Happy Wednesday and welcome back for another blog post! I am recapping Dan and I's trip to Panama from a few weeks ago. If you haven't read part 1 yet, you definitely should- https://nneumann5340.wixsite.com/intotheclouds/post/panama-part-1-panama-city For Part 2, you will read about our time in Bocas Del Toro which is a province that has beautiful islands on the Caribbean.
On Monday, October 18th, Dan and I took the night bus from Panama City to Bocas Del Toro. The night bus was fine but the entire next day, Dan and I were zombies. We didn't sleep much at all. We arrived around 5am and waited about an hour for our first water taxi to the main island (Isla Colon). It was about a half hour speed boat ride over to the main island. We saw a beautiful sunrise on the Caribbean as we made the journey over there.
We found a cafe that opened early and got some food and drinks. I got a delicious fruit smoothie that was very refreshing. Our stay for the week was on the Red Frog island. However, we couldn't get a water taxi until later that morning, around 10:40 am. Additionally, check-in wasn't until 3pm. Like I said earlier, we were exhausted and trying to keep ourselves awake. We hung out at the cafe for a while and used the free wifi. Afterwards, we walked over to the Selina on the main island.
Have you heard of Selina? No, not Selena Gomez. I'm talking about the chain of hostels across the world. We stayed at one in Jaco, Costa Rica last month and had a great time. We got free drinks, activities, yoga classes, and more. In Bocas del Toro, there are two Selinas. One is on the main island and the other is on Red Frog which is where we stayed. We walked over to the Selina on the main island to hang out for a bit and get our water taxi tickets to our island. At 10:40 am, we took the speed boat over to Red Frog. It was a hot, beautiful day and the water was crystal clear. It was beautiful! On the way over, we saw our first of many dolphins for this trip.
Once we got to our Selina around 11am, we asked if early check-in was available because we were basically sleeping standing up straight. They said it might be but not for a while. So, we hung out by the pool and walked around the island. We found the beautiful Red Frog beach which was one of the best beaches I've ever been to. Eventually, we checked in and fell into a deep slumber. We woke up later that evening and got dinner down at the Selina bar. Afterwards, we went back to bed.
On Wednesday, we woke up feeling well rested and excited for the day ahead. We had a day tour planned! The tour started off with a family of dolphins in the bay close to Red Frog. I've never seen dolphins before and this did not disappoint. It was absolutely incredible seeing them swim in the wild. They were beautiful and so elegant. Then, we had a long boat ride over to where we snorkeled! I am a big fan of snorkeling and this was a beautiful place to see a lot of sea life.
After snorkeling, we took the speed boat over to one of the Zapatilla islands! The Zapatilla islands are two islands in Bocas del Toro that are inhabited and a popular day trip destination. We had about an hour there to hike around, relax by the beautiful beach, and snorkel more if we wanted.
On the way back to Red Frog, we stopped at sloth island. It was ironically International Sloth Day and we saw 3 different sloths! It was amazing. I've seen them in Costa Rica but this was a first for Panama.
We were almost back when we came across hundreds of starfish in the water! I've never seen any like this before. They were big, bright, and orange!
The following day we went to the main island. We wanted to spend most of the day there since we hadn't been able to explore the island much. We got some lunch and afterwards we ended up going on a crazy cool tour. We took a private boat about 45 minutes away to a bat cave! Then, we had a private guide who led us through the cave. The bats were EVERYWHERE. One even flew into me. Not going to lie, I was a little scared but it was also so much fun! The whole time in the cave we were anywhere from ankle deep to neck deep water. It was dark so we had head lamps. At the end of the cave, there was a little pool that we could jump into after we climbed up some rocks. It was so much fun!
We went back to the main island afterwards and looked around at the souvenir shops. After that, we got some pizza and then spent a few hours at the local brewery where we had some drinks and played Trivia! Later on, we took the night boat back to our island.
The next morning, we woke up early to get over to the main island. We arranged a transportation service to take us to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica later that morning. It only took 3-4 hours to make it to Puerto Viejo including crossing the border and getting our visas re-stamped. The land border where we crossed was fairly easy considering our experience in Nicaragua earlier this year. We spent the rest of the day and night in Puerto Viejo. On Saturday morning, we made the journey up to San Jose via public bus. Then, we took another bus from San Jose to Monteverde. It was a 13+ hour travel day but we made it home to our sweet cat, Nala!
Overall, it was an incredible trip! I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to travel especially during the pandemic. I'm also very grateful for vaccines and everyone who works in the medical field. Talk to you soon! -Niki
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