Bocas Del Toro, Panama

Whizzing through San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, where I left my dear friend and travel companion Julio, I made the decision to venture in to Panama. This was as much of an economic decision as it was an explorative decision. Or so I thought...

Boat ride to Bocas

On my 12hour or so bus journey from San Jose to the archipelago of Bocas del Toro in Panama I met a delightful young man named Jason from Ohio with whom I spent my remaining time travelling. We arrived in beautiful Bocas, on the Caribbean coast and once again I was extremely happy to be greeted by the turqoise tranquility of this ocean. However we were first greeted with the main island of Bocas del Toro, Isla Colon. This is a fun, predominantly expat-run, hedonistic party island. Not quite the oasis of calm for end-of-travels reflection as I had expected! Bocas town on Isla Colon is also quite ugly...

Nevertheless, never one to shy from an opportunity to party, I was able to have something of a rager here on this island with Jason and a bunch of other people I met there. A seriously wild night out involving dancing and drinking like a maniac and behaviour akin to a lad-on-tour, 2 days later I knew I had to move on. Isla Colon was a really fun place and its attraction for tourists is very evident. But after my intensely Latin American and Spanish-speaking journey so far, it did not seem right to suddenly feel like I was a Brit-in-Thailand, raping the island. It was just too debauched and coked-up. I consider Isla Colon as a part of the umbrella genre of travelling of Posh Backpacking. Despite Panama being one of the cheaper countries of Central America, everything in Bocas was expensive - the hostels were on average $10 a night! However did come with air-con(!) A far cry from my sweaty crotch cabin in a jungle days. Luxury backpacking at its finest.

Whilst there, instead of indulging ourselves in the expensive island tours offered, Jason and I decided to do things old school and spent our time on Isla Colon walking and exploring. One of my favourite days involved us walking about 30km all day to the small beaches on the island; Playa Bluff and Playa Paunch etc... A sudden, heavy and unrelenting rainstorm meant an unwilling trip to a cafe for prolonged consumption of ice-cream with kahlua... and tequila shots.

Once we rinsed Isla Colon of all the fun we could handle, we decided to see another side to the archipelago. And so, on we went to another isolated, quiet, deserted but absolutely stunning island of Bocas named Isla Bastimentos. THIS was how I expected Bocas del Toro to be! White, pristine, empty beaches... Rolling calm waters, ABSOLUTELY empty, jungle surrounds... it was really our own desert island. And for the first time in a long time I felt as though I was somewhere where really, VERY few people have been before. We stayed in a new and very chilled hostel called Bocas Bound and it was situated about a 5mins jungle walk away from the famous Red Frog Beach and the COMPLETELY EMPTY (and therefore by default, a nudist beach for me(!) Playa Tortuga.) This was paradise, reinforced by the presence of my lovely companions. We all spent the next couple of days seriously chilling out on the beach and in the tranquility of the jungle together... Except for the Fourth of July when the American amongst us (dear Jason!) decided we MUST celebrate Independence Day by "bbq-ing meat, drinking lots of booze and blowing shit up." Well apart from the last one, we accomplished the other two... particularly the second and I enjoyed my first ever Fourth of July celebration immensely!

The next day, with our heads bowed down low in mild shame for previous night's antics, we all left the island... Belgian Helen to Costa Rica, Dutch Rian and Slovenian Ursa to Panama city and Jason, Pip and myself to... we had no idea..........

You gotta Belize it...

So after Laguna Bacalar, I made a brief jaunt back to my beloved jungles and waterfalls of Palenque - just to savour a bit more of Mexico before I left my newly crowned Favourite Country in the World. Here I met with my good friend Julio and together we travelled to Belize. Belize made me very happy! The closest that I have ever got to a Caribbean country, Belize did not fail to impress. I really loved it - despite the country's dangerous undertones - and I have resolved to return when I have more money to travel there. Four nights just isn't enough, although it definitely was for my bank balance which choked heavily on Belize's high US Dollar prices.

Reaching Belize territory

We arrived in Belize city on Friday morning but immediately took a water taxi to the island of Caye Caulker. For me, this blissed out island GLOWED. At all times of the day (and night) reggae, reggaeton or some other near variation of the music will be blaring from stalls, homes, restaurants, people's shoulders. And everyone seems to know all the words! I felt SO CHILLED on Caye Caulker! Belizeans here all speak perfect English too... although that is just to tourists. Amongst themselves they speak Creole. Creole sounds utterly brilliant. I overheard several entertaining conversations, including one gentleman on the phone, "Girl, I don't wah hear any of yo stupidness!"

