February 12th-15th, 2015
For backpackers entering Panama from Costa Rica, the natural
first stop is Bocas Del Toro. I took the
local bus to the border and while waiting in the line to exit Costa Rica, I met
a lovely German couple, Albert and Regina.
It took surprisingly long to get our exit stamps considering how few
people were in front of us and when we reached the one counter in operation it
only took 30 seconds each. We walked across
a rusted old railroad bridge which is now only for pedestrian use, the vehicles
have a newer, dedicated bridge that runs parallels to this one. There was no line up on the other side and
after filling out the standard entry form and paying a $3 entry fee, we were in
Panama.
Bananas,bananas, bananas....
And these are the lovely houses that the workers get to live in...thanks Chiquita!
I keep running into McGiver...I could be a celebrity down here:
About to leave Costa Rica:
"Border-line Selfie"
A couple of local bus rides later and we’d reached Almirante
where a water taxi was needed to make it over to Isla Colon, where Bocas Town
is located. The boat ride was about half
an hour and the water was relatively smooth.
I bid adieu to Albert and Regina as they were off to locate their
hostel. Meanwhile I needed to figure out
when I could get another water taxi over to Bastimentos Island where I had a
reservation at the Bocas Island Lodge, a recommendation from Australian
Jacinta, whom I’d met while zip lining back in Monteverde. Then it was time for a late lunch.
This is the men's bathroom at the water taxi dock...note: it's just a missing plank to aim through so your pee just goes into the ocean. So glad I didn't have to go #2!
With Albert and Regina on the water taxi:
Ahhh...in Bocas Town:
With my first Panama beer:
I ended up having my own water taxi over, for ten
bucks. Not too bad as one place had
quoted me $15. A big fancy yacht and
some large catamarans were anchored at Red Frog Marina on Bastimentos, must be
nice. Although if I had the money to buy
a big yacht, that wouldn’t be the one.
It looked like it lacked great deck space. And everyone knows that a good deck is
important!
The big yacht:
Red Frog Marina:
The hostel turned out to be pretty decent. I liked that each bed of the bunk beds in the
dorm had its own light, plug in and small shelf. On the negative side it had a kitchen
although when the place was full, its size was inadequate and I found the
volunteer staff not too helpful and the bathrooms and kitchen were not cleaned
frequently enough. Thankfully there was
a cool restaurant/lounge that had a pool table, ping pong, massive Jenga and
some TV screens and it was a great place to chill out on my middle day there
when it poured with rain for most of the afternoon.
A path from the hostel led down to Red Frog Beach which was
pretty stunning. Nice sand, some
turquoise blue water, an island off in the distance and not too many
gringos! A few restaurants set back
amongst the trees offered sunbeds which I took advantage of one afternoon to do
some reading although I had a bit of an incident with the guy tending to the
beds. I had sat down at one sunbed, with
another one beside it under a parasol.
The guy told me it was ten bucks for the day. It seemed steep to me but I relented and
handed him a $20 bill, expecting ten back.
He started to walk away and I figured he thought that I wanted both beds
so I told him that I only needed one. He
fished out his wad of money in his pocket and proceeded to hand me just five
dollars back. Huh? Shouldn’t I get ten? He stated that the beds were only $5 each. I told him that I had handed him a twenty but
he was emphatic that I had given him a ten.
I was certain of what I gave him.
Panama uses American dollars as its currency and it baffles me that it’s
all the same colour, green. The most
powerful currency in the world, and the most easily confused. The dude counted his money and affirmed that
I had given him a ten but I couldn’t follow, nor trust his accounting. He started to get angry at me, calling me a
liar and stormed off. What a dick! Oh well, I’m out $10, deal with it.
Lovely Red Frog Beach:
This is the life Stimpy!
