First off, if you’re travelling to Bocas Del Toro you’re bound to be either coming from Panama City or going there after your visit. We’ve done this a few times and stayed in a few different hostels and hotels and now after staying in this amazing place all the others seem inferior – in fact, this place is probably one of the best hostels we’ve ever stayed in…

Magnolia Inn is a brand spanking new, swanky hostel which also has some hotel rooms and penthouse apartments. As we stepped through the door I’m pretty sure Yaz was thinking “Yes, let’s live here, it’s nicer than my house” while I was thinking “Great, there’s no way we can afford this, it’s nicer than my house”. However it turns out they have dormitory beds available at the same price or cheaper than some of their rivals round the corner!! Plus they have…
- Orthopaedic mattresses
- Locker, Lights & power sockets for each bed
- No ladders to top bunks, stairs instead. STAIRS!
- Air conditioning
- Balconies for each dorm
- Clean and VERY nice toilets and showers
- GOOD wifi!!
- Sky TV
- COMFY sofas in the living area
- QUALITY kitchen pans and utensils and space to cook without knocking into everyone
- And lastly, the owners are the friendliest and loveliest people you can imagine – they welcome you in as if you’re family and it’s quite literally like a home away from home. Come here to relax, sleep well and feel clean!!

Busses to Bocas Del Toro
1) Get a taxi to Albrook Bus Terminal: $4 – $5 ish (cheaper if you speak Spanish)
2) Get a bus (FREEZING cold so wear all the clothes you have – no joke) from Albrook Bus Terminal in Panama City to Almirante: $28 ish. Busses take abbot 13 hours and leave at 7pm and 8pm but if you can’t get one get one to David and then change busses at the terminal in David (pretty easy to do)
3) Get a Taxi from the bus station to the taxi boat station: $0.50 – $1 per person or less if you start walking. From the moment you step off the bus (or earlier in our case) you’ll be hounded with people trying to get you to go with their taxi boat company so they get a commission from it. Just pick one that offers a price of $4 or less and go with them.
4) Get a water taxi from Almirante boat station to Bocas Del Toro town: $7 per person. It takes about half an hour and if you weren’t so god damn tired you’d probably have thought it was a nice trip.

Bus tips…
- Honestly, it’s bloody cold on that bus – I wore a jacket, hoody and long trousers and still froze.
- Popping a couple of ‘Panadol Negro’ sleeping pills won’t hurt either.
- Have your passport ready because there’s a check along the way.
- Also, try to pre-book your ticket before the day of departure if you can as they book up

Hostels in Bocas Del Toro
1) Casa Verde – Nice bar with live music in the evening and swimming off the dock in the day
2) Palmar Tent Lodge – Amazing looking big canvas Ti Pi’s with real beds and a nice bar on Red Frog beach. Owned by the same people as Casa Verde but much better (although miles away from everything)
3) Mondo Taitu – Good if you don’t like sleep and do like parties
4) Aqua Lounge – Good if you don’t like sleep and do like parties on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It’s also on stilts above the water and has hammocks, swings into the water, swimming areas and a trampoline.
5) Los Secretos – I don’t know how much it is for a room but it looks bloody gorgeous. Only downside is the $10 half hour water taxi from town – but you probably won’t care seeing as you’ll be sipping cocktails in their pool with a view!

Apartments in Bocas Del Toro
1) Irish Rose – Two 3 double bedroom apartments with kitchen, bathroom and living room. For rent for $5 per person per night (e.g. $10 per couple sharing a double bed) or $30 per night for the whole apartment if it’s available and you don’t want to share. Cheap, good quality and only 5 minutes from town by foot.
2) La Buga – This dive shop in the centre of town has an apartment to rent for $35 per night or $400 per month. Ask about it in the dive shop.
3) Calypso – There’s a hostel by the same name (and owners) where you can enquire about apartments availability and prices. The apartments are a little way out of town but rent for a cool $350 per month.

Beaches in Bocas Del Toro
1) Starfish Beach – Gorgeous and great for swimming as well as snorkelling if you like looking at lots of starfish and lots of sand – well recommended. Get a bus from the centre of town by the park for $2.50, it takes at least an hour to Drego beach (another gorgeous beach) where you can walk for 15mins to Starfish.
2) Playa Bluff – Loooooooong beach with biiiiiig waves. Not ideal for swimming or surfing but awesome for playing in the waves – although pretty dangerous. There is a restaurant quite far down the beach, ask the taxi driver to take you there.
3) Local Beach – Not sure of the name but the locals call it sand-fly beach, so wear oil or diet. It’s within walking distance of town (the only beach that is) and it’s good for a dip when it’s hot although not that pretty.
4) Isla Caranero – A small strip of beach close to town via a $1 taxi ride to Aqua Lounge on Isla Caranero and then you can walk from there. Wear insect repellent – that is a major warning!

Getting Around in Bocas Del Toro
1) Taxi – Almost always $1 per person for relatively short trips, sometimes $2 if you’re going as far as Gury Gury or Pukalani. If you’re going to Playa Bluff it’ll cost about $12 – $15 for the whole taxi (each way) and if you’re going as far as Boca Del Drago you’re looking at $30 – $40 for the whole taxi (return trip) but pay on the way back to make sure you get picked up.
2) Water Taxi – Almost always $1 per person too, $2 if you go as far as Bibis. $10 return per person to Red Frog beach (or $7 return per person if you get the Casa Verde boat).

