What are the main cities, towns, communities and developments of the Bocas del Toro area and what is each one like?

There are several different little towns in the province of Bocas Del Toro, Panama and usually each one is on a different island. Here they are island by island.

 

Colon

 

On the big island of Colon, there are three main communities. The town of Bocas has about a dozen streets, and there is a street that goes right up along the coast and back to the airport. It used to be that Bocas town...

There are several different little towns in the province of Bocas Del Toro, Panama and usually each one is on a different island. Here they are island by island.

 

Colon

 

On the big island of Colon, there are three main communities. The town of Bocas has about a dozen streets, and there is a street that goes right up along the coast and back to the airport. It used to be that Bocas town itself was a little island, separated from the island of Colon. During the banana plantation days, they needed to bring trucks across and did not want to do it via the ferry all the time, so they built a little road. But instead of building a bridge, they built up the earth like a two lane road that connected Bocas Town to the island of Colon, and that is called the isthmus.

 

On the north side of the isthmus, there is a beach called Public Beach, and we always say that it is the ugliest beach that we have, because no one cleans it; sometimes debris washes from the ocean onto the shore. Public Beach has restaurants, which is why people end up going swimming there. Events like Feria del Mar (a fair like you would be accustomed to in the US, but in Panamanian style) are also held at Public Beach.

 

On the other side of the isthmus to the south is a little bay called Saigon. Prior to the last fifteen years, it was mostly locals who lived in Saigon and their houses were built on the water, because there is not a lot of land. Behind them, there is only about one row of houses, and that’s it. In the last fifteen years, expats have come and bought some of those lots and houses and remodeled them. So it is now a mixed neighborhood, but it is still pretty rustic and traditional Panamanian-looking.

 

When you go out of town a little bit, there is a neighborhood called Big Creek. When I first got here, some friends of ours bought a big piece of land next to a creek called Big Creek. They divided the land they bought into 24 lots or so, and started selling the lots. Now most of the lots have been sold and built on. There are a few vacant lots and a few unfinished houses, but for the most part, it is a pretty upscale small neighborhood. It is located both across the street from the ocean.  If you follow the road back to the lake, which is the Bocas Town reservoir, it is a little nice, quiet community.

 

The road splits about a mile outside of Bocas Town and that part is called Y Griega. To get to Bluff Beach, you take the road to the right of the “Y” or the Y Griega. When you go along the road, you will end up in Bluff Beach. It is somewhat an exclusive area, because the road is not paved all the way there, but people do want to go there, because it is beautiful. Surfers go there every day. Bluff Beach is not actually a community, but there are some people who live in there, and there are a couple of restaurants and bars. Bluff Beach is a surfer beach.

 

The left of the Y, takes you to Bocas Del Drago, which is another little community. Drago also has a bed and breakfast hostel, a hotel, and a calm beach. It is where Starfish Beach is located. There is a school and some homes in Drago, too. 

The town of Bocas, Bluff Beach and Bocas del Drago are the hot spots on the island of Colon where the majority of people stay. People live along the road to these places, but more people live in those three communities.

 

Carenero

 

The next closest island to Colon is Carenero, the next most developed island. It is sort of a donut-shaped island, and all along the edges of it, you will find houses, hotels, and restaurants. It has a sand beach on one side and a lot of people like it, even though it was a mangrove island originally, and there are more bugs and mosquitoes than in other places.

 

Solarte Island

 

Solarte Island is gorgeous but not as developed as Colon or Carenero, and little communities are cropping up. What tends to happen is, expat community developers who buy a large piece of land and divide it into several lots, and then they sell the lots, and a home will go on each lot. Discovery Bay is like that, which is about a 15-minute boat ride from Bocas. It has eight houses, and they have a boat slip for each house. It is all incorporated, so you buy 1/8 of the corporation when you buy a house there. There is also a failed development in Solarte Island. A guy came in 15 years ago and bought up some parts of the island. He divided it into over 200 lots and he started selling them. He claimed that he would build infrastructure for everybody to build their houses and have electricity and water. In the middle of the project, and after selling over 100 lots, he went bankrupt and never finished the project. Some of the people decided to build on their own anyway. So there is a bed and breakfast there, and a couple of vacation homes, and maybe half a dozen homes that have an ocean view, but they have no services. The whole island runs on solar power. On the other side of the island, there are bed and breakfasts, too and there is a nice restaurant called the Blue Coconut.

 

 Bastimentos 

 

Another island in the Bocas del Toro archipelago is Bastimentos. Bastimentos is often called "the Caribbean Island," because most of the original settlers on that island are Jamaican slaves that were brought in to work for the banana plantation. You have to like the Rastafarian kind of atmosphere in order to live over there. It is very mixed with locals and gringos. They have nice hostels, restaurants and schools. It is a large island where some areas do have electricity. The name of the town on Bastimentos Island is Bastimentos Town.  A lot of Bastimentos is uninhabited and part of it is a marine park. Further down the island, there are some private homes and some beaches, and there is a community called Red Frog Resort.

 

Red Frog is one of the upscale communities in the area. There are approximately 41 houses, each one with an infinity pool with views out to the ocean.  They're getting ready to build some condos, too.

 

Isla Popa 

 

Isla Popa is a big island with lots of sand beaches because it has open ocean. There is not really a big expat community there, but there are some resorts and some tracts of land for sale. Around the island, people have private homes. There are locals and Indian tribes living there, too.

 

Cristobal

 

There is another island called Cristobal, which doesn't have a formal town like Bocas Town or Bastimentos Town.  There are, however, some Indian Villages.  One of them is called Valle Escondido or the Hidden Valley.  There are also private developments along the coastline where people built houses.

 

Isla Pastores 

 

Isla Pastores or Shepherd Island is another island of the Bocas Del Toro Archipelago. It is minimally developed, but it does have homes and is 15 minutes via boat to Almirante on the mainland, which is where you would go for supplies.

 

Zapatillas Islands

 

The Zapatillas Islands are marine parks, so no one lives there.  You can take tourist trips there and hang out on the beach, have a picnic, snorkel, dive, etc.

 

Here's a video to show you how the less inhabited areas look: