Bocas del Toro, Panama

My mother came for easter break, semana santa in costa rica, and we visited the Caribbean for about a week. Thomas, Philipp and Elke joined of course and we took of on april 8th to go to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica close to the border to Panama, by bus. I have to mention that all of us had to leave the country, because our visas last only for 3 months, and those months very over at that time. After spending a night in Puerto Viejo, a nice but too touristic place for spoiled individual travelers, we went on to Sixaola, the actual border town to Panama.
There, we needed to cross a river at the border on an old huge bridge with lots of holes. It was a little bit scarry since we very balancing on some rosty iron parts about 25 meters above the river. Have a look in the slide show, I will put some pictures on.
After our safe arrival in Panama we were looking for a way to get to Bocas del Toro.
This wasnt too difficult and a taxi brought us to the near river on which we continued on a little boat downstreams. The river ends in an huge mangrove forest in the Caribbean Sea.
Bocas del Toro is an old town on a beautiful island, as you can see on the map. The buildings which are built into the sea are incredible beautiful. It is a mixture between Italy's Venice and the Caribbean world of Earnest Hemingway.
We were looking for a nice hotel in Bocas and found one directly next to the sea, a wonderful appartment with kitchen etc., once again luck was on our side. My mother was really tired after the long ride, decided to have an easy relaxing day.
Thomas signed up for the PADI Open Water Scuba Diving course and was off. Of course, he passed it in hilarious manner after 3 days. Elke and Philipp went with one of those many offered tours snorkling and had also a great time.
My minority decided to go scuba diving too, the 1st time after 6 years again. I put the suite wrong on. Attached the air vent on the wrong side, forgot eaven to turn the air vent on, when I jumped into the water the first time, BUT it finally worked out and I dove into the world of corals and colorful fish. The following days were equally nice, my mother was fit again and we made tours to a lonely island, to a gorgeous beach with red frogs , Pfeilgiftfroesche in german and went snorkling. Even in the mangroves, normaly you never have a good visibility there but those in Bocas del Toro are special. General thats the way you do it in Bocas del Toro. You stay at the main island and take off to other islands for beaching, snorkeling, diving, dolphin watching, bird watching, surfing, etc etc. The place is touristic but it is tourism with style. The evenings were always great to, what can be better than having a nice cigar and a cool beer in an hangmat on a balcony in front of the sea. For my mother, she has arrived in Kiel safely again, it is still a dream.The time in Bocas ended as it had started. Thomas got his diving certificate and got 2 free dives. So we went diving together with a cheap underwatercamera to celebrate this special day. The photos are coming up. We dove to a old ship wreck, the first one for me too.
We left Bocas after 4 days and crossed the border again and went to Manzanillo, a little coastal village 15 km SE of Puerto Viejo. It was much nicer there. The Semana Santa had started already before we arrived and we had a hard time to find a place to sleep. But again, luck was on our side and we found a nice private house which we could have. We did a coastal trail on the next day with some snorkeling included. We got basically stucked in the mud on the way back. Just have a look in read the descriptions of the upcoming photos.
Finally we had to return to San Jose Costa Rica, a great Semana Santa was over.