Starfish Beach, Bocas del Toro

One free afternoon, we rode a bus across the island to visit Starfish Beach. This is an area of clean sandy shoreline with calm, warm water where hundreds of large starfish congregate right by the shore. Janet, Eli and I hiked the shoreline for a couple of kilometers (wading aross a clear stream leaving a backwater lagoon) until we found the starfish. You come upon them suddenly, and realize you have walked by a number already. They don't make much noise.

A pleasant afternoon of wading kneedeep among the starfish, talking about life while sitting on driftwood, drinking all six of Eli's cervezas, listening to the call of a bellbird (a truly strange tropical bird with stringy wattles hanging off its face) from the dense mangrove and soaking in this mangrove coast that has not changed much in a long time. As we stood knee deep in water gazing at the starfish, along the shore and within several feet of us raced a school of slender silver baby barracudas about one foot long. Eli said keep an eye out for mama. We did.




The trail to Starfish Beach. Flipflops are handy to quickly take off during wading around fallen palms and streams entering the sea.







View up the beach from starfish beach. Coconut palms along the shore, mangrove swamp behind.












Starfish on clean sand in two feet of water; warm as a bath.









A balsa wood pirogue carved from one tree trunk. About 12 feet long.








The walk back.