Bocas 1...

You wouldn't think that the sun tan kid would want to be in a place like Bocas with the funky weather it has. On the Caribe coast it has rain everyday and cloud cover a lot. people here will tell you and I confirm it after a couple of days, that if there wasn't the cloud cover it would 95 and humid. You sweat anyway and it is not unusual to have breakfast outdoors with an early morning sheen of sweat. It's ok because all the other gringos do the same so you don't look any different and somehow that makes it ok.
Sitting on the second floor veranda at Lulas watching the rain and the hummingbirds at the feeder and pairs flying thru the balcony it doesn't matter that there is rain because there is plenty of time. It's not like a vacation/holiday of two weeks where you feel that the weather is stealing valuable time when it rains or there is no sun. I have to remind myself that this is a trip. Last winter was a holiday, this winter a trip and next fall a move. So the rain doesn't interfere and the sweat doesn't matter cause this is Bocas and this tri[p is five months long.
Bocas town is the center of the archipelago but the other islands are the charm. The national refuge and places like Red Frog beach are stunning. The mode of transport here to the islands are boatmen who will take you anywhere for low money. They either pull up to the landing or they pick you up and drop you off everywhere on the water. On land it's either walk, bike or one of the madly driven yellow taxu trucks that are everywhere and for a buck you can go anywhere in town. The roads were paved two years ago so now you need to be careful if you are not in the taxi as you may be a target.
Bocas reminds me a lot like Belize was years ago. It has it's own pace and that pace is slow. The people are lovely but the pace IS slow unless it's a yellow taxi. Having dinner will not be a quick experience and you have to learn to slow down. My kids would tell you that Bocas is an unlikely Papa stopo because of the slow service, sweat and bugs. The bugs are everywhere from the no seeums to the mosquitoes which can be brutal. Besides being obnoxious they also can be dangerous as the two types of skitos carry malaria and yellow fever. The Tiger mosquito or the anopheles carries malaria and the the Stegomyia mosquito vector, which is the yellow fever mosquito {now more accurately named Aedes aegypti}carries the Yellow Jack or Yellow Fever. I'm taking anti malarial meds because of the time and places I'll be in Panama. Funny that the name Malaria is spanish for bad air {mal aria} that was so named because tha's where people got it, from the swamps and marshes. Over 22,000 people died from Yelloow Fever during the French attempt to build a canal through Panama I asked me pcp if there was any side effect from the quinine based drug and he said there was only one, pyschosis. That's one of the reasons you start it the week before you leave, to see if you go nuts. Hmmm. Let's see, malaria, yellow fever, Dengue fever and Typhus, ok so now instead of smelling like Ralph Lauren Romance I smell like 100% DEET which only side effect is I might grow a second head. TmO...