Playa Estrella

Our final excursion in Bocas del Toro was to their famous Playa Estrella, or Starfish Beach. A 25 minute bus and a 10 minute boat ride gets you there.

The beach definitely lives up to its name. The locals are proud of their resource and protect it well. If you take the starfish out of the water you get a whistle blown at you.

The snorkeling was pretty murky. The best place to look around was along the mangroves. It was super creepy snorkeling in and out amongst the roots of the mangroves. Can't say I loved that.

So Starfish Beach was only so so. It was cool to swim with starfish and watch them moved around, like being in a giant touch tank. But the beach would better named needle beach. There was some kind of microscopic needle sharp things that invaded our swimsuits and it was prickly and uncomfortable. We didn't stay too long anyway because we wanted to get back for the World Cup final game which we watched with a group of Spaniards at a beach bar back near our place.

Final thoughts on a Bocas? To be truthful it was a backpacker dump. There was trash everywhere and it was gross. The place was a total pit. I probably would have loved it when I was 20 but now that I have my eyes open I see that it is well past it's prime as a pristine island. The beaches are so not great and the prices are high. Our accommodation was rough. Very rough. And for what we paid? Not a good value at all. It was certainly better than staying in the town though which was loud, dirty, and teeming with backpackers. We paid a lot of money to sleep on foam mattresses than compressed to the floor so it was like sleeping on a plank of wood, but it was cheaper than any place in town unless we were willing to get a dorm bed which we were not.

We took a few good trips, Zapatillas and La Gruta would be counted as great. Hooking up with the Jacobsens was a highlight and we loved hanging out with them. Jack and Maya were really well matched with Peter and Emma and it was nice to see them bonding with them. The company made bocas bearable to be honest!!!

So we are glad to be on the road and now need a vacation from that part of our vacation.

Location:Isla Colon, Bocas del Toro

La Gruta y mas

I am writing this from an amazing location, which I will share in another post. For now, here's more about Bocas del Toro.

The bat cave will make the top ten list for sure! A short bus ride up the road and a one dollar entrance fee gets us unguided admission into La Gruta, a cave filled with a lot of bats.

We will need the prayers and protection for this excursion.

Super mama Liz carried her 4 year old through the entire cave.

This cluster of bats doesn't even begin to represent how many bats we encountered.

And really big spiders called whip scorpions.

Luis easily filled the role of tour guide.

The boys were brave and forged ahead. The cave makes a sharp left turn, so we didn't know he far it would go or if there was an exit or what. Rand this bend was a lair of bats with 2 foot wing spans. We made a lot of ruckus and they woke up and began screeching. We all imagined the horror of hundreds of bats swarming and swooping around us.

The girls needed coaxing and nearly turned around, but the boys encouraged us to keep on going.

The final passage to the exit. It was all we could do to just not look up and see all those bats.

Yeah we just waded through a bat cave. Definitely will make the top ten list!

Liz and Peter at the exit.

Sooooo beautiful.

In the afternoon we visited the Smithsonian Institute Research Station which gives free tools on Thursday and Friday afternoons.

We visited their labs and met scientists. Their main area of research is cataloging all of the marine life in Panama.

This scientist is part of a research team that is studying how bacteria affects coral. She is using a high pressure water sprayer to remove the crusty outer part of the coral to make it easier for bacteria to infect the coral. Real scientific research at the source. Fascinating!!!!

A well deserved juice break on the way home.

Location:Isla Colon, Bocas del Toro.

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