Christmas in Bocas Del Toro

After grabbing a pizza from Domino's (yes, they have those here), we packed up our little rental car and headed towards the town of Santiago, where we would be spending the night in order to split up the 8 hour drive to the Islands of Bocas Del Toro.   Thanks to Tripadvisor, we found a great little (and I do mean little) bed and breakfast just off the Pan American Highway in Santiago.  It was appropriately named "Casa de las Palmas" and is rented by two guys (one from Australia and one from Washington State), Brad and Steve.  They are renting this house that they have turned into a bed and breakfast from a very wealthy family of Panamanian doctors that live in what would be considered a mansion further back on the property.  These two guys signed a contract saying they could rent it until they die and were able to make any changes they saw fit!  Pretty good deal!  They have chickens, roosters, quail, cats, a turtle, and tons of fruits and veggies growing in their back yard.  When we pulled up to the little turquoise house, Brad and Steve came out to greet us (even though it was almost 11pm), and show us our rooms.  There are only 2 actual rooms for rent and then an additional "overflow room" with two twin beds.  I was exhausted once we got there, as was Genevieve who had been sleeping the entire ride over.  I decided to put Genevieve and myself to bed, but Marlene and James stayed up to have some wine, compliments of Brad and Steve.  

The next morning, we had a wonderful breakfast of fruit (mostly all grown from their back yard), ham, french toast (did I mention that Brad is a chef??) with a homemade syrup, pecan muffins, coffee and juice!  Genevieve was loving all of the animals there :)

Steve shows Genevieve one of the chickens...she is not so sure about petting it though!

We enjoyed our stay at Casa de las Palmas and decided to book another night there for the night of January 6th when my mom will be here.  We will use our new found B&B to break up our trip from Panama City to Boquete (about a 6 and a half hour drive). 

After saying farewell to Brad and Steve, we took off towards the city of David where we would grab lunch before heading North through the mountains to Almirante where we'd catch a water taxi to Bocas Del Toro.   Once in Almirante, all of our stuff was packed into a water taxi along with numerous others who were also headed to Bocas.


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It was about a 30 minute boat ride to Bocas Town and once we got there, we were quickly led to a taxi that would take us to our hotel, Playa Tortuga.  Our taxi driver, Julio Cesar got us to our hotel quickly.  That night we decided to eat at our hotel in their restaurant over the water.  The food was decent but the view was amazing!





Genevieve, James, and Annie on the water taxi ready to head to Bocas Del Toro!





We woke up to rain on Friday morning...boo!  So we decided to head down to Bocas Town to check out the sites, shops, and grab some lunch.  We were supposed to take the hotel shuttle to town, but it left early because it was "full" (despite the fact that there were only 2 groups of people signed up to be on the shuttle, one of them being us), so we had to wait for the shuttle to come back and get us.

Genevieve fell asleep as we walked around Bocas Town  and ended up sleeping through most of our lunch.  We saw some sun starting to shine through the clouds so we hurried back to the hotel to change and  get a taxi to Bocas Del Drago and Starfish Beach. 


 

 It was a 20 minute drive to Bocas Del Drago.  Once we got there, we took a boat (for $1.50 each) to the nearby "Starfish Beach."  There were brilliant red and orange starfish littering the ocean floor!  Unfortunately, it started to thunder and rain after only about 25 minutes of us being there.  We took a very wet boat ride back to Bocas Del Drago and waited out the rainstorm at the only restaurant on the beach, where a little girl really took to Genevieve :)  There was also another some other little girl there waiting out the storm with her parents who were paying absolutely no attention to her whatsoever.  She started off in clothes, but by the time the rain had stopped, she had stripped down to nothing and was visiting every table in the place. 

This little Panamanian girl LOVED Genevieve.  Her family even took a picture of her with Genevieve! :)

That night we decided to walk to a "nearby" restaurant that was recommended by one of the taxi drivers.  James asked the front desk how far of a walk it was...they said 5 minutes.  30 minutes later, we arrived at the restaurant.  At least we were able to get some great fresh seafood (Langosta - Lobster, was only $12)!

Another one of Genevieve's friends tried to join us for dinner.

Sunny skies on Saturday morning got us pretty excited about making it out to some of the surrounding islands.  Unfortunately, by the time we finished breakfast, it was pouring!  At 11:30am, we finally decided to head down to Bocas Town to grab lunch and hope the rain stopped!  We had lunch at a place called Buena Vista and some great drinks! 

hanging out at breakfast!

Our sunny skies quickly turned grey...

These two little kids were too cute just sitting on a park bench...Sara Egli, this pic is for you!

Bocas Town

Headed back to the hotel for some pool time!

We hung out at the pool for awhile, trying to absorb as much sun as we possibly could!

