Bocas del Toro: a one horse town, where you just imagine the tumble weed rolling down the main street. It seems not a lot happens here these days - you'll find a handful of dive centres but the aquatic life boast little more than sea slugs & is nothing to get excited about. Some of the locals will offer ot take you out on their boats to go snorkelling but even that requires a strong imagination. There is no beach so sunbathings' out too.
Located on Panamas Western (Carribbean) coast, Bocas del Toro is a day & halfs' journey by bus/train/foot/boat from the Costa Rican capital San Jose. I visited the town in 1999 on a whirlwind tour of Central America as I was keen to get out of the sanitised/Americanised Costa Rica & explore a place with a little more culture & history. Sadly it was the furthest I ventured it into Panama proper.
Prices were rock bottom cheap, but as there is little to spend your money on you'd probably hardly notice. The locals are keen to sell you grass (a pack of rizlas on a market stall worked out at £1) but aren't overly pushy & really just enjoy the banter. When I was here I couldn't even find a postcard so *shopping* - even for local arts & crafts - is another lost option.
Happy hour in most of the bars will see you get a 50/50 Cuba Libre for about £1.50 (& they don't measure shots here!) When I was there in '99 I stayed in a huge, old wooden hotel with a veranda which was practically empty. Rooms were BASIC & I got bitten by bed bugs like I never have before in my life... English (Caribbean style) was widely spoken & understood. Prices were staggeringly LOW, although I can't recall what we paid for the room, I think we got by on about $15 a day. Food was good but the fresh local fish was the way to go!
We rented bikes one afternoon and cycled right up the coast past local villags to a huge beach which was beautiful in it's vast emptiness. This was probably the most fun thing we did there. That & get caught in the heaviest monsoon downpour I've ever seen... the main street turned into a river but it was fun to run through rain like that... (it started just as we left to go back to our hotel from hacving dinner) & we were soaked through within about 5 seconds.
In all fairness Bocas del Toro was undoubtedly once a bustling port town, busy with trade ships en route around the Caribbean. The once grand old colonial style wooden buildings which still stand along the main street bear witness to those times gone by. However today you'd be hard pressed to find a lot to do here and summing up Bocas del Toro - I would have to say, for me, it was the journey not the destination that made my trip here such a memorable one.
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