Red Frog Beach... "Tienes una cookie?"

After arriving at Mondo Taitu, Dov prepared some delicious (free!) pancakes while we got ready for our first full day in Bocas. Out first destination was Red Frog Beach on Isla Bastimentos. We headed to the island via boat taxi, where we paid a $2 entrance fee and then walked through a tropical mangrove forest, stopping to pick coconuts and take pictures of wildlife. We even (rudely) observed two lizards mating (Sam: "He´s not even going to buy her breakfast!").

Through the mangroves was Red Frog Beach! We spread out our towels and collectively "Bay-Watched" it into the incredibly warm water. Dov and Sam spent the next few hours attempting to teach Amanda and I how to body surf, to no avail... After too much salt water was swallowed, we decided to practice our acrobatic skills by jumping off of each other´s shoulders and having the boys throw us out of the water. After all of this hard work a nap on the beach was mandatory, and we all happily passed out in the sunshine looking out at the islands in the distance. Sam and I traded iPods before we fell asleep, and it was then that I introduced him to John Butler Trio!

After a nice nap, Amanda and I woke up and decided to look for our very own red frogs ("Strawberry Poison Dart Frog"). We looked for about a minute while the boys kept sleeping, and realized it would require a lot more effort than we were willing to put in after beaching it all day (since they are the size of dimes and live somewhere in the dense tropical forest). We aborted our mission and went back to wake up the boys so we could meet our boat taxi driver by our prearranged pick-up time of 5pm. On our way back through the mangroves we saw a little local boy was walking towards us with a wheelbarrow. He had found a frog! As I took a bunch of pictures of both the boy and the frog, this dialog took place:

Boy: "Tienes una cookie?" (Do you have a cookie?)

Me: "No, lo siento." (No, I´m sorry.)

Boy: "No? ...Gum?"

Me: "No."

Back on Bocas we walked past a bar called "F*cking Sundays!" which is owned and run by a Panamanian surfer who is apparently disgruntled since every bar besides his is closed on Sundays. Upstairs was the restaurant "Om" (tagline: "There´s no place like Om"), but since we had some time to kill before the restaurant opened Dov thought it would be a great idea to start us off with some 50 cent tequila shots and $1 Panamá beers. Perfect after a full day of dehydration. A few drinks, rounds of pool, and good laughs later, we all headed upstairs to Om for some fabulous Indian food. This is also the night we discovered you need a good 2-3 hours to eat any proper meal in Panama...

We headed back to Mondo where Amanda and I promptly passed out cold after a solid 14 hours of traveling, 5 hours of beaching, and a few more of eating and drinking. The boy, of course, stayed up again way late (not surprising for Dov since he slept for all 14 hours of traveling, but how was Sam not as sleep deprived as I was??). Can´t wait to see what tomorrow will bring :)