During the daytime, we would go swimming at the island's 'Split', literally where the island split in to two after the last hurricane. Our hostel also lent out canoes and I loved nothing more than paddling out on the calm sea on a canoe. One day we took it to the North side of the split to discover the beaches there... However my favourite time was when we took the canoe out just at sunset and without paddling, just let the boat rock with the gentle waves and sat in silence and let our senses be consumed by our environment as the sun shone awesome colours through the sky, clouds and sea.

One night we went out dancing at the Oceanside Club and as expected, I had one of my favourite nights out during my travels! Belizeans not only know how to dance so rhythmically, but they can also dance at double the speed of the rest of the world! I attempted many times to emulate their shaking and grinding and various floor manoeuvres but unfortunately failed... However in the process of trying, I had the time of my life!

Not all is safe and chilled in Belize though. The first night we arrived, we collapsed in utter exhaustion after our achingly long journey from Palenque. However the next day we were regaled with the story of our fellow hostelites of how they went out that night and got in to a bloody fight involving one of the girls being hit across the head with a two-by-four and gunshots having been fired. Then the night that Julio and myself did go out dancing, we were being hassled by a local guy following us about the dancefloor and touching himself. Disgusted, we left the club and walked back to our hostel only to realise he had followed us home. Thankfully after some time, he left. The next evening the island was alive in fury as it was revealed that a drunk policeman had shot a captive in one of the cells. The local people were gathered outside the police station demanding to know what happened, why it happened and where the policeman was hiding. It was very tense and when I spoke to the locals about it they seemed disturbed, sad and upset that this type of thing had happened again. As we left the island Julio and I were sitting on a bus chatting to a lovely Belizean Menonite when we saw the face of Alex Goff, the same man who had harrassed us that night on the front cover of the newspaper. He was also the same gentleman that was shot by the policeman.

Julio and I rode the rest of the busride to Guatemala in quiet reflection.

Water

Water has the craziest impact upon me. (And no, I am not still harping on about my near-death experience.) The last week I have been travelling with my German warrior princess Sinah. We have been blessed to have had the opportunity to visit a couple of outrageously aesthetically pleasing places! The first being Tulum and the second, Laguna Bacalar.

Tulum is all white sand, turquoise water and absolutely ZERO activity. After god knows how long of strenous partying, the two of us had serious downtime chillaxing by reading novels in hammocks for five days. Two nights were spent in cabanas set deep in the white sand and two in hammocks under the stars. Both sound more romantic and dreamy than they actually are. In actual fact, each morning both myself and Sinah would wake up with our faces caked in sand. It was so windy! And the cabanas were too hot and sweaty and the hammocks too cold and windy! My last night in Tulum in particular was a very difficult night´s sleep... Tossing and turning, unable to get comfortable, cursing the wind, sand blowing in my ears, a multitude of bugs buzzing all around me. It all came to a crux when I heard my head wail ¨I wanna be back home!¨ Right about then was the moment I told myself to positively STFU and took 30seconds to contextualise myself and the fact I was sleeping in a breezy hammock, between two palms, on a white beach on the Caribbean coast, in Mexico, to the sound of the waves crashing, underneath the infinity of stars in the sky. I quickly silenced my whiny thoughts and fell in to a deep, pleasant sleep...

We also went to visit the ruins of Tulum (more ruins!!!) which are impressive but mostly (to me) for their unbelievable location, right up high on a hill with spectacular views of the diamond-sapphire ocean! These Mayans were the clever/lucky bastards.

And after Tulum Sinah and I headed to Chetumal to get to Laguna Bacalar, easily the most stunning lake I have ever witnessed. Freshwater the same colour as the Carribean ocean and with a white sand floor, the lake is calming, serene and peaceful. We met some Mexicans who took us for a ride to visit a particular side of the lagoon where there are no people (and DEFINITELY no tourists) and we paid 25pesos each for a Kayak between two. Sinah and I paddled away over the expanse of the lake... and then found a paradise within a paradise in the form of the lagoon´s on cenote. A kind of sinkpool where we can see the rock formations clearly in the water and swam with fishes. My words do the experience no justice but today was one of my lasting memories of Mexico I can foresee already.

Laguna Bacalar

Feeling utterly content, instead of heading to Belize straight away I have decided to go back to the Palenque jungles. I am not ready to leave this marvel of a country that is Mexico!

Water calms me.

Love x