Category: Isla Bastimentos

Friday, November 14, 2025: Bocas del Toro is an archipelago on the Caribbean side of Panama almost to the Costa Rican border. We arrived to the largest of the islands, Isla Colón, this morning at 11:00 am at the Bocas del Toro Airport. I think it may be the smallest airport I’ve encountered in my travels to 41 countries. Airport security had dogs sniff each piece of luggage and then loaded the suitcases through a small door for passengers to pick up.

We then got a taxi – a 5 minute ride – to our Airbnb on Saigon Bay.

Our Airbnb rental at Saigon Bay in Bocas del Toro was called The Orange House, a rental by Over the Water. It offered free paddle boards, kayaks and snorkeling equipment to use. It had a living-area deck, equipped with a hammock, couches, chairs and a table, overlooking the bay. It was so relaxing with the sound of water lapping underfoot that I was tempted not to do a thing but laze around during our entire four-day stay.

The purple house in the pictures was a neighboring house.

After checking in and getting a tour of the property by one of the owners, Marlin, we walked down a path to the main road and ate lunch at what Marlin called a “working man’s” restaurant, El Beso del Dragon. I had pescado frito (fried whole fish) and Mike had sopa de carne y rabito (beef and oxtail soup). Then we walked to the supermarket to get some supplies for our stay.

After lounging about the house all afternoon, Friday night we had dinner at the charming El Ultima Refugio in Bocas Town. It was a pleasant experience, sitting in the restaurant that juts out into the Caribbean with waves lapping underfoot, a cool breeze and a perfectly mellow playlist.

El Ultimo Refugio is a Caribbean-fusion restaurant with an ever-changing menu seasonally steered by the availability of fresh local ingredients. The server brings out a whiteboard and props it on a chair so patrons can study the evening’s menu.

We shared three “small plate” appetizers which were so generous we had to take some home: fried shrimp with pineapple salsa; Patacon Pisao (fried green plantains  topped with BBQ pulled pork, pico de gallo & passionfruit sauce); and gnocchi in creamy garlic sauce with white wine, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, and Parmesan cheese. We also shared a Snickers bar-type pie.

Saturday, November 15: Saturday morning in Bocas del Toro, we rented e-bikes and rode 40 minutes to the far end of Isla Colón to Playa Boca del Drago, where we caught a water taxi to Playa Estrella. There we found colorful beach shacks serving various foods and beverages. Further down the beach, removed from the eating establishments, we found numerous starfish on the sandy bottom. People are not supposed to touch them or they can die, so we just waded carefully in the water observing them and taking photos. It was interesting that each one had a different pattern.

At Playa Estrella we had smoothies while waiting for our water taxi to take us back to our e-bikes.

From there we backtracked another 25 minutes then turned to the northwest to visit Bluff Beach. This was a nice beach but more for surfers as the sea here was rough. We stopped at Skully’s, not the best move as the place was inefficient and lackadaisical. We gobbled down a few sloppy tasteless tacos and then rode back the rest of the way to Bocas Town where we returned the e-bikes at Bocas eBikes.

Saturday night El Ultimo Refugio had live music 🎶, so we had dinner there for the 2nd night in a row. We shared a delicious tomato curry soup and salmon rigatoni with pesto sauce, bacon, cherry tomatoes and Parmesan. This time we sat next to a young couple with a 3-month-old baby. Strangely enough, the young woman was married to an Angolan man (the opposite of our son Alex who is married to an Angolan woman), and their baby was a boy. We told them about our son and daughter-in-law and that they were living in our house while we were living in Costa Rica. We said we hoped Alex and Jandira could save money while they lived there, although the day care is outrageously expensive in Northern Virginia at $1,800/month for only 3 days/week! They told us they were living currently in the young woman’s parent’s condo in Chicago, and they were finding the same outrageous costs for daycare that Alex and Jandira are encountering. This is a such a financial burden for young couples trying to start a family. The woman said that she doesn’t think the U.S. is family friendly. She and her husband met in South Africa and wonder if they should move somewhere outside of the States.

Sunday, November 16: On Sunday, we took a taxi to Bocas Town where there was a big festival going on to celebrate the town’s founding. We wrangled our way through the crowds to find a water taxi to take us to the more sedate Isla Carenero, adjacent to Isla Colón. Our water taxi pilot, Luis, dropped us at the pier at the rather decrepit Buccaneer Hotel.

