As you can see from the map above, there is an group of islands in the northwestern corner of Panama of which the main town is called Bocas. I flew from Panama City to Bocas on Air Panama a 50-seat Fokker. The total flight time was about an hour. I landed in Bocas 8AM knowing little about the place other than it was highly touted by Kristin's husband Jeff who had recently returned from the area. Going solely on his word, there I was at the Bocas airport wondering what next? I walked out of the one-room airport onto a dirt road and there I was. I was not expecting to see houses that appeared to be ready to be blown to shreds with the next big windstorm. I surprised myself at being taken aback at the lack of touristy amenities, such as quaint shops and a tidy looking main strip. Everything looked rickety and unkempt and I never really got used to it.
I guess part of my lack of enthusiasm for the place stemmed from the overcast and drizzly weather the I flew into. I whipped out my handy-dandy guide book and had breakfast to plan my day. My first stop was to sign up with an outfit that ran an all day trip up the coast to see manatees. The guy at the shop stated that he needed people to fun the trip and had three signed up for Wednesday (this being Monday) and so it looked like it was more than likely to run. He pointed me down the street to a guide service that took people out on day long trips.
The trip had so much potential, but ultimately had few truly memorable moments. It was a group of 14 people in a boat of which there was another truly awful American couple from California. They were recent transplants from LA to Northern California and all the stereotypes of braggadocio American's was true for them. Did I really need to know how quickly they had sailed from the South Pacific to the Galapagos a couple years ago? Umm, no.
The first stop of our trip was to go see dolphins. I was a bit skeptical that we would see them, but ultimately we did. I wish there had been more of them and that they were jumping out of the water like Flipper, but I was excited to see a couple dolphins up close nonetheless.
Next stop was some snorkeling followed by lunch at the restaurant one would have seen above. The snorkeling paled in comparison to the snorkeling I got to do last summer in Puerto Rico but I attribute that partially to the fact that we weren't taken to a really great spot but also that it was overcast and the light was poor.
After lunch, the skies opened up and poured. We were taken to the famous Red Frog Beach. There were other tour groups there and everyone was huddled underneath a big hut. It looked straight out of Survivor and I was ready for Jeff Probst to come out and give us some immunity challenge. It's a sad thing to know that Red Frog Beach is being encroached on by developers and the open access and lack of buildings will soon be a thing of the past.
The rain continued to come down (and it's no Seattle drizzle my friends, we're talking Central American downpout) and the other members of the boat opted to skip our last stop and go directly back to Bocas.
Upon arriving in Bocas, I went to check to see if the manatee trip was going to run and saw that the group of three had rescheduled for the following week. Ugh. I then set out on trying to find a place to stay. And the intrepid traveler story begins.
I came to Bocas during the middle of Carnival. There was NO rentable place to sleep anywhere in town or on the neighboring islands. NOTHING. So I came up with my next best plan. I rented a bike and planned on riding out to a beach and sleeping there on the sand. I literally had come to Bocas with a towel, swimsuit, basic toiletries and a change of shorts. It was going to be a long night.
I located a beach about two miles out of town. It looked like I could nestle down and get some cover from the trees, but I was screwed if another Central American downpour occurred during the night. So to treat myself before the long night, I biked to a cute looking restaurant that I had passed coming out of town which was advertising a six course meal for $14. Yeah, prices in Panama are still kind of reasonable. This wasn't some lame six course meal either. I had a salad, some fish, fried egg with bechemel sauce, bread with goat cheese and spinich, pork cutlet with a nice sauce and chocolate ice cream with orange sauce for dessert.
Over the course of dinner, I found out from the waiter that he (a German) and his wife (a Spainard) had moved to Bocas a couple years back and bought their building, renovated it so the front had a beautiful covered open air dining area and then turned the back of the building into their living quarters. The name of the place is Guari Guari.
Being the ballsy and desparate guy that I was, I asked Ozzie (the owner/waiter) my story of how I didn't have a place to stay that night and whether I could sleep in the hammock they had. He said yes and I solved my lack of lodging for the night. Minutes later, downpour. And we're talking buckets.
The next morning I woke up and it was still overcast and raining. Realizing that my trip to see the manatee was probably off, I cut my jaunt to Bocas by two days and flew back to Panama City. There were other adventures to be had in Panama!!!!
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