Wednesday, 6 March 2019
Bocas del Toro Island, Panama
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
Went the drums.
Constantly.
Right next door to hotel.
Until 0100hrs this morning.
No.
Sleep.
Whatsoever.
It wasn’t even music.
Just noise.
Or is that a sign I’m getting old?
Boat trip around the islands to see dolphins, starfish, sloths and a bit of snorkelling.
All before lunch.
Bounce over in the speed boat to ‘Dolphin Bay’. So called because that’s where all the dolphins congregate to catch all the fish that tend to be swept there by the currents.
Not seen a dolphin since Tierra del Fuego. Remember? When my camera memory card was overloaded?
Well I’m all checked and double checked. Am good to go. Ready for that prize winning shot of a dolphin in mid air.
Yes. Can’t wait.
So. There. We. Are.
Bobbing up and down for half an hour.
With. No. Dolphins. In Sight.
Not a sausage.
Oh well.
At least we’ve got Sloth Island to go to. To see all the sloths.
Do see plenty of starfish in the shallow waters by the mangrove islands. Quite startling how many there are.
Arrive Sloth Island.
I’ve got it in my head that sloths are big. So will be easy to see.
They’re not. They’re actually quite small.
Which means they’re difficult to see through the branches and leaves of the dense mangrove trees. We see one. All on its own. Not doing much. Hoping this isn’t going to the be only thing we see, continue purring along the edge of the mangrove island. All of us looking through dense vegetation for that elusive sloth.
Another speedboat is nosied up into a mangrove tree. Its occupants are staring up at a tree with binoculars.
Ah. Ha.
There be a sloth.
Two to be precise. And a baby.
Daddy Sloth is surprisingly quick at climbing down. Has a pee, scratches his bum, and then scurries up to Mummy and Baby Sloth again. And here’s me thinking sloths were slow.
Well, dear reader, I tried to get a photo. You’ll have to judge for yourselves if it’s worthy. But you try focussing on a small thing through branches and leaves in the foreground which screw up the focus.
Excellent lunch on Caranero Island overlooking the Caribbean whilst eating fresh prawns in a garlic sauce. Stop licking your lips. So delicious.
Rather pleasant way to spend a few hours pootling around the Caribbean in a speedboat. Island to island.
No wonder there were so many pirates in the Caribbean. What’s not to like.
And you know why pirates are called pirates?
Because they aaarghh, ah aaarggh.