Next door was Bibi’s on the Beach, a restaurant our neighbors Steve and Sidney from Vermont recommended. We had to wait a half hour for Bibi’s on the Beach to open at noon, but soon we ordered drinks, an Aperol Spritz & a Gin Basil, and enjoyed their music playlist and views of the archipelago. We shared sautéed mussels with lime & garlic & Coco & Curry fish: Grilled with coconut & curry sauce with toasted almonds. We lingered for quite a while soaking up the atmosphere until Luis returned with the water taxi to take us to our next destination, Red Frog Beach on Isla Bastimentos.

We arrived by water taxi at the marina near the Red Frog Beach Resort on Isla Bastimentos, paid the $5/person fee, and then walked 13 minutes to the other side of Isla Bastimento to the Beach Club. It was rather gloomy when we first arrived. Mike went for a swim while I relaxed under the thatched umbrella and drank a beer. Finally the sun came out and we took a little walk on the beach.

We continued our walk on Red Frog Beach until we found an interesting piece of driftwood sticking out of the beach which called out to us for photos. While taking the last photo of Mike, I ran smack into the other end of the driftwood sticking out of the sand and punctured my shin, releasing a stream of blood and causing an immediate edema. Ouch! I waded into the sea to rinse off the blood. Luckily, lifeguard Juan Carlo put ice on the swelling and patched me up. We caught a golf cart back to the other side of the island where Luis soon came to pick us up in the water taxi, returning us to Bocas Town.

Back at our Orange House, Mike took good care of me, bringing me an ice pack to put on my elevated leg. The owners gave us some antibiotic which I applied. I was sure I’d have a nasty bruise for a while once the swelling went down. This was my third accident today, the first knocking over & spilling my drink at Bibi’s, the 2nd running into the driftwood, and the 3rd, dropping one of the clothespins into the water when I was hanging out clothes on the line. What a klutz I was today!

Sunday evening we stayed in at our Orange House over the water and watched the sunset, ordered a pizza for delivery, and then had drinks with our neighbors Steve & Sidney from Vermont. Their kids had finally flown the coop and, in their mid-50s, they’d decided to start working remotely in different places. Steve works for the State of Vermont and Sidney does immigration work, helping people to get their paperwork and green cards. They came to Panama for a month and had settled in nicely in Bocas for a couple of weeks to work and soak up the island life. The things that Sidney said sounded like they’d come right from my mouth, so I took an immediate liking to her. They said they hope to be traveling like we do when they finally retire.

Monday, November 17: We enjoyed the views Monday morning from our Orange House. After our lazy morning, we took the kayaks (offered free by our Airbnb) to an island and snorkeled around looking at coral 🪸. We saw mostly yellow corals, but some red, purple & orange. Some were like tropical leaves, others like boa constrictors tightly wound. We saw mostly tiny fish. What put a stop to my snorkeling adventure was coming face to face with a jellyfish. We enjoyed our leisurely paddle back to our Orange House and then ate leftover pizza.

I had to take a picture in the hammock of life mimicking art, 🖼️ except for the 70-year-old legs 😩.

Our last evening in Bocas del Toro we continued soaking up the pleasant atmosphere at our Orange House. We went out for dinner at Om Cafe in Bocas Town. We shared Butter Paneer and chickpea masala. The last two pictures are from the bathroom doors at Om Cafe.

It was hot and humid on this Caribbean side of Panama, but once were were “over the water” in the evenings, we found a cool breeze and a pleasant vibe. Many foreigners come here to live citing a “tropical paradise” but much of Bocas Town is impoverished and the heat & humidity during the daytime are oppressive. For me, it’s nowhere close to my perfect place to settle. I’ll keep searching but in the meantime, I dream of Crete or the highlands of Mexico.

Tuesday, November 18: Tuesday morning, it was check out time from “our” Orange House. We waited until the checkout time of 11:00, with Mike even taking the kayak out into Saigon Bay one last time. Meanwhile I relaxed, showered and packed. One picture below shows a seashell 🐚 at the end of the pull string for the fan, with the fish painted on the wall. The whole place was charmingly decorated with hundreds of huge conch shells and other natural things from the sea.

After checking out, we sat in the common area waiting for a 1:00 taxi to the airport for our 2:30 flight back to Panama City. I wish we had known that there was a very small plane that flies directly from Bocas to San José. It would have saved us a lot of time. As it was, we had to return to Panama City, spend the night, and catch an early flight out to San Jose on Wednesday morning. Then we’d have a 3-hour drive to our house in Tilaran.

It’s a bummer when you find out too late that things could have been easier!

Below were our last views of Bocas del Toros. Little did we know what we would encounter on our return trip to Panama City….

