I’ve lost count of how many border crossings I’ve gone through but they’re usually in semi-formal halls with barrier belts, security guards and x-ray machines for your luggage. Crossing into Panamá we passed through the immigration checkpoint on a muddy track and housed in a low building where you stand outside on the other side of a glass window from the stern faced official. I don’t know why I bothered to eat all my fresh fruit in case of customs issues…all they really wanted to see was the info on my exit plans to make sure I’d be leaving again. Seems a strange way to say “bienvenidos”! Either way we are now in the final country for this tour and the rum is cheaper so I’m happy 🙂
We’re staying at Caribbean View hotel, built out over the water on Isla Bastimentos, an island near Bocas del Toro which is the main island. It’s a small village, kids, dogs and chickens roaming free everywhere, island music pumping all day everyday from a house with giant speakers perched on the porch and water taxis to take you to beaches, back to the main towns and mainland. The sound of waves and outboard motors dominate the atmosphere with the music in the background. Usually music drives me insane but the chilled beat and lack of doof doof has meant I haven’t wanted to kill anyone due to how-dare-they-call-that-noise-“music”-induced-temporary-insanity as yet. Must be the close proximity to water soothing my soul.
Claire, Peta and I took a walk along the footpath through the village, reaching The Point at the far end and watched the kids play ball games with far more vigour than I could have mustered in the heat and humidity. On our way back we met up with a local artist on his way to collect his latest piece, a mobile made from coral that had faces carved into part of each piece. It was beautiful as were his ideas on learning to slow down and not be ruled by time and the rat race.
After dinner Faby, Ernie, Peta, LaLa and I hit a club, what do you know, it was ladies night. Again! Fairly empty to start with, we will believe it was our trendsetting cred that saw. The place pack out over the night until we left at about 1.30am. It felt good to dance again, even if I only know how to dance like a possessed harpy. LaLa must be a much better dancer as when the time came to leave, we had to firmly remove two guys from the boat who thought they were coming home with her. So it was another big one followed with a post-party chat for Ernie and I until 3.30am, with the pouring rain drumming on the surrounding water…it’s the experiences like these of which life is made and a special one I won’t forget. Ernie is one in a million.
A day on the water was just the tonic I needed the next day, we started with Captain Luis taking us to Dolphin Bay to spot wild dolphins and we got lucky, seeing several bobbing up around us without the need to throw food out the back of the boat to disrupt the natural balance. We kept our distance and cut the motor, rocking on the gentle waves and aww-ing and ahh-ing at each sighting like we were at a fireworks show. And none of them sounded like Flipper.
Onwards to pick up snorkels, check out fish around the snorkel-hire hut and then onto some coral gardens that looked unlike anything I’ve seen on this trip. I saw some fish but not the proliferation of other reefs we have visited, small shrub-like corals and aqua plants flailing in the water, tall tubular corals in bright green, blue, red and grey rising up between the leafiness. As always, the funniest part is getting back into the boat, the ladder is never easy to use, the whole operation tips you backwards and I’m usually reminded of what I imagine it’s like to try to rock climbing out from under a ledge…I’m not spiderman so I would say it’s a sizeable challenge.
Safely back on board we headed to lunch at Restaurant Alfonso, another thatched roof, open-air, stilts over water hut with views forever. The loos at the end of a boardwalk past starfish, garfish, mangroves were a laugh. They don’t flush, and as far as we could see didn’t just empty into the water which is great. The lack of lighting was fun unless you waited to use the left one, with the giant chunk of wall missing so you could flash our wares to the world, if only the world was watching. In this remote little corner though, the world is safe from those terrors, ha!
Our final stop was an afternoon on Red Frog beach, the second best beach in the world. Great waves, warm Caribbean water, gorgeous sand and dappled sunshine through the clouds that had been our shade all day. It was very hard to get me out of the water, my eyes were red, nose and ears full of water, sand in absolutely every nook and cranny and I kept trying to lose my bathers in the strong waves. The only damper was a local bringing a baby white faced capuchin monkey along, tied with a rope around his tail in an effort to entertain for money. Faby gave the woman a serve but I think it fell on deaf ears. The monkey ranged over my shoulders and arms for a bit, trying to drink from my wine glass of rum and apple juice. If I was held captive I’d probably turn alcoholic too. I refused to pay anything as they don’t need to be encouraged to make money from wildlife. These must be the kinds of cases I pay charities to save.
For the final day in Isla Bastimentos I enjoyed breakfast before everyone else got up, saw everyone off to their various activities and am now enjoying a Red Stripe beer in my Marcoola surf club cooler, on the verandah overlooking the ocean, listening to the waves and island tunes. I have a chest infection and I want my mum so I guess I’ll just have to make do with a sleep in a hammock…the gentle rocking, enclosed embrace of a hammock is almost the same, right?