Category: Panama

Breakfast with a view. Fresh fruit, toast and marmalade; it’s included so quite basic but still tasty.

At 8:30am, we picked up our guide Octavio who took us over a hanging bridge to the hotel’s coffee plantations. The plantation is unlike any other we’ve ever seen. There are no rows of coffee plants here, it seems that they grow haphazardly, few and far between. We learned about pollination, how one coffee plant differs from another and how the soil and weather conditions also make a difference. Next, we tasted seven coffees from the farm; one by one starting from the light roast going up in strengths, two speciality ones and a blend. We smelled it three ways: dry straight from the grinder; brewed with the foam on top and then remove the foam and taste the coffee. At the first slurps, we got bitterness but trying them a second and third time, we were able to get a few more flavours – blueberry and honey for example. Interesting fact: the light roast contains the most caffeine, as roasting removes it.

I was lucky enough to get a glimpse of a male quetzal as it flew into the forest.

High on caffeine, we decided to have an early lunch as I had stupidly put my name down to go zip-lining at 1:30pm. The idea behind this was that doing it once proved that I could conquer my fears; twice meant that I was cool with it. Bah.

Gear on, safety and instruction talks out of the way, we boarded the bus to the top of the hill. The first zip-line was fine. I didn’t get on with the second one at all, and that freaked me out a little as there are a total of twelve lines to go through. But after a quick pep talk to myself, I got back on track and even started to have fun. The two longest lines are 500 meters each, and flew right over the hotel’s restaurant where Andy was positioned as ‘official’ photographer.

Back in the restaurant, I ordered a treat – passion fruit mousse. And incredibly, two male and one female quetzals flew past.

Sitting on our patio, we aimed to write our diaries but realised the futility of our task when the hummingbird came back to feed on the flowers near us. Up in a tree, we spotted a medium sized red bird – so bright. And then, he came and stood on a fence right next to us. And then further into the forest, one of the male quetzals. Too far to take any decent shots but clear enough that we could see the blue feathers at the back and the tail.

We went for a little wander around the hotel, trying to catch the last of the light, and then back to our patio – diaries and rum. Some of our travelling companions joined us. We may just have started something here.

Andy started the day with a lie in. I read for a bit and then, quiet as a mouse, I got dressed and made my way to the door to go and get breakfast. My food thoughts were so strong that Andy woke up there and then; something that a small plane flying just metres over our room thirty minutes before had failed to do.

I’ll admit it; I made Andy come on a walk around town (I know for certain that we won’t come back to Bocas del Toro, and I was keen to make the most of it) . Ideally, I had planned to spend a couple of hours exploring the back streets, but in the end we only had forty minutes or so. The heat was stunning; no breeze whatsoever, and it was only mid-morning.

Back in our room, we showered and packed. And again, I made Andy put some after-sun cream on.

A short walk to the pier. We boarded our water taxi and headed back to mainland Panama.

In Puerto de Almirante, they mostly ship Chiquita bananas. As we passed the port, we saw a ship full of Chiquita containers leaving.

We spent the next four hours climbing up, with deep valleys on each side. Slightly overcast (which made for great dramatic views with the sun spot-lighting parts of valleys. We passed various dams. And still, we carried on climbing. We followed a small truck overloaded with plantains.

In a surreal moment, I found myself watching The Great British Bake Off Christmas special which I managed to download on the iPlayer (thank you VPN) whilst the temperature outside is out of control – I had to keep my arms to myself, the window in the bus was like a furnace.

We’re going to be in Boquete for three nights, and have been promised a very nice hotel, so nice in fact that we may well end up spending all our time there. Spending three nights in the same room also means that we can go over the contents our bags, mend a few things, watch a film perhaps… and definitely have some laundry done.

Boquete is famous for its many coffee fincas (farms), and it’s also renowned for having a big expat community from the States (many American citizens elect to retire here and one of the benefits of that is that food standards are high).

We pass many upmarket houses on the outskirts of town. The traffic is horrendous; today is the last day of a festival and the town is heaving. Our hotel is thirty minutes away from the town, higher up. We checked into our room, and already we’re in love with the place. Amazing room – a chalet type thing. We sat outside, the weather turned. I got a fleece blanket from the room and curled up.  A hummingbird – so tame we got really close – fed on nectar outside our room. We opened our duty free bottles of rum, wrote our diaries. The weather came in – clouds and rain (we’re so high up we’re in the clouds). The party came to our patio.

Is this paradise? Andy thinks so. It’s beautiful yet a little on the chilly side for me.

Breakfast in the hotel this morning. It’s included but not very good – white bread, processed cheese and orange juice from a box.

