Panama City, Panama

I arrived in Panama City in the early morning. The moment I stepped out of the air-conditioned airport hall I was hit by the intense, humid heat. It was a lot warmer here than in Bucaramanga. I took off all my extra layers and hurriedly put some sunscreen on my face.

Entering a new, unfamiliar country is one of the most vulnerable moments when you travel, so as usual I was being very cautious. And I still got scammed out of $3 when trying to buy the metro card! In the grand scheme of things this was a fairly cheap life lesson, but an annoying introduction to Panama. I decided not to let this ruin my first day, and luckily all my follow up interactions were a lot kinder than this. I found people in Panama to be very friendly and helpful. They’d volunteer to give me directions when I looked lost or confused, and a lot of them even approached me in English when trying to do so, which has been a fairly uncommon experience during this trip.

My metro journey was pretty seamless thanks to everyone’s help, and apart from getting very sweaty during the walk to my hostel I was happy about not wasting any money on taking a taxi. As I arrived I decided to take care of all the little errands such as buy water, get cash, do laundry, eat something, call my sister… By the time I was ready to head out again it was early afternoon hours.

I decided not to waste time and go see the main thing on my bucket list in Panama City – the Panama Canal. With more help from locals I found the right combination of metro and buses to get to the Miraflores lock. The visit was an interesting and unique experience. I watched a short IMAX movie about its history and construction, and then spent some time being completely dwarfed by the most gigantic boats going by as they were being lifted and lowered through the locks on their voyage.

I found a vegan restaurant for dinner and went to bed early that night. I only planned to spend two nights in Panama City, so my next day was also going to be my last one. I wanted to get up early and spend the morning walking through the Parque Natural Metropolitano, a large nature park in the city. This was a really relaxing experience, I barely saw any other people but instead there was lots of greenery and wildlife, such as agoutis, little monkeys and birds. I could hear howler monkeys in the distance too. In addition the views of the modern Panama City whilst surrounded by the jungle felt surreal, it seemed like a movie scene.

My next activity was walking up Ancon Hill, which was slightly underwhelming compared to the metropolitan park, but still made for an enjoyable enough walk. I followed this up by walking to Casco Viejo in the afternoon, the historical neighborhood of Panama City. The difference between the poorer neighborhoods I walked through and Casco Viejo was glaring. On my walk I saw simple houses with locals sitting on plastic garden furniture on the streets, playing loud, cheerful music, eating, enjoying the sun and children running around barefoot. I didn’t even have to look at the map to know once I arrived at Casco Viejo – suddenly I was surrounded by large, beautiful, colorful, colonial houses with wooden balconies, trendy, expensive looking stores and lots of fashionable foreigners eager to spend their tourist money.

I had lunch at Cafe Coca-Cola, an old UNESCO heritage cafe on the edge of Casco Viejo, which felt like traveling back in time. I ordered a sandwich and a coffee, neither of which was particularly good, but combined with its fairly cheap prices it made the cafe feel very authentic and old-timey. I enjoyed listening to 80s rock, occasionally interrupted by youtube advertisements (a hilarious reminder of the 21st century) and watching the widely varied mix of people around me.

I also took the time to visit Museo de la Mola. It displayed colorful embroidered textiles called molas made by the Guna Yala women, the indigenous people living on the San Blas islands. This felt particularly relevant and educational to me, as I was planning to head to San Blas the following day.

I walked around Casco Viejo until the evening, followed by the seaside walkway Cinta Costera. I enjoyed meeting some curious raccoons here and admired the pretty views of the Panama City skyline. I ate dinner early and headed to bed, as I was getting picked up before 5am the next day.

San Blas, Panama

My driver showed up on time the next morning, and after picking up a few more people, we headed towards San Blas, also known as Guna Yala. A lot of people only visit the islands as a day trip, however despite the extortionate cost I decided to stay for three nights on the islands. San Blas looked like an absolute paradise and I’ve heard the highest praise about it from everyone I met whilst traveling. I was also trying to hedge against the rainy weather of the monsoon season and hoping I can catch at least one sunny day if I stay longer. Lucky for me I got a lot more than that. With the exception of a few very early morning biblical-strength storms, the weather has been close to perfect.

