I left my heart in Bocas del Toro

From Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica, I headed further down the coast and crossed the border at Sixaola and entered Panama, with only minor hassles. A quick shuttle bus later and a few of us were on a boat speeding out to the Archipelago de Bocas del Toro, a wonderful island chain just over the Panama border. Bocas town is the gateway to the islands, and is itself pretty stunning, with traditional Bocatorian stilt houses built over the water. My hostel Casa Verde, was based right on the water and every evening was spent having a few beers on the deck listening to the live bands that play there every night. There are lots of gringos who have made their home there and lots of travellers who came and never left... I almost became one of these.... (should've).

One of the main attractions out here is to go on a full day boat trip, spotting dolphins and snorkelling in the morning, and then spending the afternoon on Zapatillas island, an uninhabited white sand paradise. Best day of my trip so far. I was also lucky enough to meet 3 great Canadian girls, Katy, Lindsay and Bea, on the boat trip so we had such a fun day.

Coincidentally we were all heading out the next day to Palmar Tent Lodge on Isla Bastimentos so they took me under their wing and fed me... :)

Palmar Tent Lodge is based on Red Frog Beach on the Isla Bastimentos, right next to a beautiful marine park. Totally isolated, this hostel was set on the beach and we lived in large safari tents steps away from the beach.

It felt wonderful to be away from civilisation, drinking rum out of coconuts, 'pipas', every day and night on the beach. There was a great group of us there, mostly Canadians (they are everywhere!!) and we had fires on the beach, moonlight walks, midnight swims and we even saw a leatherback turtle. I'm not ashamed to say that I shed a little tear when most of us moved on after 4 days on the beach, and a week in Bocas del Toro. The owners are a young American couple who built this place from scratch and now live the dream... a glimpse of how life could be!