Back in Bocas

So I have come full circle back to my current home base. Nads and I settled in at the ol casa and went for an evening booze cruise with the fam.

The next morning we all got up early to go out fishing.

But first we had to go by Bird Island for a view.

Such a cool island.

The three girls on the bow.

Nadia and Sean with their Jacks.

Twin Jacks.

Proud girls with the fish back at the house. We ended up selling these bad boys to the local Indian Restaurant. I'm sure they were delicious.

A rainy afternoon. It socked in the whole bay by the house.

I took Nads up the creepy canal where Sis and I saw the sloth. We didn't find the little gal, but we did see a white faced monkey running through the trees.

Cool Mangroves.

Nadia enjoying the front seat of the Kayak.

I had so much fun with Nadia on our adventure loop around Panama. Thanks for coming down to visit kiddo. And thank you to everyone who made our trip even better by showing up for cameos or starring roles.

Fortuna Road

We left Boquete after a quick and very informative coffee farm tour. I highly suggest it if you have 30 bucks to spend. It was very cool.

Our very funny and excellent guide Carlos.

Here is the coffee plant process shown in one Nobe Bugle hand. You see the coffee cherry turn into a new seedling in just 3 steps. How beautiful it that.


Look at all of that coffee!
After our tour Aris so graciously came back up to Boquete to drive us down to David so that we could grab our LAST bus of the trip up the Fortuna road. We bought lunch. Delicious wood roasted chicken, yucca, and plantanoes.

So Aris bought us ice cream. Nads had Pipa and coconut.

And I / she had passion fruit. Delicious and just the boost we needed for the road ahead.

The views were incredible and the ride wasn't so bad.

We stopped for the night at 'The Lost and Found' a hostel built pretty much in the middle of no where up on the side of a mountain. The views were beautiful and Nads loved their pet Kinkachoo, Rocky. We both decided though that we had unwittingly stumbled onto the Panamanian version of Alex Garland's The Beach . Some of the folks here were strange and had been there for waaaay too long. We realized that it was the kind of place that people go to to disappear.

Nadia and I in the hammocka while the rest of 'The Beach' crew chowed down on vegan pasta and salad. Notice we are still smiling. I didn't later that night when I was getting attacked by bed bugs. Disgusting!

The next morning we woke up early to catch the bus for the last leg of our trip back to Bocas.

We took a water taxi from Almirante to Colon and settled in at Sis and Nate's place. Up next... Nads catches a big fish.

Boquete by Scooter

Today was for the record books. How much can one cover via scooter? The answer? A boat load.

After picking up our sweet rides we headed up to a privately owned garden that is graciously opened to the public for our enjoyment. We tooled around for a bit checking out the coy ponds and beautiful flowers before moving on.

The scoot crew up high above the garden.

Garden
Beautiful Bougainvillea
The scoot crew again. Look how happy we are on our big adventure.

Our next stop was the 'castle' that our Aussie boys wanted to check out. But first we made a stop at an old stand by.

Nadia and the boys continuing our adventure in style.

Nads wanted to climb up further and with the help of the rock climbers she was able to do it.

Back on the road we rode our way up to the 'castle'. This castle is more like an abandoned ostentatious house that was fun to climb through.

Trespassers walking up to the castle.

I had a nice view from the balcony.

It took a village to get me up to the roof but I made it. Of course it also took a village to get me down.

I could handle the fence on my own though.

We headed up to get a view of the volcano next. John almost lost me off the back of the bike when we had to go offroading for a short part of the road. Pretty scary even if we were only going 5 miles and hour.

But the view was worth it.

Jim and Nadia looked like real pros. I think it was Jim's sunglasses.

Poor John had to deal with me and my motorcycle crash fears instilled in me from an early age by my dad. Thanks dad, but notice I wore a helmet the whole time. Are you proud?

And I looked gooood in that helmet too. I think it's the sunglasses.

We then set out for our final stop. The hot springs. Now I know what you're thinking, hot springs in a tropical climate, not too refreshing. Well Boquete is actually pretty high and a nice dip in some warm water was going to feel great. Unfortunately the closer we rode to the springs the higher the temperature rose. So yes you are right, it wasn't really refreshing. But it was beautiful none the less.

