{"id":1163,"date":"2018-02-24T13:31:53","date_gmt":"2018-02-24T12:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.celinaschou.no\/oceanescapades\/?p=1163"},"modified":"2018-02-24T13:31:53","modified_gmt":"2018-02-24T12:31:53","slug":"bocas-del-toro-and-playa-estrella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.celinaschou.no\/oceanescapades\/bocas-del-toro-and-playa-estrella\/","title":{"rendered":"Bocas del Toro and Playa Estrella"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was researching where to visit in Panama, Bocas del Toro was one of the places that stood out – both when searching online and from enthusiastic recommendations from friends. Bocas del Toro is a natural reserve on the Caribbean side of Panama, on the border to Costa Rica. It is an island community, and while it is filled with backpackers, it still does not feel overly touristy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bocas

Main street in Bocas Town<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Bocas

Pretty beach on Isla Carenero<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Bocas

Chilled morning spot<\/p><\/div>\n

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Bocas del Toro is an hour long plane ride, in a tiny little plane, from Panama City. Taking off I had the most amazing view of the Panama Canal and the Miraflores locks.\u00a0 It was pretty cool flying over, just a week after I had transited through on a ship. We landed in Bocas del Toro and were greeted with torrential rains.\u00a0 I found myself a restaurant where I could wait for the worst of the rain to stop. I had booked what turned out to be a charming bed and breakfast on Isla Carenero. This island has some beautiful beaches, some of the best surf sport, and most importantly, it is a lot quieter than Bocas Town. Oh, and you had to take the water taxis to get anywhere, something I ended up really enjoying .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bocas

Tiny little plane<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Bocas

Water taxis are the main way of traveling<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Bocas

A dock on Isla Carenero<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Bocas

Meet the locals<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

One of the main attractions in Bocas del Toro is a visit to Playa Estrella, or Starfish Beach. We asked around for directions and all places in town told us to take a 45 minute bus ride and we would be there. In the end we signed up for a full day boat tour so that we could not only explore this beach, but also see more of the island. Before we could set out on our journey the boat had to undergo a thorough inspection by the tourist police. Finally we were on our way, we even had nice weather – or so we thought! On the way to the beach we passed by jungle and some remote but beautiful houses. At one point the guide changed direction of the boat, and brought us close to two dolphins he had just spotted. We followed them for a little while until they escaped under the water.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bocas

Most of the islands are covered in jungle<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Bocas

We even spotted dolphins!<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Bocas

Our ride for the day<\/p><\/div>\n

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Playa Estrella was like “tourist central”, but we still decided to stop for a while. We found a nice spot near the end of the beach where there were not that many tourists, and where we could see some starfish right next to the boat. Previously we had been told that visitors kept taking the starfish out of the water to take pictures resulting in them dying – sadly this was true. We did still see a few starfish in the shallows, and also managed to get some cool photos. We decided to stop by the local bar for a pina colada served out of a hollowed out pineapple\u00a0 – and this was super yummy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bocas

Playa Estrella<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Bocas

The famous starfish<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Bocas

Happiness is relaxing with starfish<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our next stop was supposed to be another beach just around the corner from Playa Estrella, however the wind and waves on this side were a lot stronger so we just sailed by. The guides then wanted to take us to an island quite a bit off the coast where there were some cool rock formations. In the beginning it looked like it would be a bumpy ride because of the waves, but it still seemed doable. The further out towards the island we got, the bigger the waves, and the stronger the wind became, – and there were dark stormy clouds coming in from the open ocean as well. While the guides found the waves a lot of fun, I eventually had them turn the boat around about halfway out to the islands as it was getting rougher and definitely not safe to be out there.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bocas

Boca del Drago<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Bocas

We were headed for the small island<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The last stop we made was to this awesome bar we sailed by on the way out to the beach – the Offshores Floating Bar. It is built on a barge and is located in a small bay just around the corner from Bocas Town. The owner was there and she explained to us that in addition to being a bar they have live music in the evenings and yoga during the daytime. We started off sitting on the swings they had instead of barstools enjoying a nice drink, before going upstairs enjoying the view and some awesome fish tacos. We ended the visit by jumping into the water from the second deck!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bocas

Such an awesome bar<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Bocas

Enjoying the view<\/p><\/div>\n

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Back in Bocas Town we checked back in with the tourist police before we were brought back to our respective islands. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was researching where to visit in Panama, Bocas del Toro was one of the places that stood out – both when searching online and from enthusiastic recommendations from friends. Bocas del Toro is a natural reserve on the Caribbean side of Panama, on the border to Costa Rica. It is an island community, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-caribbean","category-central-america"],"yoast_head":"\nBocas del Toro and Playa Estrella - CC's Ocean Escapades<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.celinaschou.no\/oceanescapades\/bocas-del-toro-and-playa-estrella\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bocas del Toro and Playa Estrella - CC's Ocean Escapades\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I was researching where to visit in Panama, Bocas del Toro was one of the places that stood out – both when searching online and from enthusiastic recommendations from friends. 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