July 18-21
That evening, in a moment of serious weakness, I ordered pizza for dinner. DELICIOUS. The next morning I inevitably woke up with a stomach ache. Usually some exercise makes me feel better so I went for a run. However this just seemed to cause nausea and vomiting. Not an ideal start to the day. Due to this, we had a very chilled out day.
Similar to the starfish beach, the red frogs are rapidly disappearing due to human interference. After we'd had a sleep on the beach (and I'd semi-recovered) we went off on a search for the frogs. They are bright red, but only about as big as your fingernail...so can be quite tricky to spot. We searched for 45 minutes and had reached the end of the path, feeling quite defeated. A local saw our distress and came to help us. Of course within about 10 seconds he had spotted one! Teeny tiny.
For our last evening in Bocas we returned to the main town on a mission to see turtles. We went up to Bluff Beach and met the turtle trackers. Every night they go out and search for leatherback and hawksbill turtles laying their eggs, then track how many are laid and later how many hatch and make it back to sea. We walked for more than an hour along the beach, finding only turtle tracks, where turtles had clearly already been. Just when we were giving up hope, one of the trackers up ahead spotted a hawksbill! She was massive. We saw her digging a hole to lay the eggs in, but it kept caving in. This meant that she had to find another spot to nest, and unfortunately we were already very late, so we had to head back. It's a shame we couldn't hang around but in the end we were an hour late coming back so it's completely understandable why they didn't want to hang around.
My initial plan at this point was to do some volunteering at a turtle conservation program in Costa Rica... However their secluded location meant that the food was very limited and they weren't able to cater to my fructose intolerance! Boo.
So instead... I have time to explore Panama!
Bocas Del Toro is a group of islands off the Carribean coast of Panama. We arrived into the main island and had a wander round before settling on a hostel that was on a neighbouring island (only 30 seconds away by boat) Pretty sweet set up for a hostel!
However we seemed to be just about the only people staying there... We were informed that there would be a massive party there later. We headed back onto the main island to meet some friends and have a few drinks, returning to our hostel late in the night when the party was pumping.
The next morning we explored the main island. After a roam around Bocas town we got a bus up to Boca del Drago. The bumpy and windy road through the jungle was not ideal on a hangover, but it was a looovely beach, so well worth it.
After relaxing in the sun and filling our bellies with delicious local food we walked along a path and stumble across a few turtles. Cuties!!!
Eventually we arrived at Playa Estrella (meaning starfish beach!) This beach is known for being covered in starfish but unfortunately lots of stupid tourists pick up the starfish to get good snapshots, unknowingly killing them. Very sad. There are signs everywhere saying not to touch them, and yet we still saw multiple people doing it.
Just as we set off to walk back to get our bus back, it started to rain. By the time we got back to the bus stop it was pouring with rain and we were most ready to depart! However as we left we bumped into a few friends who were just arriving...not ideal timing for them! But looks like the weather is still working in our favour!
In the afternoon we got a boat over to Bastimentos, another island of Bocas. We decided to stay there for the night. Old Bank, the only town on this island, was tiny and there was barely a tourist in sight. It felt very much like we were staying in a local village. The people were so incredibly lovely - probably because they're trying to grow the tourism industry over there so they wanted to ensure we had a good time. There were also signs that said things like 'Don't litter: we want the tourists to come back, but they won't return if our island is full of rubbish.' Obviously many businesses there depend on tourism for income.
Our hostel was up on a hill, with a lovely view over the rooftops of town and out onto the ocean.
That evening, in a moment of serious weakness, I ordered pizza for dinner. DELICIOUS. The next morning I inevitably woke up with a stomach ache. Usually some exercise makes me feel better so I went for a run. However this just seemed to cause nausea and vomiting. Not an ideal start to the day. Due to this, we had a very chilled out day.
We went over to Red Frog beach which has to rank as one of the nicest beaches I've seen in Central America.
Similar to the starfish beach, the red frogs are rapidly disappearing due to human interference. After we'd had a sleep on the beach (and I'd semi-recovered) we went off on a search for the frogs. They are bright red, but only about as big as your fingernail...so can be quite tricky to spot. We searched for 45 minutes and had reached the end of the path, feeling quite defeated. A local saw our distress and came to help us. Of course within about 10 seconds he had spotted one! Teeny tiny.
For our last evening in Bocas we returned to the main town on a mission to see turtles. We went up to Bluff Beach and met the turtle trackers. Every night they go out and search for leatherback and hawksbill turtles laying their eggs, then track how many are laid and later how many hatch and make it back to sea. We walked for more than an hour along the beach, finding only turtle tracks, where turtles had clearly already been. Just when we were giving up hope, one of the trackers up ahead spotted a hawksbill! She was massive. We saw her digging a hole to lay the eggs in, but it kept caving in. This meant that she had to find another spot to nest, and unfortunately we were already very late, so we had to head back. It's a shame we couldn't hang around but in the end we were an hour late coming back so it's completely understandable why they didn't want to hang around.
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