I spent each night on a different island, starting with Pelicano, moving to Aroma and finally Perro Chico. They were all slightly different and yet kind of similar. Absolutely gorgeous, tropical paradise islands with white sand, crystal clear water and little else than palm trees and coconuts around.

The accommodation was provided by the indigenous people, and the main way to describe it was extremely basic and certainly not for everyone. I found it easy not to care about the lack of floorboards and my bed being surrounded by sand whilst I was falling asleep to the sound of waves. It felt like a simple life, I had food and shelter, and was surrounded by all this magical beauty. What more does one really need?

During noon and early afternoon hours the islands would fill up with day trip tourists from Panama City. I would join them on various tour activities, such as snorkeling or visiting a local village. The rest of the time it felt like I had the islands all to myself, not many of the tourists were staying overnight. I spent most of my time reading a book in a hammock and for a change of pace I read a book on the beach instead. I went swimming and sometimes did some more snorkeling, especially around Perro Chico.

I watched the sun set in the evenings and rise again in the mornings. I was slightly worried I’d get bored, but instead I just felt truly relaxed. And I wished I could have stayed longer.

The main positive of the drive back to Panama City was that along the way the driver spotted a sloth – how impressive is that? He stopped on the side of the road and pointed it out to us. I have seen some sloths in the Amazon before, but they were so far away they may as well have been just a smudge on the binoculars. This was the first time I could actually see it up close and I was so excited.

I arrived back in Panama City after dark. The long hot shower I took that evening felt like an absolute luxury, regardless of the cheap hostel I was in. I went to bed early again, and the next morning I was on a bus from Panama City to El Valle de Antón. 

El Valle de Antón, Panama

I had big plans for El Valle, after all the lazing around in San Blas I was ready for some action again. I was going to drop off my things, and immediately head out for a hike. This was before I was hit by the reality of rainy season weather. As I arrived, there was already a drizzle, and it didn’t seem like it was going to improve any time soon. The hostel staff strongly advised I should not do any hiking anymore and the deluge that followed later proved they were right. 

Instead of hiking I walked a little around the town, went to a shop and comforted myself by frying up some plantain (one of my accomplishments during this trip is being able to distinguish a plantain from a banana! I wonder if I can put that on my CV). I spent the afternoon and evening curled up in bed watching Netflix. 

I woke up early the next morning feeling very ready to go. And from my bed I could hear the rain again… That was not the deal! Luckily, by the time I got ready and had breakfast the rain had stopped.

Walking through El Valle was a whole different experience now that the sky has cleared up. I’ve chosen to hike the India Dormida trail. Just as I ascended above the tree line, I spotted a pair of toucans not too far from me. I’ve been trying to see these beautiful colorful birds up close for a while now and completely failing at it, but I absolutely did not expect to encounter them here. It was such a fantastic surprise.

Shortly after I also got to admire the complete views of El Valle, which were just incredible. The town was nestled inside an inactive volcanic crater. It was lush and green. It felt like an explosion of life all around me. The final highlight of my hike was walking past Piedra Pintada, a large rock covered in mysterious ancient petroglyphs with uncertain meaning.

The weather held up throughout my hike, however as I arrived back to town it started raining again. I was torn, I wanted to hike more in this area, it was gorgeous! But I was also feeling a little down about the constant rain. I was the only solo traveler in my hostel and I did not want to spend more time feeling alone and bored in my bunk bed. I decided to leave El Valle earlier than planned, and instead head to the coast.

I managed to get out for one more short walk that day, and spotted another toucan close by. It was like El Valle was trying to make up for the bad weather by being extra good to me in other respects. I did end up doubting my decision to leave, and I would love to return here during a different season and do this gem of nature more justice. 

