Bocas del Toro – Past, Present, and Future
“I hear Bocas Del Toro is changing,” a friend warned as I prepared a return visit to the idyllic Panamanian archipelago that served as my home several years ago. The face of Bocas has been evolving ever since the arrival of Columbus in 1502, adapting bit by bit to the barrage of new cultures trying to lay claim to their piece of paradise. But, I wondered, just how much of its quaint reggae ambiance and idiosyncratic character had succumbed to development and burgeoning tourism since I’d last visited?
As our plane descended from an azure sky, almost everything appeared exactly as I remembered: simple motorized dinghies and traditional hand-paddled “cayucos” scurrying between six inhabited islands; rickety docks abutting the sea; wooden shacks and thatched-roof huts fringing the shores; desolate emerald atolls sprinkled like fairy dust atop the jeweled Caribbean; water so warm and translucent it mirrors your soul; and the oldest marine park in the country silently safeguarding endangered manatees and sea turtles. The biodiversity here is so vital that a Smithsonian Tropical Research Center set its anchor on the main island to study and protect it.
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