Bocas Del Torro, Panama

Getting to Bocas from Puerto can be a little challenging.

We had to first go to a small clothing store to pay an exit fee of $7 to leave Costa Rica. Headed to another building to get our passports stamped. Walked over a questionable wood bridge to Panama. Got our passports stamped again, and finally headed over to a building behind a liquor store to pay an entrance fee.

The entrance to Panama at this border is definitely not handicap accessible
 

The government building that verified our passports housed an un-uniformed guy with a stamp, machete, and bag of money ... seemed legit. 

It was black Friday in Panama, the streets were full of people running around buying knock-offs for cheap.

After an hour water taxi ride we arrived in Bocas Town.

The streets were lined with brightly colored buildings.

 Cafes decorated in local art.

We rode around town and checked out all the shops and markets.

We sat a a small coffee shop overlooking the water…

…then biked over to an old bus that made some of the best smoothies on the island.

We took a water taxi over to Isla Calenero for happy hour at Bibi's, a fairly remote restaurant/bar only accessible by foot.

We walked on the beach just as rain clouds started rolling in. Before we new it, we were caught in the downpour. We ran to the nearest shelter, a laid-back hostel.

The rain was quickly followed by thunder, so we ordered a couple beers, grabbed a deck of cards, and watched the lightening crackle over the ocean

Saturday we took another water taxi to Red Frog Beach, another island, where we stayed at Palmar Tent Lodge. Instantly fell in love with this place. From the dock it was a 10 minute hike to our remote tent on the beach.

The next morning we woke up to the sound of parrots and the smell of coffee coming from the nearby kitchen. We met some people at the bar and were invited to come hang out on a sail boat for the rest of the day. The owner of the boat was traveling with his son and daughter on a boat trip that started off in Texas and was making their way down to Fiji, via the Panama canal. 

After a day of sailing, we came back to the tent lodge for a bonfire on the beach. The location of the lodge is very remote, the night sky was unbelievably dark and the bright stars were so bright. The beach also had bioluminescence which created a glow in the water when the plankton were disturbed. Time for a night skinny dip…

The island of Bastimentos is one of the most beautiful, picturesque, places I have ever been too. Part of its beauty comes from not having been touched by commercialism. Sadly, since then I’ve heard that hotels and masterplanned communities are in the works.

Though tourism has once again, made its way to another remote gem, you can still find a quite beach here- tucked away from the world.