3) Bocas del Toro

After visiting Panama city and climbing Vulcan Baru from Boquete, we were well ready for some beach time :) 20.11. we left early from Boquete with a small bus towards Almirante. There we went by fast boat towards Bocas del Toro, in particular the main island Colon. It was great to smell the sea... we housed ourselves in Hostel Hansi. We were advised to go here from Mamallena hostel in Boquete and we were happy about this suggestion^^ From here on we stayed in a lot of German owned/managed hostels/guesthouses :P
As we couldn't await to take a swim we quickly took a boat ride to the beach at the smaller island Caranero. And the beach is absolutely worth it! Water quality ain't best all around Bocas del Toro archipelago. But some of the beaches are awesome :) Sunbathing, swimming and a sunset before we went back to our hostel. Unfortunately, my knees started aching - most likely overstressed from the Vulcan Baru climb :( Shortly after having some burger for dinner we were well tired and just looked for a trip for the next day before we fell to bed...
The next morning (21.11.) we went on a trip to see Isla Zapatilla, part of the marine national park. We met a girl who studied the lion fish population and tried to film an areal around Isla Zapatilla - unfortunately not successful. The trip started with a short dolphin hunt. We were to see some fins from the dolphins :P Then we went to Zapatilla... the best beach we were to see during our trip and the best water quality... although still far from very good diving conditions. We had 2 hours to swim, sunbath and explore the island. We did all of such and had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we did the latter last... we calculated wrong how much time we would need to walk around the island, despite the fact that it is hard to walk around at all^^ Some sweating, fear and a sunburn later we reached our boat which was waiting for us to take off :) On the way back we stopped for a short snorkeling... however, the water had plenty of jellyfish and hardly any corals. No advisable spot for snorkeling or diving :( We later enjoyed dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant and planned our trip onwards to Costa Rica^^

Isla Caranero from the boat

Beach at Isla Caranero

Sunset over Isla Colon from Isla Caranero

Best view of a dolphin we could get^^

our boat at Isla Zapatilla

Some snorkeling - at least trying :P

relaxing island time :)

First time I tried one of these jumping shots... well, looks rather funny^^

walking along Isla Zapatilla