Panama City – You absolute babe

In the middle of Panama, sits it’s capital, Panama City, from it the Atlantic meets the Pacific joined by the infamous canal, it’s the city where the Panama Hat is the master and ruler of the accessories world and it’s where US expats head to live their lives out in a Central American heaven. Other than that and having a turbulent past there’s nothing really to Panama City is there? I mean what’s to love?

Well! Let me tell you that here’s everything to love about that city! It’s where the cosmopolitan capital meets the colonial old town, cars and bikes bustle along cobbled streets past colourful buildings and churches, high rises grow taller and taller until you find yourself in a bustling cosmopolitan city.

Our final day in Panama

Lauren and I were staying in the heart of the action; right on the water, with the metropolitan city around us; but this wasn’t what we were interested in. Lauren and I are both fans of colonial historical cities, brightly coloured buildings, crumbling walls, cobbled streets, the whole colonial sha-bang, considering this, there was only one place that we had to visit on our last day, that place was of course Casco Viejo – The old town.

Central Square

A quick cab ride from our stunning hotel found us in Casco Viejo, we walked towards the main square where we found the beautiful Catedral de Panamá, built in 1796 it’s the epicentre of Casco Viejo, standing tall with white pillars covered in Mother of Pearl on either side it’s hard to avoid, from here we took ourselves down the small cobbled streets, past houses painted in a variety of faded colours.

Catedral de Panamá

 

We found ourselves, always, at a bar where we stopped to enjoy a beer and immerse ourselves in the old town. Sure, the old US expats were there, everyone you saw was wearing a Panama hat, but Panama City was lovelier than the average stereotype which you normally hear about.

Casco Viejo

The old town was really spectacular, we explored it deeper for the afternoon before the sun started to sink slowly behind the buildings, Lauren and I decided that it would be the best time to head back to the hotel and prepare ourselves for our last night in Central America.

I will never tire from looking up

We stopped off for amazing Icecream in the cutest little shop

Once back in the hotel we prepared ourselves for a meal, Trump style, sushi and fish served with cocktails and finished off with a beautiful desert. Although it was (as expected) really spectacular it didn’t compare to the meals we had along the road… specifically, the $3 lobster in Nicaragua from the blue shack, the ceviche and the Caribbean fish from Puerto Viejo – If I’ve learnt one thing whilst travelling, it’s to always eat local cuisine where local people eat, you’ll never go wrong.

Our grub!

We fell asleep early to ensure we (grudgingly) made our early morning flights home, our bags were packed, our passports were ready, and our panama hats were sitting on top of our backpacks (we couldn’t resist! When in Panama and all of that)…

 

Coming up next – Central American breakdown.

Costs, favourite moments, fails, etc

Trump Hotel – Say whhhhat?!

A few days before leaving Bocas Del Toro Lauren, (being the best travel companion a girl could wish for), suggested that we spend our last night in Central America in luxury, in a proper hotel so we could have a proper wash, a proper sleep and a kick ass meal to end our trip in style, we decided that there’s no better to do that than Trump Hotel, Panama City (hello!). Lauren was right after our night bus trip down from Bocas Del Toro we needed to have a decent place to lay our heads.

Trump Ocean Club Panama (Official Photo)

Due to the scheduling (of anything) in Central America being ever so slightly off schedule we arrived in Panama City much earlier than anticipated, before dawn had broken and hours before our original check in time. Lauren and I thought we’d try our luck in getting into the Trump Hotel anyway, we’d been mostly lucky throughout the trip (bar San Jose, the horrific place) and surprisingly enough, our luck was still running strong we were allowed access to the beautiful Trump Hotel. We arrived at hotel, and stood in awe as the concierge took our backpacks which we had lugged 1654km across the bottom half of Central America out of the taxi and happily carted them into the building for us. The Trump Hotel seemed to bend over backwards for their guests especially as we were given a room six hours before check-in, basically allowing us to grab an extra nights sleep.

The view from our room

When we were shown our room in the beautiful hotel I could have cried, two double beds with duvets (duvets!), with big fluffy pillows, a bath and a hot shower. All things that you miss when you’re without them, I felt like a kid at Christmas. I leapt onto the bed and snuggled deep into the pillows and drifted into a sleep where I forgot that we were leaving this beautiful part of the world within 24 hours.

After Hostel life – This is heaven

Upon waking Lauren and I found ourselves at the pool, catching the last bits of the Central American sunshine, the infinity pool stretched out looking over the ocean with Panama City to the left of us and Central America behind us. It was the perfect place to chill out and reflect about where we’d been, the people we had met and the hilarious stories that we had collected from over the course of our time there.

 

Perfect kind of day

Can you tell that I couldn’t get enough of this pool?

However, there was still one thing we had left to do, we were still to explore Panama City…

 Note: I’d like to thank Lauren for our stay at The Trump Hotel in Panama City, it was amazing. Lots of love, always.

