Another Birthday in Paradise

With my friend Christian in town and it being my birthday, I had a good excuse to take a few rest days. We left on the morning of June 9 for Bocas del Toro. We ate breakfast at Mi Ranchito, drove to David and left my car, turned in some paperwork for four new listings at the office, and hopped on the four-hour bus. I was still suffering from some kind of stomach/intestinal issue I had picked up a few days before, but I thankfully made it without incident. We arrived at the terminal in Almirante and learned fares had gone up $1.60. Then, took a taxi to the boat, and in another half hour, we arrived in Isla Colon, Bocas del Toro proper. We went to the hotel I stayed at last time and another guest whispered "$20" into Christian's ear as we were heading upstairs to look at the room. The room is normally $50 so Christian pushed until it was $20 (two beds, balcony, private bath). I think it was the best deal I have ever gotten in Bocas to date. That night, we walked around town and I went home early still recovering.

The next morning, we woke up and decided to rent bikes to ride to a beach. We chose the furthest beach possible, Drago beach on the other side of the island. We left at 11am understanding the ride would be about 10 miles each way. Normally, this would be no issue, but it was 100 degrees and humid! About three miles into the ride, my peddle fell off. Christian got it back on noticing it was a right-side peddle installed on the left. After it falling off a few more times, we arrived back at the rental store, swapped bikes, and started on our journey again. The ride had lots of big hills and the bikes were crap, so it was a lot of work. We each went through at least two gallons of water in the total five hours of riding. The beach was nothing to write home about, but we poached a private dock and ate some food we had packed. A security guard approached us probably to kick us out, but we gave his some cheese and crackers so he let us stay. On the ride back, my chain fell off a few times, but we made it just fine. We ate at a "nice" restaurant for dinner which took two hours and the food sucked. I swear, it makes no sense spending more than $5 for a meal because there is no value added for paying higher prices. That night, I went home early again and Christian stayed out.


Christian with rental bike on "poached" dock.







The next morning, we hopped on a water taxi and went to a beach on Isla Carenero and walked to a grassy point where local teenagers were drinking seco and swimming. Christian climbed a palm tree and threw down a couple of green coconuts which we hacked open with my machete. We saw a really cool vine snake climb from the ground into a tree.

Vine snake.


Christian relajando.


While swimming, we ran into a woman from Washington (Aydika) who just arrived, and invited her to join us to Red Frog beach. First, we stopped at the Pickled Parrot for a beer and then headed to beach number two on another water taxi. The beach waived the the park entrance fee for some kind of two day/night party promotion...when we arrived, there were probably 150 people, and a DJ. I have never seen this beach with so many people. The sky was a little overcast, but that was fine because otherwise it would have been uncomfortably hot. We played in the water, and Christian played beach soccer against a four-year-old. Some guy invited us over for sangria made from 7-up and box wine. It was a very fun day in all. We headed back to the town and went out to eat at a new Sushi restaurant called Raw. It is managed by a very attentive young lady who gave us the best eating experience I have had there to date. At the end of the meal, the sky opened up and it poured for an hour and a half. We waited it out with martinis and good conversation. After the rain and walking Aydika to her water taxi, Christian and I went back to the room for a bit, decided we weren't tired, and then painted the town red. I was finally feeling back to normal and we made the rounds to just about every place in town until closing.

We left early the next morning, arrived in David, did some shopping, and went back home.