Isla Zapatillas

Finally by this time of night the jungle is cooling off and the evening is pleasant. We had a full day of boating and it was a blast! We shopped for boat tours yesterday so we were all set to go with Che in Bocas Town.

The taxi took us to the dock and we got underway around 10.

It's been raining off and on, but we went anyway because it's the rainy season so we won't be able to expect a fully sunny day. We packed a picnic of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips, oranges, cookies, and water.

The boat was standard and sturdy and felt secure. It took about 15 minutes to reach a fine snorkeling place where we all jumped in off the boat. The underwater scene was pretty good with some technicolor coral, but since it was pretty cloudy it wasn't completely dazzling the way it would have been in bright sunlight.

We took a little detour to a dock that also had a few bungalows for rent and a small cafe. It was pretty isolated but pretty. We snorkeled around the docks because there were tons of fish.

The next stop took about 30 bone jarring minutes slapping though the waves, sometimes so hard it felt like the boat would snap in half. When you added in the driving rain it felt a little harrowing.

Isla Zappatillas is actually two lovely uninhabited islands that are part of a marine park. We anchored there and hungout for the rest of the day.

We swam and hiked the path through the center of the island.

It rained on and off of course but by then we didn't really care anymore.

On the way back, which was a 45 minute slamming ride again, we took the long way through the mangroves and cut the engine at "sloth island". Maya was dubbed the sloth whisperer because she could spot the most sloths in the trees. We saw one swinging in the branches and another climbing a tree which is pretty unusual because sloths usually just hang there and are very boring to watch.

Back to the dock in bocas town, and we were starved.

Toms was only a block or two down so we did a repeat of dinner and it was great.

After a few rounds of charades with the Jacobsens, we are all back in the tent reading and half asleep.

Location:Bocas Del Toro, panama