boquete, panamá

The next stop in Panamá is mountain town, Boquete.

Chicken bus time!

I´m liking it here already. It´s a small town, but there are lots of activities to do in nature, and the tours are really affordable. There is enough variety in stores to make life comfy here.

The owner at the hostel here was so friendly and helpful, until he found out we would only be here for a single night. Suddenly, the meter of friendliness took a dive.

This is a hot spot for foreign seniors to retire.

I found these steamed veggies which weren´t cooked in a mountain of salt and I rejoiced silently. I miss vegetables! I hope they miss me, too.

Hey, I know - let´s not sleep, then hike a dormant volcano at night!

We 3 seemed to be the only ones on the trail, but later at the top we saw more signs of life.

Some of us began the rocky hike of darkness with a flashlight, others with a smart phone to guide their step.

I spotted this baby beast along the way.

It wasn´t a particularly enjoyable hike since it was on an incredibly uneven, rocky, and sometimes slippery dirt road with a fairly steep incline. It took me about 6 hours, but that was with breaks to catch my breath, breaks to slap my face out of sleepiness, and breaks to snack and deal with minor altitude sickness (a piercing headache and the urge to vomit). One of my climbing companions said it was "like torture." Another said he wouldn´t do it again for a million dollars.

There really wasn´t much to see on the way up, either, aside from the eerie moon and jungle shadows. The higher we climbed, the colder it also became.

Daylight finally came...

...and a sunrise.

The winds and cold were fierce at the top.

A few guys work and live up there, and they invited us for coffee inside a basic shelter. If it weren´t for that, I wouldn´t have wanted to stay up there for too long! 

One of the workers was just walking around in sweats and these sandals. I was wearing every piece of clothing and head gear I had brought with me.

The top of the volcano is the highest point in Panama, and on a good day you´re supposed to be able to see both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Today was not that day! Actually, I hear that there are often clouds obscuring the views.

We thought we were at the top when we saw the shelters, but we found out that more hiking was required in order to really reach the top. It sure took a long time to end. Gladly, the wind didn´t knock us down the side of the cliffs, either.

Thankfully we were able to hop in the back of this truck with a group of overnight visitors to get back to the bottom of the trail and back to town. If we had had to walk, it would have easily taken another 3-4 hours to get to the road.

It was a surprise to hear that any vehicles could make it up or down this road in the first place. In this truck, it still took two and a half hours of very slow driving/manoevering in the potholes and around/over the abundance of rocks strewn across the road.

Back in Boquete, we were all exhausted. Opting out of sleep yet again, shortly after we caught a chicken bus to David where we confirmed that there would be no direct buses to Costa Rica until the next day. No problem - we just caught a bus to the border. Catching a bus to the border directly as opposed to a direct bus crossing a border is cheaper, but takes longer. It´s also more flexible time-wise.

Goodbye Boquete, town of flowers!