Our dear Bocas

Oh Bocas, you've been great to us! 

Bocas del Toro is an archipelago up in the North of Panama, very close to Costa Rica. It is a beach, surf and diving paradise, and we were super happy here.

We flew early in the morning from Panama City on the 5th of August. The "airport" in Bocas is 5 minutes away from the Bocas "town". We stayed in a lodge literally over the sea, Hotel Bocas del Toro, and very close to the nicest restaurants and bars. Be aware that nice restaurants and bars means fun places with good food and drinks, and not fancy shmancy stuff. In Bocas, there's no such thing. This is a cool place for laid back people, either locals or foreigners who decided to leave their lives behind and open a small business, surf a lot, and probably smoke a lot of weed.

Our hotel was quite old and modest but cute. We got a room with sea view and a bottle of champagne for free, just for being lovebirds in our honeymoon.

First things first, right? So, as soon as we arrived in Bocas, we went to a surfboard rental store and rented a board and a pair of flippers so that gorda could be happy. We learnt that the spot to surf was Bluff Beach and its surroundings so we put our swimsuits on and headed there. What a beautiful place!

The waves were indeed incredible there, and gorda surfed for about 2.5 hours, while I took some pictures, worked out, read and slept. I was cool to gain some credits for taking Gorda quite some good pictures of him surfing during our honeymoon. Not I can demand some more massages!

We had a late lunch at Bluff Beach Lodge, and then went for a nice walk on the endless deserted beaches. We didn't go back to Bocas until 5:30 pm. There, we finally checked in (Gorda allowed us to do so after some good waves), and rested for a bit before having a very good dinner at Bocart.

All restaurants in Bocas are laid back and cool. Bocart was no exception. We shared marvelous appetizers there. Heads up to the lobster salad and to the Vietnamese nems.

The next two days were truly unforgettable. On Sunday, we woke up early as Gorda fell asleep before 10 pm the day before. I did my usual morning workout, we had a decent and healthy breakfast, and then rented some bikes. The bike tour between Bocas Town and Playa Bluff is absolutely stunning. You go through the village and then immerse in a road between the jungle, but by the sea. You pass through Pika Point (Paunch Beach), and through many good waves. After about 10 km, some of them quite rocky and hilly, you arrive in Playa Bluff. A-w-e-s-o-m-e! The views are breathtaking and the sound of the forest mixed with the sound of the waves is hard to describe.

Unfortunately for Gorda, the waves were not as good as on Saturday, so we biked back to Paki Point, where we had a yummy early lunch: a pesto chicken salad for me, two burritos for him. Around 2 pm, we were back in town, and took a boat taxi to Carenero Island (3-min away from our hotel in Bocas del Toro). Carenero Island is absolutely gorgeous two, but totally different from Bluff. The sand was whiter, the sea was more turquoise, and even the vegetation was different: more beachy and less jungly. We walked through the coast for about 45 minutes, until we found a beautiful deserted beach just for us. We swam, Gorda took a nap and I read in the shade. What a good afternoon! What an amazing day!

To finish the day in style, we opened the bottle of champagne in our balcony, had one margarita in a cool hostel bar called Selena, and then (after walking in the rain looking for an open restaurant on a off-season Sunday evening) smashed down some awesome nachos and some huge enchiladas at Buena Vista. How healthy can one be?

Impressively enough, Monday was as good as the day before. The alarm clock rang at 6 am, and we had a hard time waking up. We ate so much the night before that we didn't sleep well enough. We made it to Bluff around 7:20 though and Gorda surfed for a bit over one hour, while I did my morning workout at the beach.

Our way back to Bocas was hilarious. We shared the transfer with a German family. One of the kids, a spoiled teenager, complained with us for having a board inside the car, for being wet, and for stinking - the last complaint was not accurate at all! He ended up being sit between us both, and also complaining with us for talking too much. We could not stop laughing. And an asshole!!!!

