Bocas Del Toro, Panama

12/06/2014 - 15/06/2014

Day 1

Dean, Bianca and I arrived in Almirante at around 5:30am. Having spent an uncomfortable night on an ice cold bus it was good to get out and into some humidity. We paid a $1 taxi to take us to the boat dock where we paid $6 to get across the major island of Bocas Del Toro, Isla de Colón. After a quick 30 minute journey we arrived at the dock and searched for Casa Verde. We found it but they were "full" and incredibly rude so we left in search of the sister hostel of Luna's Castle, Hostel Heike just up the road. We were greeted by the nicest receptionist I have met travelling. Throughout my stay she would always greet me on a first name basis and to everyone else too making it a very personal hostel. We had the homemade pancakes for breakfast and checked-in to a 6 bed AC dorm. 

Bianca wanted to try the yoga on Bocas. Having never gone to yoga I went along and Dean followed. I always assumed guys went to yoga to pick up women and joked about it before. It turned out the instructor, Laura Kay - a MILF, was into English guys and didn't stop flirting and looking at me the whole time. It couldn't have been just because it was first time, haha. Anyway, it was a lot harder than I thought and I would ache for a few days after! We left and laughed about what had happened and then rented some bikes to cycle up to Bluff Beach on the east coast of the island. After an hour of cycling on sand, Tarmac and gravel we arrived to this fantasticly long beach, which was being pounded by verocious waves. We locked the bikes up and walked down the beach. We thought about going in but the current was very strong and the waves were massive so we just sat and tanned for half an hour of so. After we cycled back to a beach bar and had a couple of beers. Dean wanted to surf, got in the water and was out 10 minutes later as the coral destroyed his foot. We headed back after this to drop the bikes off and watch the opening World Cup game. Post-game we drank some rum and headed for ladies night down the road at Las Iguanas on the water front. I met a really cool American couple in their 40s, Richard and Dani, too!

Day 2

We woke up relatively early today as we were going on a boat trip to the Zapatilla Islands, which were part of the archipelago in Bocas. We also bumped into Ellen downstairs and we met two German girls from the Luna's Castle again, Christina and Lisa, as well as their friend Patrick and another English guy, Andrew who I met at the Panama Canal. 

The boat trip wasn't that amazing. For $20 (+$5 national park fee) we saw some dolphins, snorkelled for 30 minutes and went to an amazing beach in Zapatilla. I just felt we wasted a lot of the day waiting around and not doing a lot for 8 hours in total. 

We headed back and got ready for another night of drinking with the others. We formed an awesome group, which was nice as Bianca and Dean go tomorrow to Costa Rica. The evening was really good and pretty drunken and saw Richard and Dani too! To clarify, Bocas is a party place.

Day 3

I woke up at 11ish to see Dean and Bianca off. The rest of us then had our mandatory pancake breakfast before deciding to go to Red Frog Beach on Bastimentos Island. We paid $7 for a return trip. We got there and went in the water for a bit. The sea had a very strong current on top of massive waves, which took us all out. We got out and us boys went for a walk down the beach. Upon our return we met some Costa Rican lads playing football on the beach. Andrew, Patrick and I played against them. They beat us badly, 5-1. We were all far too unfit. 

Randomly Richard and Dani appeared on the beach with his brother and sister-in-law. After saying bye to them, as they leave today, we walked back as the rain came in. We waited for about an hour under a shed-like construction. We also looked for sloths and red frogs but to no avail. 

We got back in time for the England game and had dinner and $1 beers. Afterwards we bought a 1.75L bottle off Cortez rum between 6 of us before heading to Agua Lounge - a club on the water, which in my opinion was overrated. 

Day 4 

We woke up this morning early as somehow I'm going back on the boat trip I had done two days before. As the group were all going I thought that it's better to do a day with them than sat doing nothing. The trip was significantly better; weather was better and we didn't wait around all day for people. The boys went for a walk around the beachy part of the island. I got a group picture which was awesome. Following the island we went snorkelling, which was really brilliant. There's no point really going back over it as I've already mentioned it. 

We went back to the hostel, showered and went to watch another game of football and eat. We also got another (smaller) bottle of rum, Abuelo, this time. Tonight was never going to be a big one as I leave for Costa Rica at 6:45am. Everywhere was pretty dead though as it was a Sunday so we just had a relatively early one at the hostel.

Bocas has been absolutely awesome. The group I had really did make it for me. It sucks when you leave a good group as you cannot guarantee them everywhere, especially leaving Christina as we had gotten pretty close. That's the only shit bit about travelling. Next stop is San Jose, Costa Rica!

