Red Frog Beach

Red Frog Beach is on Isla Bastimentos, in the Bocas del Toro archipelago off Panama's Caribbean coast near the Costa Rican border. It is reached by water taxi from Bocas town, then a short walk across the island.

The frog is real and is worth understanding. *Oophaga pumilio*, the strawberry poison dart frog, lives in the leaf litter here and is about the size of a thumbnail; on Bastimentos it occurs in a striking range of colour morphs — red, orange, yellow, green, blue-legged — varying between populations on the same island, which makes the archipelago a well-studied case in the evolution of colour variation. Local children will find them for a small tip, which is a functioning arrangement.

The beach itself is golden sand facing open Caribbean, with a shore break and rip currents; it is not a calm swimming beach and drownings have occurred. Bocas is generally a place where the water is calm inside the archipelago and rough on the outer shores, and this is an outer shore. Bastimentos is one of the larger islands in the Bocas group and most of it is national park, which is why the walk across from the dock passes through forest rather than past building.

Development is a resort and residential project on the hill behind, which has been controversial locally over land and forest clearance, alongside simpler beach bars. Bastimentos also holds a national marine park and an Afro-Caribbean and Ngäbe community whose relationship with the tourism economy is not uncomplicated.

Most of Bastimentos is national park, which is why the walk across from the dock goes through forest rather than past building. The frogs are small, poisonous and easier to hear than to see. The Atlantic side has a rip and no lifeguard; the sheltered end is where people actually swim.