Panama part 1– Important Meetings on Isla Carenero

Panama part 1– Important Meetings on Isla Carenero

On Christmas day I left the main island in the Bocas del Toro archipelago and took the water taxi to Isla Carenero to meet up with my friends Rahul and Rohan. This was a smaller island and when I arrived at the dock the man who ran the hotel said, “Elizabeth? Here’s your room, they’re waiting for you in the restaurant.” Wow. I got there just in time for what turned out to be our nightly happy hour of margaritas and calamari at our little restaurant called Bibi’s that sat right over the clearest of clear water.

On the left is where we stayed, on the right is Bibi's Restaurant

Our pier

It was Christmas so I came bearing Colombian, mainly edible, gifts for the traveler. For Rahul – aguardiente, which is an anisette liquor, and suero, which is like sour cream, but oh, so much better. For Rohan – arequipe which is a caramel-like dulce de leche. Mmmm sweet goodness. As a novelty for both of them I brought a bottle of mud from Volcan Totumo.

It was not a traditional Christmas to say the least but it was still very pleasant…until it started getting dark and the sand flies came out with a vengeance. The entire backs of my legs got absolutely covered in bites. They itched A LOT. Apparently Isla Carenero is known for these. Unfortunately, sand flies are not deterred by insect repellant.

The next morning we arose with the sunrise and took a little walk around the island.

Sunrise view from outside our room

Kind of scary looking roots

jungly epiphytes

After breakfast the 3 of us decided to kayak to another island called Solarte and go snorkeling. Kayaking was brilliant and the snorkeling was even better. My favorites were little black fish with glowing royal blue dots and the purple sponge.

Kayaking to Solarte

crystal clear water for snorkeling

Rohan and Rahul in the perfect picnic spot, if we'd packed a lunch in the kayak

not a bad view

Rohan kayaking back to Isla Carenero

After our expedition in nature, we took a water taxi into the substantially more populated Bocas Town for lunch at a Mexican restaurant that had an amazing cabbage salad that I would like to replicate.

The first spotting of a pink Royal Ponciana

After an afternoon of lounging, the power went out. We decided for dinner to walk to the other side of the island in the dark to a restaurant called the Cosmic Crab. This goofy name delighted us to no end. Rahul sang a song about it as we walked along our flashlight lit path to the Cosmic Crab. I was again attacked by sand flies.

It was completely dark, but the restaurant was open, making it all the more cosmic. The food wasn’t great, but we did learn something extremely valuable there – coconut oil is sand fly repellant. The owner had bottled her own blend of coconut and essential oils. She usually sold it, but couldn’t find any in the dark. The next morning Rohan was beside himself with itching the bites. Rahul and I walked back to buy some coconut oil from the owner. Not only did the coconut oil blend stop the sand flies from biting, it also soothed the itchiness. From that point forward we referred to the oil as gold.

local sights en route to the Cosmic Crab

Barbies are everywhere

A local pier

Speaking of crabs, they were all over the beach. Since our hotel was right on the beach, I was not terribly surprised to return to find this guy in my bag

After lathering on the gold, we took a water taxi to Isla Bastamientos to go to “Red Frog Beach”. When we got off the boat at the little pier we saw a sign that said Playa with arrows. We blindly followed those up through several people’s gardens and eventually into the jungle. The path ended up being rather muddy and steep and I was slip sliding around in my flip flops covered in mud.

I did see this enormous butterfly though

Oh, the jungle

Finally we made it to a beach. Was it Red Frog Beach? No it wasn’t, it was Playa Primera. It was a gorgeous and uncrowded beach. A family was surfing there. I asked the mom how they got there and she said they had a boat. The waves were small, but better than none, which is how it had been since I arrived in Panama. We spent some time there in the sea and on the sand. Rahul took out his guidebook to see how we could get to Red Frog Beach. There was another trail. This one was even muddier and more perilous. I slid all over the place. How I didn’t fall, I’ll never know. I did end up seeing a little red frog about the size of a quarter on this trail, but he jumped away before I could get his picture.

Walking down Playa Primera

Playa Primera

There were many more people on Red Frog Beach so we knew there was no way they had come the same treacherous two trails that we had. We body surfed, laughed, and generally enjoyed the afternoon there. We ended up sipping a coco frio and finding a very flat, wooden platform path that took about 5 minutes to walk to another pier for our boat ride back.

Red Frog Beach

Rahul and coco frio

No one on the beach was topless. It might have been the wishful thinking of this guy below.