Eating in Bocas Del Toro
1) Bocas Blended – By far the best place in town for food or smoothies is this big blue bus owned by an American who’s lived here for years and knows everyone and anyone. The bus is under renovation and moving location so ask around for it and speak to the owner, Jessica for tips on what to do, where to go, who to speak to and so on – she knows it all.
2) The chicken place – If you like eating a lot of really good chicken with fries or Patacones then go to this place almost opposite La Buga in between Gran Kahuna and Super Gourmet. Quarter chicken with fries/patacones = $2.50 or a half with fries/patacones is $4.50.
2) THE chicken place – Open in the evenings, but not always, serving KFC chicken at least 10 times better than KFC. Bloody hell it’s sooooooo good! Though can cause arguments between you and your partner if they expect to share…do not share.
3) La Mama Loca at Casa Verde – The kitchen is run by the same girl that owns Bocas Blended (number 1) and the food rocks. Looks out for barbecued lobster tails with garlic and the Bocas Burger which is homemade from the best beef in town and served with hand cut curly fries!
4) Om Cafe – Awesome Indian food for only about $11 including a main, rice, naan and a side. Work up an appetite playing ping pong at the Book Store with some beers downstairs first.
5) Gury Gury – I don’t know if that’s how it’s spelt but that’s how it’s pronounced I think. It’s out of town so you’ll need to get a taxi and also to book ahead via telephone – ask a local at a bar for the number, or a taxi driver, they all have it. They serve a set dinner with 6 courses and it’s really good, despite the £24 price tag.

Drinking in Bocas Del Toro
1) Bibis – Gooooood drinks (and food) at reasonable prices in a great location over looking a surf spot on Isla Caranero. If you spend $10 or more per person you each get a free cocktail or can rent a kayak for an hour for free. They’ve also got the cheapest surf boards for rent at $10 – $15 per person and the best surf spot, Black Rock, is a 5 – 10 minute paddle away.
2) Los Secretos – Niiiiiiice hotel, bar and restaurant about a $10 water taxi ride from town (but well worth it) with a great elevated pool with panoramic views of the bay and Isla Bastimentos. They’re building a whopping great big water slide from the roof right down to the sea which looks like it’ll be SO rad when it’s finished!!!

Drago and Starfish beach blend in to one long stretch of sand along the Northern territory of Isle Colon. You can get a local bus from the high street of the main town that takes you an hours drive to the beach and back.

There are a few nice restaurants at both beaches as well as lounge chairs on Starfish beach and hammocks draped between random trees.

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© All images owned by Yazmin Malcolm

Whilst sweating like donkeys in Panama City recently we stumbled across this fella making home-made Slush Puppies from block ice, some sort of make shift plain (not sure on the spelling here, I mean one of those things that a carpenter uses) and a shot load of sugary coloured water and condensed milk.

As for the flavour, it tasted very similar to a toffee apple except more sickly if that’s even possible. Here’s what it looks like to sit on a wall drinking one with the Panama Canal in the background…

Afro lady on the street in Guadalajara, Mexico.

I was having a ganders through some old Instagram photos the other day and found a couple containing street art that I thought would be worth sharing. The originals are for sale for a special one time offer of only $1bn.

Booby skeleton on the wall of an abandoned building in Casco Viejo, Panama City, Panama.

Yes, they tasted abso-fucking-lutely awesome. I have literally no idea why these aren’t sold all over the world.

Exhibit A

Exhibit A, a photograph of my slice of pizza left over from dinner the night before. You may notice the distinct disappearance of precisely one bite from the tip of the slice. After waking up in my hostel with the excitement of cold pizza for breakfast I opened the box to be greeted with this scene. Yes, someone in the hostel had taken a bite from my left over lonesome slice of pepperoni pizza. ONE BITE. Not the whole thing, just a taunting bite.

I know that all backpackers occasionally ‘borrow’ or steal little bits and bobs (sugar sachets from cafés, toilet rolls from bars, towels from hotels, salt & pepper from restaurants, bites of pizzas from hostels and so on) every now and then to help get by on a budget so this got me thinking…

Are there any other guilty secrets of a backpacker? Answers on a postcard (or in the comments below)

Before leaving Los Angeles to hitch hike across the Pacific on sailing boats we met a rather lovely rigger man who was helping to fix up various bits on the boat and with the rigging before we left.

He told us a bit about his music and before parting he gave us a beautifully packaged up CD of the music he makes with his good friend Tom. Byron’s got a great voice and plays great guitar with his music partner so we’d strongly recommend checking out Dawg on MySpace and iTunes.

This is a photo of an actual man with that actual afro and that actual handle bar moustache sitting on Venice Beach, Los Angeles… How cool is he?!?

[NB. That is the extent of this blog post. If you were expecting more, sorry]

Take a look at this gorgeous little vintage shop, It’s not a hard one to stumble across as it is on a main street in the old town of Panama City’s Casco Veijo.

I walked past it a couple of times before I actually went in as it just looked like a secondhand junk shop. Though to my surprise it was completely jam-packed with classic Vivienne Westwood shoes.

© All images owned by Yazmin Malcolm

© All images owned by Yazmin Malcolm