There are places in the world that I always figured I´d go to, such as England, or Thailand, or India. But I´m not sure I ever thought I´d cross a rickety one lane bridge over a flooded river, with semi trucks and people in the same lane of traffic, and step foot into Panama! (Please queue up that Van Halen song now!)
I ended up doing the 10 dollar per person route from the border to the ferry stop.
I took a speedy ferry boat from this town of stilt houses on a canal. But not before I took a piss in the toilet at the ferry boat station.
The boat ride was wild, and right now I´m traveling with Mandee from Chicago. No team, again, no RBR, so stop getting so darn excited. But still, a cool gal and we checked out a few places in Bocas Town before we ended up at Mando Taitu.
Be careful where you stay since some of the more popular spots end up being in the main drag and are loud. Think young travelers who are drinking beer and laughing loudly all night long. That kind of dope smoking loud. Music bumping, loud talking, wild party loud.
Bocas Del Toro is a series of islands in North west Panama. You might think its northeast, but Panama goes east west, not north south.
There are some beaches, but it´s mostly mangroves. there are tons of neat houses and restaurants on stilts hanging out over the water. It´s sorta like Venice, at least on the waterfronts of the islands.
We hired a boat and headed to an island beach about 45 minutes away. The water was clear. The beach and trees were beautiful. We hiked around it, looking for pirate gold, and swam, and sang bad hip hop songs. I even read a little of my book on the beach. Does it get much better?
The Lionfish have come here and are destroying the reefs, as they are doing in the Bahama´s as well. So if you want to eat Lionfish, do it. Make it so the locals will hunt and kill them. See, Lionfish are not native to the Atlantic and it´s offshoots.
They eat 10 times, or was it 100 times, their body weight daily. And they have up to 2000 offspring in every litter. They have no natural enemies here, and spread like a plague, eating everything and eventually killing off the reefs. Yikes.
They are pretty, but it sucks that they are here. The theory is that when Hurricaine Andrew hit Florida, it destroyed the Aquarium and let them into the sea… and like a plague they are taking over.
Craig Ouellette is a world traveling, independent filmmaker, and karaoke fiend. He has been to dozens of countries, made dozens of films, and sung more karaoke songs than he can count. He hopes the tales of adventure will entertain.
