toro river taxis where person 10 gave us a life jacket and fired up is 500hp speedboat. 3 hours later we were stood on the dock of our island, knackered but happy.
After a couple of days on the main island at our Hostel, “Salina’s” we were happy to move on to one of the quieter islands, Bastimento.
Once again, advice from travellers in Costa Rica has given us a gem. Our hostel for the next 3 nights is a beautiful little stilted house called “Bubba’s place”.
It’s a mad house, with toys and games to play with at every turn. There are paddleboards, musical instruments, indo-boards, slacklines, surfboards and — much to Rose’s happiness — a tiny golden labrador puppy.
Looking forward to another 3 days here.