We’ve been warned that Panamanians are notoriously bad time-keepers, so much so that our guide normally tells them an earlier time than we actually need. Our pick-up is due at 9:20, they arrive about 20 minutes late, we could have walked to the jetty in about five minutes.

Today is a day on the water, in the water and under the water. We start by visiting a mangrove lagoon where dolphins are known to hang out. We do see a few but there are lots of boats there and it’s not a good experience for us and certainly not for the dolphins – although our captain is thankfully keeping a safe distance. There are lots of starfish in this area. We cruise slowly along the edge of the mangroves, the sea floor is covered with bright orange stars, some of them as big as 6 inches across.

After a brief stop to order lunch – or not – we head off for an hour and a half on the beach. We stop at a small island, there’s sand all along the edge with trees behind it. At the end of the island, the trees end and the sand carries on into the sea. There are a few other boats there but it’s not at all busy. The time passes quickly with a walk to end of the island, a swim and a chat.

Back to the restaurant for lunch. Most of us aren’t bothering and just have a drink. My pineapple juice comes from freshly juiced fruit – it’s lovely. Florence has a Mango Colado and expresses surprise that it has rum in it. Looks like we made a good choice, the food doesn’t look too appetising.

After lunch it’s time for a snorkel, there’s nothing like the variety we saw in Belize but there are a few interesting corals and fish to keep us occupied. Final stop is an island with some tall trees where some sloths live. We do see one but it’s quite high up and obviously asleep.

Back to town. We have a quick dip in the hotel pool to cool off. The sun has been strong all day and although we’d used quite a lot of suncream (factor 50), we both have some glowing red areas – particularly my face! Hopefully it will turn a shade of brown soon but I doubt it.

Out for the evening. We start with a cocktail at La Buena Vista – the good view – probably would be in the daytime but anyway it’s cooler by the water. The strong Margueritas go down well, with some black bean dip and tacos to help. Join the rest of the group for dinner, salad and beer for me. Florence has pasta and beer. Our group now has two Americans, one Kiwi, one Aussie and us. We spend dinner talking about how hard it is for Brian to cater for all flavours of English – if somebody asks for chips do they want deep-fried potatoes, crisps or tortillas? An English traveller before asked where she could find the ladies, the guide told her it was company policy not to offer this service – she had to explain the misunderstanding.

We’re on Isla Colon, Bocas del Toro, Panama.

On our way here today, we were told ‘you’re going to paradise today’.

We’ll let you be the judge of this.

The first thing we did this morning when we got up was to have a cold shower (argh!) and pack our bags.

We then went for another excellent breakfast at Bread and Chocolate.

Boarding our private transport to the border, I couldn’t help but regret the fact that we didn’t have an extra day here. We probably won’t come back to Puerto Viejo and yet, there is definitely an extra day to be spent here – the waves are that good!

After approximately 45 mins, we got to the border. We queued for our exit stamp whilst Brian queued to pay our exit tax. We crossed the border by foot – a bridge over the river that is the physical border. How exciting?

On the other side, we queued to get into Panama. They take things seriously here with face and finger print scanners. Meanwhile, Brian queued to pay our entry tax. In the duty free, we bought rum from Panama, and white wine.

A short journey to a pier. Many banana plantations along the way. The landscape is more parched.

The boat journey was about 20 mins. It was so good to get a breeze.

Upon landing, the humidity hit us. We checked into our room and then walked the main street to another pier.

After fifteen minutes or so, we landed at The Blue Coconut. The island is predominantly mangrove. We got to the bar just in time for happy hour, and we had a voucher for a free beer. We swam – the water was just the right temperature. They have hammocks in the sea and free snorkelling gear you can borrow. We saw a sting ray, many starfish and pretty fish.

We ate, we drank, we swam. We reckon this is the first time so far that we’ve had a truly lazy afternoon. We watched the sunset and then hopped on the boat back to town.

We had a quick shower – oh my it’s so humid here – and hit the town. Andy bought himself a new t-shirt (a cool hippy one, oh yeah!). And then we went to Om Bar and Restaurant. We started with cocktails. I had a Maracuya Maravilla (passion fruit, rum and cane sugar fermented together for two weeks). And then we shared a curry. Because really there is only so much rice and beans you can eat. Yes, it was tasty. But you can’t really go wrong when you’re sitting above the water and there’s great live music. The band (from Argentina) played many many great songs. I may have got up to dance. We certainly sang from the top of our voices.

The couple at the table next to us are five months into a six months trip, and we shared a few stories and tips.

Our way back to the hotel took a bit longer than it should have. But then again, we were stuck behind a man taking his plane for a walk.

In other news today.