Jinja Island: Getting Around the Bocas Area

From talking to people in town, both native and expat, and listening to the morning traffic on the Bocas Emergency Network (B.E.N. - more on that in a future post) there seems to be an area surrounding Bocas Town that is thought of, and referred to, as the "Inner Islands". Only one island actually lies entirely within this area, and that is Isla Carenero, which basically acts as a suburb of Bocas Town. Bocas Town proper occupies a spit of land off the southern end of Isla Colon. That's where the highest population density is, but people seem to live in pockets all over Isla Colon, especially on the southern side. Just west of Bocas Town is the Bocas Marina and a large unprotected anchorage area with quite a few vessels staying there at any given time.

There is also "Basti Town" on the western end of Bastimentos, hugging the edges of the half-moon bay that can be seen on the map below. The western tip of Solarte is known as "Hospital Point" (because yes, there was once a hospital there) and has a concentration of upper-end residences, but doesn't quite make it to "town" status.

These areas within the "Inner Islands" circle drawn below are easy to get to, as lanchas (boat taxis) can fill up with people going back and forth, and the fare is lower for everyone due to this fact.

This brings us to Jinja Island, which is well outside the "Inner Islands". Measured on Google Earth, it is exactly 6 miles from the Jinja dock to the Carenero Dock in Bocas town where many lanchas come in and out. Bocas Town is easily visible from the Jinja dock. 

Most everyone that lives this far out has their own boat (or lives on one), as did Graham, before it shit the bed. Getting a lancha out here is a special trip, so you typically won't be sharing the fare with any strangers happening to be going in the same direction. Also, you'll be paying the driver for both ways, even though you'll only be occupying his boat for one of them. So it ain't cheap. 

While we are on geography, the map below shows the route taken on my 40th birthday excursion to the Zapatillas. 

From Bocas Town we headed east, around the souther tip of Carenero, around Hospital Point, and into the passage between Solarte and Bastimento, which doesn't seem to have any particular name. Somewhere in the tangled maze of mangrove islands and channels that barely separate the two islands we stopped at "Sloth Island" - this is where I didn't get any good pictures (too busy sloth-spotting). At the southern tip of Bastimentos is Coral Cay - this is where we stopped to grab beers and put in lunch orders. After that we crossed basically open water to the Zapatillas, beyond which is undoubtedly the open Caribbean Sea. We were technically on Zapatilla 2, the easternmost of the two. We returned to Coral Cay on the way back, eating our ordered meals and swimming from the dock. Then we continued through Almirante Bay to the Blue Coconut for more drinks, swimming, and "scurfing" behind the lancha. Finally, back to Selina Hostel. You should check out their website - they have four locations in Panama and some really well-produced videos of all the stuff that you can do at Selina Hostels and on Selina Tours.