Panama

we ended up our journey early evening in Boquette, a small but lovely town in the midst of a nice valley. the town is picturesque, calm and quiet, except for the smooth music from the 2 rivers that runs by each side of the village. that calming sound of running water only made the zzzzz time more pleasent, as the hostel was right next to the river. but before going to bed, we had a yummy authentic meal at a local comedor. the plate consisted in 2 simple things: one part was meat in a bbq-gravy style, the other part, more intriguing but deliscious, would have to be described as follow: a mixture between a queue-de-castor and a naan bread.

on our way back to the hostel, we bumped on Zanzibar, a sweet african-influence slash jazz bar that was playing a fine mix of world music. a couple of whiskey on the rock later, i had the pleasure to find my dorm bed overbooked, which gave me the key to an almost presidential suite all for myself.

Boquette is one of the best coffee growing area in panama, so the coffee tour wasn t optional for me. this tour was perhaps the most complete and informative tour so far. it was really inspiring and gave me a lot to think about and to bring back home.

as m-p knows (she suffer from the same illness as i do), sleeping in buses seems unavoidable for us. the ride from David to Bocas del Toro was the single exception. not once i could shut an eye. the views were scenic for the full 4 hour ride, probably the nicest, richest vegetation i had seen so far (one could argue that i was sleeping in prior bus rides :-).

on the next day, we finally got to bocas del toro after a nice 30 min boat ride. bocas del toro is a small archipelago stolen from heaven. it looks a lot like the carrbbeans, only better. virgin islands, prestine and unspoiled beaches, and of course one little party and exuberrant little sea-side city.

on our first day, we went straight for playa de las estrellas (stars), so called for, well, obviously, their numerous bright red and orange star fish that occupy the shallow and hot beaches. the beaches can be found on a remote area of the main island, a full hour away from the town on a bumpy road (nothing new here). the beaches were amazing. we litterally walked 25 meters into the sea and yet the water was not higher then our waste. the water was cristal clear or light blue, which made it very easy to observe the starfishes. yet again, very few tourists were here, so each of the fw of us had a big chunk of perfect white, fine sand. at night, we went for a drink (or two), but as i m officially turning old in this trip, i went to bed kind of early and let my young follower party. we did have a big and complete program for the next day.

i had booked a full tour of the archipelago, so i got up a bit earlier to make sure to benefit from the free coffee and pancakes offered at the hostel. it was a self service self madem, i was quite hungry and made two fat-tick pancake, alla american: with its unseparable but fake maple sirup.

the small motor boat started the tour with the dolphin bay. even if this wasn t my first experience with dolphins, they never stop to amaze me with their playfull, unscared attitude. clearly it wasnt the first time they were dealing with our kind of visitors, as they were showing off all over the place and jumping through the waves.

next stop was through some very shallow and clear waters. as much as i am not a fan of scuba diving, i must admit that this time around, it was fun. the corrals were colorfull, with vivid colors and bright fishes here and there. the water was perfectly refreshing and balancing out the heat from the sun (although my back will seriously pay for this). i surprised myself having fun scuba diving, touching the plants and trying to catch fishes. after we stopped to a small restaurant that was floating above the sea, we got a full 2 hours to play on the nicest beach i have stuck my feet it: boca del drago. the sand was perfectly white, just enough trees to take a nap, shallow and hot water for several meters, just enough waves to have fun, blue to turquoise water. this, is heaven. one last scuba diving session before heading to town let us discovered a different environment with cliffs and benches of fishes, hugh "oursins" and other marine marvels. by now, my back is seriously burned and hurting.

tomorrow, i m catching a small charter to panama city. this 45 minutes flight will save me 12 hours of boat and buses and will therefore give me all the time i need for this skyscrapers-city and its unfamous canal, before i finally fiond myself at home...