We arrived in Boca via shuttle and boat. Pretty bad all around. They picked us up at our hotel, a little late but fine. it was a little van that filled up as it circled Boquete. We stopped downtown and transferred to a modest sized bus with less leg room than economy airline seats. After an hour of dicking around, picking up people, putting luggage on the roof with tarps to cover, we finally leave Boquete. We’ve spent over an hour in our cramped seats and haven’t made it out of town! We bounce along, stopping for a passport check, a stop at a convenience store so the driver could get chips and a soda, then lunch at what is basically a truck stop. We finally get to Almirante where the boat awaits but it is typical mayhem with no one directing. Some locals aggressively grabbed your bags and took them to a boat but on the way telling me I had to give him a tip. Here’s a tip, don’t grab my fucking bag again. The boy putting the bags on the boat then went up and down the rows telling us we needed to give him a tip as well. We told him we already gave. Finally motored over to Isla Colon and found our hotel a short distance away.
Econo-bus from hell
Beautiful room with a deck overlooking the busy waterway.
We lunched down the street from our hotel, on the water. The town is full of 20-30 year olds and our lunch restaurant was in a hostel. There are many hostels here. Here is one across the waterway from us. Pretty nice. I don’t remember those when I was younger and traveling!
A walk about town led us to a lovely tap house with a local IPA. We found a boat captain that would take us on a private outing the following day, and a grocery store for ice and other essentials. We are easing in to it.
We woke up with coffee on our balcony then down to the boat. Captain David took us out after a bit of discussion, to Cayo Zapatillo, two islands with reportedly good snorkeling on the edge of the open Caribbean Sea. David was typical of our encounters with Panamanians. They are generally flat of affect and you often feel like you offended them in some way. There is quite a bit of animosity now with our countries current direction but I also think it stems from a long history of American arrogance in this region. He did let us snorkel as long as we wanted there which was pretty good. We saw a large Baracuda tracking us for a while and then many of the usual suspects in Caribbean. The water temp must have been mid 80’s as Katie did not get cold. David motored us over to a spot off of Coral gardens which was also good snorkeling but a totally different environment with grasses, soft corals, and sea fans. We loved following a family of squid, maybe 10 of them. They would stop, tilt, change colors and move along. All of a sudden the wind picked up to 30-40 knots with incumbent waves. We clambered aboard the spinning boat and headed for a lee shore restaurant to wait out the storm.
After lunch on the pier we headed out to official Coral Gardens in calmer seas. We found another environment here with a mix of coral and very colorful sponges, from green to red, including yellows and purples, and oranges. We picked out a ‘Fireworm’ maybe a foot long or so. Didn’t touch. Katie found a swim ladder and returned it to a boat we think it belonged to. Our last stop was a shallow swim with sea grass, rocks and some coral. Katie picked out a small octopus right after getting in the water. She also found a tiny shrimp on a small carpet anenome. Probably a cleaner shrimp. We picked out another foot long fireworm but a little different than the first. Many feather dusters and a few Giant sea anenomes and a small striped eel, the first eel we’ve seen which is a little bit of a surprise as there so many good homes for them here in the coral. We made it back to our balcony just in time for a Gin and Tonic and eventually went out for….Pizza!
The sun rises at the foot of our bed so we were up before 7. Coffee on the balcony, reading the paper then booked a water taxi to red frog beach. Captain Adrian was a mirror of David, flat affect, no talk, no smiling. Red frog beach has several modest resorts to stay at but we walked on past looking for Playa Polo as we were told the snorkeling was better. We took some shortcuts I admit and missed the actual Playa Polo but we did find a lovely spot under some palms.
We tried snorkeling with our just purchased $15 mask and snorkel but really just sea grass and after 15 minutes swimming around we both asked, ‘Have you seen any fish?’. I swam away in search of Playa Polo. I had several moments of ‘What the hell were you thinking’ as visibility was zero, waves were crashing on the shallow rocks and I was a ways from shore. I finally managed a beach landing and walked along a pretty well defined trail with signs to Playa Polo. Not sure how we missed these but definitely took the road less traveled to get here. Playa Polo was a bust for me, much more wind and thus chop. I tried snorkeling some but it was as bad as where I came from. I hiked overland back to Katie who was touchingly worried about me. Or she said something about not having any of our future itinerary or tickets which bothered her. With her sense of humor, I took it for love. After several hours reading books, eating peanuts and pretzels, and having a few hand carried IPA’s, we walked back to the Red Frog beach where we ate some lunch and laid out on some loungers until out water taxi was to return. Vacations are tough. You have to work everyday on your stamina. G&T’s on the balcony are working again :-).
