Bocas del Toro: Amidst Craft Beer and Travel Agent Woes

Welcome to Bocas del Toro

The day started well with us catching our plane to Bocas Del Toro without any issues. It was a small local airport from Panama City to the Island so great fun catching a small twin engine plane. We managed to see more of the Panama canal from the air before the clouds covered it up. Hard to imagine we went from the Pacific side to the Caribbean sea in a short hop.

The town of Bocas Del Toro seems nice although a bit of a building site. The hotel is okay with a good pool. Our room is on the street side which reviews say can be noisy but hopefully the church opposite won't be noisy too late into the night! Having said that the hymn singing from the church at the moment is really impressive.

Almost sunk by the Bismarck

However, major trauma as there was no one waiting for us at the airport when we landed! We were about to walk as only 6 minutes away but then another taxi driver said 4 dollars. So we took the taxi rather than wheel our bags down the bumpy road in 30 degree heat

Finally got through to the tour provider Bismarck Campos, his initial response was the itinerary said no lift. I sent him a screenshot showing it said the opposite which he ignored. Instead, he said it was too close for a drive but after I mentioned the itinerary he eventually said it was a typo. He also said he sent us both flight tickets yesterday which wasn't true! We are slightly concerned about the rest of the trip and he has agreed to have a call with us tomorrow to go through everything for the rest of the trip. He was too busy today as just leaving Paris! Whereas the Intrepid tour was guided this is much more they get us to the places when we sort ourselves except for a couple days when trips are included. We picked this specifically to reduce stress of getting ourselves from place to place......let's see how it pans out.

Fraternising with the Russian

Going out in Bocas we guessed this was waiting for the full tourist season as very quiet. After tea tonight we headed for the lone craft beer venue, Panama Brews. The owner was a Russian who has lived in Panama nearly 30 years and on the island for 2. The beer was great, IPA and a papaya sour. He said the high season used to start in August but now they say December but still not busy so difficult to make a living. A great bar which I'm sure we will revisit.

We have booked a quad bike for the day on Saturday so we can explore the Island we are on. Tomorrow we are going to sort laundry and take a water taxi to Red Frog beach to discover the next Island to us...maybe hire a bike when we get there.