For the entire afternoon I noticed him offer to get drinks
for other tourists but he never once approached me. Seemed as though I was a second class
citizen. I decided not to give any more
money to the establishment so I would wander next door to purchase my
beer. Later I got up to go to the
bathroom and found out that they charged $1 for that! An older American was going into the toilet
with a key from the bar and he said he’d just leave it unlocked for me but when
he came out, a 12 year old local girl snatched it from him and told me I had to
pay. Screw this, I’ll go find a bush
thanks. I recounted my experience so far
with this place to the American and he told me that I should talk with the
owner, Scott, as he “runs a good show”.
Later on I did hear an American, in his mid-forties, talking with some
tourists and it was pretty obvious that it was Scott. I told him of my earlier incident and he said
he had heard of it and in the end he gave me the missing ten bucks. I relayed that it wasn’t so much about the
money, but how it had been dealt with by his employee and he would look into
it, as obviously it’s not good for business.
The next day the beach wasn't quite so inviting:
Can you spot the surfer enjoying it though?
This was the best I could do...not bad...
I had only booked a couple of nights in the hostel and the
first evening it was barely half full however when I decided to ask for a third
night, it turned out that it was fully booked.
It was the weekend and I didn’t realize it was Carnaval time. Oh yeah, I’m in Latin America and they take
this last blowout before Lent pretty seriously.
Already having booked a shuttle van to take me to Boquete on Sunday
morning, I frantically searched online for somewhere to stay in Bocas
Town. I lucked out, although it was a
pricy private room at $50 whereas I was paying $18 in the hostel. Oh well, it’s just for one night and it was
probably best to be in the town and not trying to catch a water taxi from
Bastimentos first thing on Sunday morning to get the 11am shuttle.
This is more up my alley...
I was surprised that there was a little airport in Bocas Town:
Coming into Bocas Town:
This is looking through a cross shaped hole into a cemetery. I found it interesting that people aren't buried, but put in sarcophagi above ground, which are tiled with the type of tiles you'd expect to see in your bathroom.
I chilled out for a bit on a dock near my new hostel:
After settling in at the Mar e Iguana Hostel I walked to a
nearby grocery store and who would I run into but Regina and Albert, from
crossing the border a couple of days earlier.
They happened to be staying at the same place, in fact in the room next
to mine. Later that afternoon we
ventured downtown to see what Carnaval activities were going on. As we walked down the long street that runs
parallel to the single strip airport on the island, we saw a guy dressed up in
some kind of demon looking costume, dancing along his way. Soon there were three of them, then more and
more. Loud music was blaring as these
devils danced around on the street, surrounded by onlookers. Some of them had sticks with little whips on
the end of them that they thrashed about.
The odd local, not in costume but sporting a whistle seemed to be
taunting the demons, entering the oblong circle and blowing piercing shrills at
the fiendish dancers. Occasionally they
would turn and attempt to lash out at the ankles of the taunters. We even saw one seemingly intoxicated devil
whip another devil who was not at all pleased about it and an argument had to
be broken up by some bystanders. Seemed
like fairly serious business as occasionally camo geared police would step in
to moderate tempers. On the opposite
side of the street were a dozen temporary stands selling beer and most of them
were blaring out their own music, each one trying to drown out their neighbours
which was a bit annoying. I mentioned
that we should get a cerveza and was tempted to dash across the 15 feet of open
space, across the area that the demons were dancing instead of the long and
crowded walk around the perimeter.
Albert insisted that we take the long way and that turned out to be a
very wise move as the beer lady told us that entering into the perimeter was
tempting fate as you were then fair game for the demons to try and whip at your
lower legs. What a strange festival!
I saw this bit of a "fixer upper" on my walk downtown:
This is "Hippie Park"...all these folks twirling poys, juggling and hula hooping:
The good and the bad, you choose which is which...
The first devil dancing:
This looked like "el jefe" of the devils:
Regina finally braved getting her pic with a devil:
The Devils' Dance:
After almost an hour, and with the demon dancing scheduled
to go on for another half hour, we decided to go for a drink and later for
dinner. While eating in an American
style sportsbar/saloon we were entertained by a troupe of dancers who came in
and proceeded to strut their stuff on the bar.
Nice way to finish…
One of the dancers...yes, he's decided to play for the other team but his enthusiasm was infectious:
Happy Carnaval!
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