I am amazed that I need to write this post during the first week of March, but in all fairness to any interested parties it is necessary. What am I talking about? Well, for any of you who are considering a trip to Tranquilo Bay over the December holiday period, you need to take action. We are answering quite a few inquiries on a daily basis with regard to the holidays and the week before New Year's is down to just two cabanas. A trip down here is a great gift to both you and your family so if you are thinking about it - give us a call.

January 2010 was one of the busiest months ever here at Tranquilo Bay. We had a large group that liked to get up with the sun and return at dark. We had many different couples coming to see what the Panamanian jungle had to offer. We had a few families onsite to see our beaches. We had an individual traveler who has become a pen pal to Tres and Scott since she left. It was a great month.

The months in the fourth quarter are usually a bit slower pace. The archipelago slows down until the USA Thanksgiving holidays begin. Things pick up a bit at that time. Come the December holidays things are going full pace yet again.



October 2009

We watch the orthoptera as they make their way out of the trees.



November 2009

Local children in school enjoy it when our visitors stop off at their classroom to learn a bit with them.



December 2009

Watching nature continue on its yearly course - the same as it ever was. December is a good month for most activities. The surf picks up again.

Friends, family, wildlife. We experience them all during the third quarter each year. Surfing is up during the summer months. Fishing starts again in September. All of the adventure activities are available throughout these months.



July 2009

Many of the beautiful natural attractions that can be found here in Bocas.



August 2009

Family adventures before the children return to school for the Fall.



September 2009

Quiet days with very few people on the islands. Hatching turtles.

Our second quarter usually includes a lot of fishing. This quarter was no exception. We caught a large number of fish. We saw sea turtles. And we did all the regular fun stuff.



April 2009

Life in paradise - just an example of what awaits.



May 2009

Fishing, turtles, all kinds of good stuff.



June 2009

Not many photos as we were closed for the first three weeks for our annual trips to the USA.

January 2009

All the usual things: beach combing, birding, hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, swimming. Surfing is typically good in January, but we didn't have any surfers this January.



February 2009

We had a celebration of the natural life around us. These are all of the photos from the blog posts that month.



March 2009

Spring Break for many different groups. These photos are also a combination of the blog posts for March.

People frequently ask us when they should come to visit us. It truly depends upon what you want to do and when you can get away. Our weather doesn't change very much throughout the year. Our temperatures remain the same. The biggest difference is between rainy season and dry season. However, even that is no longer dependable. Our weather patterns, just the same as everywhere else, are changing. Months that used to be rainy are not so much any more. One of the best suggestions I can make is that you take a look at the things you want to do and when you can get away.

We have month by month photo galleries beginning in July 2007. I try to take a good sample of what we did in those months to include in the gallery. Look at the month you think you can get away. Does it include the activities in which you want to partake? Yes, great. No, that doesn't mean that activity is unavailable in that month, it may mean that we didn't have anyone that month interested in the same activity. It may mean that the weather conditions didn't support it. It may mean we just didn't get any photos for one reason on another. So ask us about it.

I am going to review each of the quarters and months this week to give you an idea of what we did this past year. Let me know if you have any questions.

Here are a couple of posters that I made for Jim to take to a trade show a year or so ago. I realized that I never posted them here as I was working on the blog recently. Email me if you want a copy of them to print out. Have a great weekend!

Jim found this video on You Tube a while back. It is an interesting watch - especially from an historical perspective. Enjoy!

The canal to Changuinola has been closed since the storm last November. The water taxis no longer take this route as it is full of trees, etc. Jim, Jay and David decided to go that direction last month to see what it was like these days. Beautiful.

Always on an adventure. Jim told the girls that they were going on a kayak ride over to the island to look for dinosaurs. As they returned from the island to the dock, he told Tres and Scott that if either one of them could catch onto the boat that he would give them a popsicle.






Look at him work trying to lose Tres after he had already won a popsicle.



Scott's turn to be captain. Who knew that a single kayak could hold four kids and support two hangers on?

Looking for the green eel that lives in the coral by the dock.



Walking into the shade



Enjoying her vacation



Smiling for the camera

This is a small sample of the wild life that Greg, Victoria and Marilyn saw during their week long stay with us. They are all avid naturalists so they were taking lots of shots. It is amazing to me to see the diversity of their sightings. They spent all but one day here on site. Only the photo of the hermit crab is from offsite. All of the others they were able to catch on film here. Very cool.

We had an amazing trip to the Zapatilla Cayes a few weeks ago with several groups of guests. This week we will showcase some of these photos. Enjoy

Another video - this one features some of our hiking adventures throughout Bocas del Toro, Panama and the next province over from us, Chiriqui. Our hikes vary in terrain and difficulty level based upon what you want to experience. We can take you on an easy walk around a beach or we can do a strenuous hike through some creeks and waterfalls as well as the levels in between. Take a look.

Here is one of our new videos highlighting the fishing excursions we take. We are preparing for a few weeks of fishing later this month so I thought it an appropriate time to take a look at some of the big fish we catch around here.

Here is another one of the vidoes I put together which gives you an idea of what the boat ride out to Tranquilo Bay is like as well as giving you a feel for walking around our grounds and into one of our cabanas. It is so difficult to give you an accurate feel of the enormity of the jungle and what it is like to be inside it. It is an amazing experience. I will attempt to put it into words for you.

When you step into under the canopy of the jungle, the temperature immediately and noticeably drops. You feel a calm pass over you as if you took a deep breath and shook out your shoulders and there was no need to do either one. The green you see all around you - above, in front of, behind and below you. There is life all around you. Plants, animals, insects and bugs all coexist in this environment. We are all familiar with how difficult it is to calm a crying newborn baby - sometimes no matter what you do, you just cannot calm them down. The jungle does not fail. It can calm even the most disturbed baby just by welcoming the baby into its arms.

We live in the jungle. Some of our facility has been carved out of it, but the jungle is never far away. You can walk on one the pathways to get to the cabanas and you are in the middle of the jungle. You can go on one of our trails and you are in the jungle. However, one of the wonderful things about being here in Bocas del Toro, Panama is that we are also on an island in the middle of the Caribbean. So we have the crystal clear waters and beautiful beaches. Since we are in an archipelago we also face the mountains which house the volcano that made this amazing archipelago so many years ago. All of these things come together here at Tranquilo Bay. How very fortunate we are.