Bocas Del Toro, about an hour east of the Costa Rican border. Big
queues at the border, but a good opportunity to make some new friends
- everyone was going to the same place. We stayed on Isla de Colon,
the main hub. It was scorching! The hottest place we've been so far.
We decided to rent bicycles and cycle 15 km to a beach on the other
side of the island. These bikes were creaky and rusty but we were
confident they would make the journey. All was good until the road
turned to deeeep gravel, and the hills. Kirsty's bike wouldn't go into
the easy gear so we switched. After about 10 minutes I realise that I
can't actually turn the pedals! Oh no! We still had 8 kms to go until
the beach. Two policemen stopped on their motorbike to try to help us
with their Swiss army knife - they failed. We ended up running with
one bike, freewheeling down the hills, legs out the sides, while the
other person rode the ok bike. We switched over a few times and
managed to reach the beach just before sunset. There was a minibus
waiting ready to head back to the town, they driver was happy to throw
our bikes on the roof, but he was leaving in 13 minutes! Quick! We
were absolutely dripping in sweat after our mini duathlon, we ripped
off our clothes and sprinted into the water. Quick photo session
before jumping in the minibus. The reason we had headed to the beach
was to look at starfish, but we didn't have time to go and search for
them.
That night we met 3 Brazillian blokes. Alex owned a yacht and had been
sailing around the Caribbean for the past 15 months. Alex was a keen
surfer and had 6 surf boards on board, also scuba gear and fishing
equipment. They offered to take us out on the yacht the next day. At
first we were sceptical but after dinner together we had decided that
they were safe friendly guys just wanting to hang out. So next day off
we go, beautiful yacht, cruise up to deserted beaches, snorkelling
with the tropical fish, surfed off the boat, we decided not to dive as
the conditions weren't great. Perfect day, sailing back we saw
dolphins. We got back and totally crashed out; we got fried in the hot
hot sun and after cycling and running the day before and surfing all
day...shattered!
Day 3 we went on an organised boat tour to see a few different
islands. First stop Dolphin Bay...picture 15 speedboats, all zooming
across the bay looking for dolphins. If I was a dolphin I would not
hang out there. Anyway we saw a few before heading off to some other
islands. Then it chucked it down with rain, the warmest place was in
the ocean. Headed to another island for lunch and we totally froze.
Last stop was red frog beach...famous for red frogs!
The coolest bar that we found was a sunken shipwreck with decking
around it, spotlights in the water, you could see all the jellyfish
and fish swimming around. We never made it to the illusive Aqua
Lounge, on the neighbouring island - they had one of those big
hampster ball things.
Next morning our goal was to go from Panama back to Costa Rica,
through San Jose and down to Andrew's beach house just west of Jaco on
the Pacific coast. A full day of boats and buses.
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