Chapter 2: wecolme to bocas
(a little side note on our friends from the 80s:)
i'm still convinced that dave and jerry (the large, tattooed, bald one that always wore wrap around sunglasses) were members of a band that never made it in the US, so they decided to move to Costa Rica and subject central america to their crap. but had similar uh, success. i'm not sure where i got this idea, but it seems fitting. so i'm going to go with it. the third guy was the kid brother of sweaty dave. he likewise had long, stringy hair. and was oh so charming. i learned that he is the proud owner of a strip club in lakewood, WA. he was taking a vacation to visit his bro, and to escape from some legal troubles involving a pornstar. didnt really get more information than that. and the final guy, carlos, seems more or less normal, other than he was willingly hanging out with the others. and i am ashamed to say that they are all originally from CA. damn. but at least its so cal, so MY half of the state hasnt been tainted.
so, we continued to run into these guys once we arrived at isla colon of the bocas archipelago. well, its a small island. and the skinny kid brother one (justin was his name, i believe) tried to convince melissa to let me into our room one night when i had crashed early. he wanted to see my reaction when i woke up to him spooning me. ummm.... thank you but get your skanky-stripclub-owing-long-haired-80s-ass away from me. she displayed good judgment and did not let him in. somehow she did not see the humor in this either. just justin. but they were more or less harmless. and were nice, although obnoxious. an interesting addition to our trip.
--------
and back to Bocas. The archipelago is part of a marine reserve. and there are still some beautiful places left, although tourism is starting to move in, and panama doesnt exactly have the best regulations for protecting the environment. our first day there we rented a couple of bikes and decided to check out the island. its beautiful. we ended up biking through the middle, past a bunch of small fincas. then stopped at the caves called la gruta. here there is a small town and small caves, the caves are also know as the 'Santuario Natural de la Virgen del Carmen,' and there are 2 statues of the virgen at the mouth of the cave. a stream runs through the largest cave and you can walk in one end and out the other. we had dinky little lights, and slipped a few times in the mud, then waded through the stream which got pretty deep at some point. and there were a TON of bats at the other end. me being me, of course i tried to take a picture of them and got bat crap on my head. awesome.
on our way back we stopped by a hostel for lunch and beers with a view of the water. quite possibly the best meal of the trip, but thats probably just the cold beer talking. next we hit up a bunch of little beaches along the coast. riding in sarong and swimsuits through the mud, much to the delight of the locals and construction workers that we passed (tourism is really beginning to pick up here, unfortunately, and many rich foreigners are buying up land to build their own 'cabanas'). the water was AWESOME. sooo incredibly warm. and nice and clear (at least at some places). we eventually made it back to town for happy hour at a bar on the water to watch sunset.
We spent another day checking out some other places in the archipelago. went to Isla Bastimientos to playa rana roja. we jumped into a little canoe with a motor on the back and got 'driven' to the island, passing through a bunch of mangroves. the whole west side of bastimientos is mangrove forest. once we got to the island we got to walk through the mangroves along a boardwalk to the other side of the island, playa rana roja. here there was a beautiful view, tons of nice sand, and the water was even better than the day before, with waves. it was a perfect morning and afternoon, lounging and swimming. eventually had a little smoke and just relaxed listening to music and watching the water. also went snorkeling at another small island at hospital point. this was were a bunch of people had been quarantined back before it was commonly known that malaria is transmitted via mosquito and quarantining does NOTHING. saw some awesome fish, but the coral has already taken a beating from the high people traffic (and probably pollution). farther out in the reserve are more pristine reefs, so i have a reason to try to get back someday.
and those are more or less the highlights of bocas. we jumped on a water taxi back to amlirante after 3 days in paradise to go to panama city. this involved a sketchy sketchy 'taxi' ride from the water to the 'bus station.' the taxi was a truck packed with school kids and we rode in the bed of the truck, trying not to fly out as the driver barreled down the gravel road and through the pot holes. the 'bus station' to david was not really a station. just a small van on the side of the road. that they tied our backpacks to the top of. we had a BEAUTIFUL 3 hour drive through the chiriqui mountains. these are spectacular, forested mountains that are almost entirely un-developed. with amazing views, waterfalls, streams. lots of windy business.
