As I wrote in my post about the border crossing in Sixaola; Bocas Del Toro was truly paradise in Panama.

The moment we arrived and we found our Hostel Heike in Isla Colon; we knew we would stay longer in this town than the three days we had planned. We ended up staying for a little over a week and we skipped all the other sights we had planned to visit in Panama. When we arrived in the town we first knocked on the door of Mondo Taitu Hostel, which was full. The “second best” hostel actually ended up being our favourite and Mondo Taitu became our favourite place to go out.

As you read in my blogs, Costa Rica was a bit of a hit-and-miss so when we arrived in Bocas we knew our luck had changed.

PADI Open Water

Bocas Del Toro is one of the cheapest places in the world to get your PADI Open Water Certification. That’s why we decided out of the blue to take our certification. I think I paid 235 USD for the Open Water Courses back in 2010. It wasn’t as dreamy as we had expected, because there is a lot of studying (eight hours in the classroom) and watching educational videos involved, which was not necessarily our ideal way to spend our time in paradise.

The few times we went out to the sea to put our learning into practice made up for all the studying though. I was completely comfortable with all the lessons, even removing my mask and snorkel a few meters under water did not stress me. I feel like I was made for diving. My friend and I were very lucky because we basically had private lessons with two very nice instructors, one from the US and one from Canada. The only difficulty I faced was to climb back into the boat… My arms are weak because I have never exercised them so I cannot lift myself into the boat and there was no ladder so after every dive I had to be hauled back into the boat like a whale.

There’s nothing special to say about the diving locations. We did swim around one wreck, but that’s about it. There are no notable fish, or corals in Panama (at least that I saw in these first dives), but it’s a great location for cheap certification so no reason to complain.

After we received our certification we decided to do a night dive as well, which was a lot of fun. A friend of ours who owned a local surf school told us that if you sign a light on small fish, Barracudas will eat them up. We ignored this very helpful information as we didn’t want to come face-to-face with a Barracuda. But, if you lie down on the bottom of the ocean and you turn off your lights and move your hands, you can see fluorescent bubbles, which is pretty cool. I also saw a little sea horse.

Isla Colon Town

Isla Colon Town is fantastic. The moment we checked into our hostel we found a big group sitting outside in our neighbouring hostel, so we had a quick chat. Some of them were actually also in Casa Brian when we left Samara in Costa Rica. These people became our best friends in Bocas and we ended up hanging out with them most nights. They were from Argentina, Australia, Germany and Sweden, but our group attracted so many more nationalities as well. The town of Isla Colon is quite small, but it’s perfect. There are a few nice restaurants, a few supermarkets, the Diving Center, the hostel, and some great nightlife places (Mondu Taitu and Barco Hundido were our main bars).

On Wednesday and Saturday you could find us at Aqua Lounge where they have ladies night until 12am. You travel there by boat because it’s on Isla Carenero.

One night we went with some people from the hostel to Red Frog Beach to sit by a big bonfire. It was great, but on our way back a slightly tipsy lady managed to drive one of the back wheels of our truck off a small bridge. We didn’t have a 4WD so this meant we were stuck, so all the men got out to get into a shallow pool of water to try to push the truck back onto the bridge. The ladies just stood next to the truck and watched, but after a few shoves the men managed to get the truck back on track (one guy’s foot was pierced by some kind of rod in the pool though, poor guy).

Isla Colon Beach

I don’t remember the name of one of the first beaches we visited on Isla Colon, but we had rented bicycles to get there. This was not clever because it was the day after it had rained all night. The tracks were all muddy and difficult to get through, but as with everything with a little persistence we managed to reach the wilderness beach we had set out for. We hung out all day on the pretty and almost completely deserted beach until we had to cycle back in the late afternoon.

Isla Bastimentos

We had visited the aforementioned Red Frog Beach on Isla Bastimentos the day before we went out for the bonfire night. The beach was not as great as people made it sound. It’s quite far from Isla Colon which meant we had to pay 11 USD to get there by boat and the beach was a wilderness beach, so no place to lie down and a lot of trees; we also did not see any of the red frogs that gave the beach its name. Apparently the red poison dart frogs that inhabit the beach can only be found in a specific place, namely on a small hill that rests southern end of the beach, which we didn’t visit. The most common entrance point is via Magic Bay, which is located on the opposite side of the island (western side). From there you have to walk along a trail for approximately 5 minutes before arriving at the beach area.

Starfish Beach and Boca Del Drago

Starfish Beach on Isla Colon is a great place to visit! I wish I had had a better camera back then because the water there is so insanely clear and there are hundreds of orange coloured starfish all over the beach and the water. It was so incredibly pretty! You can easily reach Starfish Beach from the main town in Isla Colon by taxi or bus which is how we got there. Unfortunately the beach was full of sandflies which had very mean bites, so the only place to hang out was in the water.

Conclusion

I loved Bocas Del Toro and whenever people ask me about my Costa Rica and Panama trip in 2010, I tell them about this place. I’m sure there is much more to explore in the area, but the beaches and bars we have seen were absolutely fantastic. It is one of those places where you become a “local” the moment you step foot in the town. We met all the travelers who put their roots in this place and we became part of the group so quickly. This is what I like about traveling for an extended period of time. Sometimes you find a place like this and it’s a great place to just stick around for a while. Afterwards, we had to make our way to Panama City though because our flight would leave from there.