Vagabond and Beyond: Travelling the crossroads of the Americas and some sage advice "You should try smoking opium in the Thai jungle, good times"

After our long wait at the border we were finally on our way to the Island of Bocas Del Toro. A sick inducing van journey and a bag full of sick (I won’t say who the culprit was but it wasn’t me : ) ) later we arrived at the water taxi dock which was full of dodgy characters trying to fleece anybody. Before we had a chance to get out they had the boot open and were already holding our rucksacks. Being used to these attempts of robbery (where they try to overwhelm you and take stuff from you or your bag) from several border crossing we quickly got out and grabbed our bags back and told everyone to feck off! Sarah’s side pocket had already been open in those few seconds but it didn’t matter as everything was secured away in the main part.

We were travelling with two Argentineans guys from the border and one of them had his Blackberry out as we arrived for everyone to see. Two minutes later inside the water taxi office he realised his phone was gone, no surprise there. I forgot to mention that at the border they asked if they could travel with us to make things cheaper and we thought to ourselves great, “a native Spanish speaker can do the price negotiating and talking” but how we were wrong. They were like fish out of water for some reason (had probably never left the rich suburbs of Buenos Aires) so we had to find the transport, talk to drivers and get the good deals as they stood there looking lost. Same again at the water taxi desk!

Boat to Isla Bastimentos from Bocas

Anyway Bocas Del Toro (Gringo Town) is an overbuilt, over populated island and from what we saw full of the same people drinking in the same bar every night. It would be ok for a night or two but not what we were looking for. One night there was all we needed to decide to get a short water taxi to the close by but altogether different island of Isla Bastimentos. The tiny town of Old Bank on Bastimentos had no bars, 3 family restaurants and one path so it was exactly what we were looking for to relax. On the other side of the island there were several beaches, half of which were isolated and all of which were beautiful. Our first day there we hiked to the highly recommended Mantis restaurant but as it was closed we opted to continue on to the hippie family run ‘Up on the hill’ café, one of those places where everything is organic, lemongrass tea is the drink of choice and people working there finish sentences by saying “love and light to you”, you get the picture. Not my scene although Sarah seemed at home : ) We topped off the day by buying a few Guinness cans in the local shop and drinking them in the hammocks at the end of our pier as a rain storm can thundering in. Guinness for 50c on a small island like this, what a find! It’s not draught but best we’ll do.

We had to buy them, 50c cans of Guinness in the middle of nowhere in Panama

It's not always Paradise living

It did rain nearly the whole time there but as this is the wettest part of Panama I don’t know what we were expecting, maybe the sun Google Images promised us. The next day we hiked back up to Mantis to make a reservation for that night (apparently one was needed for a restaurant a hike away in the middle of a jungle with only a couple of hundred people on the island!). The Scottish chef/owner is a little odd, maybe he has been at the ‘Up on the Hill’ café a few too many times and has ordered off some special menu, but my god does he know great food! Having travelled around the world working on yachts as a chef he took up a friends request to help set up the Thai restaurant Mantis and somehow he has come to running and owning it. The views are also amazing as you look out from the jungle towards the water but it won't last for long as the everything downhill of the restaurant has been bought up for a new resort development, pity.

View from Mantis Thai restaurant in the jungle on Isla Bastimentos

Despite the reservation we were the only people there and he sat down and chatted with us for a while asking us what food we don’t and do like as there is no menu, he just makes a call on what he thinks you would like. I still can’t explain how a starter with vegetable, nuts and a dressing served on a banana leaf could taste so delicious. He made up a couple of cocktails for us “to make us feel like a tree”, seriously this guy had a screw or two loose but who cares with this food. For mains we had amazing noodles and chicken, again simple in writing but amazing to eat. At one point I was worried how much this was going to cost us because as I said there was no menu. When I asked he just kept saying don’t worry about it I’ll take care of you. Being Irish and not staying in the resorts on the other side of the island definitely helped when it came to paying the bill as it was only $15 each which was great value for a starter, full course and two cocktails each. From the prices he was telling people who arrived after us he charged us about half of what he was charging them, nice!!

We had planned to hike to one of the beaches on the other side of the island that were more isolated like Wizard Beach but during heavy rains the 1 hour hike can apparently turn into a 10 hour hike so we opted to get a water taxi to the more popular red frog beach. We got some sun in the morning but the rain soon took over so we went to a view point to watch the crazy waves.

We chose to look at the waves rather than get in them

We finally hunted down some poisonous red frogs as well and saw the ass of a wild sloth asleep in a tree! Our taxi boat never arrived to take us home but luckily there was another boat there willing to take our $3.

