After over a year of trying to go to Bocas, I finally made it a couple weekends ago. Two days of traveling brought me from San Jose, Costa Rica to the Caribbean town of Puerto Viejo where we bunked for the night. Rather than take the cheap route and rent a tent for $4, which we usually do, we sprung for a $20/night hotel. That, of course, turned out to be a mistake that I realized the next morning. I lifted the pillow and found a cockroach under it, then took a shower and noticed a good dozen spiders hanging out around the shower head. I quickly moved on, though, as I had a long bus ride to the boarder ahead of me. We boarded at 6am, went to the boarder, split a van fair with a European couple, then hopped on a water taxi that finally took us the main island around 11am.
The Good:
Bocas del Toro is a beautiful string of islands that can take the breath away from even the most well-traveled tourist. The pure green trees, the blue sky, puffy white clouds, and crystal clear water created a scenery worthy of Thomas Kinkade's attention. As I stepped onto the dock I noticed that the water below was filled with tiny fish frantically swimming about and several starfish doing whatever starfish do on the shallow bottom. I knew immediately that this was a place I would never forget. We walked around the little town, found a nice $15/night hotel (cockroach- and spider-free), and a plethora of fun restaurants to try. First things first, though. We dropped our stuff off in the room and went straight to the docks to find a snorkeling tour. As luck would have it, we were the only two tourists on the trip so we had a little slice of the Caribbean to ourselves. We swam around for a bit, saw some seaweed, then all of a sudden I was surrounded by sea life. I found a little patch with all kinds of fish and plants. I even saw a purple jellyfish. I would have loved to stay and explore a bit more, but the water became a little too rough to enjoy it.
Once back on dry land, we strolled around, stopped at all the artesian's booths, and looked for a restaurant. We ate at several unique places during our weekend at Bocas, but my two favorites were a vegetarian restaurant and a Chinese restaurant. When we went to the Chinese place we were greeted by two playful children. The parents were nowhere to be seen so the older girl gave us a menu and told us to sit down. Finally the dad came to talk to us, and boy was it an experience trying to talk to him. He didn't speak English, I don't speak Chinese, and we both have difficult accents in Spanish. Fortunately Rene had a little luck deciphering his words. We eventually figured out everything and I had some of the best wontons, chicken and rice that I've yet tried. We stayed for about an hour and watched as a storm developed and crept its way to our island. We decided to leave only because we wanted to make it to our evening coffee house, La Buga, before the downpour began. I had my cappuccino, Rene had a fruit smoothie, and we sat with the European couple that we seemed to run into every day. I loved the flow of our conversations. The four of us exchanged our stories about Bocas, with four different accents - Costa Rican, United States, Spanish, and French. Their 6-year-old daughter danced around us and sang the whole time.
Our other tours throughout the weekend took us to an isolated island with a magnificent beach. We walked all around, which took about 30 minutes. At some points we had a swim a little, we had to climb a little, and we had to duck and roll a little, so the trip was never boring. We finally made it to where we started from, set up camp, and went swimming. The initial chill of the water quickly melted away as the pleasant warm current covered us. We splashed around and took pictures until the boat came back for us. .We went to a little restaurant on the water. Now, when I say "on the water", that's exactly what I mean. The restaurant was built on a dock right over the water. As we ate, I looked down at the floor planks, then through them to see the little waves churning. I had some delicious fried chicken and Rene had a traditional Caribbean chicken and rice dish. We took off once again to snorkel. We went to a spot that was relatively shallow, but with no shortage of nature to see. The reefs were some of the most incredible that I've ever seen. I saw all kinds of plants that looked like everything from tall grass to brains. There were sea urchins, colorful fish, and the wonderful crackling sound of the fish munching in the water. I spotted another jellyfish and frantically felt around for Rene's leg so he could take a picture of it. All of a sudden I was aware that there were jellyfish everywhere. There was a current that was bringing a whole swarm of them right to us. I decided that this was the end of my snorkeling adventure and very carefully swam as fast as I could against the current and back to the boat. I was really disappointed to have to cut my snorkeling time short in a place with such an amazing variety of life to see. Soon, everyone else had the same idea as me and we were all back on the boat. What happened next? A woman on the tour with us told us that she's a diver and that this type of jellyfish was totally harmless. Of course, by that time we were already well on our way back to shore and it was too late to finish our tour.
The Bad:
It seemed to me that the people who worked in Bocas think of tourists as a easy targets. For example, I paid for my hotel in advance on the first day. The total came to $45, I gave the woman $60, and she put in the drawer and said thanks. It took about 10 minutes of arguing to get her to open the drawer and check. She subsequently realized that she owed me $15. The next day, she asked when we were going to pay. I guess she thought that I'd forgotten that I'd already paid for all 3 nights. Everyone we talked to had a similar experience. One person told me that he bought a few beers, that cost about 50 cents, and a bag a chips and they charged him $30. This poor guy didn't realize he was being ripped off because he's Australian and used to their currency, he had just spent several weeks in Costa Rica using colones (500 of which is about $1), and this was his first day in Panama using US dollars. If traveling to Bocas del Toro, I would recommend being very conscientious with your money.
The Ugly:
Nothing at all. There is absolutely nothing in Bocas that is ugly. The scenery is exquisite, the streets are clean with little artesian booths scattered around and all the restaurants are open and inviting. Everywhere you look, you see a beautiful Caribbean view and the atmosphere of a relaxed beach community.
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