Bocas Islands

The beautiful tropical archipelago of Bocas del Toro has nine major islands, 59 smaller islands all with names and a myriad of unnamed mangrove cays with a total population of 89,300. Here is a little more information on the most interesting.

Colon Island

Bocas del Toro town is the largest of all the islands in Panama. The island has a fixed population of around 5000, is 61km2 and has only one paved road with no traffic lights anywhere!

The town has a hospital, a pharmacy, a bank, an ATM machine, hardware shops, a gourmet shop, and grocery stores, The town sells inexpensive wine and has many great restaurants (with a whole range of food from Caribbean, Thai, Indian, Italian, Mexican, American as well as the local seafood) and a few bars as well as hotels ranging from cheap & basic to super luxury.

There are companies selling fishing trips, kayaking, diving and snokeling as well as estate agents selling property of course! You will find a beautiful modern marina here too for all the private yachts - which is full most of the year. There are bicycles and scooters for rent but as yet no car rental.

The town is a wonderful mixture of old and new, modern people in floral shorts tapping away at laptops with indians from the Guami and Kuna tribes in colourful native dress. Transportation is by car, electric car, taxi, water taxi and a few buses.

Restaurants

Most retaurants are found on the main street, some are in hotels.
The Om Cafe - Indian
Da Claudio (Laguna Hotel) - Italian, German & Caribbean
El Pecado - Thai & seafood
The Reef - American hamburgers and sandwiches
Bahia Hotel - Italian
Bocas del Toro Hotel - American, Caribbean and seafood
Alberto's restaurant - Italian
Buena Vista Bar & Grill - - American, Caribbean and seafood
Liki Tiki - Mexican, caribbean & seafood
Don Chico - mixed buffet
Bumper's Bar & Grill - Clam Chowder & fish

Bahia Honda

Bahia Honda is a community located at heart of the bay of the same name, between the islands Bastimentos and Solarte. In the centre of the village, on the island Bastimentos, there is the communal house, the primary school, the school's dinning room and a restaurant offering local food.

The main occupations live by fishing and subsistence farming moving more towards tourism as a more lucrative source of income..

To get to Bahia Honda, hire a boat in Bocas del Toro and in 15 minutes you will arrive at a restaurant where you can make arrangements for a boat and a guide to visit the trail of the sloth!

Isla Solarte

Isla Solarte is the name of a planned community being built by an American developer next to Bahia Honda. Shepard Johnson is the developer and he is fulfilling a dream of an idyllic planned island community in the beautiful Caribbean. Just in the last 2 ' years, 100 plots have already been sold. Their website is www.tropicalproperties.com http://www.tropicalproperties.com

Bastimentos

This little community of around 800 inhabitants lives in 125 homes constructed from wood and zinc, or cement with a zinc roof and a few of wood and palm. It is populated mostly by afro-caribbeans, with some foreigners who came to live here more recently.

You have to get here by sea. The most common way is by aquatic taxi. Many of the residents of this community have a boat. There are no paved roads in Bastimentos.

It does have a health clinic though, an aqueduct, a school with 7 classrooms, 7 teachers and 145 students, and a small police dept. The residents get electricity and telephone from Colon Island by an underwater cable. There are also public phones in the town. There are several high-speed internet caf's, as there is all over Panama.

Boca del Drago

When Christopher Columbus arrived in Panama from Costa Rica, the first place he visited was Boca del Drago, entering what is now known as Admiral Bay (or Caribaro by the Indians) via the channel that separates the main land from Colon Island.

Today, this region of the archipelago is an attraction for tourists. There are beautiful beaches at the tip of the island and shady trails to walk. Coral reefs beyond the beaches attract snorkellers and divers.

There are about 300 Ngobe Indians that inhabit 25 houses on the island, most of them dispersed along the road between Bocas del Toro and Boca del Drago.

Boca del Drago has a primary school with more than 45 students. They don't have electricity and the water comes from a creek. They are essentially fishermen, growing also vegetables and farm animals. Some of the members of the community are employed in Boca del Drago.

The coast is beautiful on the island and there is a restaurant, some cabins for lodging and several private houses that are used during weekends.

But there are other attractions here: just a few minutes away by boat, towards the open sea, is Swan Key, a bird sanctuary that attracts the funny looking boobies. (I guess birders like to look at boobies, too!) You will also see the graceful frigates, as well as many pelicans and seagulls that make the cay their place of stay! To protect the birds disembarking on the island is not allowed.

Should you still have time cross over to the main land and make the short trip up the Soropta Channel: a passage built by the banana planters to transport their products along the coast. Today this channel, which goes through the San-San Pond Sack Natural Reserve, is used only by locals and tourists.

