Travel Day to Bocas del Toro

February 27, 2024

Today was a travel day and we had to be out of our AirBnB by 11:00. I got up, got ready, and ate breakfast before I packed up my things. Pete and Laurie took a little longer to get ready so I had time to go outside and read a few more chapters in my book.

We got on the road at 11:00 for the 3 1/2 hour drive to the ferry for Bocas del Toro. After the 30 minutes or so it took to get out of the city, we spent the next hour and a half on the winding roads going through the mountains. It was a very pretty drive, but after an hour of the constant turning I was ready for a straight away. I was doing my due diligence to follow every speed limit. After we got out of the mountains we made a turn that became a pothole hell road. Not quite as bad as the road to Santa Cantalina, but a road you definitely needed to pay attention to avoid major holes. I had been following a Kia for the longest time and when it came to potholes they practically came to a complete stop. I was on a straight road when I decided to pass. Major mistake. Just up ahead were police who flagged me over. Shit!!! Not again!! The police told me I had two infractions. One for speeding and one for passing in an unsafe manner. I call bullshit, but it’s hard to argue when you don’t speak the language. He told me through Google Translate that the speeding infraction was $50 and the passing infraction was $75. He took pictures of the license plate and told me that if it went through the rental car agency that the rental car agency may also charge me a surcharge for the infractions. I said fine just put it on the rental car. He then came back and told me he could help me out and just charge me $60. Some help . . . I debated a second trying to decide if I wanted to gamble with a $125 charge to my rental car (that may or may not ever make it to them) or take the “discount” of $60. I decided to just pay the $60 and move on with my life. Although I didn’t really move on because I stewed about it the rest of the drive and into the evening. If I had just kept my patience and stayed behind the Kia for a couple of more minutes I wouldn’t have been stopped. You would think I would have learned by now. I’m really beginning to hate driving in Panama. Oh well, there were three police present so I’m sure each of them enjoyed a $20 bill compliments of me.

We finally made it to the ferry area for Bocas, but here there were a ton of locals on the street directing you towards their parking and water taxis. They were so pushy. Laurie had actually gotten ahead of me (even though they stopped for snacks and got gas, but my little police delay had them passing me) so they were already “working” with someone. I was able to locate her and follow her. We learned that the ferry only left twice a day so we were stuck going the water taxi route. It cost $10 round trip/person and parking was $28 for each vehicle.

Getting to the island of Colon took 30 minutes by water taxi. There were plenty of locals to help us once we disembarked. One helped us get a taxi (was actually a truck so us and all our luggage fit perfectly) and it only cost $3/person. I was shocked at how underdeveloped all the roads seem to be on the island. They felt like they are all either under construction or just dirt roads. I’m so glad we didn’t bring our car here.

Our AirBnB house is right across the street from the ocean. As I type this outside on the deck I’m listening to the waves crash to shore. That is nice. I’m sleeping in the loft, which felt particularly warm, but hopefully with the air and fans running it will cool off up there, or if it’s too hot I might find myself on the couch downstairs.

After we got settled, we walked to the nearby bar/food court area of Skully’s. After my day I definitely felt like a beer and a bucket of 5 beers was on a happy hour special. Pete, Laurie, and I shared the bucket and I also got chicken taquitos and a cheese dip. The food was ok, and definitely better than the Mexican we had a few days ago.

We got back and found this house had dominoes available, so we played Mexican Train. I was the biggest loser with Linda taking the win. Today was just not my day. Here’s hoping tomorrow will be better.