Arriving in Bocas
Orientation: Bocas del Toro Town, on Isla Colon to the west...
Isla Carenero to the east. It's much smaller than Isla Colon.
It's only a 1-minute ride between the two via these kamikaze water taxis. To the left is the marina we stayed in for the month: Marina Carenero.
Martini came for her visit the very first week we were here.
An unfortunate consequence of having to walk a tightrope to get on the boat: sometimes you have to fish things out of the water!
A walking tour of Isla Carenero -there are no roads
Buccaneer Resort, on the other side of the island
One of their bungalows
Did you know that hearts of palm come from the banana tree? I didn't!
The Pickled Parrot Bar
Not sure what these are... we think they were using them to build a nearby house. Strange.
Hey...
...we found it!!
Brad's joke: the difference between cats & dogs is that to dogs, we're a friend. To a cat, we're staff. So this is Charlie and his manservant. Brad uses his castnet to catch fresh sushi for his furry boss.
Charlie tries to be patient, but honestly, sometimes the service around here really sucks!
“Am I seriously going to have to take matters into my own hands, here?“
Lunch is served after all. For awhile, it wasn't looking good for Brad.
Bocas Town, on the southern tip of Isla Colon
Isla Bastimentos, one of the neighbouring islands
Smaller neighbours
We flew over the mountains to get to David on the Pacific side.
Bocas Marina and the anchorage off Isla Colon
The little bar/restaurant at Bocas Marina where we spent many a happy hour -$1 Flor de Canas!
Bruno makes the meanest $5 burger on the planet!
These are Bruno & Sophie's girls. Crystal & Jeremy were surprised to see this family here: they were their neighbours back in Key West!
Martini, Montana, Marjorie, Estelle, Crystal & Moi
The girls love Crystal & Jeremy.
Their mom brings them to school everyday in a cayuco. The girls really like it here and are thriving. They're learning their third language -they're French.
She loves the camera -can you tell?
While catching geckos, Travis didn't put a lot of thought into how he was going to make a clean getaway with the chair.
These little dudes help keep the boat bug-free.
We do see them every once in awhile, and we think one of them had babies.
Of course, Cody wasn't wasting his time -he was going for bigger stock.
The canal the water taxi follows to take us to Changuinola
Fishing
The foliage is so thick it looks like you could walk to the dock!
Bringing his own wheels
This poor old cayuco is barely floating!
But a lot of fun all the same... Whew, made it!
More kids in love with the camera -they begged Crystal to takes pictures.
Looking at themselves on the camera.
The kids had a parade on the main street -they all dressed up as sea creatures.
Colourful coral
“Am I Blue...?” Either they're bored to tears, or these costumes are really hot!
My birthday...
Silly...
This is Spidey.
These are Spidey's balls in a solution with sparkles. Talk about adding insult to injury!
Reef came to visit for a few days.
Our gibbled transmission
The Patch...
...and the Pain of installing it. The engine had to be hoisted up.
Back out in the anchorage where we belong!
Bottles, some from the 1800s
The cleaning process: soaking and scraping
They clean up pretty nicely.
Downtown Bocas
A lot of businesses are out over the water, or they at least have water access.
This bar is owned by former Key Westers that we were familiar with.
More Key Westers
Bye Bye
