Panama City

Panama City is unlike any other place I’ve been in Central America. It is a large metropolis and doesn’t look like anywhere else in the region with its skyscrapers on one side and colonial town on the other. After a week and a half of discovering everything else that Panama has to offer (and it’s a lot!), finishing in the nation’s capital felt like a must. It was our last stop in Panama, a country that really surprised me and that I really enjoyed. Panama City wasn’t my favourite of the places that we visited but I still had a great time!

Getting from Boquete to Panama City involved a long travel day, 10 hours in total. Our hostel was called Magnolia Inn and honestly, it was like a luxury hostel that felt a little more like a hotel. I really liked it though it wasn’t necessarily the most sociable place as a lot of people seemed to be there as part of a group or a family. This didn’t bother us too much because as you’ll read about later, we actually knew a number of people who were in Panama City at the same time as us! The hostel itself was beautiful, had a great big kitchen, a HIGHLY air conditioned lounge (no complaints here!) and is very central in the neighbourhood of Casco Viejo. This is the old district of Panama city. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and dates back to 1673, although it all looks pretty new as there has been a big effort to renovate it recently. One day we did a walking tour to learn a little bit more and while it was interesting, I also thought the guide was a little dry. He clearly knew his stuff but I think he suffered from having done it so many times because it was all a bit rote. It was still good to be led around Casco Viejo a little more, see some new areas and learn a little more.

There’s obviously one thing that comes to mind when most people think of Panama City and we’ll get there but we actually did a lot of other great things! At Hannah’s request we went to MAC Panama, the modern art museum. Sometimes modern art goes a little over my head but I really enjoyed this museum, especially the exhibition ‘Esto es lo que hay‘ by Donna Conlan and Jonathon Harker. It wasn’t trying too hard to be clever, it just was clever and it was fun! The exhibit called itself ‘una retrospectiva seriamente juguetona‘ – a seriously playful flashback. One video used empty bottles of national beer to play the American national anthem, also used as a drinking song by a London gentlemen’s club. The names of the Panamanian beers – Panamá, Soberana and Balboa – reflect aspects of the country’s history and identity, evoking the complex relationship between Panama and the US and shows how national symbols can be arbitrary and deceiving.

After visiting the MAC, Hannah had another request. She wanted to head to the well known Mercado de Mariscos (the seafood market) to try ceviche! Ceviche is a classic dish in Panama and I had never had it before but I have to say, I’m not the biggest fan. We made a bad choice with the black conch because it was extremely chewy but the white fish and shrimp options were better. Some other good spots for food and drink that we tried in Panama City- Tantalo has a great rooftop bar and so does the Selina hostel, both in Casco Viejo. We ate twice at Nomada Eatery, near our hostel. The food was decent but more importantly it’s cheap, the vibes were good and we had a good time sheltering from the rain playing Jenga one night. Panama can be a little more expensive than its Central American neighbours (other than Costa Rica) so La 10 is a great place to save some money! Beers and cocktails are all $1.65 and they also have cheap small plates (though they’re not very good).

A pleasant surprise was Parque Metropolitano, a massive park in the centre of the city which is the perfect place for some hiking, to hang out with some turtles, see sloths and get a great view of the city. It was lovely to have such a big green space in the centre of such a large metropolis and it only costs $1 for nationals and $4 for foreigners. The park boasts almost 300 species of birds, 64 mammal species, 39 species of reptiles and 21 of amphibians. There are a selection of trails but even the most challenging is pretty short and manageable. There are lots of things to look at which makes the perfect excuse to stop for a breather if you need to! It was the kind of hiking that I like where it wasn’t really hiking, more of just a walk around. It was a bit steep up the final bit to the viewpoint but it was nice to look out over the city in one direction and then out to the canal on the other side.

Now time for the main event, or almost. Something I would recommend doing before you visit the Panama canal itself is to visit the Canal Museum which is in Casco Viejo. Visiting the museum before the canal gave us more context for what we saw the next day. There’s so much information inside, some of which I found a little dry, but some really interesting and you can pick and choose the areas where you want to spend more time. One area that I was particularly impressed with was the booth where anyone can go in and record their own account of the events of December 1989, the US invasion of Panama. I think this is an incredible use of the museum to allow anyone who has a story to tell to share their own experience and to make it accessible to everyone visiting the museum. History should be told by the people who lived it but often it’s only a very limited and specific group of people who get that opportunity. Particularly in the case of much more recent history, where the effects might still be unfolding and the experiences are still fresh, I think it’s important to record that. I would love to see more of this in museums.

