Anchoring the islands of Bocas del Toro

 

 After resting at the marina and taking a water taxi into Bocas Town to provision, we left our slip to adventure for a week in the islands.  This archipelago is made up of many, many islands.  Most are uninhabited, but some have homes, restaurants and small villages.  We found islands that had colorful (although poisonous!) frogs that are indigenous to only that island.  So far we have seen frogs that were red, bright blue and turquoise.  We watched a sloth climb a tree and traveled through bays led by dolphins. 

Our first stop was to purchase fuel at a nearby island, Bastimentos, and check out Red Frog Beach and marina.  We met our friends on Bonsai there and had a beautiful evening strolling the beach and eating at a local restaurant.

Next we traveled with Bonsai to Starfish Beach and anchored for a couple of days to see the starfish and clean our boat's bottom.  Our friends on Nilaya joined us and we decided to travel to some other islands as a flotilla.

Many of the islands are only accessible by traversing a narrow gap between two or more small islands. We did this and anchored in a shallow bay near a restaurant which is only accessible by boat. The restaurant, Rana Azul which means Blue Frog.  We enjoyed pizza baked in the restaurant's stone pizza oven, lounged by their freshwater pool and thoroughly enjoyed our day as well as our hosts who were from Luxembourg. 

Next we traveled to Dolphin Bay and were greeted by several dolphin "guides".  We anchored near a small village in a corner of the bay and dinghied in to a local restaurant for dinner.  We were their only customers and they had one thing on the menu, chicken tacos…..but it was great!  

We had a couple of tense moments as we threaded between islands, but are getting better and better at reading the water.  What a beautiful area!

Beautiful Red Frog Beach


                                                       

The Red Frog of Bastimentos





Starfish Beach






A walk around the bay from Starfish



Our “hookah” used to dive or clean under the boat 




 

Ken hard at work giving Slow Dancer a bath

Rana Azul with only boat parking


Our 3 boats at anchor in front of Rana Azul






Giant bamboo found on our hike



A tree covered in bats!

Only inhabitants seen on the island



Turquoise Frog of Palos





Someone built a bench and we took full advantage after our hike!






Bonsai exploring by dinghy



Small village in Dolphin Bay





We were the only customers at Valle de las Ranas restaurant













 

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