Bocas

Still no cancellations on dorm beds and I needed to check out of the dorm room I was staying in. Fortunately, the owner said I could sleep on one of the couches for half the price of a dorm bed and still have full use of all facilities, including breakfast. I wasn’t overly fazed as I could secure my things in a locker and the compound itself was secure. The first night of the New Year would see me couch surfing in a Panamanian Hostal!

For the last day of 2025, I decided to check out the neighbouring island of Carenero; it’s Spanish name coming from the naval tradition of tilting a boat to one side to clean and/or repair. Evidently, Christopher Columbus’ fleet did exactly that back in 1502 when you couldn’t find a cerveza for love or money. Fortunately, times have changed and there are now multiple cerveza options in the southern end of the island. Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to be the first to discover somewhere.

I caught a water taxi the short distance over to Carenero and was deposited onto one of the many little wooden jetties poking out into the Caribbean. From there, I decided to walk north. There is supposedly a hike around the entire island but the information I had received from a fellow traveller was that you can only get about half way around. I thought I would give it a go and see how far I could get.

Almost straight away the trail deteriorated into a patchy mishmash of concrete path, sandy track, rickety bridge, wooden ‘plank’, dodge-the-waves beach walk, and muddy jungle trek. Most of it wasn’t too challenging and there wasn’t a lot of clambering over obstacles needed. The hardest part was finding the trail after it seemingly disappeared on multiple occasions.

I ended up having to go slightly inland at one point which was where the trail deteriorated significantly. It had been drizzling most of the day and the trail was now a muddy quagmire weaving its way through the jungle. More so, there were obstacles to be negotiated and undulation of said quagmire. I only had my Treva travel sandals on fastened as tight as I could manage, but still finding the going somewhat difficult under the circumstances.

The track forked at a point where going down a slippery dip was looking likely, so I took the other option. To my amazement, after only a few short metres I popped out into an expansive, beautifully manicured, grassy estate of some kind. There were no signs indicating private property although I knew it would be, so I walked through it as I had nearly come to the northern end of the island anyway so was hoping for a shortcut to the other side which was of less peril than my current path.

After exploring all options, I ended up popping out on the western side of the island, down someone’s driveway and out their gate which left no debate as to the fact it was indeed private property. From there, I was able to make it along the edge of the narrow, mangrove encroaching beach until eventually I encountered the path which lead back down the island again.

As I neared the South-western end of the island, I stumbled upon where the local indigenous population of the island live. Namely in poverty stricken shanties clustered in one tiny corner. It contrasted starkly with the massive, splendid estates I had just trespassed on.

Island all but circumnavigated, I decided it was time to avail myself of cocktail Happy Hour at one of the local establishments perched over the water on the eastern side. I had some time to kill so killed it with USD4 Pina Coladas as the sun slowly set behind the island.

A water taxi back to Bocas then I sorted myself out for a night of couch surfing after New Years celebrations. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until the staff had left for the evening that I realised they hadn’t given me a key to get back into the compound. I wandered out to see if I could find any of the other travellers I had met at the hostal to hang with so I could get back in again later on. As luck would have it, a German couple I had spent a bit of time with were on their way back to the hostal and were more than happy for me to tag along. We went back out again after a game of Uno and met up with some Portuguese-Canadians they had previously met.

On a narrow street a block from where we were, boxes of fireworks were placed in close concentration with plastic tape less than a meter from them warding off the general public. People stood around smoking and letting off their own supplies of crackers. When the fireworks did detonate at midnight, it was perilously close to surrounding buildings and you could actually see bits of burning debris bounce off the sides of some. For a town whose main street burned to the ground less than two years previously, I thought their fire risk policy somewhat lax. But it was a great display lasting nearly 45 minutes. And a wonderful way to ring in 2026.