And now I digress...

Now that I do have time to write about some adventures in Bocas del Toro, it´s hard to decide which ones to tell!

First, of course I brought the rainy weather with me to Bocas del Toro, as I seem to do everywhere, including Sao Paulo today. So the first few days were spent relaxing with my new traveling buddy Nic and trying to arrange some scuba dives. By the end of the stay, I had completed six dives around the island, including one all day trip where we saw dolphins, visited Red Frog beach and had lunch at some lagoon restaurant. The diving in Bocas is okay, but nothing spectacular. There are pretty much no fish. At all. Ever. And the water was pretty green with poor visibility because of all the rain. I was told that the best diving is outside the bay, but the seas were just too rough this time of year. Bummer.

I did manage to rent bikes a few days in a row and (attempt to) explored the island. The further away from Bocas Town you get, the more beautiful the beaches, crystal clear the water, and fewer the crowd due to nearly impassable roads.

There´s one bike ride in particular worth mentioning. I was sitting in a cafe after some early morning scuba diving and reading a book called the Kindness of Strangers. The book is a collection of short stories written by all sorts of travelers about strange, serendipitous and wonderful encounters with strangers on their journies. I was just finishing reading a story about a girl who impulsively sought out adventure and ended up having a crazy and wonderful adventure with an dirty old Israeli man and a Californian realestate agent. At that moment, a strange guy who had been eyeballing me for a while from behind his laptop shouts out, ´what you reading?´

I did´t really want to talk to the geyser, so I quickly mumbled something about traveling and kindness of strangers.´

´Oh, interesting. Mind if I join you.´He was already getting up to join me, so I couldn´t really say no. We ended up talking about everything from his job as some sort of computer software programer nerd that allows him to work from wherever in the world he can find wireless to the local minimum wage. The waitress finally delivered my saving grace: the bill. But much to my chagrine Ulrich, as he was called, asked if I´d like to join him on a bicycle ride to the beach.

I had no excuses. And I had just read about all the adventures that can happen when you say ´yes´ to invitations. We rented bikes for two hours and rode off towards Big Creek beach. What I didn´t realize was that the beach was a couple of miles away, and the road to get there was comprised mostly of clay-mud, wet sand, coral rocks and puddles as deep as your thigh in someplaces. Needless to say, I was covered in mud and sweat when I popped a tire an hour into our adventure. Ulrich seemed to be determined to keep going. So I suggested we hide the bikes in some bushes and hitch a ride to the beach. Great idea.

As we started walking down the road again, waiting for a truck to pass, Ulrich cracked open a coconut as he asked me about traveling alone. I said something about not really ever being alone and always finding friends. ´Yeah, I bet you don´t find yourself on muddy bike rides with strangers that often,´ he replied. Strangers....he was a stranger!? I hadn´t even thought of that. Here we were isolated on a treacherous road far from any people, our bikes hidden in the bushes, and I didn´t really even know this guy. I started to feel uneasy, but a truck pulled up and we hopped in the back before I could start to worry about whether or not Ulrich was an ax-murderer.

After a few short hitches past a bunch of surfer camps and the island dump, we finally arrived at our destination. A beautiful white sand beach with turqouise blue waters. ´Wanna go for a swim?´Ulrich asked. Hmm...was this where he would drown me or try to take photos of me or something equally creepy. I stripped off my clothes to my bathing suit and bolted to the water. The surf was very strong, too strong to swim in, and I was ready to just get back to other people so I could feel at ease again.

We hitched our way back to the bikes, and convinced the nice man driving the truck to take us back to town with our bikes. Along the way Ulrich and I just chatted about traveling and eventually the topic of love interests while traveling came up. I was happy to note the slight change in Ulrich´s demeanor when I mentioned a boyfriend back home. He told stories about some of his failed romances and we finally reached the bike shop. And that was it. Although there was definitely a part of me that felt very uncomfortable for most of my adventure, I feel a little silly now knowing that I had just let my imagination get the best of me. He obviously was just a lonely guy looking for some human (as opposed to digital) company. No harm done, and we actually had a great time.

Anyways, my time is almost up on the computer, so I hope this little anecdote sufficed for an update on my travels in Bocas!