Going forward with my publications about our trip to Panama and, following the last publication, we arrived at the Bastimentos island.
The idea would be to explore the jungle and the beaches departing from a good lodge, where we would be well installed. As I mentioned in a previous post, the "discovery" of the lodge where to stay was almost a "love at first sight" because of the reviews I had seen on tripadvisor. Although we often have to know how to read the reviews of the accommodations on reviews sites, discarding crap and false reviews, the choice for La Loma was decided almost instantly because it has so many good and coherent reviews. The idea was to stay well hosted and make some "expeditions" departing from the lodge.
Let me tell you: if you decide to go to the Bocas del Toro region, stay at La Loma. Definitely!
The lodge is secluded on the Bastimentos island and can only be reached by speed boat in 20 minutes from a small pier in the city of Bocas. As we approach the Bastimentos island mangrove we barely notice the small wooden pier which, surrounded by mangroves, serves as entrance to the lodge. Guided from the airport by our friendly host, we are taken to the common area of
the lodge where everything is explained to us in detail in a relaxed mood, leaving us immediately with the idea that we are welcome and where everything is done by the hosts to have an excellent stay.
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The lodge is made up of a common area where we have meals and it has four rooms - yes! only four! - one being near the common area and the other three at the top of the hill, secluded, requiring a short walk to climb walking to the rooms. The rooms are amazing! Imagine a huge, covered balcony, open to the jungle, where the beds are in the middle of that balcony and we have a view of the jungle surrounded by nature . This is it! Beautiful and spacious rooms built from local wood, in where we have total privacy and feel the jungle around us. Relaxation and quietness and contact with nature.
And - let me tell you - the whole service of the lodge is done for our comfort and satisfaction. From the detail of the wooden box left every morning, early, outside the door of our room with a hot coffee and chocolate muffins, as if it is a "first breakfast" before we went down for the real breakfast, to the gourmet three course dinner, fantastic, cooked with local products, through the sympathy of the hosts ... everything is a pleasure and delight!
The stress of being stretched out in the bed-hammock of our room (with sound)
In the three days/four nights we spent there - the stays are fixed length for two or four nights - in addition to relaxing and rest under the sounds of the jungle, looking for the monkeys or the sloths in the treetops around us, discovering the hummingbirds that appeared from time to time and guessing the nature sounds of the jungle, we did some of the activities that the lodge offers to us: the hike to the Polo beach where we caught huge rain-showers that seemed that the sky was falling down and where we paddled in the mud on the way to the beach, the visit to the cave of the bats where, inside the cave where the bats, attached to the ceiling, looked for us, we had to walk in the water by the chest, and the visit to the chocolate farm where we got to know the details of the chocolate production and cocoa picking. And each day we ended up with a fantastic dinner enjoying conversations with our hosts and other guests, always with the joy of an extremely well spent day.
It's worth it! It was one of the best stays I had in my travels . A five star service in the middle of the jungle.