Panama City, Panama

10/06/2014

Today started off early as Dylan was getting the boat back to Turbo just before me. We have now sadly departed as he has to go back to Chile to fly home whereas I continue my mission to get to Mexico. I've now joined up with Bianca and Dean as we're going in exactly the same direction in the same amount of time. We left Capurgana at just after 8am towards Puerto Obaldia (PO), which was roughly a 30 minute boat ride. I managed to sit at the back of the boat this time but as it was smaller and the waves were bigger, I ended up getting soaked.

Once at PO we were escorted by the police/army to the migration building where our passports were looked at. We then laid our bags on the floor and waited for 10 minutes. As the region is a notorious drug smuggling route our bags were sniffed by dogs and then we had to go through a full bag search by the police. Of all the countries I've been to, this was a first. After this we had to find the migration office in the town to get stamped into Panama. We had to buy 2 A4-sized passport copies just down the road too. Once in we found the Air Panama office to get our bags weighed etc. We then ate a cheese roll before heading to the tiny air strip to wait for our plane. 

In Panama City we were quickly guided away from the plane and into what only can be described as a big white but modern room. We waited here for 2 hours while the Colombians were investigated by the authorities. The whole thing was a total waste of time as they only asked us where we were from and where we were staying. Anyway, we left and headed to the bus station to book of bus ticket to Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean coast, which was $28. 

After taking a taxi arrived at our hostel, Luna's Castle, in Casco Viajo. A lovely old school / Colonial part of the city, South of the skyscrapers. We looked around the area, played ping pong and had $1 beers before the evening started. We then went down to the bar for $0.50 happy hour beers at 9pm. The night wasn't too crazy though, which was fine as we wanted to explore the city...and the Canal!

11/06/2014

We woke up and made the free pancakes that the hostel do before leaving to explore a bit more of the city. We were told the next boat is at 3pm so we chose to go to the Canal at 2pm. We also went with Ellen (Dutch) and Joel (Australian). We got to the banking district but it was a bit of a non-event so we had food and left for the Panama Canal. The humidity here is high, which oddly has a very intense dry heat at the same time.

We went around the museum at Miraflores for $10 (w/ student discount), which started off really informative but was stretched out over 4 small floors and gradually became repetitive. After watching a very touristy video we headed to the look out point for the ships to come down. The locks at Miraflores then move the ships up/down 8m. I think for me this is such an interesting place simply because of the global impact the Canal has. Without it imports would cost so much more and take a lot longer as they would have to go via the south of Argentina. After waiting for the ships and taking many photos we headed back as Bianca, Dean and I leave tonight for the Caribbean (again!)! 

Capurgana / Sapzurro, Colombia & La Miel, Panama

6/6/2014

As we arrived in Turbo we were greeted by rain. Once we claimed our bags we wondered down the dimly lit road towards the quay. There were only a few people there but more than I would have expected given it was 4:30am. We met a Swiss guy en-route so we sat and waited for the ticket office to open. An hour and a half later it opened. We bought 3 tickets, which each cost 55,000 pesos (£17) one way to Capurgana. We were told the boat would leave at 8:30. In reality, it was 10am. As we were going through we knew we had to pay an excess luggage charge. However, the guy tried to take more money from us. After a lot of squabbling and holding up the boat, we got the right change and left Turbo. Everything online says how bad it is and although it's not a brilliant place and I wouldn't want to stay there more than a day; the fisherman and market atmosphere were good to spectate. 

The boat itself had maybe 40 people on it and was basically a speed boat. Waves? No problem. This just bombed its way through them, which meant a very bumpy journey all the to Capurgana (a 2.5 hour journey!).

From the research I had done previously, Hostal Capurgana seemed to be the best one. For 15,000 pesos we had a dorm. We were the only ones in there so it was fine. Internet sucked here though, which is why my blog posts are running behind schedule. We went straight to the beach to see what was going on. Capurgana is really nice. It's main beach isn't too big but not too small. We lit a Cohiba with a beer and sat on the sand. Due to the area of the world, it's highly likely that it will rain. The sky was overcast but it's fine; we're on the Caribbean! After a few hours at the beach we headed back as I need to book a flight from Puerto Obaldia in Panama, which is just the other side of the border to Panama City for a few days time. I did this through the hostel and was fairly straight forward although the girl there looked annoyed that you asked her to do something. Typical South Americans. The flight cost $125. We had a late lunch at a cheap place down the road: the classic soup, fish/chicken/beef with rice and chips, and a (papaya) juice drink. I also met a couple of Australian siblings travelling together, Bianca and Dean, at the hostel as they were trying to book a similar flight.

We had a burger for dinner, which was nice but a little pricey (15,000 pesos) relative to other things. We grabbed a couple of beers and went back to the beach to chill. There isn't really a party scene here, which is fine so we went to bed by 11pm.

