Bocas and the Beach

Tuesday we traveled to Bocas del Toro and even though Air Panama cancelled our 2:30 flight, they did get us on the 5:00 one and there were no issues getting to Bocas. Bocas del Toro is a province on the western Caribbean side of Panama which includes some mainland area which is not very populated and the archipelago also known as Bocas del Toro. The main island is Isla Colon whose main center is known as Bocas Town. OK, enough geography for now. We are staying on Isla Colon, not in Bocas Town but outside of town in the Big Creek area.
Sandi, who owns the property we are renting picked us up at the airport, took us to a market, of which there is one on every corner, and then we head out to the house. To get to Big Creek you have to pass through what is known here as Saigon and oh the smell that came from here!!!! There is no way to describe it but sewage! UGH. The apartment we are renting is really nice but if I'm being honest, Sandi is a little scatter-brained and seems a little snobbish. For example, when she picked us up at the airport and I asked if she could take us to a grocery store before heading to the apartment, remember that I said there is a market on every corner, she brought us to a boutique deli and market at the end of town which seemed more expensive than every other market (although we didn't know it at the time). She also seemed to only recommend the most expensive places to eat?? All in all though she is nice and considering she keeps her house and two apartments up by herself and she is at least 67, we'll cut her some slack.
It's getting late and we need to eat so Sandi drops us off up the street at the Playa Tortuga Hotel and luckily enough we are able to eat and watch game 4 of the Red Sox/Yankees!! We watch most of the game here and walk back about the 7th inning and catch play by play on my phone since there is no TV at the apartment. On the way back we ran into the gatekeeper of the complex:

By the time the Sox play again we will be somewhere else and will have to figure out where/how to see the game there.

Our apartment is a short walk to the beach so on Wednesday we head down there for our first real beach day of our vaca! The water is calm, warm and fairly shallow and is perfect to just hang out in. There's not much to say about a good beach day with a couple of beers so just close your eyes, feel the warm water on your skin, the cold beer down your throat......yeah, it feels like that!
We head to Bocas Town this afternoon to look around, hang out at a dock bar and get an early supper. There's not much to say, it is a small town with many shops, restaurants and tours, typical of a small island.
Tonight our gatekeeper (literally) looks like this:

And the doormen like this:

Thursday is a cloudy, slightly rainy day and per usual on vaca I am in charge in the coffee and Dave makes breakfast. When we retire I am going to call it vaca so I can get Dave to make me breakfast every morning! Anyway, I get the pot from the coffee machine, fill it with water to pour into the machine and as I am pouring I notice something clinging to the inside of the pot...WTF... it's a little lizard that kind of scares the crap out of me - imagine the Gieco gecko's white belly exposed as you look at your coffee pot. So, Dave coaxes him out of the pot, we wash out the pot and the water reservoir of the coffee machine and I try again to make us some coffee. Ah, nature!
The rest of the day is a bit uneventful, we hang out for a while and then go down to Scully's, the local dive bar which as anyone knows is right up our alley. It's right on the water, not a real beach per se, but they have a pool, bar, lounge beds, ping pong and more. A good place to hang out, chill and get some good food and drinks.
On our way out we noticed some of these pretty white flowers growing here and there.

And on our way back home we saw about half a dozen monkeys in the trees and bamboo by the house. They were a bit further away and dusk was creeping in so I couldn't really get any good shots with my cheepo camera. Still, it was a treat just to sit and watch them for a while.

Friday is our last full day on Bocas and even though it is a bit cloudy still, we head up to Playa Bluff which is a few miles up on a dirt path so we get a taxi to come get us and bring us up there. Usually this place is a surfers paradise and a dangerous beach for swimming but during this time of year the waves are a bit calmer and there are no surfers hanging out. We hang out a bit and of course Dave has to try his luck at fishing from the shore which who new, would actually land him a fighter, some sort of jack I believe.

He also lands himself a land creature in the way of a huge cricket

Our last night will be trying out a pizza joint nearby and possibly hanging out at Scully's one last time.
Tomorrow we will have a bit of planes, trains and automobiles kind of day although for us it will be boats, taxis, bus and cars. Hopefully we will still be talking to each other by the end of the day!!