Bocas del Toro

Sitting on the Dock of the Bay waiting for our ship to come in.

Because it is built primarily on the water, water taxis are a popular way to get around.

...Taxi! Taxi!

Bocas del Toro in Spanish means mouth of the bull. I am not sure where that came from but the town was originally founded as a port from which to export bananas. In recent years the banana exporting business had fallen off and now the principle industry is tourism. You could say that Bocas is the Banff of Panama.

Most of the hotels and a lot of the restaurants are built out over the water. Water taxi's are a popular way to get around. There is very little traffic as there are few cars since there is really no place to drive. The downtown is mostly comprised of little tourist shops. Our hotel was very cute and cheap at $45/per night. It had a view of the water. The night picture was shot from our balcony. In the morning we waited at the pickup spot from last year, but since Daniel our skipper didn't come, when we thought he should, we took a water taxi over to the marina and found him. He was most happy to see us again (little wonder, we are probably his best customers.)