Bastimento-Bocas Del Toro

We really are enjoying Bocas, and love the location of our place, it is in the centre of everything with water taxis, buses and taxis minutes away. Last night we heard drumming and walked to the town centre to see a group of drummers practicing for an upcoming competition... they were amazing, doing tricks with these big drums around their necks keeping in sync and dancing the whole time. It felt so festive everyone in the square was dancing...

I have attached a 30 sec clip, it's very poor quality but it will give you an idea...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB8WtJHbZHU

The next day we decided to take a tour, there is a national marine park on the island of Basmetos, we heard lots of things about it, so off we went for a full day adventure. We toured Dolphin bay (sadly no dolphins in sight) , sloth island, (yay we saw a sloth!!) and a two hour stop on Zapatilla Is. (we were not that impressed by it, but still pretty in a very raw way)...had a great day overall, but best of all we met two new friends. Ruben and Jaquim from Belgium (hi boys!).

We ended up meeting them for drinks at a local American bar (don't judge the drinks were cheap!) (and yes we brought the kids...again, don't judge:) we had great conversation and lots of beers all evening, (I actually left Johnny with them and they closed the bar!).

The local American bar had a hockey stick, Liv was excited to pick one up again!

The next day we tried to meet up with our new friends but our wires got crossed so we were left to our own devices...we decided to check out Red Frog Beach, another part of Bastimento Island, a short water taxi and we were there...This beach was exactly like what you picture a tropical beach to look like, fun surf , beautiful sand, Bob Marley playing in the background, pure heaven!

Red Frog Beach

On our way back we asked out driver to stop at an area called Hospital Point as we heard there was great snorkeling... I am not sure if I mentioned but we all love to snorkel and brought our own equipment with us so we can go anywhere. The girls especially love it, Livy is getting really good and able to swim down to touch all the sea creatures....its so great when you can do things as a family where everyone is having fun. We saw some pretty cool fish, lots of sea creatures, and even a squid...then we saw some rather large jelly fish and that was my cue...I was done...(I am totally freaked out by Jellies, up there with sharks). 

On our way home we connected with Ruben and Jaquim again and had another amazing night sharing stories, debating and basically talking crap all evening....so great.

Us leaving Bocas on our way to catch a bus to Costa Rica

That's a wrap Bocas Del Toro we all had such a great time and will definitely come back.

We went slightly over budget in Panama, however Jungle Land was on the pricey side (but so worth it) and we did a lot of tours...for a total of 10 days our grand total was $2679.78. I also forgot to mention that our flight to Panama is not included in our budget as Johnny has been collecting points for the last few years knowing we were doing this trip...we were able to fly from LA to Panama for less then $100

Still not bad for a 10 day vacation for family of 4...

Bocas Del Toro

We were very excited to hit he beaches and were looking forward to our stay in Bocas Del Toro...a series of islands in Northern Panama on the Caribbean side just south of Costa Rica. We decided to take the night bus from Panama City to Bocas Del Tor, we would leave at 6pm and arrive some time around 5am...the bus would drop us off at the ferry terminal in Almirante where we would take a boat about 30 minutes to the island.... we were not able to check into our place until 11 so we "thought" we would just bum around for a while

Where the water taxis drop you off in Bocas Town

Everything went fairly smoothly, (except no one really slept as every time the bus would stop for a bathroom break or snacks, all the lights would go on and we would get instructions in very loud Spanish on when to be back)...we ended up arriving in Almirante at 4:30am, ferry was leaving at 5, we were all exhausted, so I quickly called a hostel (they miraculously answered, I was told later that they do not open until 7:30am) and asked if we could just rent a room for a few hours to sleep, we settled on $25, and off we went....(my first time in a youth hostel actually, as strange as it sounds I thought the whole experience was pretty great)

                              
 After our stay in a beautiful hotel in Panama City, we wanted something a little more authentic and went for an AirBNB right in Boca town on the island of Colon, it is the most populated island full of  bars restaurants and hostels...pretty gritty, but we all loved it! For $77 CAD a night we had three bedrooms (yay! first time in 9 weeks!) a kitchen/dining area and...GREAT WIFI! (something we haven't had in a while). We were just 5 minutes from the main strip and were able to walk around town. After we checked into our place our wonderful host Larry gave us some great tips on where to go, we walked to the water taxi where we set off for a beach day on the island of Carenero, (about a 5 minute boat ride and $3/pp).  A perfect first day!

At Bibis a restaurant overlooking the bay

the beautiful bay

The next day we took the public bus to the north part of the island to a beach called Playa Estrella (Starfish Beach). The bus took about 1/2 hour and it was so fun, the bus driver had his kids with him and they were blaring dance music, stopping along the way yelling at their friends out the windows, the drive itself was almost as fun as the beach! Starfish beach is a beautiful bay full of huge startfish, there was Reggae music playing and the vibe was awesome.

Playa Estrella

Anneka's first coconut water

On the bus

Don't worry the Starfish is in the water still! The water is just so clear!