The canny traveller: Caribbean seafood

WHERE Bocas del Toro, Panama.

HOW MUCH Fish dishes from $US6 ($6.50).

WHY GO Dining on freshly caught lobster next to calm, moonlit waters, would - you suspect - cost a fortune on a Caribbean island.

Not in Bocas del Toro. This archipelago anchored off the north-east coast of Panama is a budget holidaymaker's dream.

It's a place where you can find a nice hotel room for $US25 ($29), spend your days surfing warm waves or lazing on stunningly deserted beaches and enjoying nights feasting on delicious seafood for a relative pittance.

The newest and most talked-about restaurant on Isla Colon - Bocas del Toro's largest island, where most tourists base themselves - is Barnes and Dixon's Smoked Fish House.

It's run by a thirtysomething American (Chris Barnes) and a fortysomething Panamanian (Marcus Dixon) and has an element of mystery about it.

Reservations are mandatory. You have to call Barnes or Dixon, preferably before 11am on the day you'd like to eat. The menu is short and simple. Fish of the day is $US6, fish fillet is $US8, shrimp are $US10 and lobster, the most expensive item available, is $US13. All come with salad and potatoes. Once you've ordered by phone, Chris and Marcus grab their nets and rods, go fishing, return with their haul, then wash, prepare and smoke it.

Later that evening, they collect you from your hotel. Their restaurant can only be reached by a combination of mini-bus and boat and the 10-minute journey cranks up excitement levels.

The restaurant is crafted almost entirely of wood, sits on stilts and fronts on to Isla Colon's moonstruck Saigon Bay.

It's a beautiful setting and would be an ideal venue for a romantic evening, especially with the background sounds (calypso, the Afro-Caribbean music that blends trumpets, trombones, clarinets, saxophones, guitars, steeldrums and bongos). Instead, I've come with my two mates, both of whom have ordered fish fillets. The fish are dorados, popular catches in the Caribbean. It takes just two minutes to deliver their verdict. "Delicious," they say. My lobster is enormous and sawed into five pieces. I spend the next 45 minutes breaking it up and cracking the claws, searching for the tasty bits, which I mostly find in the tail section.

I smother the meat in lemon and lime juice and wash it down with a glass of Chilean white wine. Eating lobster is a messy business but it's worth it.

We're all more than satisfied, especially when the bill arrives. Everything, including drinks, comes to just $US38 - an excellent deal, considering the setting, friendly service and quality of food.

FREE STUFF As well as the complimentary door-to-door taxi service to and from the restaurant, you're given free nibbles as you wait for dinner to be served. We received a platter of Doritos with a bowl of spicy sauce.

ADDED BONUS Friendly and laid-back, Isla Colon is one of the best places to hear Guari-guari - a hybrid of Spanish and English tinged with Caribbean tones, which also uses words from the local indigenous language.

Don't leave here without eavesdropping on a conversation involving this fascinating, sometimes hilarious, dialect.

DETAILS Barnes and Dixon's Smoked Fish House. Phone (from inside Panama) 6088 3424.