la rutina diaria: Bocas del Toro, Panama

At the beginning of the trip, Linnaea and I both agreed that we would avoid Bocas del Toro at all cost. Bocas is Panama's answer Cancun. Or Oahu. Or a fusion of both. The primary activities in Bocas del Toro are quite obvious: sex, posturing and posing in trendy surf threads in effort to obtain sex, surfing, posturing and posing as an actual surfer in effort to obtain street credit/sex, heavy drinking, and retiring. Neither Linnaea nor I had any interest in visiting such a wonderful location in which superficial sex is king and surfing's the mayor.

However, we ran into a couple interesting bicycle enthusiasts while in Boquete who had some decent things to say about Bocas. They took a water taxi through the archipelago and saw some dolphins, poison dart frogs, and sloths. We were only three hours by road and another by water taxi from Bocas, so we figured we might as well give it a shot. Within five minutes of hiking down to the highway and sticking out our thumbs, we were picked up by a friendly engineer from David. He took us to the Caribbean side and dropped us near a bus stop, at which point we rallied the rest of the way in a crowded Caribbean mini bus. There were some similarities between the Pacific and Caribbean sides. Rural agriculture, co-ops, etc. Despite the similarities, there were some definite differences between the two coasts. Banana plantations, Caribbean cuisine with more fish and less chicken, somewhat of a Pidgin Spanish, less salsa and more reggae. And although the Pacific side was quite laid back, the Caribbean side is champion when it comes to lounging...

I'll speak for myself when I say that, despite our negative preconceptions of Bocas del Toro, it turned out to be a beautiful spot with good weather, sloths, poisonous nickel-sized amphibians, and some friendly people. It did, however, live up to its reputation of sex, surfing, touring, and retiring...