Panama

We arrived in Bocas Town starving, in our rush to leave the bug attack we hadn't really thought of food. We walked around and hoped we would find something within our budget on a Sunday afternoon…most things were $15.00 each! It was crazy. We eventually found a bar. The food was average but it did the job. We headed to our hotel happy to have a real bed and air-con, both are luxuries we haven’t had for a while!
The next day we headed off to our next nights accommodation where we had bikes, an awesome luxury so we could cycle around the small island town. We opted to break the budget (to be honest it had already been broken) and go on the Oreba chocolate tour on the mainland. It was a great afternoon where we learnt the history of the place and village and all about everything cacao and chocolate. Yum! You can read more about the tour here.

Our next day we were off on our other luxury. We had rented on AirBnB a cabin on a dock overlooking a basically private lagoon. The place had wifi and a kitchen. Sadly it poured with rain the day we arrived. This wasn’t so much an issue except for the boat (with no canopy) ride over. We arrived saturated!!

Our new home was magical. We literally were in a tent in the roof and had a diving board straight off the end of our room into the sea. When you stood on the dock under our room you could see fish, starfish and coral everywhere! The water was so clear and the reef surrounding us was beautiful! We ended up having the place to ourselves for the whole time except for our final night. The serenity and peacefulness for our time alone was amplified by a stunning sunset. We spent our days swimming and watching the fish while relaxing with the puppies (our new friends for our stay). The final night initially felt like an invasion when nine dental students arrived in our quiet oasis. Once getting used to people being around again it was great to have the company. They were so good to us giving us the whole area for the evening so we could enjoy our final night in peace. ☺
We managed to see the biofluroscence on the final evening! It was mild and basically looked like a disco ball on the ocean. It was magical to watch, especially considering it was off our own balcony. ☺

Our day we were due to leave the rain was back with a vengeance. We waited around for a while to see if it would subside but sadly it wasn’t to be. We ended up getting drenched on the boat ride back! I don't think I have ever been that saturated before.
Sadly our next step was to get onto a bus to get to our next hostel in the middle of nowhere…The buses in Panama all have air-conditioning on maximum setting. I was frozen and a little blue after the three hour ride!