Dolphin Bay, Coral Cay, Zapatilla Beach, Sloth Island, Starfish Island
When I looked into crossing over from Costa Rica to Panama, Bocas del Toro came up pretty much immediately. After some minimal research, it seemed that the internet was pretty decisive that if I’m not keen to party then Bocas is a place to avoid. However, I was not able to find a way to avoid this island, and so, somewhat reluctantly, I made my way over there.
So far, I crossed borders in an airplane, a boat, and with organized shuttles and tour buses. This time, both because it was cheaper and because it seemed pretty straightforward, I opted to do it myself. There was a bit of confusion as for which bus goes from Puerto Viejo to the border, but I did manage to get on it, and after a bit less than an hour and a half I got to the border. I got some help trying to find the right place to pay the exit fee, and then getting my passport checked, before I actually got to cross the border, this time on foot. It wasn’t exciting, although I’m not sure it was supposed to be, but within a few minutes I was on the other side, in Panama, where I got confused once more trying to find the right place to go.
It took some time, and instead of taking the public bus I just got on a shuttle that took me straight to the port. I waited there for a while longer, and after a boat ride that took about half an hour, I was in Bocas del Toro. When I got there, I was surprised b y the relative silence. I expected to hear the music before even getting to the island, but I heard nothing. Even after I checked into the hostel, and then the sun came down, it wasn’t loud. There were a handful of bars and clubs that did play music, but it was very easy to avoid them. I was told that there is less partying than usual due to the construction work, but even before that, it turned out not every square meter of Bocas is full of party people.
Still, I didn’t have much time on the island, and not a lot of things I could do in town. There were some island tours available (alongside some activities I was less interested in) and I signed up as soon as I could. I’ve done island hopping and snorkeling tours before, in South-East Asia, and I felt nothing can go wrong with it. It was supposed to be straightforward, but after the fact it turned out this wasn’t an island tour, but rather a boat tour, and it wasn’t a particularly nice boat either (It’s also worth noting the tour didn’t include any water, I had to bring my own).
Our first destination was Dolphin Bay, where we actually did get to see some dolphins swim. Mostly their fins, and a tail or two, but not much more than that. It was nice to see, but on its own I didn’t think it was all that special. As part of a tour it was a decent stop.
We moved away from the bay, and after a while the boat slowed down again. We got to our second stop of the day, Coral Cay, which I thought was a misleading name. Each person got a snorkel and a mask, and we jumped into the water. I had a bit of a struggle trying to put on the mask correctly, and when I finally did I was not greeted with a spectacular and colorful sight. Yes, there were a few corals there, and some fish, but not many, and they were not very colorful. It was mostly sea plants in shades of brown and green. On the other hand, I got to snorkel, which felt therapeutic in a way. It’s been a long time since I got to do it, and I found myself relaxing as the water blocked everything above it.
When snorkeling time was over, the tour members got back on the boat, where we handed the masks and snorkels back, and then headed over to what was supposed to be the main event of the day- Zapatilla Beach. However, while the day started bright and sunny, by the time we finished snorkeling it was quite windy and started to rain. My shirt fell to the floor, and when I picked it up half of it was soaked, so I could not wear it for the duration of the day. By the time we got to the beach, things didn’t improve.
There were quite a few people in the water, which was warmer than the air, but I didn’t feel like joining them. Instead, I walked along the path around the beach and into the jungle (going back about half way through to pick up my umbrella). On a good day, perhaps, it would’ve been possible to see some wildlife there, but on that day I was not able to spot anything. It was still a nice walk, and part of it was along a secluded beach, and I actually spent most of my time there just walking around.
I got back to the main area, and just waited there until everyone gathered and we could go back to the boat. After a stop for lunch, which I didn’t fancy eating and patiently waited for the others to finish, I thought we were going back to Bocas Town. Then someone mentioned the sloth island, and I quickly said what the hostel’s staff told me earlier in the day- A while back some kind of disease killed almost all of the sloths on the island, and because of it Sloth Island was no longer part of the tour. And even if it was, we wouldn’t be able to see any sloths there.
For a little while the group was disappointed, and then we stopped at that very island, much to my confusion. And not only that, apparently we spotted two sloths in there. And I say apparently because the direction that everyone was looking at pointed to something that could’ve been pretty much anything, a brown ball from my angle, but it was too small and too far away to know for sure. If those things really were sloths, they were very disappointing. I could not understand the excitement about it all. Although it is worth mentioning that by this time I was cold, unable to put my shirt on, and disappointed by the lack of snorkeling, so it needed to be quite impressive in order to change my mood.
The last stop we had, Starfish Island, did help a bit, but it just wasn’t enough. It was just about possible to see the starfish underwater, but without getting in the water it felt a bit pointless, especially since we were there for quite a while. I’m sure on a sunny day the experience would’ve been better, and if I actually had bothered myself with doing any research about those tours I wouldn’t have been so surprised, but at the end of the day, at the end of that day, the tour was just okay, not more than that.