Arriving in Bocas Del Toro - and Going Home
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2007
1
71
141
Trip End
Ongoing
Bocas Del Toro,
Panama
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Weīve been on so many launcha (teeny tiny ferry) boat rides lately, they are all starting to blend...
Onward to Panama. We packed up and caught the 8:30 bus from Puerto Viejo to the border town of Sixoala (pronounced See-Show-Ala). At the Puerto Viejo bus stop, I noticed a guy that looked familiar. As soon as I heard him speak, I recognized him and smartly warned Frank, Jessie, and Mark. I think his name is Paco, and he is from the United Kingdom (England). I met him on Little Corn Island in Nicaragua one day when Frank and I were snorkelling on a remote beach. He was over on a day trip with a boatload of people from Big Corn Island. He was a friendly guy, but way too friendly. In the annoying sense. I talked with a couple from North Carolina that were in his group, and he kept interrupting our conversation with things like "In England, I have this..." "In England, I have that..." "I like this" "I like that" "I`ve done that before"..
beautiful clear water on the way to Bocas
. Me, me, me, me, me. It was easy to tell his tour group was tiring of his Me-ness. So now here we are in a different country and here he is again on the same bus as us, headed towards the border of Panama.After a 2 hour bus ride, we arrived at the border town, which was rather small. It was a pretty easy border process, with no lines and very few hustlers. After getting the free stamp from Costa Rica, we walked across a river and bridge separating Panama. The bridge was originally designed for trains (no longer in use), and very little has been done to convert it to vehicles and people. There is a single lane of wood planks, wth foot-wide gaps. You had to be careful not to fall into the wide crocodile-laden river below. The Panama immigration on the other side of the bridge was easy too. The only small hassle was that citizens of some select countries have to pay for a $5 Tourist Card. I guess thatīs their loophole of saying they donīt require Visas. We like to call it the Gringo Tax. Nicaragua did the same thing. Once we paid for and recieved our Tourist Cards, we then jumped in line for the immigration stamp. A busload of German tourists had arrived, but kindly let us jump in front of them. Meanwhile, a local hustler kept bugging Frank to give him our passports - he assured he would be able to expedite it for us. Frank ignored him.
Boat ride to Bocas
We then jumped into a van for the $5, 30 minute ride to catch another Ferry. This ferry (launcha) took us through more scenic canals to Isla Bocas, the main island in the Bocas Del Toro Archipelago.
Bocas Del Toro is a large handful of islands forming an archipelago (I love that word, archipelago!) in the northern Carribean coast of Panama. The islands are lush with tropical rainforests, vary in size, and are really close together. You could probably swim from one to another, if (A) you are a strong swimmer and (B) you donīt mind swimming through a lot of human waste and trash. This beautiful set of island lacks any sort of waste management system, so they just dump all their trash into the lovely clear water and they build outhouses and showers right over the water as well.
We arrived on the main island, Isla Bocas, still with our Brittish Yapping Pal Paco, who kept asking us "Where are you going? Where are you going?". And we kept answering "We donīt know, we donīt know" (Even though we did *smirk*). He caught the next ferry over to Isla Bastamientos while we snuck away to the main town for lunch. Frank and I grabbed lunch at Don Chicoīs - a great cheap eatery full of local people eating local cuisine cafeteria style
Canal Scene
. We munched on plantians, meat pie, yuca fritters, chicken, rice and beans, lentils, and other yummies. Then we jumped on the internet in the back of the cafe for a bit. Which is when we both found a great airfare home. Yes, weīve finally decided to go home. It has been a fantastic 4.5 months of travel in Central America, but we are ready. We are very sad to leave our good friends Jessie and Mark - it is very tempting to follow them on their journey into Colombia and South America. They have kept us laughing 24/7 the last few weeks and we have so many great fun times with them. But we miss family and friends - Memorial Day is coming up soon - and I have some playdates with my neice and nephew to make up! So we bought one-way tickets from San Jose, Costa Rica back to Washington DC - to depart in about 1 week for about $360 per person.
Where to after that? Not sure yet! Maybe Central Asia, maybe South Pacific, maybe..maybe...maybe...who knows!
So after purchasing the tickets online and sending a quick note to our families, we caught the next launcha ride ($2 per person, 5 minute ride) over to Isla Bastamientos to meet up with Mark and Jessie. We have a lot of card playing and rum punch drinking to do in the next week!
Cheers,
Kay
