La Rue Vibre !

Going from Costa Rica to Panama wasn’t fun at all (not even the bridge we had to go through, see picture below). Custom officers demands when you enter panama a ticket to get out of the country. As we want to go to colombia by boat, there are no tickets.
We entered finally after several talks.

Bocas del Toro is a set of island in the Caribbean sea north West of Panama.
We decided to go there because the islands host a creole culture (english-espagnol) still lively and influential. Plus, a lo of species live in water (coral reef).

And we don’t regret ot, because as our little boat was going to the island and the continent fading away, we were submerged by a mighty nature.
Life is good in Bocas (main town). The way of life and the atmosphere are very relaxed, as is the language, a singing creole (hard to understand).
We arrived the day before the island’s fest (see our report), with groups of music, stands, parades etc.
We also decided to dive into this so transparent and hot waterall around the islands. But we already had an idea of the wildlife just going to the restaurant where you can find coconut, spicies and mariscos (everything coming from the sea). Underwater we had a lot of surprises, we could see skate, moray eel and even a nurse shark!

The day after we went discovering the cave of the island. The access to the cave was a kind of open-air chapel (see the picture below).

Let us imagine that you enter the cave, at your feet flows a kind of little river, some fishes resting there, immobile. Going further the air becomes fresher and you can feel the limits of your torch. You also here at the bats uppon your head.

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Be careful! You almost squashed a little colourful frog. They peacefully cohabit with crickets and many insects. Then you leave the cave without notion of the time you spent there, outside the sun rises on the luxuriant vegetation of the island.

Then we walk several hours to reach the little village of Boca del Drago consisting of few houses and one restaurant.

Going along the sea we arrived at the beach called Playa Estrella, the sea stars beach.
We could tell you about the beach as a paradise on the earth, telling you about its transparent and hot water and that you can admire the perfect sea drinking a coconut water freshly opened.

But of course with honesty we can say it is not so easy to open a coconut with a knife and if it has not been well chosen its juice will be fermented. And that it is almost impossible to rest on the sand because of sand flies (little flies extremely voracious).

We loved this island, we had the impression to leave America and enter the Antilles!