When it finally came to visiting the canal itself, I was really looking forward to it! I’ve always been quite fascinated by the idea of the canal so it was my one non-negotiables of our visit. To get to the canal, there are various tours or you can just do it yourself. It’s a bit difficult by bus so Hannah and I plus another friend went via taxi. Our first taxi driver in Panama City was super friendly and had given us his number in case we needed anything. He took us to the canal, waited for 1.5 hours and took us back for $30 total (he also gave us some information on things that we passed on the way). It took us about 20 minutes to get there from where we were staying in Casco Viejo (with no traffic on a Saturday morning). We got there at 8am because we had been advised that the last boat of the morning would be passing through around then and there wouldn’t be another until 2.30pm. I definitely think it’s worth asking around about these timings to make sure that you don’t make the trip out there for nothing.

Saying that, all the tour groups had the same idea so it was very busy! Luckily we got through just in time to see the last boat make its way through, even if it was over the heads of a crowd. Other than watching the boats go through, there is also a 45 min film narrated by Morgan Freeman included in your entrance fee. It was interesting but there were a few areas that I think it glossed over. It’s the only other thing to see around the canal which is why I think going to the museum before is a good idea because you can approach the (very positively framed) film a bit more critically. The most interesting thing I learnt about the canal (although I can’t actually remember where) was related to the tariffs that boats pay to go through. This is calculated by weight and a modern cargo ship can expect to pay around $800,000. The smallest fee was only 36 cents and was charged to travel writer Richard Halliburton in 1928 when he swam the length of the canal!

Overall, I was really pleased that I finally got to visit somewhere that I’ve been interested in for years. A big part of what made it so great was our taxi driver, Ariel! He was the first person Hannah and I met in Panama as he took us from the bus station to our hostel when we arrived. We immediately warmed to him after he found out we were from Scotland and started talking about the Scottish boxer, Ken Buchanan. He was a huge fan and even though we had never heard of him, Ariel’s enthusiasm was infectious! He gave us his number in case we needed a lift anywhere else while we were in Panama City and we ended up using him a few times, both for the canal and then to go to the airport. He was good fun, kept things appropriate, acted as a bit of a tour guide on the way to the canal and then changed a flat tire in about five minutes on the way home! On the way out of Casco Viejo to the canal, we also got a view of Ancon Hill, the home of the largest Panamanian flag! Ancon Hill was previously controlled by the US government and was home to administration for the canal. In 1977, Panama was given back control over the canal and the flag the size of a football field was erected here as a symbol of Panama’s sovereignty.

Panama City was a really special place for me because of the people we met or reconnected with. From my time working in France, I actually have a friend from Panama City who I had reached out to before we arrived. Mafe gave us some recommendations (going to Parque Metropolitano was her idea so thank you!). We had a bit of a chaotic afternoon when we tried to meet up with her. We agreed on meeting at the Amador causeway, a 6km strip extending into the ocean away from the city, built out of the rock excavated from the Panama canal! We got dropped at the far end of the causeway, planning to walk back but we definitely underestimated the heat that day! What was cool though was that from the beautiful weather on the causeway, we could look over the water to the skyscrapers of the city and see dark clouds and rain rolling in. Eventually we caught up with Mafe and her friend Ricardo at a restaurant. It was great to see her again and a lovely reminder that the world is a small place!

There were others that we got to reconnect with while in Panama City, all people that we had met in the Lost and Found hostel. Makenzie, an American girl who we had arrived at Lost and Found with, arrived to our dorm in Magnolia Inn and came to the canal with us. We also got to see the Dutch trio, meeting up with them for some food, drinks and an embarrassingly bad game of beer pong! They were such a lovely group and we were sad that we didn’t get to see more of them. Saying that, we did see one of their number, Tomas, when we were in Colombia but Livia and Youri headed home from Panama City. We also saw more of Makenzie in Colombia, right before flying home.

This brings me to the end of our time in Panama. Initially, Panama was only really meant to act as a stopover between Honduras and Colombia. It was also going to be the last country I had to cross off in Central America, I can now say that I’ve visited them all! But in the end, it was so much more than this. Panama has such a variety of things to offer, the infrastructure is pretty good for tourists, I found the people to be welcoming and helpful and I think that it attracts a type of traveller that I’m likely to get along with (maybe with the exception of the party hotspot of Bocas del Toro). Now that I’m living in Costa Rica, Panama is just next door and I’m definitely hoping to get back there again!

