Middle-aged flash packers

Such a peaceful night and a contrast to the previous night – the only sound being the waves and a gecko that is in the room somewhere. It left its trail last night with some droppings by the fan and also in Steve’s water glass! Obviously on holiday – air conditioning and a pool to swim in.

I haven’t really mentioned it yet as it is a bit unseemly but the private but not en-suite bathroom has had its downside. The window looks on to the stairs leading up to the restaurant and also partially onto someone’s balcony to the left. There is a curtain thank God but it’s most inhibiting. To add to the issues, I like to open the window once I’ve had a shower or suchlike which S on a couple of occasions hasn’t noticed. I do feel sorry for the people sat on their balcony in the mornings.

Still, despite the downsides it’s been a great place to stay and we have asked Nadia and Salvatore to let us know when/if they move on to a new venture as they have been exceptional hosts.

Nadia gave us some excellent advice re catching the ferry, for which we are now extremely grateful: get to the ferry early. That sounds obvious but our journey here was so easy, I thought rocking up half an hour before hand would be fine.

I will now give you some advice: DO NOT TAKE YOUR CAR TO BOCAS UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO.

1.) You won’t use it. Driving around the island is awful and pointless. Use a bicycle instead.

2.) you risk either not getting there when you want, not leaving when you want or possibly both.

Our blissfully easy journey to Bocas turned out to be a complete aberration. We met an extremely helpful expat (Jim) at the port who told us trucks and vans get priority (fair enough) and usually there are loads of them. It’s not uncommon to have to wait for the next ferry if you are not near the top of the queue. He’d been there since 7am to secure his place; the ferry leaves at 10am.

The next ferry was at 2pm but we had a long drive the other side and one you would not want to do in the dark, plus there are few if any places to stay once you get past the port town on the other side.

There were trucks galore waiting their turn to board. And the were huge! How did they even get to the port?

Ironically the German couple who advised us re the ferry on the way here turned up behind us with half an hour to spare.

It was very tense. We saw Jim get on, but after that it was lorry after lorry. I began to lose hope and imagined whiling the time away in a Bocas cafe then going through this all again with the addition of sleeping in the car somewhere.

But it came good. S had to park the car in the tiniest of corners but with the help of one of the officials we were in. I scooted off upstairs on the basis that if they couldn’t find us, they couldn’t ask us to move.

I watched the last truck get on and it was a work of art how the guys got everyone on. Well I say everyone – I don’t think the Germans made it. That could easily have been us, so I re-iterate, if you can avoid it, don’t take your car to Isla Colon. Leave it in the secure parking at Almirante, take hand luggage, catch the ferry or a water taxi. You have been warned.

The rest of the journey was fine and we reached our next accommodation by 4.30pm.

The Naturalmente b&b bungalows are very sweet and set in a beautiful garden. We have some young neighbours who arrived at exactly the same time but the girl could hardly bring herself to speak to us. Did I mention how unfriendly the young tourists are, particularly the girls? This one looked like she had accommodation disappointment. I do remember that feeling so I won’t judge her too harshly.,

There is an above ground pool which we immediately got into (who are the kids here?) followed by a nose around the grounds. The owner isn’t here today but her presence is everywhere. There’s bhudda stuff and an outside yoga studio. There is a restaurant which serves Italian food (unfortunately isn’t open tonight.). She’s called Chantal so is probably French, immaculate and floats around gracefully in yoga pants.

All is good. Except for one thing. It’s raining.

Namaste.