Outside the capital city there are a number of sandy white Caribbean islands like the San Blas (home of the Kuna Yala tribe of severe-faced women with golden nose rings, riotously patterned clothing, and intricate and extensive arm- and leg-bands) and Bocas del Toro; as well as dramatic equatorial jungles and mountains to explore. Never an explorer myself, I headed to the tamer
Bocas del Toro, an archipelago of islands an hour’s flight away. As it turns out, all of Panama is an exploration of some sort: mangrove swamps, waterways swarming with ominous jellyfish, humidity conditions that can melt an iPad, spiders, red frogs, forest gangs with pangas, rum-pickled expats on yachts, small boats, big waves.