This weekend we transformed to water creatures. On Saturday, we hired a boat to take us to a remote beach on a nearby island. It was a beautiful white-sand beach with just us and the little fishes. The water was so shallow we could walk to almost 200 feet from the shore. With our snorkeling gear, we spotted a few sting rays hiding in the sand, a colorful starfish, some fishes, and a few sea cucumbers. 

Sunday however was the real water adventure. We booked a boat tour with an eclectic group of other tourists (tip for the next time: avoid the group with its own beer cooler). We were first taken to a bay where dolphins swim from the sea to have their tasty shrimp breakfast. We spotted a few dolphins popping in and out of the water, in singles and in pairs. Every time one was spotted, hordes of tourist boats rushed towards it, scaring it off in the process.

We then proceeded to a snorkeling point in the ocean, where the water depth was about three to six feet. We spent about an hour there, admiring an incredible variety of corals of all shapes and colors. Unfortunately, you´ll have to take our word for it, since we didn't bring a camera on the boat. You'd just have to see it to believe it.

After an overpriced lunch (we had no choice, it was a dock in the middle of nowhere, and the choices were their plates, or the fish below), we were taken to another island. This island's claim to fame are tiny red frogs that really only show up when it rains. It didn't rain today, so we only saw one poor specimen in the torturing hands of a local kid. But we had a gorgeous beach as a consolation prize, and spent some time catching some waves and sun.

The last attraction of the tour was another snorkeling point, with less variety of corals but a larger variety of fish. We started to feel like fish ourselves, swaying in the waves, but we managed to spend an entire day in/on the water without losing our stomach contents.

Besides the wide collection of fish, there was also an interesting collection of people in the island. A mix of Panamans, Caribbeans, indigenous and westerners comprise the population of this tiny island. We got exposed to a part of the Carib culture when a group of them started a musical procession on the main street one evening. In the front were children, dancing and singing in rows, and in the back were the drummers, playing a dozen percussion instruments. They all progressed slowly down the main street, in one long African rhythmic song.

Here's an example of some of the islanders: