panama!

It was time to renew our visas again and this time we headed to Panama!  Bocas del Toro (“mouths of the bull) to be exact.  It’s a chain of islands on the Caribbean Side of Panama and it is BEATIFUL!!  Absolutely stunning!  The travel was easy...well, as easy as you’d expect.  First we took a 5 hour bus to the border.  After getting our exit stamps we walked across the bridge that serves as the Costa Rican/Panamanian border.

Once we were in Panama, we paid our taxes, got our entrance stamps, and took an hour taxi ride to the port town of Almirante.  From there, you take water taxis to the islands!  So cool!!

We spent our first night on Isla Bastimentos.  It’s the largest island of the chain and the majority of it is a protected national park.  Red Frog Beach is a beautiful white sand beach on the northeast side, and we spent the afternoon there.

The next two nights we spent on Isla Colon.  It’s the island with the “town” of Bocas.  We rented bikes to explore the island and see the beaches.  So fun!

Our last day in Bocas, we booked a deep boarding tour.  Yes, we paid to get drug behind a boat.  Haha.  Deep boarding is super popular in the area.  You hang on to a plexiglass board that is connected by rope to a boat.  By tilting your wrists up, down, left, and right, you can steer the board underwater.  It’s a fun way to see all the coral reefs!

Included in the deep boarding tour was snorkeling (where we saw a huge spotted manta ray!) and an afternoon on the most beautiful island I’ve ever seen, Isla Zapatilla!  It was absolutely unreal how clear and aqua the water was!  I’ve never seen anything like it!  Definitely a piece of paradise.

It was such a gift to explore and relax.  This semester has been great but it has been BUSY.  And we have Service Project coming up over Easter.  So it was great timing to be able to get away and get some rest before the “end” of the year kicks into gear!