Amy and Chris backpack South America: Caves, turtles, sloths, dolphins and sea horses oh my!

Bocas del Toro

Panama

After taking a night bus traveling half the length of the country we ended up on the Caribbean near the border to Costa Rica. The Bocas islands are mainly inhabited by Jamaican expats whos grandparents came to Panama to build the canal. With 9 major islands and 50 cays making up the lush beautiful Bocas we had so much to see!

Hippie van

Isla Bastimentos

Our first adventure was a day tour on a boat where we visited the National park - Isla Zapatilla

Trees growing their roots right into the ocean

Dolphin cove

As the boat pulled up to "sloth island" we put our eyes to the trees and found 4 sleepy sloths.

Hola!

The next day we headed up the coast of Isla Colon to Playa Bluff. This beach is known for its huge surf and in the right season nesting leatherback and hawksbill turtles. Arriving at the beach to check out the surf we were 2 of about 10 people there and who did we run into but a wonderful woman we met in Antarctica! Four months later and a continent away there we were standing on the beach with Susi :)

Wow, crazy!

As it turns out Susi was staying with a friend who has been living on the island for years. Learning that it was Leatherback nesting season we arranged for a local guide to take us out that evening to the beach. The beautiful giant turtles make their way through the pounding waves up onto the beach to dig a hole and lay their 130 eggs before burring the nest and exhausted trek back to the ocean. There are no words to describe the experience and feeling when you are sitting under the light of the stars watching this amazing creature lay her eggs right in front of your eyes. We sat with the momma leatherback for about an hour while she layed her eggs, burried the nest, made 2 fake nests, and paddled through the sand back to the sea.

No photos were allowed to be taken of the leatherback but I pulled a few from the internet so you could see :)

Bike ride in the dark out to the beach

Momma turtle - the one we saw had a shell 1.5 meters long and 1.3 meters wide. The leatherbacks live to be up to 100 years old and only return to the beach to lay eggs once every 3 years after the age of 25. In the winter months the leatherbacks migrate all the way up to the Canadian Atlantic waters.

Laying the eggs into the nest. We were sitting this close!!

Isla Bastimentos

The thing to do on this island is visit the Nivida cave which is burried deep in the jungle through amazing mangrove trees and lush jungle. Of course we were in - bats, frogs, cayman crocodiles, insects, sloths, crabs and swimming through creepy dark waters.

More sloths - they actually move so slow!

Heading down the river

Pina

Red frogs

Baby cayman

The entrance to the cave

Helmets and head lamps, check!

Three species of bats live in this cave.

With amazing stalactites and stalagmites we had parts where the ceiling was so close to the water we were left swimming through gaps just big enough to fit our heads.

Nectar bat

The last activity but not least was to go for a dive. With some of the most colourful and beautiful corals and undersea gardens we have seen this dive was amazing!