What is a “Cayuco?”

Odd as it may sound, we get this question a lot. Cayucos are the hollowed logs that the locals have been using for their boats for centuries. What struck us was the culture that is intrinsically linked to these amazing craft. From birth, the Gnobes use cayucos for cradles and playpens. Once the children are old enough, they paddle to school in smaller cayucos, which are their equivalent bicycles. With the need for fishing, diving and transportation of goods, these vessels increase in size, until some are well over 50 ft and deeply drafted in order to ferry tons of material. There’s nothing more inspiring than to witness the locals standing while paddling these very unstable boats, and little more amusing than to witness a cow being transported across the waterscape by one either. What ceases to amaze are the intrepid fisherman paddling miles offshore to fish in oftentimes huge seas only to return under “sail” with their sprit rigs formed from old sacks and other discarded material. Out at Cayo Agua we have a friend who surfs pretty large breaks with us, except he’s doing it in his cayuco!!

How often do you get hurricanes and what about storms in general?

We are oftentimes asked about the occurrence of hurricanes in Panama and the Bocas. Simply put; there are none. The Bocas are situated below 10 degrees north latitude. As a result, they are affected by the equatorial uplifting of the jet stream rather than the convergence zones which produce hurricanes at + 10 degrees latitude. Additionally, Venezuela and its large mountain ranges effectively block the passage of the hurricanes that are spawned off the northern African coast, and subsequently flow westward towards the Caribbean. Incidentally, insurance companies that underwrite vessels will insure them against “named storms” as long as they remain inside the 10 degree latitude belt.

We do experience dramatic thunder storms with oftentimes strong winds; however these “Temporales” are usually short-lived. The Bocas define a rain forest environment; therefore we can experience heavy deluges, particularly during the rainy season. Quite often our daily weather patterns consist of late morning and afternoon sunshine, clear evenings and rainy spells late at night into the early morning. This is a great combination, since the nightly rains are great for sleeping and continue to fill our water tanks.

What are the dry and rainy seasons?

With climatic changes due to global warming, it’s difficult to predict local weather patterns with certainty. Generally there are two dry seasons in the Bocas. The first starts in January and lasts through March. During this time we have great trade winds, and oftentimes the swell is excellent for surfing. When the swell is up, the diving is not as good, and vice versa. April through June bring more rain, though in the past couple of years, those months have been very dry. June through August tend to be more humid with frequent thunderstorms. That being said, we have experienced great weather during this season. September and October provide the second dry season with very calm conditions. This is definitely the best time for snorkeling, diving and offshore fishing. November and December are wet! Just remember that the Bocas lie in a tropical rain forest climate, and we do get rain all year.

How bad are the mosquitoes and no-see-ums?

The good news is that we really don’t have many mosquitoes around Casa Cayuco. Occasionally there may be a “hatch” and they are around, though this is a rarity. The Chitras tend to come out at sunset, and usually go for the ankles. They aren’t too bad, and can be dealt with by spraying the ankle area, or simply wearing very light-weight pants and socks. One thing that we have discovered is that some folks are more reactive to the chitras, while others are not bothered at all. That being said, the best way to avoid the problem is the clothing route, which works well, and is not uncomfortably warm. Our ceiling fans and/or a sunset viewing trip out to the dock— where the breeze is better— seem to do the trick as well. Spraying your ankles with an effective spray helps, while wearing cologne is a dinner bell for them.

Other Bugs

You may remember that Expedia.com ad about the couple finding themselves in a horror show of billions and billions of bugs latched onto their mosquito net… well, that’s really not the case, though you will see some pretty strange specimens exploring the outside of your protective shell. So far we haven’t seen any Africanized bees around the area. There are some large yellow hornets which are called “gringos” by the locals. These guys are scary; however they are not aggressive, and are pretty rare.

Critters and Such

The only poisonous snake on Isla Bastimentos is the coral snake. The Terciapela (aka Fer-de-lance) does not reside on Isla Bastimentos. We have boas of varying sizes, and they just keep the mouse population in check. Local legend talks of large cow eaters on the other end of the island ….. We do have some cayman in our pond in the back of the property, and they are mostly less than 1 foot, though the adults reach 3 to 4 feet. They are very shy, and will not bother you. Crikey! Just don’t try to handle the buggers. We do occasionally encounter a scorpion hiding in the woodpile, and they have been known to get inside piled up clothing or shoes and such. Although scorpion stings are rare, we encourage common scorpion sense of shaking out shoes and clothes prior to wearing, and definitely checking youngsters’ items and actions.

