Hello!  My husband and I recently vacationed in Panama.  It was our first trip to this beautiful country.  We stayed on Isla Bastimentos, which is part of Bocos Del Toro, Panama.  We stayed for three days. The weather was perfect.  It was low season so it wasn’t crowded at all. It rained at night a few times, but didn’t affect any of our activities.

Our accommodations were way cool, as we stayed in a bed and breakfast over the ocean.   The Sea Monkey has two cabins, of which we were upgraded to the larger cabin. The cabin had sliding glass doors on the front that opened up to our own private deck.  The king size bed was the most comfortable bed I have ever slept on vacation.  I need a bed like this at home. The cabin was rustic, but had everything we needed.  Breakfast was delivered to our cabin each morning, as the restaurant was being renovated.

We were at the south end of Old Bank, a town with no roads, just a cement path through town.  The locals were very nice, and language was not an issue.  Panama uses the American dollar, so that was very helpful.

Bocos Del Toro consists of many smaller islands on the Western Caribbean.  Water taxis are the mode of transportation between islands. The fare is only $3 during the day and $5 at night.  We found Panama to be a very inexpensive place to visit.  The food was delicious and the beers were cheap and ice cold.

We did a day tour through   Bastimentos Alive to go snorkeling, visit Frog Beach and hike through the jungle. Our guide Cristo was great and a lot of fun. We made several stops and saw lots of cool stuff. The cost for each of us was only $40 for the entire day of boating.  We stayed on Bastimentos for the entire visit.  There were plenty of restaurants to choose from, and we easily walked through town.

On our last day we did something very unusual.  We volunteered at an indigenous school for the Ngobe tribe for preschoolers.  This tribe has been in Panama since the time of Columbus.  We took a boat and picked up about ten little kids and took them to their school.  We helped the teacher out for the morning, reading to the kids and playing games. It cost us $20 each, and lunch was included.  An American created this school for the local children to attend.  It’s a nonprofit called Give and Surf.org.  It was a very humbling experience.  Although we don’t speak Spanish, we had a delightful time with these children.

We absolutely loved Panama, and will coming back. Lots going on at the Sea Monkey check them out Sea Monkey