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Trip Notes
By Emily Matchar
ACCESS
Continental (continental.com) offers five-hour nonstops from New York to Panama City’s Tocumen International Airport. Panamanian airline Aeroperlas (aeroperlas.com) connects to Bocas del Toro twice daily, leaving from Marcos A. Gelabert domestic airport and touching down on the island of Colón. If you end up overnighting in Panama City, head for the Bristol, a 56-room colonial-chic boutique hotel in Panama City’s financial district. The lobby bar has a louche tropical Graham Greene vibe. Doubles from $335; thebristol.com
ISLA COLÓN
Isla Colón, the largest of the Bocas islands, is the natural jumping-off point for exploring the archipelago. The capital city is also called Bocas del Toro, though locals just call it Bocas Town.
> Punta Caracol Acqua-Lodge is a necklace of luxe private cabins perched on stilts above the shallows of Almirante Bay. The lodge offers snorkeling, fishing, and dolphin-watching trips, as well as guided treks to neighboring indigenous communities. Don’t miss the fresh pineapple salad and grilled local lobster at the thatch-roofed restaurant. Cabin suites from $374, including airport transfers; puntacaracol.com
> Hacienda del Toro, on nearby Isla San Cristóbal, is the place for cocktails, with 20 kinds of rum. Take a 15-minute water taxi ($6) from the Bocas Town dock. Owner Neil Thomas can arrange guided tuna-fishing excursions. Half-day trips from $200; haciendadeltoro.com
SAIL DISCOVERY
Gavin McClurg’s 57-foot luxury catamaran, Discovery, is on year two of a five-year round-the-world kitesurfing expedition. Shares, which constitute part ownership, entitle buyers to one 10- or 14-day trip each year. Owners travel to join the boat wherever it is at the time, dropping in on stamp-size atolls and obscure bits of seacoast via floatplane. Evenings are spent on deck, enjoying sashimi that was swimming two hours ago, cold beer, and the kind of psychedelically starry skies you only get way, way off the grid. In 2009, Discovery will cruise the South Pacific, with jaunts through the Marshall Islands and Indonesia. At press time, there were five shares left. Adventure shares (10-day), $20,000; Epic shares (14-day), $30,000; offshoreodysseys.com
ADVENTURE
Though long popular with venturesome surfers and divers, Bocas del Toro’s watersports infrastructure is still developing. Many visitors make arrangements through their hotels.
> The crew from Panama Private Tours will take you to the best surf breaks in Bocas. Drop 20-foot faces at Silverbacks, or ride the world-class left peak at Carenero Island. Owner Fidel Ponce will charter kitesurfing expeditions during the December-to-March windy season. Four-day kitesurfing tours, $560; panamaprivatetours.com
> La Buga Dive Center, in Bocas Town, has PADI-certified dive masters offering a full menu of excursions, from shallow reefs teeming with parrotfish to the spooky submerged pinnacles of Tiger Rock. Dives from $60; labugapanama.com
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