We had a rule. We should have followed our rule: Never take up an offer from someone on the street. Bocas Del Torro has many tours. The pangas, or water taxis, are flying around taking tourists and locals from island to island. Bocas is a busy town. Many people want your business. Just going out to eat you have to pass buy 8 people passing out wasteful flyers trying to get you to come eat {Drink} with them.
We had been off the boat for a couple days. It was Christmas Eve. We were not getting each other any ‘gift’ for Christmas. We hadn’t done any tours in Bocas. We wanted to get out and do something.
The friendly man {I’ll refer to him as Jose} reached out to us a few times. He offered us water taxis {We did take him up on that once because we were desperately trying to get the Bastimentos to look at a sail boat :)}; he had offered us tours before. This one sounded like a good deal: “$35 gets you a full day of snorkeling, drinks, and snacks at a couple different islands. I have some guys from Australia coming. It will be a great day.” $25 and we were sold. We put down the deposit and he told us to come at 10:30, the confirmation paper said 10:00. {In my head I’m thinking, full day showing up at 10:30, means not actually on the water by 11:00. More like half day?}
We remember! It was the day we had signed up to snorkel. We had been staying and paying night by night at BocasCabanas.com. That morning we were told we had to be out of our lovely shared house, so we frantically scrambled around to pack our bags. We had planned on getting there at 10:00, but ended up getting out of the taxi at 10:20. Jose rushed us to pay the remainder while a few people stood in the street looking like they had been waiting for an hour. Turns out they had. He told them to show up at 9:30.
Jose showed us the cooler, for beer, that we did not have. Big Red Flag. I was under the impression that they were providing drinks. Uh, oh. We are told the captain is filling up with gas. Humm. Seems a bit late. Big Red Flag. Now I see a man who is getting agitated. He is mad the beers he brought don’t have ice on them. A third Big. Red. Flag. before we have even seen the boat.
Dave is not bothered and we happily load the penga with 10 dudes from Argentina {Not Australia as I was told, but they were friendly}. Along the way we stop to see dolphins. They were already gone. The other pengas in front of us scared them away. We stopped to see something in the mangroves. The guide only spoke Spanish, so I’m not sure what we were looking at. I thought a boa constructor and Dave thought a sloth.
At 11:30 we get off the boat at a restaurant. Wait. Maybe if we had started the tour at 8:00am, like most tours, I would be hungry but we just got on the boat. After some confusion we realized we were ordering food for later. Thankfully a few of the Argentinians spoke English and where willing to translate for us. The menu was small and expensive {$12-$20 a plate!}
Finally, off to Isla Zapatilla. It was a beautiful bumpy 30 minute ride. We saw a couple of sail boats along the way and dreamed of having our own. The island appeared in front of us and we slowly floated around the island to see a beach packed with people and about 5, 12 passenger pengas parked nearby.
Going with the flow, we jump off the boat and looked forward to hiking around the island and soaking up some sun. We were surprised we were not going to snorkel around the island, but figured we would get plenty in later. The man that had gotten agitated earlier was at it again. When our captain told us we had 2 hours to enjoy ourselves the aggro Argentine threw a baby fit. He was told we would have 3 hours and dammit he wanted 3 hours. So he got 3 hours.
The friendly translator offered for us to stay close so we don’t get left behind. Some of the guys were excited to sit at the beach with the mass of people while others joined us as we walked around the island. Every step was another opportunity to take a selfie, or a desktop background!
The island was beautiful. At the opposite end I saw a reef and wanted to see below the surface. We took a little swim but didn’t get near the coral.
Along the hike we stopped for a quick Betty Rocker inspired Tabata workout.
At a little less then 2 hours we were back at the busy beach. We giggled to ourselves as we people watched. The aggro Argentine (AA) was happy in his element. He would have been rich if he had charged for the pictures he took. I shared my cookies and we chatted with a few of the guys who love to ski in Colorado. I noticed the other groups had beach games and their ‘guide’ was involved and speaking with them. Another tiff broke out between the AA and the captain. We were 15 minutes short of his 3 hours, but who knows if that’s the problem because I’m not sure what they were saying. I was spraying the air with Serenity and Balance doTERRA essential oils to calm him down.
Finally at 3:30, we were going snorkeling. But then instead of going to the site we stopped at the restaurant. The poor captain was hungry. We had eaten cookies. I should have shared with him. There was some conversation, more confusion on our part, and then the captain came back with some snorkel gear.
This time really. Finally we were going snorkeling. We jumped off the boat. My goggles filled up. I tried to fix, they filled up again. I think they actually had a hole! Also, I’m sure they were not sanitized before we used them. The current was fast. We had been spoiled by our other snorkeling adventures and were disappointed in what we saw. Something new for me was seeing a parrot fish! The others did not swim for long and quickly they told us it was time to jump back on the boat.
Dave and I didn’t want to spend the money on lunch since we were headed back to town anyway. We had already ordered so I was sure we couldn’t get out of it. We tried to hide on the dock instead of sitting at a table. The AA’s friend shared a sandwich with us. I fed the fish some crumbs of Frosted Flakes. I heard a sound that might have been the word David. It came again. It got louder. A man was walking towards us with a plate. We were stuck. We had to eat, and pay for the plate of food that should have cost $5. We awkwardly ate with a few of the guys. They spoke Spanish and we quietly stuffed our faces.
Time to leave. We thought. We wanted. We were thinking that the sun was going down and we did not know where we would rest our heads. The boat was loaded. All 11 guys and me. The only person missing? The captain.
After what felt like 5 minutes of nobody saying anything he finally showed and we were on our way. He stopped to show us starfish. I didn’t care. We really did get spoiled on the boat.
Back on land we, of course, ran into Jose. He put his hands out with his welcoming smile asking how our day was. Really? You already talked to the guys, you should be hiding with your tail tucked. The words, “That was BS.” actually came out of my mouth as I walked away after his rehearsed answer to my, “You said we were going to get drinks.” Dave told him very nicely that he owes it drinks. He said maybe.
You will find many other, some 3 times more expensive, options for the similar tour. With the other companies you may or may not get your money’s worth. But now you know, don’t go with Bocas Tours.