Katie had heard from her girlfriend, ChatGPT, that La Piscina beach was killer for snorkeling. Problem is it is beyond the end of the gravel road on our Island. We ended up renting a motorcycle! The man said the scooter was too low for the water crossings. What?. We set off, a bit shaky on the shifts but nobody got hurt.
Stopped for a view of a two toed sloth close to the road. Good luck sign I suspect. We motored on over gravel, then dirt, then mud holes into the jungle. We did spin out once but totally my bad with my choosing of the path thru the mud. Pushed past a gate at urging of a local and then single track, crossing creeks and dodging mud holes. Ended up just a 100 yards from the beach and it was gorgeous and isolated.
We snorkeled but honestly not very good and poor visibility this day. We laid out reading our books and eventually drove back to a restaurant along the gravel road. Again beautiful views and quiet with a nice sandy beach. Probably better to stay on this part of the island and take a short taxi, or motorcycle!, into town.
I haven’t mentioned our lodging which is spectacular with its balcony and view of the busy harbor. The problem started our third night. There is a dance bar located just 2 doors down and it fires up around 10 pm playing extremely loud EDM. This goes until 2 am when it is abruptly shut off. Now I tried ear plugs with the pillow over my head but no help. Later, I have a white noise track playing in one ear with the other ear plugged on the pillow. This works somewhat but you can still feel the music, that’s how loud it is. I spoke with the front desk and they said they talked to the police but the local government has weighed in and said it was ok. Sounds like gangsta stuff to me. I would never stay in the downtown Boca area again. The reports were it was a calypso vibe but reality is it is EDM at a 100dB and a pretty shady clientele.
We rented a boat captain the following day and had a 4 hour snorkeling adventure. We saw some new stuff like sting rays, eels, and schools of fish, but the best was a curious squid that would get very close waving its front tentacles at us as if in greeting. We enjoyed several visits from the squid and just had fun on our own schedule, staying out as long as we wanted. Following the half day tour, Katie wanted fish for lunch. She chatted up her girlfriend again and this time, success. We taxied across the harbor to The Big Fish for a fillet sandwich and some fish tacos.
Totally great vibe there and stuck out our thumb on their dock for a quick water taxi back to our place. Perfecto. We had dinner in Boca over the water and in bed by 8. Ear buds, white noise from YouTube and asleep until 12:30 or so. Read some and then 2 o’clock quiet time and more sleep.
Travel day but fit in a 2 hour private snorkel tour back to Cayo Coral. Clearer water this time and some new fish. Saw an Eagle Ray on the way back to town. Late checkout then water taxi over to The Big Fish again for their Classic fish sandwiches.Beautiful blue ski day.
back at the Big Fish for their awesome fish fillet sandwiches
stuck out our thumb and caught a taxi back to our hotel in about 2 minutes. Not bad for a buck
taxi pickup
Traveled out to Guna Yala or San Blas for a couple night stay on Yani Island. Interesting that Guna Yala is its own country. They do not follow any Panamanian law and when you enter their province you go through border control. The province is very green but poor, poor, poor. We were a bit shocked at the room offered on arrival to our island. The island is only about 500o feet square in total. The room offered would be one of eight in a cabin with open ceilings to all rooms and simple boards between rooms. I booked a private cabin. They first said this is a private cabin, then they said no you booked a private room. Like as opposed to what a dormitory!
After some fuss and saying they were full they put us in a private cabin over the water which certainly was better than the 8 room cabin.
We had some difficulties from then on with the staff but overall enjoyed the beautiful island setting.
We had a good day of snorkeling our second day with an actual coral reef and later some nurse sharks, but the staff tended to think people wanted a boat ride out to a sandbar so they could swim. No fish to be seen but 1-2 feet of water to swim around in. We did that twice. They also thought the boat excursions would be great by taking you to a nearby island, just like the one we just left and relax on that island for a couple hours. All in all a disappointment and I would not recommend going there. We did hear some great snorkeling stories for Coimba, so I would do that over San Blas.
On to Buenos Aires