Boquete

After leaving the Lost and Found hostel on the side of a mountain in Panama, we really didn’t go very far to our next destination, Boquete. As the crow flies, it’s less than 50km away although it’s almost three times that distance by road. We had a packed few days here although when we first arrived, all we knew was that Hannah wanted to climb the volcano and that I did not! Boquete is known for the Barú volcano, the highest point in Panama. It’s an all day hike that many do overnight in order to watch the sunrise from the top. You can actually see Volcán Baru, the background to Boquete, from the terrace of Lost and Found!

The view of Volcán Baru from Lost and Found hostel

I actually really enjoyed our few days in Boquete, not just because the weather was a bit cooler and fresher. Despite this, and arriving on an air-conditioned chicken bus (quite the novelty!), things quickly went downhill when we were trying to find our hostel. We stayed in Blasina Beer Hostel which was associated with the town’s brewing company. Originally we were booked in somewhere else but when we were staying in Lost and Found we found out that we could get a discount at Blasina so we cancelled and rebooked. It was about half the price of the other place which was great but it wasn’t my favourite hostel. It was pretty simple, not much of an atmosphere and there were ants in the room (not uncommon but annoying). It was also impossible to find! The original location that we headed to (according to Google Maps) was next to the brewing company but it was a construction site and clearly being renovated. We had no idea where to go and I could not for the life of me find a number to call. We managed to get on the still functional wifi and found a different location on Hostelworld. We headed to the second spot but it just looked like a normal house, not a hostel. We asked in the sandwich shop across the road and the owner wasn’t sure but phoned someone to ask where Blasina was. It turns out that it was somewhere else entirely but Nuria, the lovely sandwich shop owner, drove us there (only a few minutes away) and helped us find the right place.

Hannah decided to get her climb of the volcano out of the way on our first day, leaving at 3am in order to try and get to the top for sunrise. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible so she couldn’t see anything! She still enjoyed the climb, though she said it was pretty hard. I had most of the day to myself but there wasn’t anything in particular that I wanted to do. In fact, I didn’t want to do much at all! I went for a walk in the morning that had me almost literally bump into a German couple, Jennifer and Victor, who we had met at our previous hostel! They had decided at the last minute to come to Boquete for a night and were also staying in Blasina so I offered to walk them there otherwise they would never find it! For the afternoon I found a nice coffee and chocolate shop called The Perfect Pair and settled there to work on a blog.

I met Hannah back at the hostel when she finished and she was on a high, not tired at all! We went for a walk to see some more of the town together. Right across the road from Blasina there was this incredible bookshop called Librería Bloise. It’s like a treasure trove of second hand books in both English and Spanish, of all genres and a great place to peruse the packed shelves. Later in the evening, we met Vincent and Jennifer at the Boquete Brewing Company because it was linked with our hostel and we got a discount. It was a fun place to hang out and try some of their specialty beers. There is also a food truck in the court yard called Aqui Va la Niña that sells incredible burgers! They are the perfect accompaniment to some beers.

There are some aguas termales outside Boquete that we considered going to the following day but they were a bit difficult to get to by public transport. Another popular thing to do in Boquete is a coffee tour but Hannah and I were already planning on doing that in Colombia so we were looking for something else. We settled on something that was a little different for us, visiting the Jungla de Panamá, a wildlife sanctuary a $5 taxi ride outside of Boquete (it’s best to arrange with the driver to come back and pick you up). We basically got a private tour to see all the animals, including giving Daisy the spider monkey some fruit! We also got to meet the monkeys, coati, goats, horse, rabbits and birds. A lot of the animals, including Lupita the coati, were pets and were given up and brought to the sanctuary. Hannah loved the birds the most, I… did not. I prefer birds from a distance but I did have a nice chat with Paco the parrot! It was a $25 entrance fee which I personally think was very steep, especially considering it only took an hour to see everything. Everything I had seen online said that it was free or donations as well. I think $10-15 would be a much more appropriate price point. We still stayed when we discovered the price because we had already arranged for our taxi to come back in an hour and a half and at least the money is going to a good cause. A side note, it was all in Spanish and I’m not sure if it would be possible, at least in as much detail, in English.