What about sharks, jelly fish, sting rays and other sea creatures?

We have only seen nurse sharks, which are harmless as long as you don’t go bothering them. There have been rare sightings of reef, bull and tiger sharks; however those are usually offshore and by spear fisherman with their catch nearby. We are fortunate that we rarely have any jelly fish, and those that we see are the small ones that are more a nuisance than painful. Sting rays are around, so we recommend shuffling through the sea grass and sand when in the water. We do occasionally encounter barracuda, which look fierce but aren’t. Spotted rays abound, and are a pleasure to watch as are the occasional moray eel.

The most dangerous thing that you will encounter around Casa Cayuco will be coconuts! This is not a joke. More people are killed by falling coconuts than lightning every year. We have directed traffic away from the drop zones and planted underneath the trees in order to deter guests from standing under them. You will develop “coconut respect” the first time you hear one drop!

Should we take the malaria treatment? What other ailments are of concern in the Bocas?

We recommend that you follow the CDC website recommendations for the Bocas del Toro. Though we haven’t heard of any cases of malaria or dengue, the very rare chance of infection does exist. We believe that malaria and dengue are more of an issue in the Darian province, which is on the other end of the country.

There have been a few cases of leishmaniasis reported on the mainland, which is 20 miles away. This is a parasite that uses the sand flea as its host. You can find out about it on the CDC website. It is treatable, though the treatment is severe. We do treat our area for sand fleas, and all of our beds have net canopies.

Should we be worried about crime at Casa Cayuco?

Casa Cayuco is a very safe place, but like anywhere in the world it is important to take precautions to deter petty theft.  All our cabins are equipped with safes where you can store your valuables.  We also keep a watchman on site to help deter outsiders from walking around the property at night.  Panama City and San Jose are more of a concern, and common sense should keep you out of danger in those cities as well.

How do you capture the water? How much storage do you have? Do you treat it? What type of septic system do you use?

We have a system of 6 inch pvc gutters that surround our roof and direct the water to 14 x 1200 gallon tanks gallon tanks. This provides us with almost 16,800 gallons of storage. While this sounds like a lot of water, we may encounter weeks of no rain during the dry season. This, of course, coincides with the prime tourist season, so 10,000 gallons can be used up very quickly when we have a lot of guests. As a result, water conservation is imperative! All guests are encouraged to follow simple conservation practices. When using the facilities the old saying, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down” applies. Naturally, we ask that you conserve during showering as well. We have laundry facilities; however washing machines are very water hungry. As a result, we really encourage using the same towels and bedding for your stay. We filter our drinking water for sediment, and treat it with chlorine. Due to the excellent percolation of the area our engineers recommended that we utilize a standard septic tank and drain field. We shipped down the “Infiltrator” system for our mounds, and they are working exceedingly well. We spent a lot of time studying composting systems, and after many detailed conversations with the owners of those systems in our environment, we came to the conclusion that those systems and the propane fired systems were very inefficient, especially for a lodge environment.

How does your solar power system work? What sort of appliances, lighting, fans etc are available?

We have 28 panels which equal 3360 watts of power. We also have 3000 amp hours of battery storage.  Though this sounds like a lot, it isn’t when factoring in various inefficiencies of the system. The energy is stored in over 2000 amp hours of glass mat gel celled batteries in a 24 volt array. The stored dc energy is then converted to ac power through our Outback power system. This power is utilized by our numerous high efficiency ceiling fans, compact fluorescent and LED lighting, water pumps, computer, stereo and a very small blender in the bar. Presently, we have a propane refrigerator and freezer, and a very efficient 24 volt cooler as back-up. We have a back up 5kw diesel generator that we use to run the laundry and occasionally top off the batteries during prolonged periods of rainy/cloudy days and/or high usage. We detest running the beast! Like our water system, conservation is a key factor. We have adequate storage to operate fans and lighting, as long as we conserve. Leave the hair dryers, curling irons and linear accelerators at home.