BOCAS DEL TORO—Caribbean Panama

BOCAS DEL TORO—Caribbean Panama

After all the anticipation of going here it proved to be a bit disappointing. You can’t do much about the overcast weather with some bits of rain. It hung around for the 3 days leading into the Easter break which Panamanians celebrate with a passion. This lead to problems with getting somewhere to stay in Bocas Town and my 2^nd place cost $40 and I was lucky to get it. I spoke to the local surf shop about going surfing on their boat but it was never good enough during my stay for them to go out. So on my last day there I took everything down to the docks and did an all day tour by boat before linking with the water taxi back to Almirante for a 7pm overnighter to Panama City.

The tour by boat at Bocas went to Dolphin Bay. Coral Cay and Red Frog Beach and it was great excitement for the locals who had never seen dolphins. At Coral Cay there was a really colourful reef to snorkel on. Bit like an aquatic flower garden and I used every bit of the time here cruising around. Red Frog Beach is being developed as a resort on the bay side and they are charging for you to walk over to the beach on the open side. It’s just like any beach back home and I could see why the surf shop never did a boat trip to the great breaks that abound around here because it was 2-3 ft and onshore.

Don’t get me wrong, this could be a great place and I was just a bit unlucky with dodgy weather and it being busy with Easter. Place was full of yachties and had some great places to eat including one lobster fishing boat set up as a bar/restaurant that I used for a beer or two with the Yank sailors.