We caught the bus to Bocas Del Toro, which was great driving through the hills to the town of Almirante. You board a river taxi over to Bocas Town, passing by some pretty derelict homes with drop toilets into the river. The river taxi ride is about 20 minutes to Isla Colon.

After Boquete, which is so green and lush, arriving in Bocas Town is a culture shock that’s for sure. On first sight Bocas Town is dirty with a lot of rubbish piled about on the streets and some pretty run down places. The main street seems to be the place to book water sports activities, organize water taxis to other islands and get out and enjoy Bocas del Toro district. It grows on you as you sit back and chill. There are a pile of hostels and these young buff bodies that come into town, along with these not so young bodies that have arrived and never moved on……..Interesting place needless to say.

We stayed on the main island Isla Colon in a cabin over the water. The place we stayed at was set in a Panamanian part of town in a neighborhood with the locals so very different from the touristy youth hostel part of Bocas Town. It was only a 15 min walk to town so good exercise or a $1 cab ride. Was nice just chilling on the balcony in the afternoon watching the sun go down while hearing the water lap around you. Brought back memories of our boat.

One day we grabbed a couple of beach cruiser bikes and made our way out to Bluff Beach, popular with the surfers. So different getting out of town; really nice scenery. Our ride started on the road and ended on a sandy track where there were a couple of restaurants. The sand at the beach was amazingly golden and the waves were great for playing in, even for us non surfers.

On another day we caught the river taxi back to the main land and met Maoricio who took us to his Ngabe community where 650 people live and they cultivate cacao and produce chocolate. You go through the entire process of obtaining organic shade-grown cacao (yes no chemicals even though the trees have a fungus that is killing many of the cacao pods) whilst explaining every step of the process including growing, harvesting, fermenting, drying and ultimately roasting and making chocolate.

We hiked up into the hills and weaved our way in and out of jungle and cacao trees. We spotted a sloth high in the trees and saw a green poison dart frog.

Rosa a local Ngabe woman, demonstrated how they roast the cacao beans and then ground to make the chocolate the way her mother had shown her. My effort was not quite as smooth taking a little longer to produce the smooth chocolate.

The tour finished with a traditional Ngabe meal consisting of some roots which tasted like potato, the elephant leaf plant similar to spinach and cooked chicken.

After arriving back in Bocas Town we caught a water taxi to Isla Carenero and hiked around the island stopping to swim in the very warm waters. A lot of poverty and derelict homes about. We stopped at the Acqua Lounge for a few beers and a swim in the acqua colored waters.

Bocas del Toro grew on us both.

Back to Panama City for a day and we have incredible views from our hotel of the business district. A balmy 34 degrees out there but probably more like 40 in town. Hot!

Off to LAX.