Back on Isla Carenero in front of our hotel the water was amazingly clear. It was also very shallow a far way out. We for some reason decided that it was our office and had meetings there to decide on important things like what to eat next, how we would spend the evening, or what would be our next adventure. Rahul's ceaselessly optimistic spirit and tendency to use superlatives earned him the nickname of Big Baby. Rohan, being Rahul's son, naturally got called Small Baby. After trek through the jungle I received the name Sacagawea. Our nights were often filled with Balderdash, which Rahul won.

Rahul calling a meeting

Rohan and I admiring our meeting room

The next day it was finally time to surf. I’d been hoping to surf since the day I arrived in Panama, but finally the waves were starting to pick up. We rented 2 surf boards and one body board. We hired a water taxi to drop us off at Playa Primera. We had put our things in a dry bag and were dropped off in the water a good swim from the beach. We literally needed to surf our things to the beach. It was windy and cloudy, but there were waves. We had 4 hours there and I wanted to surf as much as possible. I had fun catching waves. There were kids surfing and Rahul got knicked on the head by one of their surfboards. Thankfully he was fine. It started to rain hard and the waves became like a washing machine and completely unsurfable. Eventually it cleared and I surfed the rest of the time while Rahul and Rohan went for a walk along the beach. By the time our water taxi arrived I was exhausted, and despite the rain, had a sunburned nose. No pictures due to the rain.

Others enjoying the meeting room

The next morning was rainy and I was still exhausted. I did not have plans for my vacation after this day except for my ticket back to Barranquilla out of Panama City. Rahul was headed up to Nicaragua and Rohan was flying back to Portland. I considered traveling on with Rahul through Costa Rica and on to Nicaragua, but I really had only seen the very touristy, yet beautiful, archipelago of Bocas del Toro. Considering that I'd be flying out of Panama City that would mean a lot of time on a bus if I went all the way up to Nicaragua. I decided that staying in Panama was in my best interest. I was not disappointed with this decision.

For our last meal we had one of the best fish I’ve ever eaten. It was called a Pompano fish and it was huge and delicious. Four of us shared one fish.

The next morning I bid farewell to Rahul and Rohan and was off to the cooler climate of Boquete.

Bye-Bye Rohan, Isla Carenero, and Bocas del Toro

Panama – Introduction: Culture Shock in Bocas Town

Panama – Introduction: Culture Shock in Bocas Town

A brief diversion from La Vida Colombiana, here is a vacation to Panama.

It was almost Christmas and I was off to Panama for the holidays. Upon landing I had a minor panic attack because I found out when I landed in Panama City that there is an international airport as well as a domestic airport that are about a 30 minute cab ride apart. Luckily, I had time to catch my flight from Panama City to Bocas del Toro.

Before I left Colombia, I had looked to see what the Panamanian currency was - Balboa and U.S. dollar, but the exchange rate for each was the same. Hmmm. I asked a woman at airport information about how much a cab to the other airport would cost. She responded, “Vale 25 dollars.”

OK, so I guess they use dollars here. One 20-dollar bill was the only U.S. currency I was carrying. I had a second moment of panic when my bankcard didn’t work in two different ATMs. I then tried my credit card, no shock that didn’t work either. Credit does not equal debit. On a whim I thought I’d try my Colombian bankcard and presto! How odd to withdraw U.S. dollars from an ATM in Panama using a Colombian bankcard.

I got in a cab and said to my driver, “Vale $20 a Areopuerto Albrook?” The answer was sí.
I had loads of questions about Panama for my cab driver, who ended up being more like a tour guide. I instantly noticed a huge difference between Panama and Colombia – the driving in Panama is sane. Also, the roads were in great condition. I thought this might just be the roads in Panama City, but later found out that all the roads were in good shape throughout the whole country.

I viewed the perimeter of Panama City through a cab window while my cab driver told me what I was seeing. Hundreds of tall, modern buildings line the edge of the Gulf of Panama. From my brief view I didn’t find it to be a beautiful city, but it looked like it was thriving and seemed to have a solid economy based on how new all the skyscrapers were.

Arriving at the domestic airport I saw more white people than I’d seen in one place since I left Oregon, but this was nothing compared to Bocas Town. On my little plane to Bocas del Toro, I’m not sure if there was one Panamanian aboard. I sat next to, and instantly became friends with, a woman named Alicia from Seattle. She was traveling with her parents and we decided that we’d get dinner together in Bocas del Toro.

