Bocas del Toro

Two weeks ago I once again took the bus over to Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean side. At the bus terminal I joined with Erin and Tommy who were returning from Mal Pais. We spent two nights in Puerto Viejo, chilling, hanging out at the beach and visiting Jim. After that we went over to Panama and headed over to Bocas del Toro, which is a group of islands on the Caribbean side close to Costa Rica. It was time for Erin to do a visa run and I've always wanted to see Bocas since I came here so I joined even though my time wasn't quite up. We spent three nights there, as you have to be out of Costa Rica three days every 90 days to renew your visa.

We stayed in a great self-sustained (when it came to water and electricity) eco lodge on the main island (Colon), 15 minutes or so outside of Bocas, the main town. One day we took a boat over to one of the other bigger islands, Bastimentos, and tried surfing. I'm going to blame it all on the surf, teacher and board for me not getting up that day... Or rather, I either caught a wave or I got up, but never both at the same time. Oh well, there'll be more chances. I think I bruised a rib though, because up until two days ago it really hurt and now it only kind of hurts. Nice to be able to sneeze without fear of pain, and nice to be able to sleep on that side.

The next day the weather was pretty bleak, so I opted to stay in the hammock reading a book (Foundation Trilogy) listening to the waves crash in on the bluff, while Erin and Tommy hit the town. But we were lucky enough to get to Bocas while they had their carnival, so in the evening we all went in. We were joined by a Canadian couple that were great traveling companions and stayed out pretty late.

Before I knew it time was up and we made our way back to the mainland to catch the bus back to San Jose. Not Tommy though, he slept in and stayed for another five or so days. We had a nice little experience at the border; everybody have to leave the bus and cross the rinky-dink bridge by foot and get stamped out of Panama and in to Costa Rica. Well on that (the CR) side we were after a half hour or so of waiting met with a power outage so the immigrations officials couldn't do anything, so there we stood for four hours while the line grew longer and longer... Luckily (?) we were second in line, so once power was back on it went fast. The whole bus trip were supposed to have taken 5.5 hours, but it took us 6.5 hours at the border... But it was Sunday and I didn't have Spanish class until Monday so wasn't in a hurry, and neither was Erin, so it just makes for a good travel story, right?

Bocas was great and I wish I would have stayed longer, there are more islands and beaches to explore. With a functioning border it's only 7-8 hours door to island though, so it might happen again in the future!