Santa Catalina, Panama

The journey to Santa Catalina was long and involved multiple buses, but I got fairly fortunate with all the timings. I arrived in this small town feeling quite excited. You see, Santa Catalina is known for two things – surfing and diving. The national park of Coiba boasts some incredible marine life and I couldn’t wait to be under water again. I had three dives booked on Saturday and three more on Monday. I expected to simply relax on Sunday.  

After my arrival I spent the afternoon walking around the beaches and enjoying the pleasant weather (cloudy, but warm and no rain). 

The diving in Coiba was really good. We experienced some pretty strong currents, but the visibility was good, and we got to see huge schools of fish, octopuses, lobsters, moray eels, sting rays, nudibranchs and countless white tip reef sharks. I was really hoping to meet a bullshark or two here, but unfortunately they remained shy and never showed themselves.

In addition to bullsharks I also really hoped to see the humpback whales from the boat since Coiba is known for them. Luckily this second wish did come true – even though only briefly, on our day two ride back to town we did see a whale come up, blow water out of its blowhole, and finally show us its iconic tail as it took a dive back into the deep. It wasn’t the Disney dream of hearing the whale song, followed by seeing the whale and its calf jump up right in front of us, but I still felt really happy about this experience. Nature is just so incredible.

I spent my off day with Linda, a girl I met whilst she volunteered at the dive centre and who was staying at the same hostel as me. We ended up renting a stand-up paddle board together, paddling to the nearby Isla Santa Catalina, going for a little hike around and enjoying the empty beach. It was a really relaxed day.

I was feeling really indecisive about where to go after Santa Catalina. Coincidentally, I also met Denise whilst diving, who offered to drive me to Boquete with her. I decided to take her up on this. A little road trip together sounded a lot more fun than hours spent on buses on my own. And it was. 

Boquete, Panama

Boquete quickly reminded me of El Valle, it was very pretty and green, but also very rainy. I still regretted not spending more time in El Valle and not hiking more, so I decided to make up for it in Boquete instead.

Over the next three days I got up early and hoped I would not get rained on whilst I hike, which luckily I didn’t. The rain came reliably in the early afternoons though. I completed some of the most popular trails in the area. I combined Pipeline and Tres Cascadas on my first day and enjoyed how different they felt. I hiked Los Quetzales with Denise the following day, and we had a great time together. We also went out for dinner a few times whilst we were both in Boquete.

My last hike was El Pianista. This was a slightly nerve-wracking hike to do on my own. It’s a trail where two young girls (Lisanne and Kris) disappeared and later died in 2014, and ever since then it’s provided ample inspiration for conspiracy theories. I’ve even listened to a mystery podcast series about this, just to torture myself a little give my macabre imagination some inspiration before hiking it. When I tried to ask about how to reach the trailhead by bus at my hostel they told me they wouldn’t recommend going alone, because it’s poorly signposted and it’s easy to take a wrong turn. However, it also seemed true that scaring (solo female) travelers has become a good source of income for the local tour guides. I didn’t want to be reckless, but I also hate being irrationally intimidated. I decided to prepare well, be especially careful with checking my offline map, and take my chances with this hike just like I would with any other one. And I was so glad I did, it wasn’t anywhere as scary as the internet has made it out to be.

I was the first person to start it in the morning, and it was such a beautiful trail. It was uncharacteristically good weather that day, to the point that what was meant to be a cloud forest instead turned into a beautiful sunny spot. I really enjoyed the trees, moss and vines all around me. Towards the summit I had to hike through a few gulleys which were super interesting, unique and fun.

Once I reached Lisanne’s and Kris’s memorial, which marked the end of the trail, I was soon joined by a local hiking group of three women. We ended up chatting together and I hiked back down with them. They even offered me a lift back to town which I happily accepted.

I felt like my time in Boquete had been a success and made up for El Valle. I was ready to go and enjoy some sun at Bocas del Toro. 