A couple of posinous red frogs at Red Frog Beach!

Having had enough rain we decided to take a bus to the town of David, a stop off point on the way to the mountain town of Boquete. Once we crossed the mountains half way through our journey the weather changed to clear blue skies so we were very happy with the pool that was in our new place, Chambres De Ville. And now we meet the crazy old drunken American couple….

A New York couple in their 70’s had been hanging out drinking all day in the common area as we ate breakfast, lounged by the pool and came back from dinner, pretty much knocking back the Abuelo (rum) and vodka all day. They were in Panama for a month scouting out a town to retire to in a couple of months. The only thing they seemed to be scouting was the drinks on offer but they were old and to put it bluntly and to paraphrase from them they did not give a shit what anyone thought, they had done their hard time and were now doing what they wanted. So much so they told us stories of going to the jungle in Thailand to smoke opium and how they loved it so much that they would be back. Listen to your elders eh, depends which ones I suppose?! We got on pretty well with them, even got an invitation to come stay in their big Greenwich Village owned apartment that unfortunately they would be soon renting to pay for their retirement (they bought about 50 years ago so the place is probably worth a couple of million now). After a couple of fights between them and a guy from California we decided to call it a night. As a typical New Yorker the wife certainly went to town on letting the Californian guy know that she didn’t like him, his jokes, or the way he looked. I had to carry the husband to the bed the next night as he was too drunk, much to his drunken wife’s annoyance (she gave him a hypocrite’s earful for being drunk). Nothing to be said really, no changing their ways now.

We headed for the mountain town of Boquete to see what was on offer on the healthier side of things. The town itself is pretty and quiet with its fair share of retired Americans and Canadians in keeping with the trend of nice Costa Rican and Panamanian towns. We opted to do a short hike up to a place called El Explorador, gardens that are meant to be like Alice in Wonderlands world. As the only people there, we spent a couple of hours hanging around looking at the odd sculptures, trees and other trippy stuff.

El Explorador gardens

El Explorador gardens - This guy is loving it!

El Explorador gardens

After I got beard number 3 shaved off from a barber I would have guessed had never cut a head of hair in his life by the way he went about it. Luckily it’s hard to muck up a 4 back and sides and cutting a beard off although I was a little worried when the raw blade came out. No arteries were cut so the journey continues. The next day we went to the Posas de la Caldera thermal baths to fill in the day and scored a free taxi back that saved us an hour’s uphill hike.

Thermal Baths in Boquete

To break up our journey to Panama City we decided to stay in the town of Santiago that is split by the Pan-American Highway. On the way we noticed that at certain points the local indigenous populations all out and remnants of blockades around them. The month before the border to Costa Rica was closed for a couple of days due to these blockades and violence had kicked off as government troops came in the clamp down and if I remember correctly a few people were killed. Back then the government reneged on promises they had given to sit down and talk. Last we had heard the government had agreed to again sit down and talk with them over their concerns about mining, dams and other issues.

In Panama the indigenous communities (Ngobe I think) have a sizeable population so have the ability to have their voices heard with protests but the government don’t seem to take them too seriously as all traffic came to a standstill that day. It appeared that the blockades were coming up again and we had been caught between two of them. Everyone was off the bus and some people (remembering the length of previous protests) started to walk towards and hopefully past the blockades after an hour of waiting. The truck drivers seemed a lot more pissed off (probably lost a lot of business the previous month) and were talking of driving through the blockade. We were slightly worried as we had too much to carry a couple of miles and more importantly what could we say to get past the blockades if we made it. Just when we started talking about alternative plans, an old indigenous man on a horse was coming from the blockade direction telling everyone it was ok and to carry on, sorted! People started walking back and the bus set off and there were no problems in passing the blockade of burning tyres. I never found out what happened to cause a temporary blockade but maybe they were demonstrating the havoc they could create to ensure they get their promised talks. Hopefully it works out well for everyone in the end as it's creating mayhem for every Panamanians day to day living.

Two hour delay on our bus from David to Santiago due to Indigineous protester blockades

We arrived in Santiago, a town that clearly no backpackers stop off in but a decent one to break a journey up all the same. And who would not want to spend a night in an odd looking steel tree house with a bath but no toilet.

Our odd room in Santiago, had a bath but no toilet

Our odd room (corrugated steel treehouse) in Santiago. Definately a new one on us

The next morning we got a four hour bus to Panama City crossing the Bridge of the Americas that spans the Panama Canal and connects the north and south American land masses. It is to be our last city in Central America and only a week left before our boat takes us from Panama to Colombia and our South American trip begins.