Bocas Town and Isla Colon

Isla Colon is the largest island in the Bocas del Toro group. Located at the north west corner of Panama, close to Costa Rica, over looking the crystal clear Caribbean Sea, aka the Atlantic Ocean.

Mike & Heidi, Mike's Global Grill

Mike's Grill

Tired and weary from Super Bowl festivities at Mike's Global Grill the previous evening, combined with the bumpy four hour drive to the ferry terminal at Almirante, we were happy to learn that our hotel, the Palma Royale, was directly across the street from the ferry terminal in Bocas Town.

 

We selected the Palma Royale, located towards the far end of town, after being advised that Bocas Town can be noisy at night, with the partying lasting
well into the early morning hours

 The hotel  was air-conditioned, modern, clean, with comfy beds, a good breakfast and a neat bar. Great value for the budget rate of $95 per night.

Bocas Town is a party town, and said to remind many of Key West, a few years ago. Certainly it has many small hotels surrounded by bars and restaurants, which we are told can be noisy, well into the small hours.

After checking-in at the hotel, we walked town in search of somewhere for a late lunch. Several blocks away, we found the Buena Vista, an outdoor patio, overlooking the water. The food was good and relatively inexpensive. So much so, we returned there for dinner after checking out several other spots. Tim was hoping for lobster, and Buena Vista offered surf and turf (filet mignon and lobster tail). Priced at $17.95, our expectations were not very high. Surprisingly, portions were more than adequate and food was very tasty and certainly great value. Some other establishments wanted upwards to $45 for a similar meal.

Bocas was not the paradise we had expected, and we were disappointed not to have beach outside the hotel (which almost none of the hotels in town have).


The staff at the Palma Royale Hotel were most helpful, and arranged a beach trip to Playa Bluff. The cab picked us up at 11am next morning and drove us the 25 minutes to Playa Bluff, a small beachside resort, complete with restaurant, bar, rain water pool and sandy beach.

Our $15 cab ride took us over some rough terrain, along the beach front at times, coming to an abrupt halt several hundred yards from our destination. In front of us was some deep loosely packed sand, that surely would have bogged down our van. Not wanting to have to push the van, we disembarked and walked the short distance to Playa Bluff.

We met Brahm, the Dutch operator/manager, who kindly waived the beach/facility use fee since we planned to have lunch and patronize his bar.

The sandy beach stretched for miles in either direction and was quiet, except for he few tourists that stopped for a visit and lunch.

The facility was clean and the pool refreshing. Service was friendly, food reasonable and we all enjoyed a quiet, relaxing day.

Our taxi met us, where he dropped us off  and took us back to the hotel, for  shower and change for dinner