Achoertupo

From San Jose, we caught a shuttle to Bocas del Toro in Panama. The trip was a pleasant ten hour ride, stopping for two of those hours at a coastal Caribbean town called Puerto Viejo, still in Costa Rica. We were lucky to be able to stop here, as it was one of the areas we didn’t get the chance to visit in the car.

We finally arrived in the main island of Bocas called Isla Colon, where our air bnb hosts, Kay and Mike, were there to pick us up in their boat. Their over water house was only a 5 minute boat ride away and we were staying in the off-the-grid cabin behind the house.

The cabin was suuuuper basic, but with everything we needed. Kay taught us how to use the generator and turn on the water. We also used a composting toilet, which needed to be emptied! The cabin had a good kitchen so we were able to cook for ourselves.

During the days we used the kayaks and snorkels to explore the coastline of Solarte island. The water is crystal clear and there were plenty of beautiful fish and starfish on the reefs. Most of the coastline was mangroves and it was easy to kayak between small gaps in the trees. We also visited a beautiful, secluded beach called hospital point, which had clear green water, grassy knolls and lots of palm trees.

On Sunday, we took a day tour around the islands of Bocas. First we went to see the dolphins and Alex caught some cool footage on his go pro. There was a whole family of dolphins playing really close to our boat. The speed boat took us to an island called Zapatilla. It had the Clearest water and white sand. We spent a few hours there. Next we had lunch and an over water restaurant, which felt a lot like a tourist trap as the meals were super expensive and basic. After lunch, we did some snorkelling at Cayo Kodak. The reef was less vibrant than other reefs we’ve explored, but was still teeming with life. We saw lots of different types of fish and corals. In the evening we spent time with our hosts Kay and Mike on their over water deck. The made some nibbles and we heard about their travels. They lived on a sail boat for ten years so had lots of stories and travel tips.

Finally it was time to head back to Panama City. We caught a water taxi over to Bocas town and spent the day exploring. Then in the afternoon we took another boat back to the mainland before boarding an overnight bus to Panama city. The bus took about ten hours and was pretty uncomfortable because the roof leaked. Luckily we were able to check into our accomodation in Panama City early for a rest before the day!Read more