Chapter 23: Bocas del Toro

So after a 10h night bus and a quick boat we landed in Isla Colon, in a district of Panama called Bocas del Toro (Bull's mouth). It was as we heard it, another Caribbean paradise:

Looking for a safe place to set our tent, we were blessed to be directed to Elisabet's house. She is a middle-age local woman, the Caribbean "mama", as sweet as my mum's apple pies! Everyone knows her in the village for her kindness apparently... She warmly offered us to put the tent in her garden, saving us from having to set and unset it everyday.

2nd day we rented bikes and rid to playa Bluff, where the waves were ridiculously huge! No need to precise Tom spent less than a minute into the water haha! But it was actually impossible to swim, the waves were able to kill you, not joking! Afterwards we discovered that it was indeed not really a beach for swimming, but very famous for surfers, and that there is what they call the killer waves that can swallow you in the ocean in less than 5min!!! And it's quasi every day of the year... Look:

After a couple of days Tom had to find strategies to make oney because Bocas del Toro is a district very expensive of Panama, probably more expensive than Europe in general. So he went into restaurants and good luck, a place called Lemongrass offered him 3 gigs a week! Plus every monday at Aqualounge to lead the open mic, plus a gig at Bocart, fancy restaurant... Well, that wasn't so hard in the end =) And as an extra bonus, we got to eat lobster and other fancy specialities for free in most of these places! Mmmmm lobster....

Afetr a week, Elisabet asked us to move, and magically the same night at Aqualounge we met Chuck, martial art teacher  retired from the US, who offered us a private room unused in his flat... We were again so lucky that it was hardly believable! The flat was in Casa del Sapo on Isla Carenero, just a few yards from Isla Colon. So $1 of taxi boat and we arrived in what would be revealed to us as Casa del Muerto since a girl was assassinated in the same room we were staying in, a year ago. It even reached the UK newspaper, maybe you heard of the story? But no panick, everything was perfectly fine in that house, apart from Chuck's more than ridiculous music hahaha

And so went life for a month, Tom playing almost every night, learning martial arts from Chuck, eating coconut from the tree outside every morning, swimming in the Caribbean every day in the beach some 10m away from the house... What else???
We met lots of lovely people, including Lady Gaga's double and her friend Laureen, both from Arizona. They both became super quickly part of my Bridget team (only Bridgets can understand) and I was so blessed to have them around when Tom was too busy with music. Love you Bridgets =D

One day Brom, the Dutch manager of Lemongrass, who has always been so good to us, offered us a lift in his private boat to Isla Bastimentos so we could enjoy the famous Red Frog Beach, where he's building a new restaurant. We even got to see one of the red frogs:

One night on my way back from Aqualounge to the house, happened a scary/funny thing: a young local tried to rob me by snatching my tobacco purse attached to my dress, ripping the dress, and ran away. But before he was to far I had shouted several time that there was no money in the purse (I had actually no penny with me, what I didn't say is that Chuck's keys were in the purse, to my horror). And to my surprise the thief stopped and walked back in my direction. Reaching him, I ask for my purse but the only thing he was interested in was money, obviously, so I told him about the keys in my purse and show him the house 10m away and swear I'll give him money if he follows me to the house... And pffffff, he believed me haha! So we walk to the house, I make him wait outside (what was he thinking then, no clue! I could have come back with a knife or a gun...), and discretely wake up Chuck, telling him the situation. Here I saw stars lightning in Chuck's eyes, totally exited to have an opportunity to use his martial art skills... I can't describe the face of my thief when he saw massive Chuck coming outside the house instead of some money hahaha... In the end he was too fast to be caught, but we had a great laugh with Chuck at least!

Well enough for today my friends, more adventures to come very soon! Oh and by the way, Tom finally bought his return ticket, he'll fly on the 24th of November from Cancun to Madrid! So now time is limited for us, it's getting more exciting =D