Bocas del Toro is THE destination in Panama formed by a group of islands. Going on a boat to get there in pouring rain, we couldn’t see anything, except for water under and above us. Soaking wet and cold we reached our hostel and we reminded ourselves of the cold winter in Europe as soon as we entered our frozen room (AC!! :O) and a freezing shower didn’t help.

We knew Bocas Town was THE place in Bocas del Toro so we decided not only to not stay in the city but also not on the main island and it wasa good decision. 15 minutes from there it was idyllic and green. Although it might change if they don’t start to pick up their garbage. As soon as we woke up and the sun came through we saw our Bastimentos, charming little island with stilt houses and just behind them, the green almighty jungle. It even had idyllic beaches, one of them called Wizards Beach probably because you would disappear swimming there as the waves and currents were insane even to look at. But there was enough to do above water. Green hikes, bird watching and the cafes!!! There was this amazing café situated in the middle of the greenness. The food and the atmosphere were really worth the hike up the hill so we spent a few hours there going through their books, talking to the staff and other hikers. And at some point I saw a pictures of a red frog, really pretty with black dots. “Do you ever see those here?” I asked to one of the waitresses, “Yeah, strawberry poison- dart frog, they're here all the time”.

And she left everything to go for a search with us. She explained what the sound is that they make and where to search for them. Afterwards we were seeing them everywhere!! And all of them were eager to pose for a picture.

Too bad the boa that we saw on a hiking path was not as friendly.
It scared us probably as much as we scared him and then he ran away. Thankfully he was not that shy and so he didn’t ran away too far and with a bit of effort we managed to take a picture of him hidden in the bushes.

The islands were truly wonderful for us, just so much variety in nature and so much to do. When we wanted nice hikes, we had them just next to us, when we wanted to chill out on a peaceful island there was Cayo Zapatilla. Just the underwater was disappointing, low visibility and even if it was high, well there was not much to see.

And the way back was a nightmare, we went on a small boat back to Bocas Town to take another boat to get to the main land. And as usual, the boat was small, the life jackets were nowhere to be found and the captain was super chilled out and way above the acceptable speed. Out of the sudden we were covered by a huge wave that he didn’t see as he was too chilled out to see anything. Almost we capsized, we got soaking wet and so did our backpacks. At least my first instinct was to grab the small backpacks and push them above my head to save all the electronics. The captain woke up quite fast to throw all the water out of the boat as his only source of income was about to share Titanic’s fate. Well at least it was a free ride and we were “only” going on a night bus soaking wet. Let’s say we have seen enough boats for a while…