In the afternoon, we were also doing something a little unexpected. That might be the word to describe Boquete in general, maybe because I didn’t have that many expectations to begin with, but it was all good! Remember the coffee shop, The Perfect Pair, where I went while Hannah was climbing the volcano? Well, we went back there to do a chocolate making class! It was $39 for a two hour class with a free drink included and three chocolate bars to take home at the end. We were initially a bit sceptical about the price but it was absolutely worth it in the end. We had Christina guiding us through the chocolate making process. She was fantastic, engaging, fun and really knew her stuff! Some chocolate facts that I learnt in the workshop – beans are fermented for 7-9 days, they spend 2-3 days drying in the sun and then are roasted for 40 mins at 142ºC. If chocolate tastes too bitter, then it has been roasted for too long or at too high a temperature. Roasting is what gives chocolate the nutty flavour. The Perfect Pair wasn’t using their own cocoa beans yet, they are two years into growing their own supply but it takes 4-5 years for them to be ready. The Perfect Pair uses their own cocoa butter instead of oil to mix with the blended cacao nibs as it is solid and keeps the chocolate from melting as easily. Oil is extracted from a second batch of cacao and the remnants are used to make cocoa powder! The province of Bocas del Toro produces the most cacao in Panama because of the higher temperatures. We got to use coloured milk powder to make patterns for our chocolate bars and then we tempered the melted chocolate which means cooling it down from around 37º to around 25º so it has a nice shine and snap. There’s a machine that does it for big batches but we did it by hand which involves spreading it across the countertop and moving it around. We added toppings like various nuts, coconut or Oreos after we poured the chocolate into the mould and voila! We had our own, handcrafted chocolate bars!

Our last night in Boquete was a relaxed affair. At this point in the trip, budget strings were bring pulled a little tighter so we started cooking for ourselves a little more. In Honduras, it’s generally just as cheap to go out as buy groceries, especially if you eat at the comedores. Panama was a bit more expensive and we still had a while to go on the trip so we wanted to make our money go further. It was also nice to choose exactly what we wanted to make as well. We spent the evening cooking some mac and cheese with a nice salad. Hannah went on a walk after we ate but came back to get me because she’d stumbled on an artisan’s market that she wanted to show me! It was a great wee find, good for some souvenirs and to add to my ever growing earring collection. Then it was off to bed early before a big travel day to Panama City!

Lost and Found Hostel

Stop number two in Panama was all about the hostel rather than the place itself. But when the hostel is in the middle of the cloud forest on the side of a mountain, you can understand the appeal. Touted as Panama’s only hike-in jungle hostel, Lost and Found hostel is the experience in and of itself. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty to do in the area if you want to, as you’ll see, but it’s also a great place to do nothing. I discovered Lost and Found on Instagram somehow before Hannah and I really started planning the trip and worked the rest of our Panama itinerary around it. It was also conveniently on the road from Bocas del Toro to Boquete, which would be our next stop.

The boat tour that we did in Bocas came with a deal on a shuttle from the ferry that would drop us off at the bottom of the hill to Lost and Found. This was very helpful because it’s pretty much just a random spot on the side of the highway. If you are visiting and not getting a shuttle, there are in depth directions on their website from all the destinations you might be coming from and most of the bus drivers will know where it is anyway! The trek up from the road isn’t too bad, only about 15 minutes but pretty steep. I would say just take your time, I definitely did because I had sprained my ankle a few weeks before the trip, and I would recommend arriving during the day because I wouldn’t want to do the hike up at night. The main area of the hostel is built around the dining area with some hammocks and big tables perfect for meeting people and making friends. There’s also a comfortable living area and a fairly big kitchen that I used once but it’s not that great. Group meals are available each day though. All of the meals are vegetarian, if not vegan, and cost between $5-6. The pancakes for breakfast were delicious but so huge that I couldn’t finish them by myself! I ended up sharing with other people most mornings. For one lunch I had bean burritos with plantain chips and chickpea coconut curry one evening for dinner.

We were welcomed by a beautiful sunset on our first night, a recurring theme throughout our stay. The common area looks out over the trees and you can actually see Volcan Baru in the distance, which Hannah would be climbing a few days later! There was lots of wildlife around including lots of hummingbirds coming to the feeders that were hung everywhere. There were also a lot of bugs, moths, caterpillars, spiders and unfortunately mosquitoes. Definitely make sure you have bug spray. There was also a really cute cat! The rooms are in a smattering of buildings a little further down the slope from the main communal area. We were in a dorm but were the only people in there to start with!

