Boquete and rafting in Panama

Boquete
After 2.5 weeks in Bocas, I moved to the green and hilly Boquete town, located in the center of Panama. While it is supposed to be lovely and very enjoyable, as greener and cooler than the humid & hot coasts, I was welcomed by rain the 1st afternoon there, and the atmosphere was very, very quiet.
So I just went to do some rafting the day after I arrived, and left the day after to Costa Rica.

my boat

Rafting el Rio Chiriqui

Another good busy day, rafting at the border of Panama & Costa Rica, famous for their abundant watersheds rivers providing a great environment for white river rafting.

The day was fun and sporty, as with all the rain of the previous days, we were rafting on class 3+ runs, which I had not done before. Just a pity the group wasn't as fun as expected... 1 Dutch family and 2 40+ ladies... everyone was friendly but it could have been more fun!

still quiet... not for long!

the fun is starting! :)

paddle harder he was saying

"in your face"... ;)

Let's fly?

Partying @ Bocas

Well, what’s really special in Bocas beside the islands, beaches, jungles and surfing, is this cool, low-key and partying atmosphere made by the people passing by. Surprisingly, and in a good way, I had the feeling that most of the people I met would spend few weeks here… to learn Spanish, surf, or just relax, in a quite cheap and easy way to live by.
So that brings a big advantage… after few days, I just start bumping anywhere into people you’d have met earlier, and given the town is small and the bars & restaurants offers limited, it is easy to make friends and go out.

Baracuda
1st place I went to, on my Sunday arrival, bupping into Americans at the hostels… Local “arty” exhibition coupled with a party… There was an electricity shutdown for 30mn, so we ended up in the dark and without music, but the party was still fun & late for a Sunday night!

Barco Hundido

Ohlala… another infamous place of Bocas… a classic set-up with a wood deck over the sea, with a pool beside the bar, a boat wreck 2-3m down (thus the Spanish name ;) and very loud music.

A mix of latin & international music, and I have to say that while I had some great time there, the mix isn’t so great, and the DJ crying loudly in his microphone almost made me death few times.








Aqualounge
What amazingly good parties I spent there! As you have to take a boat to go there, and this is around pools… always went there at night without the iPhone, as the risk (or chance?) to go in the water was very high (and it always happened). Being a day-bar / beach-club too, the dance-floor is open-air, and the 1st party there we had a big storm. I had never danced like this under the rain, and it was so fun. After 2mn dancing you would just be completely soaked, could jumped in the sea, get rinced by the rain, then keep dancing and drinking… this doesn’t happen often, and clearly the 29°C water and air temperatures help to do this!

Iguana
Last bar on the main street (at least when you come from the Tungara base!), this is another good place over the waterfront to party.

It is quite famous for its regular ladies night, as well as for its on-going “iPhone robbed or falt in the sea”. We’re in Panama, let’ts not forget about it, so of course some locals are around and will try to benefit of all the wealth tourists / foreigners are carrying, even if you’re just a young backpacker.


The music mix there is great, it’s easy and very tempting to swim, and waitresses are very nice ☺.
Many good parties of this Bocas time happened there, definitely missing it here now!

The Bocas time
So staying 2.5 weeks in a place I didn’t even know 3 weeks before to go there was not in the world-tour plan, but this combination of nice location, atmosphere, activities, and parties with friends made all the difference.
Sleeping 2 weeks in the same bed has been such a relief that starting to be on the road again hasn’t been that easy… and that’s why I kind of wasted 3 days before to move to Boquete / Costa-Rica. I’ll for sure remember this great time, thanks to all the good friends or just 1h/1 evening / 1 day friendly persons met during this time

Life's a beach @ Bocas

Bocas being an archipelago of 9 islands and many tiny ones, although there is no direct beach in town, it is quite easy to reach one!

Local house... separate hut being the restrooms...

Houses on the coast and mangroves
So as I had said in the 1st Bocas post, all the town waterfront is built up, and when you trip around the other islands, it's quite striking that most of the local houses are also built on the shores.


The houses look quite basic… but at the same time, it’s probably quite nice to live in those! At least you can quickly “shower” and have quite a view waking up.

Piers on the coast

There are also boat piers all over, to access houses and island land.

Aqualounge hostel over the water

Then between the houses, or on the rest of the hundreds of coast, except the beaches, the forest is actually a mangrove directly dipping into the sea. 

This provides great & original views, and is very enjoyable if you like nature. I am posting few pics below before to talk about the beaches ;)

Island & forest view from Carenero beach

Aqualounge beachclub

This is a place you hear about even before to set feet on Bocas… famous for its night parties, this hostels is right on the water, opposing the Bocas town, and has a deck with pools, swings and a tranpoline to enjoy the sun during the day… and have fun with the bar inside too ☺. 

The deck & pools over the water

Spent few afternoons there, as an easy getaway place after the Spanish lessons, accessible with just a 2mn / $1 boat ride… and even worked a bit my Spanish, amazingly!

