I took a shuttle out of Puerto Viejo the morning of June 8th to head to Bocas del Toro in Panama. We were dropped off at the border crossing where, in true Central American style, we got our passports stamped in one unofficial looking building, crossed a poorly built bridge on foot to another unofficial looking building to stamp our passports heading into Panama, then sent into a random room to pay some guy in a polo shirt $3 to enter Panama. We then jumped on another shuttle which drove us to the water taxis which then took us on a bumpy boat ride out to the island.
I didn't really know where I wanted to stay so I picked one of the hostels that one of the many men waiting outside the water taxi docks described and headed there. My first night was an early one after getting some food from the super market and having a shower.
The next morning it was pouring rain so I went to a nearby restaurant with another guy staying at the hostel to watch the Euro Cup matches. After that we headed back to the hostel and met up with a group of roudy Irishmen that I had already heard about.The next couple of days were rainy and grey. Luckily there several spots around town that were showing the games so I hung out with the group from Ireland and watched soccer. We checked out a couple of the clubs at night, but mostly hung out at a restaurant/bar across from the hostel that was on a boat.
On the 12th, despite the rain, two of the guys and myself rented bikes and went down the coast to check out some of the beaches. The waves were huge at one of the them and were practically unswimable, which didn't stop the guys from jumping in...
On my last day I caught the bus up to Bocas del Drago and walked over to star beach named after its abundance of starfish. It was a gorgeous beach, and the starfish were pretty neat too!