Bocatorito

Bocatorito is an important tourist spot, in the northern part of the island. It is a labyrinth of mangrove islets leading into a large calm sea water lagoon surrounded by more mangroves and islands.

There are also dolphins here. Many tours come to this place, also known as Dolphin Bay, to show people the playful marine mammals which are often seen with their babies.

Bocatorito also has a Ngobe Indian community on the island. Their houses are located in two villages: one, with better conditions, around a restaurant managed by locals, and the other, poor, off to the left of the first one. There are 150 inhabitants that live in around 30 houses, most of them made of wood with a palm leaves roof. They have a small school don't have electricity or a health center and they have water that comes from a creek. Life for them is basic to say the least. Some of the women make handicrafts to sell to tourists.

Carenero

This island is just 5 minutes and $1 water taxi ride away from Colon, right in front of the Bocas del Toro town. It is a small key inhabited by people of afro-antillano origin, mestizos, native ngobe and foreigners. Again the locals live in houses that are constructed from wood with a zinc roof and a few of wood with palm. Newcomers have constructed hotels, restaurants and houses using the local materials mimicking the local style.

There are a couple of good beaches and it is a great place to be for a beer at sunset.

The origin of the name is the word careneer that means a place use to repair the ships. It is known that Christopher Columbus, during his 4th trip in 1502, stopped in this island to fix his ships. Later, many other navigators, pirates and Spanish conquerors use this place for the same task.

More recently, Carenero was first a fisherman colony and today is a prosperous and beautiful site of several tourist businesses: beach hotels and restaurants offering their services in this magnificent environment.

The roads are in part paved. Carenero has a primary school as well as electricity, telephone and potable water, all of them originating in Bocas del Toro town.

Restaurants

• Sunset grill - Mexican, seafood and steaks
• Pargo Rojo - Middle Eastern
• The Buccaneer - seafood & Caribbean

Cayo Agua

The village of Water Cay (Cayo Agua) is probably one of most colorful of the Archipelago, with most of its houses built with wood, over the sea, seated on columns of wood.

Apart from tourism the main activities here are fishing and the extraction of lobsters and crabs, with a small amount of agriculture and cattle. The community has a primary school, public telephone and electricity generator, but it depends on the wells and collected rainwater to satisfy the local water requirements.

A great thing to do here is walk down the trail that takes you all round the coast. The landscape is incredibly beautiful. Another option is to contract a local guide who takes you to the interior of the rain-forest or go snorkeling in the neighboring coral reefs between Cayo Agua and Popa islands.

Another attraction, particularly if you are interested in geology and paleontology, are the ancient deposits of coral and clams in the northwest sector of the island, on the beach of Punta Limon. There are fossils of more than 3 million years old in a vein running through the cliff just before the beach, and in the rocks on the same beach.

Colonia Santena

Between Bocas del Toro and Bocas del Drago there is the small village of Colonia Sante'a - a name that came from the first inhabitants of the Panamanian province of Los Santos, on the Pacific side of the country.

Following their original occupations, they settled here to grow cattle and do some agriculture. Today they are the providers of meat (beef and pork) for the Bocas del Toro town market.

The principal attraction of this small village is a natural cave, known as "The Bats Cave" full of stalactites and a small creek as well as hundreds of bats. It is impressive to see the bats leaving the cave as the night start to fall.

At the entrance of the cave there is a statue of the Virgin Mary (the place is also called The Virgin Grotto), of special significance for Catholics, who come here to prey. The only service for visitors here is a small grocery, on the road, where you can buy a soda or a beer.

Coral Cay

Coral Cay or, as it is really called, Crawl Cay, is a tiny island surrounded by mangroves, located in the channel between the islands Bastimentos and Popa. It is a great place to see coral hence the new name! The island is beautiful.

There is a small local community here as well as two excellent restaurants specialized in seafood and a group of lodging cabins. In one of the restaurants, a small stairs takes you down into a fascinating marine world.

Restaurants

• Coral Cay - great seafood (no credit cards)
• Adonis
• Alfonso

Loma Partida

Loma Partida is a small key located between Popa Island and the mainland, just at the entrance of the Chiriqui Lagoon. This island is an important eco preservation area as you can find beautiful coral reefs, mangroves and rain forests all in the same place.

This beautiful community is inhabited by more than 300 people that live in 40 houses, most of them over the water, made of wood with palm leaves or zinc roofs, set wood or concrete stilts.

The center of the community is on a hill with a magnificent view. Along the coast there are a few small grocery stores that sell food and other supplies.