The Bocas Sewage Challenge No One Is Talking About
The world has come to love Bocas del Toro for its pristine beaches, diverse wildlife, rich culture and vibrant entertainment. Due to the explosion of tourism at the turn of the century, its community has experienced growing pains where infrastructure battles to keep up with the demand presented by a steady growth of new residences and annual visitors. The sewage challenge is one of the more visible –or odorous– manifestations of Bocas’ emerging popularity. Every once in a while, the system is overloaded and discharged at certain points in Bocas Town.
Some believe the effluence is caused by high tides and heavy rains. Others say it only happens during holidays when the islands reach peak capacity with visitors. In a July 2024 interview with Bocas TV, Bocas del Toro Archipelago Chamber of Commerce President Manuel Sanjur spoke about how the real problem stems from past technical decisions during the last renovation project in 2016-2019. “Instead of enlarging the system and preparing it for urban growth, they narrowed the lines,” said Sanjur.
In a 2025 video published by Bocas Ocean, Yeral Abrego visited the Isla Colón treatment plant and reported that the system is often clogged by cooking grease and other items that have no business entering our town’s sewage pipes. Abrego explains, “One of the big problems is lack of infrastructure and trained staff, but even more, people are being very careless—diapers, sanitary pads, wet wipes, jeans and other solid waste are ending up in the plant, which the system is not designed to treat.”
While all of these factors may contribute to the system’s malfunction, recent events have cast a far stranger shadow over the investigation, pointing not to negligence or nature — but to deliberate, calculated vandalism.
The Night Everything Broke
The incident began, as most chaos does in Bocas, during a storm.
On a night when rain was already hammering the streets and the canals were swelling, something triggered a catastrophic sewage containment failure. Blackwater spilled. Streets flooded. The smell, as one resident put it, was “biblical.” The usual storm-drain drama was one thing — but the scale of this was different. This felt intentional.
It was.
“There Were Pizza Boxes Everywhere”
Among the first to notice something unusual was pizza shop owner Hector Pineda. When he arrived the morning after the flood to assess water damage, he found something that had nothing to do with water.
His stockroom had been ransacked.
“There were pizza boxes everywhere,” he said, visibly shaken, gesturing at the debris like a man who had seen something he could not explain. “All my containers from the night before — thrown across the room. Some of the ingredients from the shelves — gone. Completely gone.”
He couldn’t explain it. The locks hadn’t been forced. No windows broken. Nothing on the security camera but a brief burst of static right around 2 a.m. He filed a report. The police were, to put it charitably, unmoved.
The Green Ooze They Tried to Forget
That same week, a guest staying at a nearby hotel made a discovery that would set off one of the more spectacular Facebook forum wars in Bocas history.
While taking an evening walk along the waterfront, she spotted something lodged into an exposed drainage pipe that was actively spilling its contents into the ocean — a large, curved object, dark green, and unmistakably organic in shape.
It appeared to be a shell.
A turtle shell.
She posted the photo. Within hours, the thread had over 200 comments. Was it toxic? Was it a prop? Was it a government cover-up? Was the green ooze — luminescent, slightly viscous, and deeply unsettling — a byproduct of the new infrastructure chemicals? The debate raged for three days. The Health Ministry issued a statement. The statement explained nothing.
The Rat. The Carving. The Witnesses.
Then came the rat.
A local man — known around Carenero for his lively storytelling and equally lively drinking habits — reported seeing a rat near the waterfront. Not a normal rat. A large rat. Walking upright. Purposefully. As if it had somewhere to be.
Residents laughed. They called him a loony. He maintains what he saw.
Two weeks later, near La Gruta, hikers discovered carvings etched into a concrete retaining wall. Rough letters, but deliberate:
DONATELLO
Someone uploaded a photo to Facebook. It got fourteen reactions and one comment that said “lol.”
Nobody was laughing for long.
Four Turtles. Beer. Pizza. Playa Istmito.
On a recent Thursday night, a group of residents walking home from a late dinner near Playa Istmito encountered something that has permanently altered their relationship with reality.
Four large turtles. Upright. Sitting in a loose circle on the sand. Drinking beer. Eating pizza directly from an open box.
The witnesses, armed with flashlights and the courage of a group, approached the scene. What they described in subsequent interviews was consistent: approximately six feet tall each, green, broad-shouldered, and — this detail comes up repeatedly — in an excellent mood.
One of them identified himself as Donatello.
“They were laughing,” said one witness. “Having the absolute best time. Like they didn’t have a care in the world.”
When pressed for details, the one claiming to be Donatello became remarkably candid.
He admitted — openly, apparently without remorse — that he had lodged his shell into the main Bocas sewer line to trigger the flood. On purpose. Strategically. So that he and his brothers could ride the surge up through the drainage system and surface directly beneath the nearest pizza restaurant. Under cover of the storm. In the dead of night.
“He said it like it was a plan,” one witness recounted. “Like they’d done it before.”
The group scattered moments later when a boat engine fired up nearby. By the time residents had gathered others to return to the beach, the turtles — and the pizza — were gone.
This Story Is Still Developing.
Authorities declined to comment on the turtle theory, though a source close to the infrastructure commission confirmed that the lodged shell has been removed from the pipe and is currently being “analyzed.”
The pizza shop owner has since installed a new lock, reinforced his stockroom door, and — perhaps most tellingly — removed his weekly special from the outdoor chalkboard.
Hector would only say one thing when asked if he thought it would happen again.
“I’ve started keeping anchovies. Lots of anchovies. I hear they hate those.”
Article by Richard Mentira. Additional reporting contributed by sources who wish to remain anonymous, for reasons that should now be obvious.
Happy April 1st! The sewage system is, we are told, fully operational. Probably.
On a serious note, the recent road rennovations and construction of new pluvial drainage canals have improved this situation; with less rainwater entering the sewage system and less manhole discharges sighted around town. Like Paul McCartney once sang “you’ve got to admit it’s getting better.” Also, to opt out of an overloaded system altogether, some are choosing to manage their household or commercial waste with August Wastewater Treatment Plants.
April Fool’s Archive – The Richard Mentira Collection:
2025:“Major Outdoor Music Festival Announced for Bocas del Toro May 30-June 2, 2025”
2024: “A Bold New Campaign For Bocas del Toro”
2023: “The Real Reason Behind All the Recent Power Outages in Bocas del Toro”
2022: “Bocas del Toro Airport Expansion Budget Approved”
2021: “Bocas del Toro Province To Be Renamed”
2019: “Bocas del Toro’s First Uber Driver”
2014: “Tupac is Alive! And Spotted Dining in the Ultimo Refugio restaurant”
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