(to be continued)
i'm still convinced that dave and jerry (the large, tattooed, bald one that always wore wrap around sunglasses) were members of a band that never made it in the US, so they decided to move to Costa Rica and subject central america to their crap. but had similar uh, success. i'm not sure where i got this idea, but it seems fitting. so i'm going to go with it. the third guy was the kid brother of sweaty dave. he likewise had long, stringy hair. and was oh so charming. i learned that he is the proud owner of a strip club in lakewood, WA. he was taking a vacation to visit his bro, and to escape from some legal troubles involving a pornstar. didnt really get more information than that. and the final guy, carlos, seems more or less normal, other than he was willingly hanging out with the others. and i am ashamed to say that they are all originally from CA. damn. but at least its so cal, so MY half of the state hasnt been tainted.
so, we continued to run into these guys once we arrived at isla colon of the bocas archipelago. well, its a small island. and the skinny kid brother one (justin was his name, i believe) tried to convince melissa to let me into our room one night when i had crashed early. he wanted to see my reaction when i woke up to him spooning me. ummm.... thank you but get your skanky-stripclub-owing-long-haired-80s-ass away from me. she displayed good judgment and did not let him in. somehow she did not see the humor in this either. just justin. but they were more or less harmless. and were nice, although obnoxious. an interesting addition to our trip.
--------
and back to Bocas. The archipelago is part of a marine reserve. and there are still some beautiful places left, although tourism is starting to move in, and panama doesnt exactly have the best regulations for protecting the environment. our first day there we rented a couple of bikes and decided to check out the island. its beautiful. we ended up biking through the middle, past a bunch of small fincas. then stopped at the caves called la gruta. here there is a small town and small caves, the caves are also know as the 'Santuario Natural de la Virgen del Carmen,' and there are 2 statues of the virgen at the mouth of the cave. a stream runs through the largest cave and you can walk in one end and out the other. we had dinky little lights, and slipped a few times in the mud, then waded through the stream which got pretty deep at some point. and there were a TON of bats at the other end. me being me, of course i tried to take a picture of them and got bat crap on my head. awesome.
on our way back we stopped by a hostel for lunch and beers with a view of the water. quite possibly the best meal of the trip, but thats probably just the cold beer talking. next we hit up a bunch of little beaches along the coast. riding in sarong and swimsuits through the mud, much to the delight of the locals and construction workers that we passed (tourism is really beginning to pick up here, unfortunately, and many rich foreigners are buying up land to build their own 'cabanas'). the water was AWESOME. sooo incredibly warm. and nice and clear (at least at some places). we eventually made it back to town for happy hour at a bar on the water to watch sunset.
We spent another day checking out some other places in the archipelago. went to Isla Bastimientos to playa rana roja. we jumped into a little canoe with a motor on the back and got 'driven' to the island, passing through a bunch of mangroves. the whole west side of bastimientos is mangrove forest. once we got to the island we got to walk through the mangroves along a boardwalk to the other side of the island, playa rana roja. here there was a beautiful view, tons of nice sand, and the water was even better than the day before, with waves. it was a perfect morning and afternoon, lounging and swimming. eventually had a little smoke and just relaxed listening to music and watching the water. also went snorkeling at another small island at hospital point. this was were a bunch of people had been quarantined back before it was commonly known that malaria is transmitted via mosquito and quarantining does NOTHING. saw some awesome fish, but the coral has already taken a beating from the high people traffic (and probably pollution). farther out in the reserve are more pristine reefs, so i have a reason to try to get back someday.
and those are more or less the highlights of bocas. we jumped on a water taxi back to amlirante after 3 days in paradise to go to panama city. this involved a sketchy sketchy 'taxi' ride from the water to the 'bus station.' the taxi was a truck packed with school kids and we rode in the bed of the truck, trying not to fly out as the driver barreled down the gravel road and through the pot holes. the 'bus station' to david was not really a station. just a small van on the side of the road. that they tied our backpacks to the top of. we had a BEAUTIFUL 3 hour drive through the chiriqui mountains. these are spectacular, forested mountains that are almost entirely un-developed. with amazing views, waterfalls, streams. lots of windy business.
(to be continued)
posted by erin at 6:31 PM
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