Holiday Hullabaloo: Chapter 6

The last few days of the family vacation was wonderful. We spent the days wandering around the one main street and a couple of smaller streets that make up Bocas del Toro. The boys hadn't quite had their fill of diving so we scoped out a dive shop for them to get a couple last dives in before heading back to the chilly waters of NorCal or the non-existent ones of Bogota. I went along for the ride and before I knew it I was suited up, in the water and taking home my books and video to study for my scuba certification course. Sucker.

I went back bright and early the next day, before anyone was up to finish up the first part of the course and get another dive in (I'll complete the rest of my course anywhere and anytime I want). It was a pretty lazy couple of days (I'm not complaining, don't worry) and by the time we were all up and around day 2 we had time to make a quick trip to Red Frog beach.

Just a boat ride away from the main drag in Bocas, Red Frog beach is on the non-sheltered side of one of the other islands in the Bocas archipelago. Not being protected by other islands or small bays, the damage from the hurricane season that had hit Panama pretty good this year was evident. Uprooted trees lined the beaches, signs were half buried in the sand and the red frogs had pretty much vacated the area. Fortunately, the hike out to the beach from the dock on the opposite side of the island was gorgeous. You walk past magenta wild ginger, mangrove trees and our second sloth of the vacation (first was in Cartagena...check out the pick on Shutterfly! I named him/her Francis).

We enjoyed dinner over the water and made our way back to the hotel for our last night in Panama. Bright and early the next morning we woke to a gorgeous sunrise and hopped the puddle-jumper back to Panama City. The fam was heading back up to CA and Marty and I were going to be making our way down to Colombia's coffee region before heading home to Bogota.

It was a great trip, seeing family, new places and getting out of the city were top on my list of things to do for the holidays. While the Caribbean part of our vacation was over we weren't quite done exploring.

For all the pics from the "Holiday Hullabaloo" part of the trip check out the 'Christmas Trip' album at http://beyondbogota.shutterfly.com