Koko Resort Isla Colon

The 30 minute plane ride from David to Bocas del Toro, Isla Colon, was on time, stress-free, and worth every cent of the $51 ticket. We walked from the airport to Bocas town and made the freshman mistake of trying to find a hotel while dragging our luggage around, rather than our usual plan of parking one of us (Mom) in a restaurant with the bags while the other person (me) walks around and compares hotel choices. What were we thinking?

Bocas town is very small ...

... CA.  Right off the dock we can see at at least 10 starfish.  This town reminds us of a larger Ambergris Caye in Belize.  Secretly we would like to cancel the rest of the trip and just stay here the whole time.  But, alas, we have already paid for the half day Panama Cruise so we will need to move on.  Right now it is 6:00 pm   We are talking "travel" with the Petaluma family. 
We will report more later and promise to upload some pix.
Adios for now.

... br>We left our stuff there and walk a tricky muddy path for half an hour till the beautiful beaches on the northwest of the island. The beach worth the walk. We came exhausted and run to the blue warm water. It was perfect!! And we were alone there...the whole beach for us : )

At night, as I was cooking our pasta, the owner of the hostel (whose name I cannot remember..let's call him Wilson) told me he had cooked a lot of Gallo pinto (arroz con frijoles ...

... be 80 degrees, a nice breeze was blowing, it was again, perfect. One thing to note, NO WET SUIT IS NEEDED IN PUERTO VIEJO! We use them to snorkel and in the warm waters, it would be too warm. The day drifted by and the thoughts of home slowly slipped to the back of my mind. We walked down the beautiful path to Banana Azul to chill out. Well, about 2 minutes into the walk, it began to rain. No, it didn't rain, the sky opened. We quickly ...

... weather was ****** and cloudy and our hostel had no water and an annoying owner. We hung out on the patio playing cards and drinking beer with our new german and canadian friends, swam out to a flat island that made people seem like they were walking on water, and we went snorkelling again and saw lots of starfish and a sting ray at which point we calmly exited the water.

We arrived to a slightly cloudy Bocas and wheeled our suitcases down the road to our guest house. The local foreign population seems laid back and I think perhaps some of them have been here some time. We checked into our room, and were given a key with a larged wooden green apple attached. No way we were going to lose that, but ...

... less airflow, and more stuffiness. When there are no lights on, my bedroom is pitch black. Every room is armed with at least one fan, and when we are in it, that fan is on full and turned towards us, making our hair constantly blow beautifully like a Cosmo magazine cover shoot. But we are pretty much always sweating. This makes us dirty girls, but we try to wash daily in our shower that has the temperature options of cold, cold, or cold. Agony at first, but now a ...

For my ripe old age of 22, I'm quite happy that I've managed to flit around 16-ish countries, but meeting people like Steve, our new British friend with big excited blue eyes, who tucked his blonde hair behind his ears and told us endless amazing tales of the 55+ countries that he'd visited, made me feel like an amateur traveller...still so much to see!... ------------------------- When I last left you, there was a lot of rain. MUCHOS AGUAS. In this installment: The rain ...

... the beach. At least our hostel - Hospedaje Heike, proved to be a little haven from the rain and a rather pleasant place to reside while being trapped indoors. Entirely constructed of dark wooden planks, walking the corridors and hanging in the rooms of Heike, combined with the constant mustiness of wet that lingered from everyone's never-going-to-dry washing and old clothes, gave the illusion of being trapped inside an old wooden boat. Full to the brim with an ...

... car bars at Burning Man or some of the more elaborate bar floats at "Bay to Breakers," but it cost him several thousand dollars more. It was pretty much round, with the bar in the center, powered, slept three, had a head, and he rented it out to party groups. He promised to take us out on it if he rounded up enough girls, but his luck was apparently no better than mine. Overall, I had a good time, but it is still low season and the ...