Bocas del Toro

After one night in David, Panama, and one dinner of delicious Chinese food, Erin and I caught an early morning bus to Almirante, Panama, which is on the Caribbean coast. Our destination was the Palmar Tent Lodge, which you might recall me mentioning in December, around Christmas.

After arriving in Almirante we hopped in a water taxi to Bocas del Toro.  The water taxi driver went very fast, and more than once I was convinced that the bottom of the boat might actually fall out...luckily they had flattened life jackets for (almost) all aboard...As we were about half way to Bocas del Toro it began to rain, A LOT! At about this time Erin leaned over to me and said something to the effect of "I don't know where we are going...I THINK we must be going to an Island...I hope we're the right place!"  She had planned this portion of this trip, and I was quickly loosing faith...but, we arrived at the correct island, where we were able to later catch another water taxi to the Tent Lodge, on another island.

The rain had REALLY picked up by the time we were on the boat to the Lodge, and there was nothing dry left on me or in any of my bags.  When the boat finally docked we had to hike for about 10 minutes to the lodge, but this was not an easy hike.  It was still pouring rain and the path was very uphill and very slippery...at one point Erin took a pretty epic spill, and, being the good friend that I am, all I could do was laugh, and some other guy had to gather her up, as she was wearing her huge travel backpack and was at the mercy of someone to get her up...

The rain was relentless, and I think there was only 1 and a half days that we were there that it didn't rain, and for that time the beach was magnificent.  We spent Christmas Eve drinking wine and sleeping on the beach..that part of the trip was really perfect...

where we slept most of the time..the dorm tent

one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen

 We met a couple of older guys who were sailors who were from Portland, and were running the Marina in Bocas del Toro.  At the time, they were house sitting a beautiful villa and invited us over for dinner one night, and it was amazing...it was probably one of the most amazing houses I have ever been in, with a spectacular ocean view.

the fancy villa

After not being able to dry out for about a week and a half, Erin and I decided that if we didn't leave it may be the end of our relationship...being wet an in the rain constantly was not good for either of us...so, we left the rain for Panama City...