7/6/2014

We woke up fairly early at 9am. Today we are heading to Sapzurro, which is in the next bay up, on the border with Panama. We took a boat for 7,000 pesos each over there from Capurgana. We arrived in a much smaller place with a lot less people and activity compared to Capurgana. It was much nicer in my opinion. A big open bay that had a few boats sat by the edge. We found our hostel, El Chileno, which although basic was actually a great change. They had mango, avocado and coconut trees of which we could eat as many as we wanted for free. We dumped our bags and went to a "restaurant" up the road, mainly because the owner, Santianna, was pretty hot. I say restaurant but it was more of a shop at the front and restaurant for 2 people out the back. Nonetheless, we wanted fish but had to settle for a burger as she had nothing else. She asked us if we wanted to have dinner there and we said yes - fish tonight! 

Post-lunch we walked into Panama. It took about 30 minutes up and down a hillside. We gave our names and passport numbers to the Panamanian migration guy before crossing over. Dylan didn't have his passport so just gave ID. Once down, we found a spot on La Miel beach and relaxed for 15 minutes before taking a dip in the ocean. The water here was really warm and turquoise. Awesome. We spent another couple of hours here. Sand crabs ran over my foot scaring the crap out of me as I was asleep - but they were fantastically camouflaged. Dylan slept as usual. Lots of inspects here so we had our fair share of bites. 

Once we got back to the hostel, we wanted to go to the Sapzurro beach but bumped into a group from our boat from Turbo. They were going to Cascada La Diana - a waterfall 15 minutes into the jungle. It's something we would have never found so tagged along. Laura was from Colombia and she was a tour guide for her friends (although she is actually a tour guide usually). We got in the pool surrounding the waterfall and swam underneath. We spent about 30 minutes here before Dylan and I headed back to the beach. Not long after the 3 came back and joined us. Due to coral we had to swim out about 30 meters to swim comfortably. Another surreal moment as we lay there bobbing around in the Caribbean overlooking yachts, the lush green jungle and empty beaches.

We then headed back to the hostel, which was only 5 minutes away. However, Laura got a coconut down as we were going to make cocoloco's - rum and coconut milk - later. Laura made some guacamole with the avocados and fresh lemons. We bought a bottle of Abuelo rum for 20,000 pesos, so only 4,000 pesos (£1.25) each. We needed more coconuts so I decided to go up the palm tree. I got two bad boys by spinning them until they dropped. With a machete we chopped them down to the nut and found the milk. An old guy, Fernando, who was an Argentinian farmer on holiday, showed us how to cut them. There aren't many times you get your own coconuts and cut them up, and then add rum! 

Dylan and I had our dinner booked for 8 so had to leave for 45 minutes. The dinner was excellent - fish, rice, banana chips (I can't remember the name), avocado, with a mango juice and cake-based desert. We then returned to the hostel. Only Laura and I wanted the rum so we carried on until the end of the bottle - by the end I was drinking it neat. Still it was decent. 

8/6/2014

Today we left Sapzurro back to Capurgana as Dylan had no more cash and needed to use his card to get cash back (no ATM here). We dropped our bags off at the hostel and went to the beach after a quick meal. We stayed there most of the day, although there wasn't much sun for the best part. Locals were having a dance-off on the beach too, which was hilarious to watch. We then decided to look around the small town a bit more. We found an old lady selling empanadas. We both had two. The sauce got stuck whilst I was pouring it. After squeezing it fairly hard the inevitable happened and it exploded all over my face, towel and Tshirt. I smelt like chilli. We were intending on having a shower and going out for a few beers that evening on the beach, however we never quite got there. After we showered we took a nap for 30 minutes. I ended up sleeping for 14 hours and Dylan had 12. The most amount of sleep I had had in years and a new record for being asleep by 7pm!

9/6/2014

It's now our last proper day in Colombia so we decided to have a little lay-in and head back to the beach after having a bit of brunch. We opted for the standard 2 course meal; soup and a main, plus a drink. Today was the hottest day we've had so far at the coast. The sun itself is really intense and it doesn't take much to feel the burn! The tan is coming along nicely too and I no longer look like I'm wearing a Tshirt when my Tshirt is off! In order to exit Colombia I needed the exit stamp, which is found pretty much opposite the hostel. I was in and out in 2 minutes. We then chilled at the beach again but in the shade with a beer. The evening, like most of the last week, was relaxed and quiet. We met up with Bianca and Dean again too for dinner. We played Monopoly Deal to waste away the evening. Tomorrow we're off to Panama so we were in bed by 10:30. 

NB: My favourite picture of each place can be found on my Instagram account: @Instatyce