Bocas del Toro, Panama

I ended up with more time in Bocas than I originally planned when I entered Panama, but I was quite glad about that. It meant I didn’t have to choose between the various islands I wanted to stay at, I could just see them all. In addition, the timing worked out perfectly and Linda, my diving friend, was coming to Bocas for exactly the same amount of time as me. 

We spent three nights on Isla Solarte in a very social, community feeling hostel. It had a restaurant with an incredible sea side view, extending onto a large deck with a pool. It was completely surrounded by the jungle, we even saw a sloth quite close by hanging in a tree one day. There was a slide with a very fun drop, which went directly into the sea. It served criminally cheap and delicious happy hour cocktails. I spent most of the time reading a book by the pool, with the exception of a short jungle hike and a stand-up paddle board trip.

After Solarte, Linda and I visited Isla Bastimientos for another three nights. The vibe here was very different – we were in Old Bank, which felt like a very local Caribbean village. We barely saw any other tourists here at all. Businesses didn’t have signs outside, people just knew where everything was. It was colorful and small. 

On our first day here was a combination of walking and relaxing on beaches. We walked to Wizard beach first. The path was an easy gravel road across the island, the only challenge being the intense heat, but luckily there was shade. The beach itself was nice. There were a few people around, but this was barely noticeable given the amount of space.

After spending some time relaxing here we decided to follow the jungle trail from Wizard to Red Frog Beach. This walk was a little harder than the one before, it wasn’t possible to avoid little scratches from all the plants around and there were a few muddy parts. I obviously also thought it was the more exciting walk. As the name of the beach suggests, we encountered a lot of cute little red poison dart frogs along the way.

Once we arrived at Red Frog, it felt like we had the whole beach to ourselves. It was a beautiful tropical beach, with white sand and clear water. It turned out there were a few resorts and people in them, but they were so far away I only realized it once we decided to walk further down the beach. We ended up getting a drink at one of the resorts, and then a water taxi back to Old Bank since the sun was already setting. And we saw a tiny baby caiman on our way to the boat, which was the perfect cherry on top of this day.

Our next day was fairly relaxed. We had a slow breakfast. We spent some time tracking down a bakery which made local sweet cinnamon pastries called bonnes. The bakery was just someone’s house, but all the locals knew exactly what we were talking about. The bon we bought was freshly out of the oven and delicious. We walked up to a chocolate farm and tried to arrange an impromptu tour. Unfortunately that wasn’t possible, so we just ended up wandering around a little more.

I was keen to spend my last night in Bocas del Toro in the Bocas town, mainly because I desperately wanted to do some laundry here. We took a water taxi in the morning, and spent the rest of the day hanging around in cafes (Linda was working whilst I was writing this blog post), restaurants and bars. My favorite was a floating bar we visited, which literally consisted of a small floating platform with a bar, only accessible by water (most of us arrived on water taxis, but one girl did take a stand up paddle). Apart from being a very unique bar experience, the floating bar also had a very large, friendly and slightly smelly dog. I named him Pony (because I’m very funny). Pony protectively barked every time someone jumped into water and he seemed hilariously out of place, but also clearly very comfortable and used to being here.

Linda and I met up with a few more people during the evening and we all ended up joining the Filthy Friday afterparty. I judged the actual Filthy Friday (a self described “Central America’s first and only island hopping pub crawl”) not to be something I wanted to participate in, least of all because I have no wish to drink copious amounts of alcohol whilst solo traveling. I figured getting a drink or two at the afterparty and seeing what it looked like wouldn’t hurt, but honestly it wasn’t my first choice of venue. I have to admit people were not as wasted as I anticipated, but it wasn’t really the relaxed floating bar vibe which I liked.

The group eventually split up, and Linda and I ended up getting a bowl of ramen in Bocas. I was getting up early the next morning to catch a ferry and a shuttle over to Costa Rica. We said our goodbyes that morning, talking about possible future places we might meet again. 

The border crossing to Costa Rica was easy and uneventful, and I arrived at my jungle hostel in the morning hours.