That evening, Hannah wasn’t feeling great so she went down to bed to chill but I hung out with the other people that were around. We were lucky that even though the hostel was quiet, we met a few great groups of people. I think it’s easy to make friends with other travellers who are often doing the same thing as you with a similar mindset, although you’ll still meet people that you just don’t vibe with. However I also think that the environment can make that easier or harder and this was an easy place to get talking to others. In fact, almost everyone we became friends with here, we had either crossed paths with before or met up with afterwards! There was an American girl, Makenzie, who arrived on the same shuttle as us who we saw a week or so later in Panama City and then right at the end of our trip when we were all in Bogota before flying home. We met a pair of Spanish cousins who had been on the same dive boat with us a few days before in Bocas del Toro. On our second day we spent the evening with a German couple that I almost literally bumped into on the streets of Boquete a few days later. We also became good friends with a Dutch trio who we saw again in Panama City with Makenzie, one of whom, Tomas, we met up with again in Salento in Colombia and travelled with for a week.

For our first full day, we were met with heavy rain and strong winds which we took as a sign to get cosy and slow down for a few hours. It did eventually start to brighten up so Hannah and I went to explore some of the trails around the hostel with another girl. I wasn’t out for that long before I decided to turn around. The paths were very steep and after the rain, very slippery and I was worried about injuring my ankle again. The rest of the afternoon was spent planning the Colombian portion of our trip, enjoying the hot showers in the cool climate and just generally chilling. There is a little bar on site that they open if there are at least five people who are interested. It doesn’t sound like a lot and it wouldn’t be in the high season but as we were there in the low season which is also the rainy season, it was pretty quiet. We managed to gather the troops that evening though and played some giant dare jenga with $1.50 beers that were cheaper than the fizzy drinks!

The rain continued the next day but we didn’t let it stop us! We headed down the mountain with a group of girls, hoping that there would be better weather. And we got it! We got the bus down to Gualaca, thirty minutes down the road in the direction of David, which is known for its canyon. It’s a ten minute walk from the main road that goes through Gualaca and was a beautiful spot filled with locals enjoying their Sunday. The canyon really looks like the ground has been cracked in half, running narrowly for 40m or so before it opens up. If you jump in at one end, the current will float you down to the pool at the other end. After swimming a bit and lying on the rocks in the sun, our wee group split up a bit with some people heading to their next destination, others wanting to hit up some nearby waterfalls while Hannah and I wanted to relax some more.

I was a bit tired that evening and wasn’t feeling in the mood for socialising and meeting new people. Sometimes those kind of evenings are very necessary, especially as there’s usually quite a high turnover among the people you meet which can be quite draining. Thankfully I shook myself out of it that night and went up to the bar with Hannah and a new group of guests. This is when we got to know the German couple, Jennifer and Vincent, and the Dutch trio, Tomas, Liv and Youri, who we would see again elsewhere. I really enjoyed their company, they were the kind of people that I find it really easy to get along with and have that almost immediate sense of familiarity with.

We were checking out of the Lost and Found the next day but Boquete, our next stop, was only a couple of hours away so we decided to go on one more adventure before leaving. We went with the German couple and Dutch trio to discover the Cuatro Cascadas (Four Waterfalls). We got a bus ten minutes down the road to Los Planes where we paid the $1 entry fee for access to the waterfall hike. We walked along to the last waterfall and worked our way back. Each waterfall had a little trek down and then back up to the main trail to get to it. The first two were nice but nothing too special, although they had nice big pools for swimming in. The third waterfall had a longer trek down and the fourth was the hardest but the most spectacular. On the way down to this one there was supposed to be a hot spring as well. Maybe this was on me but I was thinking about the ones in Gracias in Honduras so I was expecting a little pool that we could have a dip in (the waterfalls were very cold!) but it was really more of a trickle, much more suitable for dipping your toes into.

We hiked back up to the road and again it was time to part ways. This time it was Hannah and I heading back to the hostel to get our bags while the rest of the group headed down to Gualaca to the canyon. The hike up to the hostel was still tough, despite having done it a few times at this point. We actually ended up having a really nice travel day, not just because we had time to actually do something fun before spending several hours on a bus. We first had to head to David and from there change to a bus to Boquete. To get a bus anywhere from Lost and Found (that isn’t a private shuttle), you head down to the main road and just wait for one to drive past and hope it has space and stops! In this case, one came along almost immediately and once we arrived in David we were able to get straight on a bus to Boquete. It was probably the easiest travel day of the whole trip!

Bocas del Toro

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!

The view from Aqua Lounge across the Bocas Town

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!