Bocus Del Toro

We learned of a magical sounding place in Panama that's composed of various sized islands; easily accessed by cheap and abundantly available water taxis. The place is called Bocus Del Toro and was a definite must see for both Tara and I. We heard about a hostel in the area that has a diving board, trampoline and swings into the ocean, so this quickly won our vote for where to stay. The entire hostel sits on pillars above the ocean, just off shore from one of the islands. There is also a "pool" here, which is simply a big area that's cut out of the deck and leads into the ocean. When we first arrived it was pretty much sensory overload for me...I've literally had dreams of places like this where boats are the main form of transportation. I spent a good amount of time just laying in a hammock taking it all in.

On the first night we learned a new card game from a Belgium guy who claimed that this game is the reason that playing cards were invented. I thought it was a pretty enjoyable game and has some similarities to Euchre. I think my Dad would approve of this game, along with the countless other enthusiastic Euchre players back home!

One day we rented kayaks and explored two other islands in the area. We paddled through some pretty big waves and even caught a little bit of a surf at one point in the journey. Other than that I've spent my time looking at boats, reading my Antarctica book, chatting with other travelers and playing on the ocean jungle gym. We have done a bit of exploring on the main island but weren't going over there at night because we heard about a lot of people getting mugged while wondering the streets at night over there.

Last night, however, we heard about a party taking place at a hostel/bar on the main island and we were able to get a water taxi directly to the place...so a big group of us headed over there and ended up having an amazing time. I couldn't have asked for a better mix of music, and of course good music + fun people = lots of dancing!

We were planning on leaving this morning but didn't feel ready to leave this place, so we didn't.

To me traveling is about the quality of the time I spend at each place...even if that means I'm going to see one less place on this trip. That's why we didn't leave here this morning, and that's why we may not even leave tomorrow morning. That's the life of traveling with no fixed itinerary, and to me it's the best way to go!