I have to leave the country every three months to renew my tourist visa which is the perfect excuse to travel.
Bocas del Toro is to Costa Rica what Tijuana is to Southern California, but instead of unbridled debauchery, it’s more about the spectacular scenery. Bocas is a group of Caribbean islands located just across Costa Rica’s southern border with Panama. It’s a mandatory stop for those backpacking their way through Central America. And with its gorgeous beaches, low cost, and laid-back vibe, a lot of people get stuck there. Bocas has an afro-Caribbean culture nearly indistinguishable from what you find in Costa Rica on the Caribbean coast, except that there are more people of indigineous descent.
From San Jose, it was a 6 hour bus ride to the border, followed by a long drive in a shared taxi and a boat ride to the main island just as the sun was setting. It was my first solo trip since I’d been in Costa Rica. I had always tagged along with at least one other person and was curious to see how the dynamic would differ this time. But within minutes of sitting down to clobber my chicken dinner bought from a street vendor, I saw a friend from San Jose who was also staying at the hostel. I hung out with Emiel but also met a large group of backpackers. I even met a guy from Gaithersburg that had worked at the Housing Opportunities Commission and worked with one of the people I knew pretty well from working with her at the Council. I also met a cool Dutch girl that was the long lost twin of a former co-worker at my last job (I shall call her bizarro Colleen).
All the random travelers you meet from around the world is my favorite part of staying in hostels (it sure as hell isn’t the showers or the lack of privacy). I hung out with people from Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, the U.S., Italy, Argentina, the UK, Switzerland, Germany, and Israel. I may have already mentioned this before, but I’ve been surprised by the large number of Israelis –especially traveling in groups- I’ve encountered.
One of the guys I met was a really funny 25 year old Israeli that was taking a year off to travel after completing his compulsory military service. He explained that it’s really common, kind of like a gap year but not sure what the term would be for the military equivalent. I asked him a little about his experience in the military and he matter-of-factly recounted directing bomb attacks and realizing that he was responsible for people being killed. It was quite sobering to meet someone younger that’s faced the insanity, danger and surrealness of war –someone that has made the decision to pull the trigger or drop a bomb. I only have one friend in the States that’s been in Iraq.
Without a doubt, I think the U.S. should have mandatory military service. Maybe it would compel people to think harder about the kinds of leaders they elect if they know they would (or their children) end up in the line of fire. Maybe they’d be less swayed by jingoistic slogans that seem pulled from Orwell’s 1984. Maybe more people would bother to vote. I always found it interesting that one of Nixon’s first acts as president was to eliminate the draft, which had the intended effect of greatly reducing the student protests to the Vietnam (and Cambodia incursion) War.
So back to Bocas. The main tourist activity consists of taking a water taxi to a beach or doing a tour. For this you have to round up or join a group of people to go with you because it lowers the price –which is also a function of how far your destination is and the cost of gas. The first day there we took the standard tour which included a trip through dolphin bay, snorkeling, and some time on Red Frog beach. To get to each point, you have to navigate through a winding maze of mangrove islands. I felt bad for the dolphins because everytime they would surface, our “captain” would aim the skiff towards them full speed so we could take pictures, then they’d freak out and disappear. We would wait with the engine in idle, and then repeat. After about 20 minutes everyone had managed at least one decent dolphin picture and it was onto snorkeling. You’re not allowed to wear fins where they took us so you don’t stand on the coral, which is verboten. I saw a few different kinds of fish and various coral formations, nothing too impressive, but it was fun and I wasn’t expecting the Great Barrier Reef either. After lunch at a small café on stilts, we headed to Red Frog beach, so named because of the red frogs there. We hung out for a bit until a wicked storm unleashed itself and we headed to the dock to find our water taxi. On the walk balk, a local boy showed us a red frog perched on a leaf in his left hand.
The next two days a group of us went to Wizard beach on the island of Bastimentos. We got lucky with the weather; it was sunny and there were some huge swells. A couple of us rented surfboards and attempted to surf the second day. I’ve never seen waves that big. I know I’ve said that before, but they seem to get bigger with every new beach I visit. At least with a surfboard, when the wave gets you, the board is essentially a flotation device attached to your leg. It’s also dangerous as hell if it hits you in the head though. I managed to stand up maybe twice and had some fairly epic wipeouts. My favorite one was when a large wave came in I decided to paddle for it only to try and bail at the last second. It was too late though and the wave sucked me in and forced me under in a sand blasting spin cycle. Louie, one of the guys that had rented a board and was also staying at the hostel, told me he saw it from shore and it looked pretty brutal. I still have no clue how to surf but I feel confident that I’m awesome at wiping out.
At night there were a couple of options to go out –beers cost around a dollar. One of the bars on the water has a sunken ship under its dock that they light up at night. People get drunk and jump in, naturally. There’s another bar that has taken it a step further; they have a diving board on the roof. Well actually, it’s a wooden plank. People get drunk, get naked, and jump in. Because really, what goes better than alcohol and a slippery plank over water? I was too sober and not in the mood to go back to the hostel soaking wet, but one of the English guys would go there every night and jump in naked. Life would be too boring if everyone made the adult decision anyways. It was fun to watch. Another bar we hit up every night was run by the same group that owned the hostel, a bunch of late 20 to early 30 something American guys who are fulfilling the male fantasy of moving to a tropical island with their friends and owning a hostel and bar.
I spent three full days in Bocas and had a blast. Undoubtedly one of the highlights of my time down here so far. And it’s actually cheaper then Costa Rica. I’m definitely going back in March. I met a lot of travelers that had originally planned on traveling more extensively in Costa Rica but ended up lingering at Bocas. I´ve also heard that they didn´t like the vibe in Costa Rica, that if felt too touristy and packaged. I´ve savored every minute of traveling in Costa Rica, but sadly, there is some truth to that. The only difference is that Panama is just beginning to get that level of foreign investment, a real estate development boon and an explosion in tourism. I´ll be interested to see if Bocas manages to retain its distinctive flavor several years from now.
I have to mention one thing that I wasn’t too keen on. There’s a huge police presence and they wield some meaty night-sticks, some of them long enough to double as walking sticks. They also go into the bars and look rather menacing. Maybe it’s a good thing because they make it safer for tourists, but it’s disconcerting. Also, you’re not allowed to walk around without your shirt on, even when you get back from the beach. To be clear, it’s not that you can’t eat at a restaurant or enter a store shirtless, that I would understand, but you can’t even walk down the street after coming from the beach. Weird!
Pura Vida!
