Panama: Bocas Del Torro

The Curse of the Tour
This archipelago was an example of when it was logistically impossible to do anything on our own, so we booked a boat tour through a man named Carlos whom we met on the street.  The tour was supposed to include five stops: dolphins, snorkeling, lunch at an expensive restaurant, a beach, and then snorkeling again.  The next morning, we waited for Carlos in the spot he had told us, but he didn’t show up at the appointed time of 9:30.  I was beginning to think we’d been conned out of our $5 deposits as we watched other boatloads of tourists head out for the day.  Shanu asked around, and a fat man assured us that he worked with Carlos and that Carlos was coming.  Eventually Carlos, who we by now determined was a shady character, showed up and said something about how he went to the hospital every single morning.  Some discussion took place between Carlos and the fat man, and soon we were on a boat, along with another girl who was a former Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica.  It seemed that Carlos had failed the boat operators as well, because with only four people in the boat, our $15 a piece barely covered the cost of gas for the day.  I think they should find a better recruiter, or at least know when to cut their losses and sell us off to a different tour operator.

Our first stop was a bay, surrounded by mangrove forests, where dolphins were known to frolic.  Sure enough, the dolphins were jumping through the wake of another tour boat that had enough passengers to afford the extra gas required to drive around in circles for the benefit of the dolphins and tourists.  After we had our fill of dorsal fins, we headed to another spot where we could snorkel.  I read in some book that “recent plate tectonics destroyed many of the coral reefs” in this area.  I’m not sure what “recent” means when used in conjunction with “plate tectonics”—years, decades, centuries?  But this coral reef was intact enough to provide us with views of some of the weird ocean creatures.  After that, the boat took us to a restaurant built up over the water on stilts.  I do have to give credit to Carlos for telling us honestly that meals at this restaurant would cost around $12.  To avoid this absurd expense, we had come prepared with three cans of tuna, a small jar of mayonnaise and a loaf of bread, plus the obligatory Pringles and oranges.  The other girl had not been so wise, and got the cheapest thing on the menu, which turned out to be some rice and lettuce for $6.  She was understandably still hungry afterwards, so we shared our tuna fish sandwiches with her.

Our next stop was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.  It had white sands, few tourists, clear blue-green waters, lazy waves, and swaying palm trees.  We could have stayed for years, but the tour permitted us only an hour.  Herein lies The Curse of the Tour.  We despise tours and only engage in them when absolutely necessary because we absolutely abhor time limits inherent in them.  We came all the way to Panama, and this was our only stop on the Caribbean coast, and we could stay at this beach for only an hour.  Nevertheless, we enjoyed each of our allotted 60 minutes as much as possible.  Then we headed to the last snorkeling location, which had a different environment from the first.  I lack even the vaguest vocabulary for describing reefs and the life therein, and I had no idea what I was seeing half the time, so I’ll just say it is really freakin’ cool down there.