As we approached Panama City from Bocas del Toro on Panama Air, we saw the bay in the first picture below not once, not twice, but three times as we flew in circles around the domestic airport, Marcos A. Gelabert International Airport (PAC), because of a “meteorological event.” We finally landed in the middle of “una tormenta,” a storm with raging winds, a torrential downpour, thunder and lightning. We sat on the plane for 40 minutes, unable to safely get off because it was a small plane where they pull up a portable staircase so passengers can disembark on the tarmac. The storm wasn’t letting up at all. Suddenly the plane started moving and we thought they might be taking us to a hangar to let us off the plane under cover. But the next thing we knew, without a word from the pilot or the stewardess, we were taking off down the runway. Everybody was looking at each other: “What’s happening? We’re taking off again? Where are they taking us?” Nobody had a clue what was going on. We flew in a wide circle overlooking the ships sitting waiting to enter the Panama Canal. We thought maybe they were taking us to Tocumen International Airport, east of the city. But no! We realized that they were taking us back to the same airport where we’d landed the first time. Why, why, why??

This time, the storms had cleared and we were able to disembark, an hour late, just in time for rush hour.

After the dogs sniffed everyone’s luggage, we picked ours up and called an Uber. The Uber driver told us it would take two hours to get to our hotel near Tocumen Airport. But he was wrong. The roads were in utter gridlock, we weren’t going anywhere. The estimated time was growing to 2 1/2 hours! The driver said it was because of the big fútbol match between Panama and El Salvador that was at the stadium near Tocumen. (Panama won and qualified for the World Cup; it was only the 2nd time they’ve qualified for the World Cup since 1978.)

We changed our destination with the Uber driver to Pedro Mandinga Rum Bar in El Cangrejo. It took us 1 3/4 hours to get there. We drank (a Casco Viejo – their in-house aged rum – & a Carajillo a la Pedro), ate (Crostini Romesco & Vegano Trio de Patacones). We waited until the game had started at 8:00, confirmed by Waze that the traffic had died down, and took an Uber another 30 minutes to our hotel. What a day!

Wednesday, November 19: We left our hotel at 6:00 am on Wednesday morning for an 8:40 flight from Panama City to San José on Copa Airlines (about a 1 hr+ flight). We ate breakfast at the airport and took off on time in pouring rain. We flew over the ships waiting to enter the Panama Canal and before long were above the clouds. As we crossed into Costa Rica we saw nothing but mountains beneath us, although Mike could see the Caribbean and I could see the Pacific Ocean and the Nicoya Peninsula from our respective sides. (We each got aisle seats across from each other with no one else beside us). How I love seeing the landscape and the clouds from a plane.

When we flew into Costa Rica at 9:05 am (CR time) on Wednesday, we were awestruck by the mountainous surroundings around the capital of San José. From the air, they looked to be uninhabited, with barely a car, road or house in sight.

The metro area of about 2 million people sits in a high valley surrounded by volcanoes and those seemingly impenetrable mountains. From where we live in Tilaran, it takes about 3 hours to drive there taking the flattest route close to the country’s southern border on Route 1. That road is often only two lanes and is usually burdened by heavy traffic, especially during weekdays.

We were pleasantly surprised by the perfect cool and breezy weather (especially after sweltering Panama). We took a taxi from the airport to the hotel where we’d left our car, encountering numerous detours due to road construction. We found when we put our route home into Waze that we needed to avoid Route 1 and go north over winding mountain roads through Atenas, Palmeras, and San Ramon and then through La Fortuna at the NE end of Lake Arenal to get home, an estimated time of 4 hours and 40 minutes. We weren’t happy about that, but it would be better than sitting in heavy traffic on Route 1. Plus, we would see parts of Costa Rica west of San José that we’d planned to visit on a road trip the week before Christmas. It took a lot of time and concentration, especially for Mike who was driving, but we loved the scenery especially once we got away from the city.

We arrived in La Fortuna at 1:30 and stopped for lunch at Kappa Sushi, a place we’d liked when we visited the area in August. After lunch, it was another 1 hour 40 minutes to our house in San Luis.

We arrived home at 4:00 and opened the house to cool breezes and gorgeous skies. Within an hour, we witnessed a marvelous richly-hued sunset. We were happy to be home to our house on Lake Arenal, but sad to know that in just 10 days, we’d be moving to the other end of the lake to Lake Arenal Condos for our last 6 months here.

Here is a video of our time from Bocas del Toro back to Costa Rica.