If you are to travel anywhere in your life, GO TO BOCAS DEL TORO, those images of a tranquil beach lying in a hammock and sipping a Pina Colada can be a reality.
I Went to Panama last year on a four week expedition to Costa Rica and Panama being next door was our obvious choice for diving and relaxing. So flying into San Jose airport, which is an experience in itself as for some reason the planes (or our plane at least) liked to do summersaults in the turbelence, but dont let this put you off. I'd recommend staying in San Jose (or Panama city) for the night as the trip across the canal is an adventure to say the least, that and its the last McDonalds
you'll see for a while, thank god!
Anyway if your travelling across the border from San Jose id recommend paying one of the young lads $5 to carry ur bags across or jump in a mini bus because if your travelling heavy you will not enjoy the bridge. - a few wooden beams run along an old iron bridge with large gaps inbetween for a good view of the canal, in case you wanted to know.
Back to the place in hand, once you get the water taxi to Bocas, (and get the taxi the scenery is amazing) you will finally arive in Paradise. The first view you will have is of the sea front, a row of little wooden jetties shooting out from a few hotels, the dive centre and restaurants.
Onshore if you hadnt noticed its quite warm but a nice heat as you will be literally no more than 20m away from the sea no matter which hotel you stay in. We stayed in the hotel "HipusCampos", (the seahorse hotel) as there was a group of 50 of us staying across 4 weeks we got a discount but on average a standard room is about $15 and a good one is $25 per night., although the only difference really is the TV and the timber floors. Everythings kept really clean and is the only place in central America i have found to have proper flushing toilets!
There is an amazing lot to do in Bocas if you want to or you can just sit back and relax, like the locals and sip your carribean rum. First the beaches have to be mentioned, just along the bay a mere 5mins walk maximum is the most amazing deserted beaches ever imagine Ursula Andrews coming out the sea in Dr. No and times 20, you get the ides, crystal clear sea, smooth yellow sand and sloping palm trees for shade. Idyllic for a sunbathe, or swim.
Also if you go you must scuba dive or at least learn to the aquatic underworld is beautiful and varied including starfish, dolphins, coral, rays, tropical fish and nerve sharks, dont worry though they'll only suck you to death. There is also a fantastic dive site where they sunk the old car ferry, you can swim around and through it and even have your photo taken sitting on its loo! The dive centre is Star Fleet run by a wonderful canadian/panmanian woman, who will happily show you around.
For food go out and thats an order you could eat out every day for a month and still not have eaten a bad meal, although not very touristy there is still a very diverse amount of food from carribean to Italian, curry, lobster, octopus, pizza and the best chocolate cake on earth. I can personally recommend Om for a really nice meal. And nothing beats climbing out the sea to a lobster lunch, caught that morning and you can eat out for $5 including desert. Thats less than a McDonalds! And about a billion times nicer.
For night life it is fairly limited but, there are several pool halls, bars and clubs. I'd recommend the "Blue Bull Bar" run by the lovely Nylvia and "The Wreck Bar" Drinks are really cheap too. 50 cents for anything non alcoholic, 75c-$1 for a nice beer and no more than $1.50 for a cocktail or imported liquer. Try Balboa Ice its very nice.
Anyway finally other things you can do are kyaking, sailing, snorkelling, horse riding, motorbike cruising, cycling or just relax with the really friendly locals who speak Carribean-English by the way. And dont think its just for youngsters or old people those who went with me last summer ranged in age from 8 - 50 years.
If you have got this far in my review thankyou so much for your time and trust me if theres anything i have missed out its great as well. Go to Bocas its a really nice place with lovely people but get there soon before it turns into another fake tourist town
Thankyou once again and Goodbye
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May 30th, 2004
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