Vamos a Panama!!!

We went to Bocas del Toro, Panama for vacation.

 

We stayed at Playa Tortuga Hotel which is a little bit outside of Bocas Town. On the first day we went to a restaurant called Taco Surf Bocas, which was delicious. They had a thing called a "California style burrito." It is a burrito made with french fries inside of it. I have lived in California my entire life and I have never had a burrito with french fries in it?!?!

If you are ever in Bocas Town I would highly recommend their lemonade. We liked the food so much that we went back the next day!

The weather wasn't great while we were there, it was overcast or raining the whole time. Luckily, it did stop raining long enough to tour the Smithsonian Biological Research Station at Isla Colon. They have a free tour that is only on Thursday and Friday at 3:00 or 4:00. A very nice man named Marlon showed us around the station where we got to see some of wildlife (caymans, parrots, leaf cutter ants) and some of the specimen pools used by the scientists. They even have a touching pool where you can handle some sea animals. My parents even held a sea urchin! My sister and I stuck to the sea stars and anemones.

On our third day we went on a boat trip. We took a water taxi into town and then got on the tour boat. Our first stop was Bahia de Los Delfines (Dolphin Bay). We saw two adult dolphins and a baby dolphin. Even though we only saw their dorsal fins and blow holes, it was really cool to see a dolphin in the wild.

Next, we went to Cayo Coral (Coral Key). We saw fish and coral and had the opportunity to snorkel. Then, we went to Isla Zapatilla. The beach was the beach off of post cards with the white sand and the blue-green water.

After that, we went and ate lunch at a restaurant on a random island and you could only get there by boat. After lunch we had two stops left. The first one was to see starfish. 

And the last one was, <<pause for dramatic affect>> SLOTHS! Dun, dun, dun! It was an island in the middle of the ocean where sloths live. Every where you looked, if you looked close enough, you would see a sloth. 

Then on our way home we took an airport shuttle, an airplane, another airport shuttle, a taxi, a ferry, a bus and then finally our car. Whew, that's a lot in one day!

JB