Bidding farewell to Bocas

I think everyone knows by now how much I loved Bocas? From the Tropical Islands to the Hostel we stayed in, every part of those archipelago of islands captured my heart. But, we were only there for three nights; our time came to an end all too quickly. Our last days were spent exploring the other islands and beaches that Bocas had to offer us, from the beautiful Red Frog Island, where the four of us (Lauren, Gary, Dam and I) got caught in the rain and spent the afternoon drinking wine whilst being sheltered instead of lazing on a beach, sure it wasn’t a tropical paradise like the previous island, it was still a lovely place to chill out. We did however see a sloth enroute to the beach; do you know that sloths can swim great distances? That’s how they’ve ended up on so many small islands; they can hold their breath for up to 40 minutes under water – anyways – I digress.

A beautiful Boca-ranian girl on Red Frog Island

 

Storm approaching

The rest of our days were lazy and blissful, we lived the hammock life whilst listening to chilled-out tunes drifting through the air, the Caribbean vibes surrounded us, Lauren and I embraced living Pura Vida, (the pure life) on Bocas, and I loved every single second of it. We had one crazy night out at Aqaua Lounge partying until the sun began to rise with a group of people that we met floating around Isla Colon; the night was predictably very messy however it provided us with some welcome memories.

The crew having pre-drinks before Aqua Lounge

 

After a few amazing days in paradise it all came crashing to a halt too soon. Lauren and I were due to go to Panama City, a night bus away, 10/11 hours of sitting on uncomfortable seats whilst the driver slings a massive bus at hurtling speeds along mountain roads – hooray! Lauren and I weren’t looking forward to this bus ride, which made leaving our idyllic islands even harder. Still, with heavy hearts and a hangover from the night before we boarded the boat which zipped us to Alimirante port where we boarded the bus to Panama City.

 

Dark Ocean leaving Bocas

Lauren and I were as prepared as we could be for our journey to Panama City, we had brought cheese, bread and pringles to make our favourite travel sandwiches along with beer for the journey; we also made sure we had jumpers and pashminas to cover ourselves up from the insane aircon that these buses burst out; we snuggled into tiny seats for the night, sleeping when we could drown out the Spanish pop music that was blasting out the entire ride; we’d listen to Jack Johnson when my phone battery allowed, which was the soundtrack to our trip. He sang us from Nicaragua to Costa Rica and all through Panama, it was only right that we listened to him on our final bus ride for this trip in Central America.

Surprisingly, the night on the bus went quite quickly, we ended up in Panama City before dawn and headed to our final Hotel to spend our last 32 hours in blissful luxury – The Trump Hotel in Panama City. I know, right?!

Hostel Review: Casa Verde

Name: Casa Verde

Location: Bocas Del Toro, Panama

Budget: Mid-range Hostel

$34 for Private with two double beds

Vibe: Chilled out zone for water babies who like to take things easy

“You’re on Bocas now, everyone takes things easy”

Best Point: Being right on the water, the room and the food

Worst Point: NOTHING, I loved this place

I have no time for your jibberish, should I stay here: YES, YES, YES!

 

Do you remember when I wrote: “There are some hostels which are nice, some are even beautiful, some are horrific and some are a little slice of home”? Well, Casa Verde nestled right on the tropical waters that surround Bocas Del Toro blew the ‘beautiful’ category right out of the water. I had heard of the hostel from fellow travel blogger, Alex of Alex in Wanderland who visited Bocas a few months before I was due to arrive; I had fallen for the hostel by the time I had finished with her post, I knew I had to stay there. Lauren and I booked up to stay there a few weeks after reading Alex’s post, this was still approximately six weeks before our trip, it was a good idea to pre-book as the Hostel gets fully booked pretty quickly.

Casa Verde – Found on Bocasdeltoro.com

Upon our arrival to Bocas I was already in love, a tropical island in the Caribbean? Yes please! But my glee was nothing compared to what was to come, upon arrival to Casa Verde my early love for Bocas flourished. The hostel was wooden clad and brightly painted from out front, with a side entrance, leading backpackers round to the back of the hostel where you would find the ocean and a bar area built right on top of it. At reception we were welcomed by the friendliest receptionist which I have ever met, we were greeted like old friends finally coming home. As stated before; two guys that we met also travelling through from Puerto Viejo were also wooed by the tales of Casa Verde and had decided to stay there with us. Upon asking the receptionist if it was possible for them to get beds, it appeared the only way was for the two guys to take the dorm beds and for Lauren and myself to get upgraded to a luxury room with two double beds, the window facing the warm, glistening Caribbean ocean. All for no extra cost, don’t ask me how it worked, but Lauren and I didn’t complain.

