Isla Colon, Bocas del Toro

Eduard and me spent the last weekend in Bocas del Toro town on Isla Colón. We hit the road at 5 am to go get our plane from Albrook Airport. Bocas town is about 600 km away from Panama City which is an hour flight for 140$ (round trip). We arrived 8 am and it was raining heavily. We changed our cloth and went out to look for a boat trip. We found one for 15$. At 10 o'clock we started. Ed was clever and bought large trash sacks before to keep his rucksack dry. The boat was very fast and due to the rain it was quite cold. We made ponchos out of the sacks.



There was a swiss guy with his sister, as well as an austrian couple on the boat. The first few words in german were quite hard for me. We had also 2 guys from israel on the boat who finished military service recently (fortunately) and a few older chicks from southern USA.



The first stop on the tour was dolphin bay were we looked the dolphins jumping around. Afterwards we went to a small restaurant built like pile dwelling (Pfahlbau). Most of the group wanted to go back to Bocas town, because it was really cold. Ed insisted to go snorkeling which gave me the chance to get to know the others while drinking hot chocolate. Fortunately the rain stopped and the vibes got better. We decided to continue the tour.

The next stop was Red Frog Beach, named after a kind of red frogs threatened by extinction. After a short walk through the jungle and watching lots of animals (red and other frogs, spiders, mosquitos, ... ) we reached an amazing beach, which high waves, bar, beach volleyball net and some people there. Some of the guys used the waves for surfing on them without a board. I tried as also, but was spitting blood after the first try. Water is very strong. After getting rotated like in a washing machine for a couple of times I finally gave up and played volleyball, which I know better than waves ;-) After having some beer we went back to Bocas town. We had the possibility to snorkel another time and saw lots of beautiful places on our way back.



Later on the evening we met the austrian couple for dinner again and spent a nice evening with them. They told us about their bike tour they made on the day before and we decided to also hit the road by bike on the next day.

On the next morning (11 am ;-) we went to the bike rental and lent us mountain bikes with about 30 kg in an amazing bad condition. Although the island looks pretty flat from the airplane we had to go up and down all the time. The midday sun burned like hell... with one word we had to sweat a lot :-) After an 1,5 hours ride we arrived in Bocas del Drago, a small village on the other side of the Island. We had a drink in the small beach bar and went to the beach for swimming and snorkeling afterwards. It was a really nice and tranquil place. Later we rode back and made a stop at a holy grotto (Grotte ;-). After paying 2$ and receiving a flashlight we went into the cave but stopped after 20m because the top of the cave was covered with spiders of 5 cm and we didn't want to disturb them ;-) They had also little monkeys there which are interesting to watch. They behave quite similar to humans, scratching their balls and ass. After 2 hours we arrived pretty tired in Bocas town. After having lunch and a couple of beers and cocktails in a nice surfer bar, we went to sleep after a long hard day.

On the next day we had to go back. I had a bad headache and hated the world (I think it was the sun, not the alcohol ;-) Fortunately Ed was able to make decisions and hired a water taxi to a nice beach. I took the chance and had a nice walk along the sandy coast watching the flora and fauna of the caribbean. Finally we had to go back to get our plane back to Panamy City at 5pm.



This was now the 3rd Island of Panama and the second Island in the Caribbean Sea I've visited. Its a nice experience, Bocas Town is a nice place with quite some tourists.