The second country on my big summer trip was Panama, the last country in Central America that I had yet to visit. When I was planning a trip to Honduras and Colombia, I thought that Panama would make the perfect stop on the way. At first, I’ll admit that it was a bit of a tick box exercise to ‘complete’ Central America but in the end, I was so pleasantly surprised! Panama doesn’t get as much attention as some of its neighbours but I definitely think it’s worth a visit. I’m going to have a dedicated blog to each destination we visited and I think that we had a great variety of activities in our two weeks there.

Leaving Honduras, one of my favourite places on earth, was already difficult enough but for some reason, Hannah and I decided to make it even more challenging by spending four days on buses to go from Utila, Honduras to Bocas del Toro, Panama. The reasons for this are honestly kind of blurry now but I think it was to do with flights being very expensive and awkward. This journey took us via Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, and San José, the capital of Costa Rica (at this point I didn’t know how soon I would be back here!). The last part day of the journey involved crossing the border into Panama, managing to get help across the border and a cheap minibus ride to the ferry and finally the boat to the island archipelago of Bocas del Toro. There are three main islands making up Bocas del Toro: Isla Colón which houses the main town, confusingly also called Bocas del Toro; Isla Bastimentos; and Isla Carenero.

Hannah and I stayed in a hostel called Aqua Lounge on Isla Carenero. Despite not being on the same island as the main town, it is visible from Aqua Lounge, just a few hundred metres across the water. You can take a water taxi for $1 (USD is the Panamanian currency) which takes 30 seconds and really easy to flag down. It’s known for being a bit of a party hostel but because we were there in low season it was actually pretty chill. There seems to be a lot of good places to stay in Bocas and a lot of hostel bars like in Aqua Lounge and Selina (a chain of hostels you’ll find all over Central America and Colombia) are open to the public so you can still go and hang out there and meet people. I will say, because of the humidity in Bocas, I think air con for your room is a must! Hannah and I had splurged for it in our private room which was a bit of a treat in itself (although sometimes a private room is the same price as two dorm beds) but after our arduous journey we felt like we deserved it!

For our first full day in Bocas, we had done something a little out of the ordinary for us but it ended up being one of my favourite days of the whole trip! We signed up for a tour of some of the best spots around the islands. After so many days on buses, the idea of someone telling us where to go and then taking us there was very appealing! It was good value for $30 and came with a deal on a shuttle to our next destination for $15. Our first stop was the aptly named Bahía de Delfines (Dolphin Bay). We had just seen rough toothed dolphins in Utila but the ones we saw here were grey dolphins. They come to this area particularly during breeding season, when we were there, because there are a lot of jellyfish for them to eat. The jellyfish are also why you can’t get in to swim with the dolphins here. Even though you couldn’t get into the water with them, it was so fun to be around the dolphins. They were enjoying playing in the wake of the boat, jumping out of the water and following us around for a while.

The second stop was in Cayo Zapatilla, an uninhabited island, great for snorkelling because of how shallow it is! We saw lots of fish and even two sleeping nurse sharks only 10m from the shore. We had an hour or so of free time here so Hannah and I also took a wee walk through the forest and our boat captain John macheted open a coconut for us! We stopped for lunch at a floating restaurant at Coral Cay, near another snorkelling spot called ‘The Garden’ that we would go to after eating. Lunch was included in the tour, I chose creole octopus which came with rice, salad and patacones (fried plantain fritters).

We had a quick stop at a place known as Hollywood because there are so many starfish. They weren’t very easy to see but our hostel had a lot of starfish visible from the dock anyway so I wasn’t that bothered. And then as a bonus, Captain John took us to see his friend, Pepe the sloth! We actually saw three, including a mother holding a baby! The mother was climbing down the tree and considering that sloths only do this when they need to go number two, we all know what was about to happen.

For our second day in Bocas, we went diving! I’ve never been diving anywhere in Central America other than Honduras so I was excited to see what it would be like. We went with La Buga Dive and Surf who were great (big thanks to our divemaster Anna who had actually come in from another company, Pirates, to help for the day). We headed there a little bit early because they have kayaks and paddle boards that you can use for free before or after your dive that we wanted to make use of. La Buga also has agastro market so it’s a nice place to get some food or a drink which we did after our dives. The dock area is a cool place to hang out and if you look around the edges of the swimming hole, you might spot some baby squid like we did! We also saw a porcupine fish (aka a puffer fish) off the dock!

We went to a site next to Isla Solarte first, known as Magic Wind or Buoy Line. We saw so much! A nurse shark, lion fish, two nudibranchs making more nudibranchs (if you know what I mean), two stingrays, one of which was massive, so many sea cucumbers, arrow crabs, a cowfish, lots of colourful brittle stars and some baby trumpet fish which are cute. There’s a wreck as well so we got to swim around and then through the window!

Our second dive was at a site that Ana had been telling us about before, her favourite called Sachen. It’s basically a big mound under the water but is super colourful and with lots to see. We saw another nurse shark, a couple of spotted lobsters, two scorpionfish, disco fish, fireworms, a giant hermit crab, squirrelfish and blue tangs. It was actually a really challenging dive because the current was pretty strong. To start with we were swimming against the current so not moving anywhere really fast and then it was really shallow so we were getting battered about a lot. It was better once we were able to just go with the movement though.

That covers the main things we did while in Bocas del Toro. We enjoyed the chill vibe of the islands a lot, recovering from a long journey to get there. There are a lot of nice looking cafes and places for food, some of which we tried and many more that we didn’t. Bocas can also be a bit of a party town if you want it to be. We went for a few drinks one night, crossing the water from our hostel and meeting some people at the bar in the Selina hostel. We also happened across karaoke which was fun (to watch!). One of the main attractions to Bocas though is the Filthy Friday island party crawl. It’s similar to the Sunday Funday pool crawl in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua that Hannah and I both went to when we were 18 and living in Honduras. Unfortunately, we were leaving Bocas on a Friday so we didn’t get to experience it for ourselves. I’m sure we could have rearranged things a little in order to attend but we also didn’t really want to. Overall, this trip was more chill, enjoying a few drinks at the beach, with sunset or with new friends and with only a few of what could be called big nights out.

This trip is getting further and further in the rearview mirror but writing these blogs gives me a great chance to reminisce on an incredible trip. I’ve always said that I write this blog for myself more than anyone else reading it so even as more time passes, I’m still just as keen to get it down on paper, so to speak. It’s something that I can look back on and gives me a chance to reflect. Saying that, I hope you’re still enjoying reading them as much as I am writing them!