Today we woke up to no rain. We quickly hoped on a boat and headed for Red
Frog Beach. This is the only place in the world that the Strawberry Poison Dart
Frog lives (Dendrobates pumilio basti). Our boat pulled into a mangrove forest
where the sea was as flat as glass. We climbed off the boat and started the
15 minute hike to the beach. Within a minute, Shelley found a poison dart frog.
I snapped one photo of it as it quickly hopped away. These frogs are around
the size of a thumb nail. I looked for the next half hour without finding any
and then finally on the far side of the beach we found 6 more. These frogs are
wonderful and the beach they live near is one of the most beautiful beaches
in the world.
Unfortunately, most the beach and the frogs habitat has been bought to develop
The Red Frog Beach Club (http://www.redfrogbeach.com/). ¨Red Frog Beach Club,
an American-based development corporation, is currently constructing phase one
of its development plan, which includes condominiums and luxury villas on the
northern coast of Bastimentos Island. And the company is seeking approval from
ANAM, Panama's national environmental agency, to begin construction on phase
two of its massive, proposed residential resort, which would include up to 800
additional living units, luxury hotel facilities, and a large marina.¨ - (www.actionnetwork.org).
There is currently no development at all on this beach (except two small soda
stands). I don´t like being political on my site, but...
After the beach we took a taxi boat back to the main island and right off the
boat booked two scuba diving trips. We did not have a room so we changed and
left our stuff in a storage room of the dive shop and went off to our dives.
Our dives were about 45 minutes long each and were fabulous. Our dive master
was awful and knew almost nothing about the fish and corals we saw, but it was
still awesome (sorry no underwater photos, I did not bring my camera housing
on this trip). After the dives we decided that we had seen all that we wanted
in Bocus del Toro so we hopped on the next water ferry to the mainland. Our
next goal was to make it to Panama City. We had to take a taxi to the small
bus station and wait a few hours before we were able to board our night bus
to Panama City at 7:00. The bus was freezing, we climbed on and everyone was
literally wearing ski clothing and blankets. We were unprepared and froze for
the next 9 hours as our bus approached Panama City.
