Bocas del Toro, Panama

Because we only had 90 day visas for Costa Rica, we had to leave the country for at least 72 hours until we could return and renew our 90 days. In order to do this, we went down to a set of islands off the coast of Panama called Bocas del Toro. There are nice coral reefs all around the area, so we used these four days for our marine diversity lessons.

After a LONG bus ride from Parismina, we got there just as the sun was setting. It was a beautiful, almost stereotypical, Caribbean island. Palm trees everywhere with hammocks strung between them, crystal clear blue water...It was paradise :) After getting our things settled, we had a quick meeting about or plans for the next day. I got directions from one of our professors to a small nearby pond that we were told had some cool frogs, then Dan, Aaron and I headed out on our night hike. Little did we know what was in store that fateful night...

When we saw the pond, I immediately spotted the characteristic orange glow of caiman eyeshine! Who would have guessed there would be a caiman in this tiny pond no more than 20 feet in diameter on an island in the Caribbean? Needless to say, we were excited :) As we got closer, we could see that it was just a small one, about 2 feet long. Feeling confident, waded into the pond to try to catch it. Just like its friends in Tirimbina, this one was pretty shy and kept hiding underwater. However, in that small of a pond that was only two feet deep, it was easy to see every move it made. Dan came in to help me and we slowly moved it to one side of the pond. Suddenly, I saw it right in front of me at the surface and I decided to grab it behind the neck. I reached down, but not quite fast enough...I grabbed him at midbody and he turned around and clamped down on my right hand! Thankfully, he let go as quickly as he bit me, but he left some serious wounds. At that moment, we realized that there were, in fact, TWO caiman in the pond, and the one I tried to grab was actually closer to 4 feet! The night hike ended very quickly, and we headed back to camp to get my wounds bandaged. On the way back the shock of the bite wore off and it started to throb. I was lucky to only have three tooth marks, but they were pretty deep and right on my knuckles. I had never seen that far into my body that far, and I was a little worried :( I had to swallow every ounce of pride I had and admit to the staff what stupid thing I had done...that sucked :) They were very gracious and fixed me up quickly. I think they were glad that I had learned my lesson!

The next day three days were spent almost entirely in the water snorkeling. While it stung my hand a bit, the salt water actually ended up being good for my hand. I had never been snorkeling on a coral reef, and I was amazed by all of the things we saw. There were so many colorful fish that I had only seen in a aquariums before, sea cucumbers, jellyfish, comb jellies...I even saw a barracuda and two huge moral eels! It was an awesome three days of experiencing the diversity of marine life and living in paradise :)

Besdies marine life, we also saw four species of snake, a few geckos, a night lizard, and a cool color morph of the Red and Blue Poison Dart frog that was green and yellow with black spots! Way more herps than I expected on an island :)

Bocas del Toro was an amazing place to get to spend a few days, and I will not soon forget the lesson I learned to respect EVERY animal that has teeth!