Halloween (or hello, we’ve been) in Bocas

As we were ready to reach Bocas by end of November, we ran into more boat problems. But I will keep that for the next post.

I’ve been anticipating Halloween the whole year. Normally I decide months beforehand what I’ll be and get all the things confirmed or organized. I was so ready for Halloween this year. Then to discover that we wouldn’t be there, gulp. But dad decided that I should still get to go. So mom and I would bus to Bocas, while dad and Capo were stuck together on the boat.

Halloween in Bocas is really cool. It’s not the normal dress up and go trick or treating. Instead Buena Vista (an ocean view bar/restaurant in Bocas) hosts a party and all kids in the Bocas area are invited.

It starts with this guy throwing an assortment of candies into a mass of kids that soon becomes hysterical. It’s kind of fun, but also annoying because he makes everyone scream at the top of their lungs “CANDY!” in Spanish and you get hit in the head by candies. When the candy hits the floor, it’s this HUGE scramble and the adults that have kids from 0–5 (or don’t) catch candies for their kids.

After a while the organizer calls all the kids who want to be in the costume competition to line up and show off their costumes one by one. This takes a long time as a lot of kids participate. The competition is followed by more candy throwing. After that they call out the winners. Instead of having one winner there are multiple prizes for different things, like most creative or cutest or most colorful and sometimes when a bunch of kids are the same thing then you have the best Spiderman or Hulk etc etc… and then more candies.

So far I’ve participated in the competition for 5 times:

Pirata,
Tooth Fairy,
Mariana Trench- the Ocean Elf,
(2 Halloweens during Covid) Scottish highlander and a Forest Elf,
Earth as part of the 4 elements group,
and this year’s surprise.

During Covid lockdown there were no Halloween festivities, although I had prepared to be a Highlander. I won a prize every year except the first one (that wasn’t a very original costume).

Bussing to Bocas

We got up at 4.30 in the morning, in the rain, to catch the 5.30 bus to Colon. There is only one bus a day that passes at Panamarina. Because of the rain it arrived late, so it was 5:55 by the time we got on. We reached Sabanitas many hours and kilometers later, as we first drove to La Guarria to pick up all the school kids and actually passed the marina turn off again more than one hour later. In Sabanitas we were lucky. We saw the Express bus to Panama City approaching as we walked over the pedestrian bridge. We had to stand a bit of the way but then managed to get some seats.

Albrook pass time

As soon as we arrived at Albrook mom got us tickets for the night-bus to Bocas. Next mission was to get some empanadas to prepare us for the first round of shopping. It was past 10 am by the time we arrived in Panama and my stomach was growling. We walked over to Allbrook mall where we went to Oca Loca and Titan, then we took a lunchbreak and went back to Titan to pick up our bags. As we were leaving I discovered that I forgot my bow (for my costume) so we went back to the eating area to get it, but couldn’t find it. We asked a cleaner guy if he saw it. He was a bit impatient when mom didn’t know the Spanish word for bow. When we told him Arco and showed him a picture explaining the whole thing, he said ‘no’. But he went to the guy who was on the previous shift and thank god they had it.

After that we went to El Costo and then we went to Super 99 to get what we thought we needed for the night bus. Our last stop for the day was this sandwich place called Don Pan (we often go there for dinner when we are in Panama City). We ordered two sandwiches, ate one and kept the other for later.

By that time it was getting late and we went to the waiting room for the night bus. We got our seats on the bus and tried to keep as warm as possible. The night bus to Bocas is freezing 🥶.

Arrival in Bocas

When we arrived in Almirante we got on a taxi to the Valencia water taxi place. We got on our water taxi around an hour later, and finally arrived in Bocas.

There we went to a dive center with a friend of ours (Captain Ray) for a hearty breakfast (absolutely scrumptious).

Then we walked to Bocas Essentials to get some more oils etc. When we finished we waited for our friend Tiziana whom would pick us up and take us to her house to shower, have lunch and catch up on news.

Getting ready

At 2pm Tiziana took us to Buena Vista. When we arrived the employees were decorating for the party. We were the first to arrive. We saw another friend (Doug) and had a coffee with him while mom helped me get ready. A little later the other half of my costume arrived (Rosalie A.K.A BSF) and we started helping her get dressed up. She brought with her a basket of abundance, with freshly harvested produce.