When we arrived at the “airport” (actually it’s really just a landing strip), we walked literally 3 blocks and were in the center of town. Bocas del Toro is a small archipelago on the Caribbean Sea very close to Costa Rica. Our plane landed on the main island called Isla Colon, and Bocas is the name of the biggest town there. It was peak travel season and the town was absolutely packed with tourists. I was actually having a bit of culture shock. I wasn’t hearing or speaking Spanish at all, and the lingua franca here appeared to be English no matter where the tourists were from. Alicia and her mom, Joyce, had done quite a bit of long-term foreign travel as well and they understood my culture/language shock. Joyce said, “You can tell jokes and make witty comments that people understand.”
Alicia piped in, “You can use sarcasm without people being offended.”
We both shared stories of how we have used sarcasm with non-native English speakers and had it go horribly wrong, unintentionally hurting people’s feelings.

First thing I did was drop off my horribly dirty laundry (see Volcan Totumo). After upgrading hotels I took the first of a series of 4 hot showers over the next 16 hours. Being my first hot shower since July, it was absolutely delightful. I then met Alicia and her parents for happy hour margaritas and nachos at a restaurant overlooking the water. I felt like a complete tourist and I honestly didn’t care. Everyone else was too. I was not the only natural blonde in town. I didn’t stand out at all, I blended in with all the other tourists. I am clearly not used to this.

After happy hour we had a delicious dinner at an English man’s restaurant called the Casbah. Heading back to my hotel I passed several bars and unsurprisingly heard the ubiquitous melodies of Bob Marley. Bocas Town struck me as a backpacker, as well as higher-end tourist, laid back kind of party town.

This is a cute inn (I didn't stay here) in Bocas Town

The next morning was Christmas Eve. I arose early, and as I suspected getting up early would be the way to interact with some locals. After exchanging several buenos días and other morning pleasantries, I went to a bakery for coffee and breakfast as well as checking the schedule of yoga classes in town. At 9:15 I took my first yoga class that I’d had since July. It was at Bocas Yoga and the teacher was exceptionally good. Of course the class was taught in English.

After yoga I looked around town a bit. I learned all the amazing uses of the taqua nut from a man selling jewelry. I ended up buying a bag with a fish mola on it from him. He told me that the word Panama means ‘an abundance of fish’ so, that seemed to be a fitting design motif. A mola is an elaborately detailed, hand-sewn fabric by the Kuna people. (Oddly enough, the origin of the Kuna is in the Sierra Nevada of Colombia).

After my 4th hot shower it was time to move to La Coralina. I had booked this hotel online as my Christmas present to myself. It was the most money I’ve ever spent on a room for just myself, and I honestly think it was worth it. The cab driver picked me for about a 10-minute $10 ride to La Coralina. I was welcomed with a Piña Colada, and instantly met a bunch of other tourists.

The welcoming bar at la Coralina, where happy hour is 12-hours long.

Part of the reason I chose this hotel was because there was supposedly good surfing on the beaches below. I thought it would be a novel idea to surf on Christmas morning. Unfortunately, on Christmas Eve there were no waves to speak of. I took a swim among the rock and coral, and then took another hot shower.

The coral and rock bottom beach below La Coralina where I took a quick dip.

This was one of the 3 shower heads that were in my bathroom. Notice how the picture is a bit foggy?
It's from the steam of the hot shower.

After dinner, I figured since I was spending so much on my room, that I should spend some time there. I indulged in another long, hot shower (are you getting the point that I really missed hot showers?) and leisurely read in bed while occasionally hearing the waves crashing below.

My incredibly awesome room at La Coralina

Very cool bathroom

The little patio outside my room

an amazing orchid in the garden

The kind owner, Stacey, put a lot of attention into detail - notice the Indonesian wood carved window.

I arose early Christmas morning and checked to see if there were waves. Nope. The ocean was flat. Instead of surfing, I talked at breakfast with other tourists for most of the morning.

The beautiful view, but notice that there aren't any waves.

I did some yoga here

The view looking back at La Coralina

OK, and of course I spent some time with this relative of Sombra - la Perla

In the early afternoon I walked about 20 minutes down a dirt road to Playa Bluff. Upon arriving I found a large beautiful brown-lipped cowry shell. What an amazing Christmas present! Thank you mother nature! I spent some time on the beach until I’d had more than enough sun and then headed back up the dirt road.

Playa Bluff was gorgeous

The beautiful brown cowry

I don't think I will ever tire of a this color combination

The whole reason I had come to Bocas del Toro in the first place was because my friend Rahul and his son Rohan, who live in Portland, were visiting Panama. We thought it would be great to meet up with each other. I returned to La Coralina and, you guessed it, took another hot shower before going to meet Rahul and Rohan on Isla Carenero.

Hasta luego Isla Colon.