Bocas del Toro... not like Panama City

Getting from Panama City to Bocas del Toro is kinda its own adventure.  Logically, the first thing you do is.... go to the mall!  Not just any mall, the Albrook Mall in Panama City which is quite possibly the largest mall I have ever seen (if you doubt me, just google it and look at the images!).  The bus depot is incorporated into a portion of the mall.  We bought our tickets at 3:30pm for the 9:30pm bus and then spent the next 6 hours waiting.  Oh well, at least there was plenty of window shopping to do for Val and the kids while I guarded the bags.

We didn't get a picture of the bus we boarded, it is unexciting and looks just like every tour bus you see driving around Seattle except that the air conditioner has been freakishly modified so as to keep the inside temperature perfect for storing frozen beef.  Nothing feels stranger than wearing your sweater, jacket, and two pairs of pants in the middle of Panama!

The bus journey from Panama City to Almirante, the port city where you can catch a water taxi to Bocas, takes place entirely at night and so you sleep through most of it.  I am pretty sure, however, that the trip is terrifying.  Frequently I would awaken from my slumber to the noise of tires just slightly past their limit of grip as we round one hairpin turn after another.  But, ignorance is bliss! and all I know is that we arose at 6am in Almirante ready to schlep our 114 bags once again to another location.

The water taxi trip from Almirante to Bocas Town took about 20 minutes and looked like this:

Bocas Town looks much different than Panama City and probably more like what you would expect a small Latin American island town to look like.  There are modern cars and modern boats and residents have Galaxy S3 phones but many homes are built on wood stilts, kids play baseball with a stick and a crushed soda can, most residents walk or bike to and fro, and evenings are spent lounging in a hammock or playing dominoes on their front porch.  Also typical of Latin American small towns, trash is common-- plastic bottles and wrappers are everywhere along with broken plastic chairs and other "stuff".  But even so, the beautiful beaches remain.  Exhibit A...