 

Sitting on the dock of the bay

The room was amazing, it was clean and bright, the double beds were extremely comfortable, there was the obligatory hostel fan and even a mini-fridge to keep our essentials (make-up and beer) cool. We threw our bags down and made our way down to the bar and the chill out area, which happened to be two docks joined together by a restaurant area in the middle, along the edge of the docks there were hammocks hanging over the water. To top things off there are also tubes supplied by the hostel on the side of the docks ready for travellers to use in the water.  Everything about the chill out zone was perfect; it was really nicely laid out so you could talk to other travellers, whilst the sun dapples light on the docks surrounding you.

Lauren tubing around

Behind the hostel the Caribbean water was used as our playground, here we saw a stingray, starfish and a wealth of other beautiful fish; it provided much better snorkelling than that we were offered on the boat trip, the water was crystal clear and positively inviting, it was mostly calm apart from when boats rolled past, in which case it provided a lot of fun in the tubes on the waves that followed.

Early morning calm

Not only was it beautiful, but the service was generally amazing, we sat down for a few minutes before Rauld, a hostel rep came over to tell us all that Bocas had to offer and what we could do there, including our amazing boat trip to the remote tropical island, the staff were all really good natured, each happy to laugh and joke with us. But, one of the biggest highlights for me was the food, it was absolutely outstanding, I can highly recommend the Fish Tacos and The Vegetarian Black Bean Burger, oh my heavens, in my years of not eating (mammal) meat, I have never had a burger like it. I would also suggest that you have it with a side of the fiery Bocas Homemade Hot Sauce, as a spice fiend, this took the meal to the next level. Be warned about this though, it is HOT. But, really, it isn’t something to be missed completely, give it a go.

Blissed out in one of the hammocks

By night the hostel has live music being played, which was amazing. Mostly acoustic with Caribbean vibes to it, it’s a perfect spot for some sun downers. As the golden sun slips into the water Bocas comes alive, from the Hostel you can head to a variety of bars from Iguana a few doors down, to Aqua Lounge which was a taxi boat ride away (conveniently from the dock at the back of the hostel for a few dollars per person).  Aqua Lounge is has big parties on Wednesdays and Saturdays, these parties are a lot of fun, music pumping out as you party over the ocean, there are swings that you can go on that go over the water. Just a word for the wise, make sure you waterproof everything before you go, they don’t call it Aqua Lounge for nothing, the chances are, you will get wet.

 

You will have the time of your life at Bocas, I can’t recommend Casa Verde enough, it is in the perfect location to chill out and party.

Finding Paradise in Bocas

You don’t need to talk to me for long before you realise that I am obsessed with Tropical Islands; I love the island life, the warm climate, surrounded by water and beautiful beaches. I love the fact that everything runs slower on islands, you want some toast for breakfast? Best not be too hungry, because it’ll take a few hours to get to you. Coffee? Sure, when they get round to it. I love it! My life in London is constantly moving at an alarming rate that when I finally get Island living I can feel my body relax, of course, you can get this ‘Island life’ anywhere, but I prefer to have mine tropical served with fresh fruit juice or coconut water. One day I will live on a tropical island (again) and I will embrace every single minute of it with an open heart.

Beautiful Bocas

So, when Lauren and I decided to go to Bocas Del Toro, I was beyond excited; tropical islands just off of the coast of Panama, what’s not to love? Getting to Bocas from the border crossing at the Sixaola Bridge is easy; a short car ride to the ‘port’ to hop onto a small boat to whizz across the water for about 45 minutes towards the most gorgeous island. As we drifted along the Caribbean water, I gazed out at wooden houses on the bank, children jumping into the water, women washing and hanging out their clothes, fruit being prepared; life going on as normal in the most stunning surroundings.

Back of the Hostel

Lauren and I had pre-booked to stay at Casa Verde; a beautiful ‘hostel’ (I say ‘hostel’ but it was more than that) right on the water on the main island (Isle Colon) after reading Alex’s (of Alex in Wanderland) post about her stay there. Whilst on the boat we told a couple of other travellers where we planned on staying, they decided, rightly, that the place sounded amazing and they were also going to try and stay there. We hopped off of the boat to find a representative from the ‘hostel’ waiting for us to take us to where we were staying. The guys we travelled with from Puerto Viejo came along with us to try their luck at getting a room, once we arrived, they asked if they could grab a room for a few days, “no can do” the lovely receptionist said, “we’re fully booked” just before the boys turned to walk away she said “unless, I upgrade these two girls” (myself and Lauren), the guys were happy to stay in a dorm room whilst Lauren and I got a free upgrade to the most beautiful room. I’m not sure how it worked, but I was elated to be given a beautiful room, in a beautiful location, especially after the last few hostels we had stayed in. We settled into our room before we made our way down to the wooden dock out the back of the hostel, where we lazed in hammocks, drifted in dingys and soaked in the Carribbean life.

Island LIfe

 

I have so much more that I want to say about Casa Verde that I’m going to dedicate a whole post to that beautiful hostel. But right now, this very second, I have my bags packed next to me to fly over to the French Alps to spend a week frolicking with family for my beautiful nan’s 90th birthday; keep your eyes peeled for a very special birthday post coming up on Thursday.