A Tale of Two Panama Fishing Lodges - (Mostly a tale of one)

About eight months ago, I receive an email from a Jim Kimball, introducing himself as the owner/operator of Tranquilo Bay in Bocas Del Toro, Panama. He congratulated us on opening a new fishing lodge on the Pacific side, and invited us to visit and share the trials, tribulations, and follies of construction on a remote island. We drove from David to the port of Almirante on the Atlantic side last week to take the water taxi to Bocas del Toro. The following pictures reflect the flavor of this community , which is slowly returning to the earth in the form of rust.

View Full Album

 

The water taxi to Bocas takes about 15 minutes, and is a welcome ride out of Almirante, past the port and across the bay. Bocas del Toro reminds me of early Key West. Very early Key West.    

Jim met us at Starfish Coffee with two of his guides (both botanists) and we were off for the 10 mile trip to Isla Bastimentos on which his lodge is located.

 

Jim and Jay, his partner have lived on the island for 10 years constructing, and now operating for the last 5, this most impressive facility. Their story is best explained on the Tranquilo Bay web site.

Frankly we had a great time trading stories (they have a lot more than we do) and listening to how they managed to put this very well thought out, and extremely well appointed lodge together.  Here are a few pictures…..

I know you probably were not interested in their generator house, how they store potable water, but we were, and after all this is my blog.

Both Jim and Jay are excellent anglers, and apparently the tarpon fishing in this location is equal to or better than Costa Rica.  There will be more on this subject as we are working on a unique Panama fishing adventure that will utilize the unique features and locations of both our lodges.