Tuesday 27 December – arriving in Bocas del Toro

Poor Rowan didn’t get much sleep on his second watch as the wind died to nothing and angry squalls came alive on the radar. The Squalls were all heavy downpours without wind, so we motored our way through the dark skies.

By sunrise we could see the coast and made our way up to Bocas, there are a few entry points into the archipelago but we played it safe by going up to the main channel which is deep and wide. It felt like we surfed in, on the big gentle swell.

Squalls

The islands showing up with big mountains behind…. note the swell

It is a collection of very green verdant islands, lots of low mangrove islands and then others with thick rain forest and palms. Rowan found us an easy comfortable anchorage near Red Frog marina, a little distance from the hustle and bustle of Bocas del Toro, which everyone refers to as backpacker’s heaven. Water taxis were criss crossing the water continuously.

Once we were happily anchored and had our cooked breakfast, the clouds cleared and you could feel the heat. Rowan called the resort to see if we could book a table at the marina, and we got a very negative abrupt response. But a friendly Canadian cruiser nearby hopped onto the vhf and told us we could go in and pay a $5 per person fee to the resort, and then walk over to the other side of the island to the Palmar restaurant.

Mid afternoon we did exactly that and spotted Kylie’s boat (the single handed NZ lady we met in Bonaire), she is away from the boat for a couple of months. It is a very American resort with golf buggies everywhere, but with the encroaching thick jungle you could hardly see any buildings. We had a lovely walk over to the beach looking out for birds and sloths along the way. We stopped as we could hear an extraordinary noise, two young girls told us it was a woodpecker, which we couldn’t quite believe, but we did spot their South African accents! They are working on a super yacht in the marina, and seem to be having a ball. What a great place for them to be working.

We did a good walk to the end of the beach. It was the the windward side of the island and pretty rough waves, which were an interesting icy blue colour. There were quite a lot of people about, to be expected at this peak time, mainly Americans.

Heading to the Red Frog Marina

The dinghy dock in amongst the mangroves

Patiently waiting for someone to get back!

Our walk to the end of the beach

Plenty going on at the beach

We were pretty tired after our night passage so we ate early, not expecting too much. The first thing that surprised us was the waitress doubled our drinks order because it was happy hour! Secondly the food was surprisingly good and very cheap. Apparently this is the backpackers restaurant, and there is backpackers accommodation attached. We had delicious ceviche and tuna tartare to start followed by red snapper on a bean hummus which was surprisingly delicious.

We were back on PolePole by 7:30 and in bed shortly afterwards