Bocas del toro

Buenos a mi lectores leales!

The location of this blog is noted as Bocas del toro, which means this archipel isn't destructed by Otto. Indeed. Our sweet hurricane Otto gave us a lots of rain, but then decided to move a bit more northwards and hit the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Panama was safe. Lots of stress for nothing. Just one day later than planned we were able to go to Bocas and arrived with a perfect blue sky. Tanned skin, there I come!

This Caribbean town is a part of a huge archipel, filled with beachy vibes. All the different small islands gave an indescribable ambiance. Every where coloured houses and bars. Cocktails and smoothies. Sand and coral. The animal life consisted of dolfines, star fishes, pelicans, seagulls, trumpet fishes, and many other fishes I don't even know.

I partly traveled with my English travel mate, and when we had to say goodbye I bumped into some amazing Dutch girls I met before in Bocas. Great company for trips, chats and... cocktails. :) Those 5 days we were pretty active. I cycled to the other end of the island -beautiful way to discover the unbeaten tracks-, snorkeled in between the islands, together with thousands of fishes. We got kayaks and peddled in our and the neigbouring bays, of course with Wilson the coconut as our canoe polo ball. The bioluminescence tour was one of the -literally- highlights of the trip. Snorkeling in between glowing plankton, as if all the stars were collected in the water. A magical feeling.
No worries, there was time for relaxing as well. Bounty beach Zapatilla was near perfection, I can cross 'paradise' from my scratchmap. Also red frog beach and star fish beach (named by the most characteristic animal on that island) were really nice beaches to hang around.

Meanwhile I think I'm able to mention some characteristics of backpacking in general, and specified to Latin Amerika.
Backpacking turns out to be really different than vacation. Traveling isn't a holiday. It's hard work! This maybe sound really spoiled, but the planning of your travel is almost a job. When you just arrived at location 1, you are already with your head in location 2, planning busses, hostels, tours... Especially now high season is coming, it's not so easy anymore to just show up.
Despite this complains, backpacking is amazing. I met so many amazing people, with whom I spend from 1 hour to 2 weeks together. I've already appointments for Christmas en New Year! Maybe it is a bit annoying to tell every time what is my name, where I'm from and where I'm traveling to, but its so worth it. Showing interest is one of the most important skills.
Latin America seems to be one of the more challenging places for backpacking, compared to Asia or Australia. Looking at the amazing people I met I disagree... But I've to say, the average age of backpackers here is 30+, while the younger people seem to go to the places I mentioned before (which I love, actually, since partying is not really my middle name). Why those differences? Maybe you can tell me.

Next stop: the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, and afterwards I head to Nicaragua. I'm not tired of this adventure yet! Adios!