Then all the kids that I know started arriving, and a girl I know (I won’t say names) was nagging me with this dumb tease (it is very common to hear it from her) that I have a boyfriend. At first I was like ‘What in the World are you talking about?’ and she said ‘you know what, you and Wilson’ (a very good friend of mine). I told her off. Everyone thinks that because in Jiu Jitsu we always partner up together, because he is really good. I mean, we should have a belt swap because he deserves my belt more than me. I only have it because I’ve trained longer than him. Anyway, the long bus ride and little sleep caught up with me and I wasn’t very patient with her.

Luckily, soon after that the candy throwing started. They had a lot of space related candy for some reason. Maybe it was donated by the Space bar in Bocas. While I was catching candy I literally bumped into people I know like Anika (she had a wig and sunglasses on so I didn’t see her at first). I also spoke with this weird boy in my class (he thought I was skipping classes. I could have slapped him for that. Anyone who knows me a bit could tell I wouldn’t skip classes for a hundred bucks. It takes a lightening strike and a chain of unfortunate events to break my promise).

After awhile it was time to line up for the costume competition. The organisers tried to have the little ones go first but everything was all over the place.

When me and Rosalie got to go, we got held up because the announcer couldn’t get the greek goddess names right. The Greek goddesses Artemis (that’s me) and Demeter (Rosalie). When we went on stage the cheers were deafening.

There were some very cool costumes, such as: Beetlejuice, ice cream, Zom-Bee, Poseidon (Dylan, a friend), Stone age baby, lots of cat people, two warrior elves (Scarlet & Lily, more friends).

Me & Rosalie both won 20 dollars from Filthy Friday (funny thing, we won money from there last time too). After getting our prize, we got ready to go to Rosalie’s house, where we would be staying the next day.

Of course it started pouring down, so we waited a bit, but then decided to go as the weather did not have any intention of clearing up. The trip in the rain and dark was tricky but luckily Pierre knows the way. When we arrived, Pierre and Stephanie (BSF’s parents) made dinner while me and Rosalie played a bit and then we all went to bed.

It was a very productive Halloween. We got a ton of candy and a prize and saw lots of my friends, so I was happy. The next day me and Rosalie played the whole time.

Getting ready to go back

The following day we had to say good bye and make our way back to Panamarina. We went to town and mom got our bus tickets and we went to Cat in the Cup for coffee. We met up with Deon (our personal courier service who has been managing most of our spare part pick up and send on) and Doug.

After coffee we went to the BDT (Bocas Del Toro) for lunch, we all had burgers, mom and Doug had la Pirata Chicken (chicken burger) while me and Deon had Back to Basics (bacon burger😛). All came with a side of french fries, they were good, filling burgers. After that we had a quick meet at Selina’s and that was the end of our 2.5 day visit to Bocas.

Then at 4:00 me and mom went to get our water taxi to the mainland, took a taxi to the night bus station and there we waited.

At 5:50 the bus came and we got on and found our seats. I actually got some sleep on the bus. Mom not at all.

Surprise visit

When we arrived at Albrook at 4:25 in the morning, we got a taxi to an AirBNB that dad was staying in. He was getting bored by himself on the boat and had decided to surprise us and meet us in Panama City. When we got inside, we tried to sleep a bit more but the owner’s cat was hungry and meowing outside our door (ugh).

This AirBNB is really pretty. It’s one of the more natural places in Panama city. It is in the Clayton area, close to the Metropolitan Natural Park and the Albrook Park. It has a small swimming pool that’s right next to the jungle. Kim is a great hostess and made us feel very welcome.

There are a lot of animals here, wild and pets. A weird animal called Gatosolo passes in a group of 30 every day. A Gatosolo has a dog nose, long snout, monkeyish tail, Mongoose ears, small black beady eyes, and furry like a cat.

There are Agoutis that scurry around in the flowerbeds and undergrowth and monkeys that hang around in the bamboo. We heard tucans and other birds but didn’t see them.

There are 6 pets (4 cats, 2 dogs), who I became very friendly with: Stella (dog), Bailey (old dog), Milo (hungry cat), Dopey (cat that looks like Capo), the other two I can’t remember except one was black and the other was multi-color (same as Milo).