Second week in Bocas
Trip Start
Jan 16, 2008
1
8
35
Trip End
Apr 19, 2008
Bocas Town,
Panama
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Went diving again on Tuesday (without Kristina) and again yesterday. Diving on Tuesday was great. We'd had a few days without rain, so the vis was super - easily 15-20 metres on the first dive and around 10 on the second. On the two sites we dove, there were dozens of crayfish, plus a fair smattering of other life.
Yesterday we did a whole day tour. Started off with a trip down to Dolphin Bay, to watch some dolphins (suprise, suprise). They were Bottlenosed Dolphins, but much smaller than in NZ, and they weren't so playful. After that it was a short ride over to Coral Cay for the first dive of the day. Plenty of different corals, and lots of interesting things to see. Kristina is feeling a lot more comfortable in the water now too which is great
063. Isla Carenero
.Lunch at a waterside restaurant, right on the edge of the mangroves, an hour on Red Frog Beach (where there are lots of small red frogs - which of course the local kids feel a need to catch and hold in leaves filled with water so the tourists can take a photo of them - for a small fee of course). The beach was nice, but over hyped and the worst thing is that the whole area has been sold to some resort company which is building a huge tourist resort there - including an "enrivomentally friendly golf-course". Promising that 70% of the area will remain untouched sounds nice, but its hard not to be sceptical.
Such situations seem to be the order of the day here. A lot of this area is national park and therefore protected. Other areas (including some bordering on the park - like Red Frog Beach) are being sold by the government for tourist development. I'm all for responsible tourism - giving back to the communities that you visit, but this doesn't fall into that category. The money for the land sales goes into the government coffers (probably with a cut going directly into the pockets of various officials), with a promise from the company buying the land to help local development. So far none of that help has been seen. The roads here are pretty bad (and that isn't helped by trucks driving on them all day, every day), the island has a serious water problem that will just get worse as more and more tourists land, not to mention the garbage problems
064. Egret
.Last year we were back on Koh Tao in Thailand after 5 years, and were pretty shocked by the change. I think that if we come back here in 5 years we won't recognise the place.
Anyway, on to happier things again...
Second dive of the day was at Hospital Point which is a short drop off on the end of a nearby island (which I can never remember the name of). Evidently its a popular place for Spotted Drummers (check the photo), because we saw at least 5 of them - they are apparently quite rare otherwise. Also saw one of the few dangerous things in these waters - a scorpion fish.
Finished off the day with a marvellous dinner at our favo place - The Reef - with crayfish and prawns of course. They were great, but you really have to try the creole style octopus there. Yummo!
Its carnival here at the moment, started on Friday and continues on to Tuesday. Being a small place, it isn't on the same scale as in Rio of course, but the life and energy of the people is very apparent. Dancing in the streets, parades every evening, and the drums... Wow!
Otherwise it has been a pretty quiet week. One of our new friends from school, Grzeg, had his birthday on Wednesday so we had a bit of a party at school. It's a great school by the way, small, personal, super teachers - really recommend it
065. Sunset on Carenero
. Every time we see the teachers (or their mothers!) around town they're always asking how its going, what we've been doing and things. And always in Spanish of course :)Grzeg was leaving on Friday, so on Thursday we three took a trip out to a small island - Cayo Zapatilla - which is about an hour away. Gorgeous beaches, and very isolated so it was really nice. Did a bit of snorkelling and even saw a stingray which was the icing on the cake. Ended the day at The Reef (hmmmm... sensing a theme here), and the creole octopus. Mmmmm....
Anyway, I'll end up here, and load up some more pics. Didn't get one of the stingray unfortunately, but plenty of other weird sea life to see.