The owners were local Indians and had the place very beautifully taken care of.

The scoot crew at the hot spring. We actually hiked down to the river and cooled off and sat at the confluence of the hot spring stream outlet and the river water, not what was refreshing.

Nads and Hillary just chilling at the springs.

Up in Boquete

Nadia, Beppe and I arrived in Boquete after our bus day from hell ( see preceding post) and were immediately greeted by several hostel purveyors. We opted to go with Hostel Gaia, which was slightly off of the beaten path, so we hoped would be a bit more chill and quiet.

We met our new hostel mates, an American named James, and two Aussies named Jim (Andrew) and John. All very sweet and interesting to talk to.

After a nice dinner out with my family that were in town after a long hike from Volcan, a town at the base of the volcano, to Boquete, we got a good night sleep to prepare for our first adventure in this new and wondrous area.

Here are the three travelers at a fancy dinner with the fam.

Enjoying the park before heading up to the waterfalls.

Nads using her mad climbing skills to get closer to the action. Meanwhile I'm safely on the ground taking the photo.
A local bus stop. And place to rest while we hiked up the road to the next waterfall.

It was a short hike up to this beauty. And we played the movie game the whole way. Awww the best times with my gal Nads. I love you.
As it happens while we were walking out of the jungle and heading back to town, we found our little Beppe, sitting on the side of the road at one of the 'bus stops'. Nads and I both realized that we were now to take this stray Italian under our wing for the rest of our time in Boquete. And that's just what we did.

Jim prepared a beautiful cheese plate and John taught Beppe and I a new card game called Bullshit. Very fun.

The boys invited us to join them at Amigos, the local bar/ gringo hang out for beers as it was St Patty's and that what everyone one does on such a day.

We picked up a self hating American named Andreas whom we all were anxious to get rid of but alas he stuck around for the evening.

Nads convinced the boys that they were to take us on a tour of the area on mopeds the following day. They really had no say in the situation but took the challenge like real troopers. Stay tuned for our whirlwind moped tour of the parts of Boquete and beyond that we didn't already see... and some repeats.

The never ending bus saga

We left Santa Catalina early to start our trek into the mountains to the town of Boquete. The morning started out uneventfully with us waiting around for the bus to fill up with a bunch of surfer dudes on their ways to various destinations.

An early morning for the start of another journey.

Look how serene and comfortable I am. This will be short lived on this day from hell.

The bus quickly filled up. It's hard to see but 4 people are sitting in two seats across from us.

Oli, Nadia, Hillary and Bill waiting for the bus in Sona to head on leg two to Santiago.

I am still smiling and enjoying this little adventure. This will soon change in Santiago. When we finally reached Santiago it was around noon. We had been travelling from 8 in the morning and the sun was at it's zenith. Beating down on us the sun was relentless and we were told that due to an annual festival in David that all of the buses were full for the day. The bus driver then told us that we could sit on 5 gallon buckets for the 4 hour ride to David. Yeah that's right folks. Hillary on a five gallon bucket in a stinky hot bus for four hours. It doesn't compute.

That is the back of Beppe along with a group of sorry suckers stuck on those horrible buckets. Fortunately for me after about an hour a total of 5 people got off which opened up one seat so I snatched it up. Granted it was in the back by the bathroom, but one mustn't grumble.

Nadia used my vacant bucket as a headrest so she was a bit more comfortable. She also, I might add, used the lap of the stranger in front of her to put her feet up. That's how she rolls.

The photo journalism was stalled after this leg of the journey due to the fact that I was ready to pack it in and die and the fact that David felt as hot as hell itself. We barely made it out of there without melting like candles. So the last leg was an hour ride on and old U.S. school bus (circa 1970's old) with me, Nads, and our Italian stray Beppe, panama hat and all. Fortunately the weather cooled as we went further up into the mountains and the bus was not entirely packed so we all had room to spread out a bit.

In all we spent about 8.5 hours on various buses or in various but depots with NO real food, NO ac and banos that even though you had to pay to use, you wouldn't use if they paid you. Alas we made it to Boquete where some new characters emerged and exciting adventures were had.