The hotel restaurant out over the water

Before heading out to dinner, we were able to Skype with Grandma Steph, Pop-Pop Bill, Aunt Catherine, Oliver, and Adelaide!  We had dinner at an Italian restaurant at the bottom of the Swans Cay hotel, called Milanos.  Genevieve made silly faces and noises at everyone who passed by and had us all laughing pretty hard.  After Genevieve went to bed that night we skyped with Stacy just outside our hotel room as it poured rain.  I would like to say that since we arrived in Bocas Del Toro, we have been asking everyone about mass times on Christmas eve/Christmas.  No one could seem to agree on when masses were actually taking place.  We tried...

Christmas morning, Genevieve opened the two gifts we brought with us to Bocas.  A movie from Grandma Marlene, and a book with a voice recording from Grandma Steph.  She loved both of her gifts as well as the bows on the outsides of the packages!  Thanks, Grandmas!!  Finally a sunny morning!  Time to head out and see some islands!

Are these for me??

Look what I got!!

 Our old taxi driver friend "Julio Cesar" just so happened to be out side of our hotel so we hopped in his cab and went down to Bocas Town looking for a water taxi driver looking to make some extra money on Christmas day.  We were able to get a water taxi driver to take us around all day for only $80!  And a plus...he spoke some English!

Bocas Town as we drove away!

Genevieve was very interested in our water taxi driver

not long into our trip, Genevieve decides this is as good a place as any to take a nap!

 Our first stop is Dolphin's Bay.  It isn't quite known why so many dolphins gather in this specific area, but it is a great place to see them up close and personal!  As some of the boats would drive around, the dolphins would chase after them trying to jump through their wakes.  It was a pretty amazing site to see outside of the artificial-ness of sea world!

One dolphin (or whale as Marlene called them) on its way down from a spectacular jump!

 The next island we visited was called "Crawl Cay."  The water here was a beautiful emerald green and James and I rented snorkel gear for just $4 for the whole day.  Marlene and Genevieve watched us snorkel from a restaurant eating area above the sea.  Unfortunately, our underwater camera that we've had for close to 5 years decided to die at this point in time, so while we did see trumpet fish, parrot fish, and tons of other beautiful fish, you will not get to see them unless of course you go yourself!

the wind-blown look

Great shot of my motion sickness patch, haha

coming up on Crawl Cay

our family!

Ready to snorkel!

last pic before the death of our camera....so sad

Our final destination for the day was Isla Bastimentos to see the famed Red Frog Beach.  The beach is named for the teeny tiny poisonous red dart frogs that inhabit the jungle terrain around the beach.  Unfortunately for the frogs, their numbers are rapidly decreasing.  We did at least get to see one as we were leaving.  Some local kids had caught it (didn't think that was safe??) and were showing the tourists.  Here we ate lunch at a restaurant, Playa Lava Bar and Grill, right on the beach.  At the beach itself were the largest waves I have ever seen!  They were pretty incredible and I know my pictures don't even do them justice!  This may sound strange, but the sand was almost silky on this beach.  Genevieve had so much fun playing in it and throwing it all over herself (and mommy)!  This was where our sunny skies ended and the grey skies rolled in.  As we were leaving Red Frog Beach it started to rain.  Due to the rain, the 10 minute ride back to Bocas was quite rough...although Genevieve loved the bouncing up and down of the boat. :)

Genevieve fell asleep sitting up on the way to Red Frog Beach

sail boats and yachts docked outside of the entrance to red frog beach

Daddy and Genevieve check out the huge waves from an overlook on the side of the beach

Our Christmas dinner was somewhat limited due to the fact that there were only 5 or so places in Bocas Town open that evening.  We ended up at a place called "Hotel Limbo on the Sea."  We were drawn in by their sign out front that said "best seafood in town."  haha.  We started with some shrimp ceviche and some drinks.

Mommy and G on the way to Christmas dinner!  (Genevieve's adorable dress is courtesy of Grandma Steph).

Genevieve's Christmas dinner

When we arrived home from dinner, Marlene discovered that we had a visitor in our room.  A small lizard had taken up residence in our bathroom.  Marlene decided to clap her hands at it and yell for James to remove it at once! :)  The lizard made it safely to the bushes outside our room :)

Monday was our final morning in Bocas.  After breakfast at the hotel, we caught a water taxi back to the mainland.  The water was incredibly rough (even more so than the day before) and the water taxi drivers did not hold back when it came to how fast they were going!  Again, Genevieve enjoyed being bounced around on the boat, but after about 15 minutes of this, she put her hands on either side of her head, as if to hold it still!  Although, she realized that everyone on the boat was looking at her and laughing, so she kept doing it :)

Genevieve gives her Daddy a "high five" at breakfast

Our trip ended with a classic, maddening Panamanian traffic jam.  Apparently there was a parade earlier in the day and all of Balboa Ave was shut down.  The traffic started just as we got on the America's Bridge.  From there it should have only taken us 5-10 minutes to get to our apartment.  It took us 3 hours to FINALLY get home!  I was pretty much ready to hop a flight back to the good old USA after that!  But, a beer and a good nights sleep made me change my mind. 

While this was like no Christmas we had ever had before, without decorated trees, tons of gifts, Christmas music, and cold weather, it was still an amazing one!  We hope all of our family and friends had a wonderful holiday and wish everyone a Happy New Year!!