Bocas del Toro, Panama - 2012
Click on a photo to see a slightly larger image and/or to scroll through the photos.
Alexa 
Alexa 
Alexa Boogie-boarding 
Alexa Boogie-boarding 
Alexa and Haley 
Alexa and Haley 
Alexa and Haley 
Alexa and Haley 
Alexa and Haley 
Chuck, Nancy, Daniel, Jill, Alexa and Haley 
Chuck, Nancy, Daniel, Jill, Alexa and Haley 
Kellie, Nancy, Daniel, Alexa and Haley at Casa Mono 
Charles 
Chuck and Nancy Hamming it up 
Dan and Jill 
Daniel, Jill, Alexa and Haley 
Daniel 
Nancy 
Chuck and Nancy Ready to Zip 
Haley Ready to Zip 
Haley is Ready (Alexa waiting her turn) 
Haley Zipping 
Daniel Zipping 
Nancy getting her toes wet |
Fun at the Beach
Red Frog Beach 
Red Frog Beach 
Red Frog Beach 
Red Frog Beach 
Red Frog Beach 
Red Frog Beach 
Red Frog Beach 
Red Frog Beach 
Red Frog Beach 
Red Frog Beach 
Starfish Beach 
Starfish Beach |
Miscellaneous
Coralina Restaurant 
View from the top of Isla Bastimentos |
Nancy's Vacation Report
Sat. 2/18/12
We arrived at Casa de Mono to find Jill fixing dinner while Dan and the girls were out looking for shells. Though the trip was long, it went smoothly. The house is lovely and the three bedrooms are far apart. We're all tired and it's only 8:15.
Sun. 2/19/12
First 24 hours are past and the heat isn't too bad. Having clouds around cuts the bright sun. We swam a little and searched for shells and crabs and so forth. This late afternoon, Dan, Charles and Alexa saw a 3 foot eel. The crabs have a colony in the sand bank and come out of their holes before being scared and hurrying back. This part of the shore is built on old coral beds and sometimes we see really nice pieces coming in with the tide. The water drops off quite unexpectedly when you step off the coral. We wear shoes (crocs, etc) when in the water so our feet aren't damaged. We went into town for lunch and Jill and I had ceviche. Chuck and Dan had a beautiful soup, Dan had seafood added and Chuck Chicken. The girls ate a 10 inch 3 cheese pizza between them. Kellie had a seafood dish with mashed potatoes and cheese and Charles had a bean hamburger with potatoes and salad. Everyone's lunch was good. We hit a vegetable stand after that and got plantains which we will fix on Thursday at the recommendation of the man selling them. We also got pineapple, watermelon, and cantaloupe. We hit the grocery store for meal fixings. Tonight Kellie made a chopped chicken with Feta cheese, mushrooms, onions and peppers. We had broccoli, pasta, and salad to go with. We's eatin' good!
Dan and Alexa are out with flashlights looking for toads. Haley has had a meltdown and has gone to bed. We were just looking at the skink that is on the living room wall. Oh, I got to eat part of a passion fruit. It needs sweetening but after adding some it's quite tasty.
Mon. 2/20/12
We took a walk along the road towards a hotel and restaurant. The girls explored the shore and some of us took pictures of birds and scenery. After watching young men surf for a while, we went up to the restaurant for fruit and drinks. We got our first papaya there (of the trip.) Chuck and I really love it. There is plenty of papaya, pineapple, watermelon, and cantaloupe and it all is delicious. We had lunch at home and then rested in the afternoon. In the early evening we swam a little and snorkeled a bit across from the house.
Tues. 2/21/12
We had a really fun day. We went into town and walked around some. The girls got a banana pineapple smoothie. The travel "agent" opened and we paid for our zip line tour and caught a water taxi over to the island. First we went to a beautiful beach (Red Frog) where the girls played in the surf. Chuck and I didn't know we should bring our swim suits so we sat in the shade and enjoyed the beauty of the area. We got some good pictures on the zip line tour starting with a picture of Chuck and me together rigged out. The first run I unintentionally kept the brake on so didn't make it to the end. But I'm a fast learner and for the rest I didn't have a problem. I didn't know that there would be more than one zip! We had six because we didn't do the ropes course. By the end I was an old hand. You should have seen Alexa and Haley. They did it too. Haley actually went first (with a guide always) and was at the other end to meet us. There was another little girl, Rose, age 8 that enjoyed it with Alexa. One time they ran together with a guide. Twice the older girls got to run by themselves.
We got back to the house around 5 PM to find the power was out since 4. Fortunately we have a gas stove. Dan made a chicken stir fry with chayote, broccoli, and carrots. It was really yummy. I fell asleep around 8:30 while we were chatting in the dark (with small lantern). Sort of like evening chats while camping.
Wed. 2/22/12
We still have power! We went to Drago and Starfish beach. The eight of us squeezed into a taxi, Jill and Dan riding in the truck bed (they are 4 door plus truck bed.) When we got to Drago we hooked up with a boat to take us to the beach. This beach was sand rather than coral so we were able to leave our shoes on shore. The name came from all the starfish in the water and some of them were huge - nine or ten inches across and quite thick. The sand was so fine that there was sand between Alexa's swim suit fabric and lining fabric. Try to get that out! We had a snack of ceviche there and plantain "fries". Then tonight Dan made a ceviche style dip out of tuna and ginger and other things.
You know, these taxis are great. When you think about car rental fees, our trip to and from the beach was $40 for the eight of us.
Thurs. 2/23/12
We rented a boat to travel between islands. We had a lovely day. Gabrielle was our driver. He had his grandson along since apparently there was no school. We started out at dolphin bay and watched the dolphins swim. It was fun to see them but some of the boats started closing in whenever they appeared. From there we went to Zapatillas Island where we played at the beach, did some snorkeling and ate lunch. On the way back to Bocas del Toro we stopped at Cayo Coral to do more snorkeling. First we had a snack at the restaurant. Dan and Jill each ordered a seafood dish while Chuck and I had fruit and the girls smoothies. The restaurant was on a dock and people were feeding the fish at the edge, leftover rice and crackers. The girls enjoyed seeing all of them and also feeding them mom and dad's leftover rice.
The bathroom there had a sign on it "To flush fill pail with water from the sea and dump it in toilet." We went over to the coral reef and all but Haley got in to snorkel. I was unwilling to dive but did enjoy swimming at the surface.
We stopped at the grocery store for dinner makings and came home to shower and cook. Chuck and I have some light sun burn probably because we didn't reapply the sunscreen. If we go to the beach tomorrow we'll wear shirts and stay out of the sun when possible. Unfortunately this beach has kayaks for rent and I'd really like to go out for a bit.
Fri 2/24/12
Another power outage before I got to the computer. We did think we'd stay at the house today but after the outage we changed our minds again and went to Red Frog Beach. I wore my shirt the whole time and don't think my skin is much worse. I think it's very red from the salt and sand. That skin is not exposed to the sun. We did some wave hopping and some of us walked along the beach. There was a beautiful water feature there where the waves went into a crevice and shot up in the air. I also ate french fries at lunch for the first time in who knows how many years. We're packing tonight and being picked up at 6AM for the trip home.
Sat 2/25/12
It was a long day. We were picked up at 6 AM and got to Charles' house at close to midnight. We had long layovers in Miami and Panama City. We could find nothing to buy at the airports. There was a lot of duty-free stuff though.
General:
Charles got up before sunrise most mornings. I did too. Dan was up even earlier and out fishing in the incoming waves. Charles was taking pictures and we both were bird watching and watching the sunrise. When we returned to the house, the girls were eating breakfast.