Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BY WATER-TAXI
Two companies run water-taxis to Bocas Town with little to choose between them. Bocas
Marine Tours ( 758 4085,
bocasmarinetours.com
) and Expreso Taxi 25 ( 758 3498)
both charge $6 with boats leaving every 30min (6am-6.30pm). Find out when the next de-
parture is from both companies before committing and watch out for touts, who will offer to
carry your luggage and book your ticket for a fee, and may try to dissuade you from checking
out the competition by claiming the office is closed.
BY CAR, BIKE OR MOTORBIKE
If you're coming by car to Almirante, you can leave it in a secure compound at nearby Leiza's
($3/day). Anyone wanting to take a bike or motorcycle across will need to head for the car
ferry dock and get the
Palanga
( 391 1754,
ferrybocas.com
), which makes one very slow
crossing a day (Tues-Sun 8am, returning at 4pm; $3 bicycle; $10 motorbike; $25/car plus $2/
passenger).
Changuinola
Twenty-nine kilometres west of Almirante and only 17km from the Costa Rica border sits
the hot, dusty town of
CHANGUINOLA
, Panama's most important banana centre. Surroun-
ded by flat, drained wetlands, a patchwork of plantations and pastureland, this bustling, un-
attractive town of around fifty thousand possesses little of interest to the visitor but provides
a launch pad for trips to the Humedales de San San Pond Sak or Parque International La
Amistad. It is also the best place to stay if you've missed the last water-taxi to Bocas or are
too late to make the Costa Rican border.
Most of the action in town occurs along the congested
Avenida 17 de Abril
, whose crowded
central pavements overflowing with cheap goods soon give way to broken, potholed ground.
The road runs north-south but cut through east to the parallel street and you can glimpse
rusting carriages in railway sidings and disused tracks, the last vestiges of what was once an
impressive rail network built by the United Fruit Company extending along the coast back to
Almirante and well into Costa Rica.
