Sunriser

After 20 hours of sailing from Providencia we arrived in Bocas del Toro (mouths of the bull) in Panama. One of the explanations for this odd name is the sound waves make when hitting rocks. Indeed, upon entering, it is important to avoid some reefs, but nothing dangerous. Bocas del Toro is the place where we will be for the coming weeks and will leave the boat for Christmas to fly back to Europe.

We checked in in the main village in Isla Colon, nothing too special, but it is the only place where there are shops, so we bunkered for some weeks. It is still very warm and humid, so the floating bar in the middle of the anchorage was a good place to see the sunset after a day’s work and shopping.

We were lucky that shortly after our arrival, on November 20th, Panama celebrated its independence from Spain (they have another independence day from Colombia). For the department of Bocas del Toro this is celebrated in Almirante on the mainland, where we went with the waterbus. We watched a neverending march of militaries, ministeries, schools, and social groups. All very colourful and loud.

The whole area of Bocas del Toro consists of hundreds of bigger and smaller islands, many of them made up by mangroves where it is easy to find a quiet protected anchorspot.

The first island we explored is Bastimentos, known for its very small red frog which only lives on this island. We hiked the rainforest, which in the rainy season is very muddy, and cruised the mangroves with our canoe. We paddled to a cave where a local guide provided us with some safety items and then led us through an underwater cave. On our way back Beatriz spotted a sloth.

Next stop in Bastimentos was Red Frog Marina, but on the way to it we ran aground (for the first time). A good reminder that the charts here are not very accurate as we should have had 3 meters of depth (our boat is only 1,2 meters deep).

Red Frog Marina is a bit of a posh place but it was also fun to mingle with the normal tourists which travel by plane. Cruisers do need to pay a fee to enter the manicured resort where a 10 minute walk takes you to a beautiful beach at the ocean side of the island.

The next destination was the Islas Zapatillas (shoes); these are the typical tropical paradises where tourists come in great quantities during the day, but all leave around 4 o’clock to go back to the main island, after which we had the island for ourselves.

In Bocas de Toro there are 3 tribes of indigenous people. (One tribe even has a king and is one of the last monarchies in America). But on the islands it is mostly the Guaymi tribe. They live a traditional life, fishing in their dug out canoes and living in huts in the mangroves, or the rainforest.

Also here live ‘dreamers’, people who want to escape from it all, as it is still possible to buy an island or an enormous piece of rainforest for an reasonable price. They make a living by providing a bed and breakfast, guided tours through their rainforest, have a ‘yachtclub’ (bar) on an island, keep some pigs and chickens and in one case: start a monkey refuge. They even have the smallest monkey in the world, the pygmy marmoset or finger monkey.

A very popular anchorage is Dolphin bay, where we enjoyed snorkeling, a good bar and the best restaurant so far with an excellent boeuf bourguignon (we long sometimes for European food).

From Dolphin bay we sailed the boat to its place in the harbour on Isla Solarte where we will leave it for Christmas. Here we had time to do some necessary work on the boat. On this trip the watermaker did not build enough pre-pressure, which was temporarely fixed by rerouting the anchor wash pump (to the despair of Beatriz, in charge of cleaning the anchor and anchor chain). In the engine room a wall came loose with electronics screwed on (which we found fortunately in time). And also the sailcover had a big tear and its stitches had suffered from UV. Fortunately a good sailmaker was available nearby.

After Christmas the fixed sailbag and a cover for the dinghy will be waiting for us, and together with loads of spare parts and goodies we will take from Europe, Sunriser will be in good shape for new adventures in 2026.