Today is a travel day (and the first day with cell or wifi service since Panamá City). Boat, car, plane…we are covering all the bases.
Last night was breezier than the night before, but it wasn’t necessarily any cooler. It’s around 87 during the day and 83-84 at night, with constant humidity. I’ve never been great at sleeping when it’s hot, so I had a fitful night and was up well before my 6:30am alarm. At one point during the night, I woke up and stood looking out the window at the island, lit up by the full moon.
After breakfast, we paid the bar bill and then boarded the 7:30 boat to start the journey back. I was not at all excited to see the guys working on one of the boat engines. I know we only need one, but as a non-swimmer and non-boat person, I think even 2 engines is insufficient. Nevertheless, there’s nothing to be done about it so I got on board and tried not to think about it. (The entire boat ride I did reflect on the fact that I can’t really swim and hate boats, but I do a LOT of vacations that involve boats and swimming. I have no idea why I continue to do this to myself.)
At one point during the boat ride, we started to run low on gas so we pulled into the strangest boat gas station I’ve ever seen. It looked a bit like a toll booth, and once we got inside, there were just barrels and cans of gas everywhere. The Guna Yala people clearly do not have an OSHA equivalent because this place was one spark away from a Hollywood-style explosion.
After surviving that, we got to the dock and found our driver. Props to the organization here – it looks chaotic but it’s actually incredibly well-organized. Each car driver knows who they are picking up and which boat they’ll be on, and they collect the passengers without anybody getting stranded. It was impressive given that there were probably 250 tourists going to/coming from islands this morning.
While we were not as gross as we were after being on Isla Fuerte in Colombia (we did have access to a rudimentary shower this time), we were still sticky and sandy and absolutely desperate for showers and clean clothes, so we headed back to the Toscana Inn to collect our bags and inquire about getting a hotel room for a few hours. Best $50 we’ve ever spent. We showered, repacked, walked over to a Colombia spot for lunch (I had an arepa with maduros, avocado, cheese, and some kind of creamy mustard-esque sauce), then we went back to the hotel and took naps. I might have a hard time breaking this mid-day nap habit!
We have a 5:00 flight to Bocas del Toro, another island chain on the Caribbean/Atlantic side of the country. The domestic airport is an adorable single-gate affair, which I loved. I know small planes are not as safe as big ones, but they have so much more personality and you can often see more of the country from them than in the big jets. This is a propeller plane, but it is sadly a 20-row plane so it’s on the big side and will fly above the clouds. Best plane ride I ever took was in Vieques, Puerto Rico, when it was just me and the pilot (the plane could take 5 passengers, with one riding in the cockpit).
After this 50-minute flight, we will be in Bocas del Toro (specifically in Bocas Town). We spend the night here and then move on to Isla Bastimentos, which is just a very short water taxi ride across the channel.
Our BnB, Lula’s, is in an old Victorian home just across the street from the ocean. We had a fabulous fish dinner (tuna for Luke, shrimp for kiddo, and mahi mahi fish and chips for me), and are enjoying the veranda for the evening.
Vacation Days 