The swing lines... you can jump from them :)

Carenero beach

Located 5mn from Bocas, and just in front of the “black rock” surfing spot, this small beach has nice views and is really a small sand patch along the mangrove coast. 

Taxi boat waiting between Carenero beach & black rock surf spot

A house on a pier

Drinks at BB's after a tough beach afternoon

Pier to grab the boat to Red Frog

Red Frog beach
With a 15mn boat-ride, you can get to the Bastimentos island, which host the Red Frog beach, where a real big white-sand beach welcomes you.

I went there Saturday July 6th.with a dozen of Bocas friends, relaxing under the sun, having fun in the big waves, and enjoying a non-pretentious but good lunch oveviewing the beach. Cannot complain, great afternoon! ;-)

Boat ride with the girls ;)

Fishermen in the middle of the bay

The Red Frog beach

Waves

Discussions under the shadow

Good chicken wraps with Marten

Sunset on Red Frog

Zapatilla beach

Zapatilla beach view

Just as it wasn’t enough, the archipelago also features 2 virgins islands, Zapatilla, where there is only jungle, white-sand beach and turquoise water. Tough! This is located about 1h away from town, so not an every day escapade, but the trip there through the islands and the final location is worth the effort.

We’ve been there to escape a rainy Sunday (July 7^th) in Bocas town, and while it wasn’t a great blue-sky, being in a beautiful place like this with friends just makes a great day.

Off the boat

Arriving there, we hop off the boat then cross the jungle to reach the bigger sand beach tip of the island.

I was barefoot, quite fun to walk there like this… just don’t think to much about the spiders, snakes and other stuffs probably crawling and creeping all around… ;-) Oh, and mosquito are so crazy, barely entered they attack you like we were fresh meat (well, we are actually), despite the repellent.

Then, we just lied down and enjoyed the beach, sun when it popped up, and having fun doing pictures. 

The group & 2 strangers on the right ;)

Amazing beach view

Walking in the jungle barefoot in boardshot

Girls in the forest

Pelican and the sea

Alone on the beach tip...

Me & the girls ;)

Trying to jump together... almost!

Bocas del Toro: surfing & diving

Life in Bocas is tough! Aside the daily Spanish studying, and every-night partying offer, you can also pack your days / afternoons with various activities, more or less relaxing. I have done 5 afternoons of surfing and 2 dives :-)

Mono Loco surf school in Bocas

Surfing the Caribbean's
Surprisingly (to me up to 1 month ago), there are good waves to surf here! A regular swell is created in the Caribbean sea, and then head on the Panama & Costa Rica shores creating good waves on various spots.

So after the short New-Zealand surfing experience, I decided to take few lessons here. With Mono Loco Surf, I go on the "black rock" spot which has reef waves, i.e. waves breaking few hundreds meters from the shore, with a rip tide on the sides, perfect to easily paddle up to the waves start and try again!

The "black-rock" reef spot, between 2 islands

Me & Luis, my instructor

Great place to learn in a 29C warm water, I am happy to have improve over 2 weeks my beginner skills, as I can now better paddle, but mostly succeed (sometimes!) to pick waves before they break, which enables a much better surf than once they have broken and you "just" surf on the white-water pushing you forward.

Could also reduced the board size from 8.2ft down to 7.7ft, still big but already more feelings. A lot more to learn and practice, the art of reading the waves/swell is really important, in order to chose the right ones to spend efforts on, otherwise you get exhausted very quickly! And clearly, I don't have this art yet ;-)

Paki point waves & surfers

Around Bocas, you can spot surfers on various spots, as here at Paki point, and of course you see many in town around the surf shops or just walking around with boards. I like this atmosphere.

Surfer at paki point

Bocas is a good spot to know, particularly if you want to begin with this sport. The reef waves are more gentles as you can use rip tides to help paddling up the waves on their sides. Very big advantage vs. beach waves, as I verified it a bit later in Costa Rica!

a big starfish

Diving in Bocas

Here it's the reverse... I was clearly expecting great diving as being in the Caribbean's, and finally, while it has just been good, I thought it could be more amazing. Ok, just did 2 dives during a cloudy afternoon, so cannot really speak for truth... and I was in Thailand or the Great Barrier Reef few weeks before, being spoilt as a RTW-traveler may increase my expectations! 

The 1st dive happened around a wreck, and although we could not enter this sunk-boat, it was nice seeing how the corals and all the fish invaded the space in few dozen years. 

Me in front of the wreck

All around, the corals were quite developed I found, with quite some colors. Also saw few nice fishes, as those 3 lion-fishes together... I completely failed the picture so I cannot show them, but was great to observe them.

I've heard later than there few other great spots to dive around, with much more fishes and colorful corals to do, so if you are here, check well the diving school and daily destinations before you go! (Red Frog is said to be much nicer)