After the drama of the day before I felt a little bit better and my face was almost back to normal so we took a stroll into town in the sunshine. It was further than we had remembered but the sun was glorious and we strolled trough the fields of flowering fruits and vegetables. We went to a small hotel restaurant for lunch and had a Pinapple Liquado which was made with a whole pinapple and was sooo good. After lunch we walked back and again crashed out in front of the fire with our laptops. That night I was violently sick and can only think it was maybe a really small dose of food poisoning (from the lunch, not my own cooking!), it was awful but also the first time I have been ill since we left and after a couple of days I felt fine again. We spent our last 2 days in Cerro Punta trying to arrange Peggy’s shipping and plan a wedding but we just weren’t getting anywhere, the rain had set in for good and thick grey clouds gathered around us and the hills all day and night, we even had a thunder storm which was great as we were so close to it. It was almost like the clouds were vibrating and the rain came from all angles in fine mist and huge drops all at the same time! We got Peggy an oil change on our last day and set out early the next morning to Bocas Del Torro which is a Caribbean Island. We had decided it would be our last chance for a while to visit anywhere Caribbean and that we would go and try to learn a little Spanish. They have a great school there and we could spend time between lessons laying on the beach. The rain never stopped as we crossed the continental divide through the tropical rainstorm. The road wound tightly through the rainforest, passed tiny ramshackle villages and thundering waterfalls. The drive was beautiful yet daunting, the thought of driving it in the sunshine was lovely but in the dark grey cloud and sheet rain it was a tough 300km drive.

We finally arrived at the ferry port of Almirante. As we pulled into the town a boy flagged us down and asked if we were looking for the ferry, we were tired and it was gettting dark so we let him show us the way. The next ferry was at 7am and he told us there was a secure carpark where we could stay. He took us there and we payed him a dollar to say thank you. He was so happy with it and told us he earns one dollar a day working at the port! Alex went to get some water and the boy went along with him and on the way they were approached several times by people selling everything from drugs, to oranges, to women! We were happily ushered into a high fenced carpark and told by the woman that we had until 8pm and then NOT to get out of the vehicle under any circumstances as she would be letting the dogs out. They had 2 HUGE rotweilers prowl the carpark at night and they were NOT friendly so we did as we were told, barely daring to move in the night for fear of upsetting the dogs.
We were happy to leave the port town the next morning on the early ferry and sat in Peggy as we crossed the Caribbean to our next island stop…which wasn’t really as we had expected at all.
We rolled off the ferry and into tourist town. Gourmet food shops, chinese supermarkets and dive shops lined the streets, people wandered with their take out coffees and sat in street bars as we drove past looking for the island we had read about. We tried to drive out of the town but the road turned to beach and after driving several hundred meters IN the sea we decided not to go too much further. We went back to town to look for somewhere to stay and found nowhere suitable to park Peggy for the night. We looked at the map and set off driving the other way around the island to Boca del Drago in the persistant rain, again we had to drive on the beach to get there but only a short way and we found a spot to set up camp right on the beach…which was flooded with the sea due to the recent heavy rains.

We mooched over to a small resaurant hoping for some cheap local seafood and were faced with expensive frozen prawns and realised we had made a big mistake. We listened to the rain and the Caribbean sea all night and hoped for a better day tomorrow. Tomorrow brought more of the same but we did manage to arrange some Spanish lessons, and with the lessons came use of the schools facilities, a basic shower and toilet a small kitchen and they even allowed us to park outside of the school. We arranged to start lessons the next day and felt a little better about the situation. We wandered the streets and decided to get our bearings, we would be staying for a week after all to complete our lessons. As we walked the rain became heavier and heavier and we took shelter under a canopy outside a closed shop front. There on a table was an abandoned newspaper and we sat and read while we waited for the worst of the weather to pass…and THAT is where our whole visit to Bocas changed!

Find out what happens next on our travelling wedding adventure!