Sloth and Frog

Bocas Del Toro-Last Day
7/9/09
Needing to move on but not really wanting to we decided to squeeze in one more activity filled day. We booked a tour over to some nearby islands to check out some dolphins, coral, and deadly, (but friendly) red frogs.
We started off by snorkeling some beautiful reefs at Caye Coral. Brooke swam right into a huge jellyfish and paid the price.After we had some lunch at a restaurant right over the same reef we snorkeled. Next we headed over to Isla Bastimentos for a beach day, (It made me miss Stonesteps). Bastimentos is home to these little cute poisonous frogs. We spotted one and promptly took pictures of it. I finished off the day by renting a buckled boogie board from the rental shack. It was about 4ft and breaking right on the sand, I was the biggest dork on the beach and couldn't wipe the smile off my face. On our way back to the boat we spotted a lazy little sloth hanging in a tree about 50ft up. I love sloths.

Bocas Del Toro

Bocas Del Toro 7/6/09-7/8/09
Puddle jumper from David to Bocas=30 minutes orBus ride/water taxi=6hours
Plane.
Bocas Del Toro is a beautiful group of islands of the northern coast of Panama, really close to the Costa Rican boarder. We decided to come here in the initial planing of the trip back home, and we were really looking forward to it as this is our first stop on the Caribbean and our "u-turn" spot in Central America.
When coming to these places you never know what to expect. Photographs don't tell the story at all, you can never really get a feel for it until you are actually there. Flying in instead of busing it is a much better way of getting a perspective of the land. It looked amazing from the air and we couldn't wait to get on .
The tiny airport is only about a two minute walk from downtown and with all the accommodation in that area it wasn't too much of a hassle to be selective about where were stayed. We walked around and checked out almost every hotel. We finally decided on a place called Casa Amarilla--really cool place and it had a refrigerator, so important in this climate.
After we checked in it was only around noon so we grabbed a shuttle to the nearest swim able beach, Bocas Del Drago. We had lunch in the shade at a sand floored restaurant, horrible service, good food. This seems to be the norm in Bocas. After lunch we took a stroll along a beach front path past basking starfish and stingrays.
The next day we grabbed a water taxi and headed over to Isla Bastimentos about a 15min ride across the channel. We relaxed on an idealic yellow sand beach. I had rented a board b4 we took off a was hoping for some waves. It was OK looking, but the water was 82 and clear, hard to resist. I surfed for about 2hrs in absolute slop and had a blast. Later in the day/evening we went out on the town. We discovered a bar called Iguanas, (very original) and took advantage of ladies night. Free drinks for Brooke!
Next day was rained out and we were long overdue for a day of nothing so we decided to just plan the rest of our trip--oh and I think Brooke was a little hung over too...hah!