This was the scene at a local Nicaraguan beach in San Jorge, Nicaragua at 7am- hundreds of Nicos were loudly commencing their annual celebration leading up to Easter sunday. We were pushing our luck as the dutifully followed Central American Holy Week, Semana Santa, got closer and locals prepared to completely shutdown business. So it was good that we picked up and left Nicaragua behind at 5am and made our way back across the border and into a grooving and oddly upscale backpacker´s hostel in San Jose, Costa Rica a good 12hrs later. Up again the next morning, again at 5am, we were the first four in a loosely followed stressful line for the only daily bus that crosses the Panama border on the Caribe side. We pushed ourselves aboard and frantically saved seats in fear that we wouldn´t make the cut for paradise. Safely en route and only minutes south of San Jose, we found ourselves completely surrounded by rain forest- bright shades of fluffy green crawled up to the sky, small waterfalls ran down cliff walls, and ocassionally the landscape around us would open up wide exposing endless rolling hills of forest. Once we walked across a rickety bridge into Panama and got back onto our bus, we drove through endless perfectly kept Chiquita banana plantations all the way to the ferry dock.
Another 12+ hours after leaving San Jose we arrived in the mainland town of Changuinola and got some seriously VIP assistance from Lauren´s bus companion who (speaking to drivers in lively Caribe-English known as Gwari Gwari) helped us avoid the slow massive ferry and instead put us on our first water taxi with a happy rasta who tossed us each our first Panamanian cerveza and sped us into the sunset through the district of Bocas del Toro, to Bocas del Toro town, a small surfer´s haven of a beach town that balances it´s wooden buildings right up to the edge of the clear turquoise waters of the Caribbean sea and is surrounded by an archipelago of tropical islands, also conveniently named... Bocas del Toro. Luckily, the Panamanians decided to give each of the islands their own names before this got confusing.
a Bocas!
We made ourselves at home in Bocas town on the main island, Isla Colòn, with muchos otros gringos at the spotlessly clean and utterly charming Gran Kahuna Hostal, climbing into tall bunk beds to the beat of good reggae pumping from the cozy hammock and pillow swarmed common area.
In Bocas we happily met up with a handful of friends that the girls had grown close to in Tamarindo. Along with Valentina, Romina, Michelle, Johannes, Jérôme, and Michael we conveniently ended up with our own little community at Gran Kahuna. The deal on Bocas is that you anchor yourself on the main island but take water taxis to the open air bars at night and to bask on various caribbean islands during the day. The popular bars offer dancing on waterside docks under the stars. This is quaint in itself, but in a way I really can´t explain, the sky here seems unusually massive and endless, we find ourselves constantly looking up feeling as if we´re inside the dome from the Truman show or living inside a panoramic omni theatre.
Our week in review:
Sunday was spent on Red Frog island . . .
Monday on Boca del Drago at Estrella Beach, known for it´s bathtub clear waters and gigantic starfish . . .
Tuesday 11 of us took a speedboat tour of a couple spots toting snorkling gear. We set up camp on Isla Zapatillas, clearing a spot under the palms, and playing survivor man. We shook a variety of coconuts from the trees- argued over everything from which type is best to how to decide if they´re ripe, then cracked, pryed, and cut them open with swiss army knives. We even found long thin branches, sharpened the edges and sent Jérôme fishing. Despite his best efforts, we found most success with the coconuts. We passed them around like juice boxes then cracked them open and passed chunks of coco meat around the speedboat for the hour ride back to town.
Wednesday, ironically, was spent on Cayo de Agua, an uninhabited island where season 3 of Survivor Man actually was filmed. Our two local hosts, Alex- one of the owners of Gran Kahuna, and Chile (Marcelo from Chile)- a local tourguide, took five of us along for the ride to drop off (again ironically) four students from UPeace to the island where they would be spending a few days roughing it. While the girls got situated, Alex led Lauren and I, and later also Amanda, through jungle paths where we spotted poisonous little tree frogs, sloths, pineapple bushes, and spiders I never needed to lay eyes on. It rained on and off all day as we explored the rarely seen island and cruised through the canals of mangrove forest. A heavenly travel day.
positive thinking Jenny
Our time so far in Bocas has been relaxing- beach days, long dinners, lounging around the hostel and wandering through town. This morning our Tamarindo pals head to Panama City and we have no agenda until tonight, when we will boat over to a nearby island to celebrate Semana Santa with a beach party and bonfire under the full moon.
arts & crafts time
Another 12+ hours after leaving San Jose we arrived in the mainland town of Changuinola and got some seriously VIP assistance from Lauren´s bus companion who (speaking to drivers in lively Caribe-English known as Gwari Gwari) helped us avoid the slow massive ferry and instead put us on our first water taxi with a happy rasta who tossed us each our first Panamanian cerveza and sped us into the sunset through the district of Bocas del Toro, to Bocas del Toro town, a small surfer´s haven of a beach town that balances it´s wooden buildings right up to the edge of the clear turquoise waters of the Caribbean sea and is surrounded by an archipelago of tropical islands, also conveniently named... Bocas del Toro. Luckily, the Panamanians decided to give each of the islands their own names before this got confusing.
a Bocas!
In Bocas we happily met up with a handful of friends that the girls had grown close to in Tamarindo. Along with Valentina, Romina, Michelle, Johannes, Jérôme, and Michael we conveniently ended up with our own little community at Gran Kahuna. The deal on Bocas is that you anchor yourself on the main island but take water taxis to the open air bars at night and to bask on various caribbean islands during the day. The popular bars offer dancing on waterside docks under the stars. This is quaint in itself, but in a way I really can´t explain, the sky here seems unusually massive and endless, we find ourselves constantly looking up feeling as if we´re inside the dome from the Truman show or living inside a panoramic omni theatre.
Our week in review:
Sunday was spent on Red Frog island . . .
Monday on Boca del Drago at Estrella Beach, known for it´s bathtub clear waters and gigantic starfish . . .
Tuesday 11 of us took a speedboat tour of a couple spots toting snorkling gear. We set up camp on Isla Zapatillas, clearing a spot under the palms, and playing survivor man. We shook a variety of coconuts from the trees- argued over everything from which type is best to how to decide if they´re ripe, then cracked, pryed, and cut them open with swiss army knives. We even found long thin branches, sharpened the edges and sent Jérôme fishing. Despite his best efforts, we found most success with the coconuts. We passed them around like juice boxes then cracked them open and passed chunks of coco meat around the speedboat for the hour ride back to town.
positive thinking Jenny
Our time so far in Bocas has been relaxing- beach days, long dinners, lounging around the hostel and wandering through town. This morning our Tamarindo pals head to Panama City and we have no agenda until tonight, when we will boat over to a nearby island to celebrate Semana Santa with a beach party and bonfire under the full moon.
arts & crafts time
Life is good on el Caribe*
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