The "real" Bocas del Toro and other Bocas del Toro, Panama Things to Do Tips

As soon as I arrived in Bocas del Toro, I was shocked by the enormous overload of souvenir shops, hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, bars and tourist offices all around the main street through the town. Nowhere before in Central America I've seen such a huge touristic activity as here.

This ever present flow of salesmen, neon lights and stalls doesn't really make the town to a charming one. But luckily elsewhere in "Bocas" you do find some very nice area's where you can still see the real Bocas del Toro as it looked before the gringo's came here.

When you walk to the north of the mainstreet, you can only turn left at the end. The area you enter here is the area where the local people live. The houses all are made of wood; some are painted in nice colours, some are old and look like ruins. All around you see the children playing in the streets; playing instruments or riding a bike. And at a lot of places you see very cheap eatstalls where you can still score a meal for a few dollars.

A walk through the "real" Bocas del Toro gives you a much better view of what the area should really look like if there was no tourism. And to be honest: it looks so nice that I understand that one day there came a lot of tourists to watch this area.

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Address: Bocas del Toro, Isla Colón, Panama

To me the highlight of my stay in Bocas del Toro was the visit to the great beach of Boca del Drago, on the north of the island Colón. I went there by bus (see my transportation-tip) and basically had too less time to enjoy the great surroundings there, but even the short time here was amazing.

The small beach here is completely unspoiled by mass-tourism. The palmtrees reach until the seaside. The sand is white, and the water is unbelievably blue and clear. At only a few metres from the beach you could see the corals in the water already. And the best thing when I was there, was that we had the whole beach pretty much for ourselves.

Just a few metres from the beach there were some restaurants and bars, so you could easily spend a full day there. Only thing I missed was a place where you could rent some snorkling gear (I really looked forward to snorkel here :( ) There used to be some places where that was possible, but the people there told me that they closed down a short time ago.

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Address: Boca del Drago, Isla Colón, Panama
Directions: Easy to be reached by bus: check out by transportation-tip.

One of the mainattractions at Bocas del Toro is actually under water. In the blue waters that surround the islands you can find many coralreefs that are worth a visit. It is obvious that more people think about it like this, because diving- and snorkling trips can be booked at lots of places in the town. And because the waters around the islands often are calm, it is a good place to learn diving and a good place to go to when you are some experience since the visibility is often very good here, especially between September and November.

Unfortunately -I still regret this- I didn't have the chance to go either diving or snorkling. I could clearly see the coral in the water, even at a depth of several metres, without even putting my head under water. And even at places you absolutely don't expect any coral, you can find them. The pictures you see are taken at a peer behind a restaurant in the busy harbour-area of the island. Still: plenty of sealife right under the surface.

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Address: Bocas del Toro, Panama

In and around the town from where you can take the boat to Bocas del Toro, named Changuinola, one of the biggest banana plantations in the world can be found. The whole area here is owned by the Chiriqui Land Company: a part of the Chiquita Company. From here, the yellow fruits are being shipped out all over the world.

When you drive to the harbour when coming from Changuinola centre, all you see at both side of the road are the gigantic banana field. The tall bananatrees spread as far as your eyes can see. And all around the area you see iron racks standing in front of the field, where the bananas are hung.

The blue bags you see around the bananas everywhere are filled with pesticides to keep the insects away. And every now and then a full truck with bananas passes you to bring the fruit away to one of the main hubs before they leave the country.

A trip through this area is really interesting. It's nice to see where all those millions of bananas actually come from. And the next time you eat a Chiquita banana that has "Panama" on the blue sticker, at least you know where they come from!

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Address: Changuinola, Panama