All the B´s - Boquete and Bocas

We took the bus to Boquete, a 6 hour drive, made all the more enjoyable by what can only be described as Accordion Idol being shown on the video system. We are not joking!

We arrived in Boquete to more rain, but found our hostel was in a stunning house with a stream running through the garden which was full of fruit trees. The place was run by a slightly eccentric , but very helpful local chap.

The main reason to visit Boquete is to see the stunning scenery and abundant wildlife. To help us with this we booked a ‘Cloud Discovery Tour’ through the jungle on foot looking for wildlife and enjoying the rainforest. We were extremely lucky to see a pair of Quetzals – a very rare and endangered but beautiful bird. We also discovered the clouds, having walked through one on the way to a stunning waterfall.

We then took a local bus to Changuinola to catch a boat out to Bocas del Toro, a group of islands on Panama’s Caribbean coast for a few days of R&R Caribbean style i.e. horizontal!

After a half hour speed boat ride we arrived on a beautiful island and set about looking for somewhere to stay. After a rather sweaty hour we found Casa Amarilla, a small posada run by a retired couple from Denver – it was just what we needed, and it had AC, a fridge, private bathroom, cable TV and a safe.
To indulge Mr B´s new found love of fish (having only really ever eaten good old fish and chips before), we headed out to The Reef Restaurant for some red snapper, via a waterfront bar for some cheeky happy hour sundowners (shame!).

The next day after a cool night’s sleep, we took a collectivo (minibus) to Bocas del Drago, one of the islands unspoilt beaches. We set up camp under a palm tree and whiled away a few hours reading and paddling in the sea, before having more fish for late lunch.
On our final day we took a boat trip to some of the local snorkeling spots and uninhabited islands - absolutely stunning (shame about the midges that ate us at lunchtime).

We caught a flight back to Panama City in a very small 20 seater plane (a Twin Otter for the plane spotters). I was not best pleased when we went through the rain clouds and it was bumpy as a roller coaster!