Islas Zapatillas

Whoa, we have been in Panama for just 2 short days, spending the dollars again, and enjoying the Caribbean side of life in Central America. We spent our first night in the main town of Bocas del Toro. Bocas is a set of about 64 small islands on the caribbean coast of Panama, very close to the border of Costa Rica. Most of its islands, are swampy or tree like structures which make the majority of the land uninhabitable. We met up with two other peace corps friends here in the main town on Wednesday night, and then made our way out to one of the more remote islands to spend some tranquil time on the beach yesterday. About 10 of us, including some other backpackers from England and Spain, and our two Panamanian guides took about an hour boat ride to the Isla Zapatilla Izquierda (left of the two foot islands) where we had the day to ourselves on this small island. The walk around the whole island took about 30-40 minutes, in which we swam in the Caribbean, dodged sand crabs, jellyfish, barracudas, and the guys say they saw an octopus (I´ll wait to see photos). We talk with the marine biologist who is stationed on the island, working on marine turtle conservation. This is one of the main spots in the Caribbean where turtles come to lay their eggs. We are in the height of the season and though we didn´t see any turtles...we were fast asleep when they came upon shore...we did see some of the thousands of eggs laid on the island which will hatch within the next month. Each turtle lais between 120 and 180 eggs, and the turtles always come back to the same island where they were born to lay their future eggs. We had a relaxing afternoon and then set up camp for the night. Aside from the 10 of us, the only other person on the island was the marine biologist! We roasted turkey hot dogs over the campfire, ate potato chips, and fell asleep when the sun fell. It was a really calm night, sleeping on the beach, just the sound of the waves in our ears, the stars above, and the sand crabs at our feet. We were back on the main island today around 9 am and off to explore other beaches. . . we travel to Panama City in the next few days.