Room for 1 more??

.....We took the midnight bus heading towards David (Panama's second largest city) and managed to persuade the driver to let us off an hour early at a dirt track cross roads marked Horconcitos. Five hours later, much to the amusement of the other passengers, we were told it was our stop...5am, pitch black with only an old bus shelter in sight we settled down to wait for dawn. As luck would have it a 4x4 taxi pulled up within ten minutes and offered to drop us at Boca Chica dock for $18. An hour later we arrived at the tiny dock just in time to see the sun rise. We hitched a lift with a boat and made our way across to Boca Brava.

The travelling had all been worth it, the island is only 20km across but is packed with stunning beaches and amazing wildlife, we were greeted by howler monkeys and the biggest birds we had ever seen!

Unfortunately remote islands have their drawbacks.... there was only one place to stay and it was overbooked by 20 people. Being friendly types the islanders offered us a mattress in a barn, when we accepted we hadn't realised it would turn into what looked like a refugee camp, as about 18 people squeezed into a split level hut.

After settling into the barn we head off to explore the island and do a bit of snorkling. On returning we decided that the only way to get through the night would be to drink enough of the local spirit (Seco) to numb our senses. As the the hostel bar was the only source of entertainment on the island locals and travellers salsad the night away and a good time was had by all.

We awoke early the next morning and packed up to head on to David for one night before our journey to the capital of Costa Rica...