The Backpacker Resort

Bocas Del Toro, Panama

Bambuda Lodge was a backpacker resort of sorts in the Bocas Del Toro chain of islands off the coast of Panama. It was the only hostel on Isla Solarte and a tad more pricey than the competition at $23 a night. It featured a waterslide, a jungle trail, and family style communal dinners.

The dinners could also be described as cafeteria style. For a solo traveler, picking a spot to sit felt a bit like high school. This was an opinion voiced to me by a lovely British Laura who I met at the lodge.

Laura was just finishing up a year of traveling through South America. She had met up with her boyfriend for parts of it but her swan song was a solo project. We stayed up late one night talking about menstruation, variations in male anatomy, child-rearing, life, death, and screenplay ideas. The next day she gave me a book about viral marketing she had just finished.

Another night at Bambuda I played like 30 games of ping pong. There was some superior competition on the island but a few of the contenders got distracted by salsa-dancing white women, after which I went on a tear of winning eight games in a row.

The normal thing to do at a budget resort is lie in and around the pool in as little clothing as possible and smile a lot. I of course am more of a scowling wanderer. So instead I hiked around the island and took pictures of frogs.

I also took a boat taxi out to the main Bocas Island and wandered around there. I found a deserted beach full of trash. It was the rainy season in Panama, so the islands tended towards empty.

Laura and I never exchanged contact information, and I never finished her economics book. Instead I got her friend's phone number, drank a bunch of beers, and argued politics with some cool Australians from her dinner table.

Still I will mostly remember Bambuda for Laura. Too bad she had a boyfriend, lived in England, and was headed home. C'est la vie.