We made it to Bocas on time to have a quick breakfast at the hotel before leaving on our boat tour. And the boat tour was heaven on Earth. We spotted plenty of dolphins at dolphin bay, we snorkeled and swam at a coral reserve, we hiked around deserted Zapatilla Island (a Natural reserve) - we spent 2 hours in total there and, again, found a deserted beach just for the two of us -, we had a seafood lunch, we met two Portuguese guys, we saw starfishes, and then a few sloths. Around 4:30, we were back in the island. Can you believe how many things we did until 4:30? How many paradises we saw? And how many kilometers we walked/surfed/swam?

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Selena, reading a book, drinking a beer/water, and chatting a bit. For dinner, we were aiming at going to El Último Refugio, which was unexpectedly closed, so we ended up having delicious Indian food at Ohm.

We were damn happy in Bocas del Toro, which definitely got a place in our hearts!

DAY 1

DAY 2

DAY 3

 

Buenas Panamá!

After enjoying our day until 3:30 pm at Isla del Encanto, we had a series of trips until we made it to our next destination: Casco Viejo, in Panama City. We took the boat until Cartagena, one plane until Bogotá, another plane until Panamá City, and then a fairly quit shuttle until the best hotel of our honeymoon: American Trade Hotel.

American Trade Hotel was all we could ask for in a hotel in Casco Viejo, Panamá City's colonial old town. The building was colonial, majestic and beautiful; the decor was just right; it was super central; the rooms were beautiful and ours was on the last floor and had a view; the bed was the most comfortable ever; the food was yummy; the coffee was the most famous in town; the service was great; and the wifi worked much better than in any other hotel we stayed in.

We slept quite well, and woke up to a glorious breakfast in the glorious restaurant. After letting all the food calming down in our stomach, we did a killing workout. By midday, we were ready to explore Casco Viejo.

We followed really good tips from Lonely Planet about what to do in Casco Viejo, and we fell in love with the neighborhood.

We started by walking all the way through Casco Viejo's three main streets, stopping in every highlight. We checked every colorful street, we saw the natives selling molas in the seafront, we entered in every church (our favorite was the one we could see from our hotel room: Iglesia La Merced), and we checked a few hip stores. We then walked all the way to Mercado de Mariscos to have the best Ceviche ever. Mercado de Mariscos is a bunch of stalls selling fresh seafood and all types of ceviches. We had 2 kinds of Ceviche and Patacones filled with spicy shrimps. I happily entered the state of food coma, but gorda still had room to try the best ice cream in town at Granclement.

At 5 pm, we were supposed to go on a walking tour to discover Casco Viejo's gangland past, but it started pouring rain, and it got cancelled. Instead, we decided to do rum tasting at famous Pedro Mandinga - not really my type of thing but, you know, marriage is all about making concessions and I knew gorda would be crazily happy doing so.

And because we like really busy days, and we had recharged our batteries way too much in Isla del Encanto, we decided to quickly dress up and head to have a cocktail in a famous rooftop before having dinner. Unfortunately, Casa Casco was closed due to the recent rain, so we ended up just having a glass of wine in another cool rooftop (Barlovento) very close to the hotel and to the restaurant where we had a reservation.

Dinner at Caliope was absolutely awesome, and full of treats to the honeymooners (us!). We had marvelous cocktails, a few little appetizers offered by the restaurant and a very good tuna tartare, ordered by us. As main dishes, I had the best octopus ever (crispy on the outside, tender inside), and gorda corvina with the best lemon risotto ever. Because I was already tipsy, we shared a dessert. I always want desserts after one or two drinks... Both the bartender and the waiter kept joining our table and talked to us. Super nice service! To close the meal in style, again because we were honeymooners, Caliope offered us two chocolate truffles and two glasses of champagne with berries. Also, Caliope is located above one of the best clubs in town - Teatro Amador -, so we got free entrance and special escorting from our cool waiter at the restaurant.

At 6:30 am on the following day, we were having breakfast at American Trade Hotel, in order to catch an early flight to another paradise: Bocas del Toro.

Thank you Casco Viejo for treating us so well!