Our Great Adventure: Bocas del Toro Day 339 23/08/2015

After breakfast we walked down to the waterfront for our sailing trip. The yacht that we were going out on was a catamaran owned by a rather gruff German who'd been living in Bocas for 16 years. We had a bit of time before we left so had a drink at the cafe next door before setting off along with another couple from Spain/Colombia. Simon steered us out of the dock as Marcel hoisted the sails. We were heading to Dolphin Bay in the hope of seeing bottle nose dolphins although none had been seen recently according to Marcel. As we were heading out we did see the fins of a couple although they were diving for food and not frolicking for our entertainment. It was lovely sailing out and we watched in relief as the water taxis sped passed. Most of the islands in the archipelago are surrounded by mangroves and are densely forested and scarcely populated, with the exception of Isla Colon which has felt the impact of foreign investment with hotels, restaurants and apartments being built at pace. It still has a bit of a local flavour which hopefully will be retained. The land was original owned by United Fruit for banana plantations who brought workers over from Jamaica giving it a strong West Indian influence. The song 'Day-O Banana Boat Song' is about the island. Neither of knew that bananas are not indigenous to Central America but we brought here from Vietnam apparently. We anchored at Dolphin Bay near to the mangroves for our first snorkel of the day. Very close to the shore was a small but extremely beautiful coral reef. The colours were spectacular with all shades of the rainbow vibrant in the streaming sun light. There were very few fish which we were both surprised by. Back on boat the yacht we set off back towards Isla Colon. It was lovely sat in the breeze gazing out to sea. We anchored again near Isla Solarte for another snorkel. The coral here was completely different, less colourful but very large with all sorts of strange shapes. There was also more fish here (although nothing like we'd seen in The Galapagos). Unfortunately there were stinging sea lice in the water and after a while we gave up and took refuge on the yacht. From here it was a short sail back to Bocas. We were both really pleased that we'd booked a sailing boat and had a lovely, very chilled out day. Back at the b&b we soon realised that we'd not been very good in applying the suntan cream with both of us having very burnt backs from snorkelling. In the evening we went in search of somewhere open for dinner given it was Sunday. We found an American sports bar, not the most exciting of places but the food was OK although the wine came in plastic glasses!