Bocas del Toro

We arrived tired after a sleepless night on the bus, relieved that would be our last nightbus of the trip! We were herded in to taxis at the bus station and shuttled to the 'port' where we boarded the boat to Isla Colon. The boat journey was a chance to get some sun on our faces and fresh air as we scoped out the islands. When we got to the island we found that a number of the hostels were already full, so we ended up checking into a cheap hotel for our first night, so we could dump our bags and freshen up then check out the area to find somewhere decent to stay for the two weeks.

We found the lovely Hostel Hansi just off the main road and moved in there early the next day before heading to Bocas del Drago beach for some serious sunbathing. Its a lovely beach located at the other end of the island. Despite only being a small island, it takes about an hour by bus to reach but its well worth the journey. We took the first bus there and were rewarded for the early start by having the place to ourselves! We walked around the bay to reach star fish bay, then found a spot to lay out our towels and jumped into the clear, blue waters.

Whilst in Bocas, David took advantage of the cheap prices to book a diving course. He enrolled on a three day course to obtain his PADI Open Water certificate and got two free dives thrown in to the package. He started the course on Monday morning. Whilst David was swimming with the fishes, Lynne attended daily yoga classes at a local studio.

We met some really great people in our hostel, and spent a couple of evenings enjoying drinks on the balcony. On the Thursday night we headed out for drinks with Debs and Grant, a couple from Clapham. We visited Riptide, a bar on a boat, for sunset drinks before heading back to the hostel for dinner then on to La Iguana for some very loud cheesy music, the girls retired early leaving the boys to a VERY late night out!

The next day the four of us were up early for a boat trip to dolphin bay, Caya Zapatilla and a reef for snorkeling. The clear blue water soon cleared everyone's heads and we had a great time exploring the beautiful Cay Zapatilla, a small, uninhabited island which forms part of a protected national park. After a hard day of swimming and sunbathing we hit the local BBQ restaurant for dinner.

We did have a couple on rainy or overcast days in our Caribbean paradise, one such day we hired bikes from a rasta guy on the corner and went cycling round the coast. It was a great way to see a bit more of the island and its beaches. We stopped off at a hotel perched on a hill overlooking the beach for lunch before continuing along to Bluff Beach.

During our second week on the island, we met a French family who were keen to take their children on the night excursion to see the leatherback turtles at Bluff Beach. There are no arranged excursions here, therefore, its best to get a group together to reduce the cost of the taxi per person. We took a taxi around 9pm to the beach where we found the local volunteers who monitor the turtles to take us on a walk along the coastline to the nesting spots. We followed the volunteers along the beach, with only pink tinted torches to light the way, as full torchlight may confuse or distract the turtles. It was a long walk along the beach, about an hour of trudging through the sand and we were all a bit disappointed when we reached the end of the beach and hadn't seen anything apart from some tracks from turtles who had been and gone already! However, on the walk back, our luck changed and we were fortunate enough to see two full size leatherback turtles on the beach laying their eggs. It was an amazing privilege to witness this act which has been occurring on the same beach for hundreds of years. The turtles were huge, we watched from a distance as they dug a hole, laid their eggs, covered them then created false tracks to confuse any predators before lumbering back down to the ocean.

A couple of days during our second week in Bocas we took a boat to Isla Carenero, across the bay from where we were staying in Isla Colon. We managed to find a small, secluded beach where we could chill and swim, then we popped in to Aqua Lounge for sunset and a beer before heading back across the water to our island.

Needless to say, there was a great deal of build up by the English boys to the Football World Cup. The forthcoming USA vs England was greatly anticipated and so it was with much excitement and expectation that we set off to a local bar to watch the game. Unfortunately England failed to deliver the result we had hoped for but that didn't deter us from heading out for a night on the beers! We met up with a Swedish couple, Maria and Juna and, after a few drinks in the hostel, took the boat over to Aqua Lounge to dance the night away! Unsurprisingly the next day was fairly low key, as we started packing to leave Bocas and continue our travels through Panama.