We arrived in Bocas from a night in David, which we used as a stopover on our trip from Dominical, Costa. Bocas del Toro is the capital of Isla Colon, which is the main island in a small group off the Northwest coast of Panama. Bocas is the name of the largest town and translates to 'Mouth of the Bull'. A better blogger would no why it's named that, so I admit my room for improvement. The trip there was a bit of a hassle and left us tired, but in the end was a blessing. We had planned to stay in the area for three nights but ended up getting stuck (locally called 'Bocanized') and staying for five.
Our first day was spent exploring the small town (basically 2 parallel streets about 500m long) and relaxing. We had been on the move a lot lately and were getting rundown, so we took a maintenance day. Don't judge. After a long duration of overcast weather in Costa, Panama finally delivered some clear skies on day two. We took the opportunity to rent bicycles in the early afternoon and rode all over the island, visiting remote beaches and touring through other smaller towns. It was a very 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' kind of montage, and that doesn't make me gay.
The third day was the one we had planned a bit for, and it was the nicest weather we had seen since arriving in Central America. We attached ourselves to a tour that left early in the morning bound for our first stop, which was Dolphin Bay. If the name doesn't give it away, it was the local dolphin hangout and we hoped to sight a few. Luckily, in the 25 minutes we sat in the bay we got to see 4 pairs of dolphins, which was a huge highlight for Robyn. The playfulness of the animals was on display when a boat drove near a couple and started circling them. Without missing a beat the dolphins chased the boat, 20 feet behind, darting in and out of the wake and being generally awesome.
From there we went to Coral Key to snorkel. Although not comparable to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, we did get to see some great sealife and the full-palated colours of the local coral. We spent over an hour in the water (which led to slight sunburn on both our backs) and worked up a good appetite.
Lunch was next at a restaurant-on-stilts that was marooned in the middle of the bay, attached to an outcrop of mangroves. The coral and sand near the retaurant backlit the aquamarine water perfectly as the peaked sun continued to beat down. We ate our (packed) lunch at the end of the dock together and had a great time away from the others. It was a perfect moment.
Red Frog Beach was next, to digest some food and catch rays for an hour. Adhering to the '30 minutes after you eat' rule, we lounged for a while and played in the surf. The beach was a kilometre of sparesly populated white sand - inviting to say the least. On the way out we got to interact with some local kids who held the native red frogs captive in leaves in order charge tourists for pictures. Needless to say...
By now we were all pretty wiped so we went for one more short snorkel on the way back to Bocas and then landed again. It was an incredible day; well worth the sunburns and cost of aloe vera that ensued.
The last day was spent like the first, relaxing and enjoying the great hotel and town's vibe that we had truly connected with. We were excited for the next destination, but were truly sad to leap out of the Bull's Mouth.
i like your pink bike.
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