Back home

Well after barely being able to sleep due to the heat, we arrived home to snow on the ground! What a change! Anyways the trip went flawlessly, here are some pictures to check out. A rainbow on the way down from Volcan Baru

Atop the highest point in Panama, Volcan Baru!

Lounging atop a strangler fig that grew at a horizontal angle.

Mike Willi lounging in a hammock with a view of Volcan Baru in the distance.

Three toed sloth moving very slowly though the trees.

View of Panama City from our hostel in Casco Viejo, or the old town.

Beautiful view in the San Blas archipeligo in Kuna Yala.

One of the palm trees on the acre large island I stayed on.

Kuna woman on the boat out to sea.

First picture taken on the trip.

About to walk through a large tree in the cloud-forest.

Mike and I at the Panama Canal with a Panamax sized vessel moving through.

Doing a backflip off a log on a private beach in Bocas del Toro.

Riding on the beach after a long ride to get there!

Enjoying a Panama lager while watching waves crash on Red Frog Beach.

All good things must come to an end

So I am barely sure how this happened but I am flying back home tomorrow morning. Talk about a TIME LAPSE!!! The past few days have been pure joy, the best way to wrap up a beautiful experience. We woke up in Boquete Saturday morning and had fantastic coffee, bagels, and eggs at a local cafe. There we met up with a few British fellows we met during the death slog up Volcan Baru. During our first meeting, they were on their way down being miserable, and we were on our way up also being miserable in pretty steady cold rain. Seeing them in the coffee shop was much more pleasant and we realized we were planning to go to the same area later that day. We took a bus together to David, and packed 5 into a truck taxi bound for Boca Chica. Our cabbie was AWESOME and bought the whole cab beers to drink on the voyage, and we got a pretty fair deal out of it as well. We arrived to Boca Chica, which means ¨mouth of the girl¨and took a water taxi over to Isla Boca Brava and arrived at one of the coolest places I have ever stayed. Imagine an open air hotel with terraced platforms overlooking the mighty Pacific with multiple islands strewn about.

We relaxed the first day, ate great food and had drinks with out British friends Roger, Ben, and Steve well into the night. The next morning the five of us chartered a boat for some deep'sea fishing. After a one hour ride we dropped our lines and within minutes Alex caught a 4 foot needlefish. Throughout the day all but Roger caught something as he was seasick and or hungover. Mike caught a sweet grouper that was about 2 feet, and I caught a 1.5 foot AmberJack that was very tasty. We ate all of the fish, and found out that the needlefish has blue bones!!

To take a break from fishing we hopped aboard a desolate white sand beach in which we were the only visitors. We went snorkeling for a while and were able to find some great colorful fish. At the end of the night the local crazies showed up and we mainly laughed at them as they ranted about meeningless topics, and bought us drinks. Normally I never mind anyone buying me a drink but I was very happy when this crew rolled out with their drunken captain from Bermuda.

Today was a lackluster day in which we said goodbye to our friends and spent most of the day sitting on buses. We are back in Panama City, and are boarding a flight tomorrow around 830 in the morning. I should be home in the evening so give me a ring, I will hopefully post some great photos tomorrow as well!

So much!

So Boquete is really an incredible place. It has gorgeous views, terrific weather, nice places to eat, and coffee is grown all over the valley so it is some of the best in the world. Every little shop has coffee that will blow your mind. All of that being said many of the nice restraunts exist because of the large number of expatriots from the U.S. and Europe. They are all over this town and so are their SUV's. Can you blame them really? More hospitible weather than Florida, no traffic, and a quarter of the cost make this an easy place to relocate to.

The first night in town we found a sweet pool hall where the local Panamanians hang out and spent some time brushing up on our skills, or lack of them. It is $2 for an hour to play and beers here are $.60. Quite a deal and a great way to interact with some locals. The next day we were still super tired from hiking and just had a lazy day around town. We eventually went to La Explorador which is by far one of the strangest places I have ever been. Imagine Alice in Wonderland inspired orchid gardens, designed by someone who I am convinced was on HEAVY DRUGS. There were so many strange decorations, a maze of an organzational pattern, and painted rocks, and scarecrow sprinklers to keep everything pretty.

After a strange night we played dominos and cards with some friends we met, and went to the other local pool hall. This was some serious competition and we only played one game. For some reason for 8 beers, 3 shots of tequila, 1 coke, and a game of pool we were only charged $5? We are still trying to figure that one out.

Thursday we went to an animal rescue shelter where animals that were in bad situations in captivity, or injured are brought to rehabilitate before being able to be reintroduced into a wild setting. We saw heaps of beautiful parrots, macaws, coccatus, monkeys, tamarins, and even a margay. Margays look very much like ocelots and have quite the PURR. Imagine an ordinary housecat mad at a dog and growling, and that is similar to the margay's purr. What I am trying to say is I think my life would be made better by owning a cat that could easily end my life. After the rescue center we took a taxi to the small town of Caldera and sat in natural hot springs for two hours. Super relaxing and in a pristine setting. Life doesn't get much better!

We called it an early night and started hiking today at 7AM for the highest point in all of Panama, Volcan Baru. The hike was 30 kilometers total in which we climbed nearly 8000 feet to the summit at 11,398 feet. It is the hardest hike I have ever done with almost all of it being super steep with sand and rocks that move with each step. Your movements become so innefficient, and eventually it was dumping rain! The rain stopped and we eventually we reached the summit after some mentally devastating lows. It was about 40 degrees F, with strong winds, misty rain, and no visibility. They say on a clear day Baru is the only point you can see both the Atlantic and Pacific from the same viewpoint, but I guess we will have to wait till next time. Overall it was just under 9 hours of hiking so we are exhausted. Tomorrow we leave Boquete for an undetermined destination! Only 4 more days left it is hard to believe how fast the trip has gone.

PANAMAX!

Where to begin?

Well we left Bocas and headed into the mountains staying at a place called the lost and found ecolodge. On the drive we saw toucans and some other incredible looking birds. It took a bit of random directions to find the place. We had to make the bus pull over by three yellow rocks in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. From there it is a 15 minute hike straight up a STEEP climb to the lodge. Most of the lodge is open air and the views are breathtaking. It was a nice change to go from sweating sitting still, to 60's and 70's.

So I could easily write for years on end about the place but for the sake of time I will give a moderately brief rundown. The first night we relaxed and talked to people as kinkajous, olingos, and cacomistles came down from the forest and ate bananas that were left on a platform. So not very common anywhere the three species are similar. Think raccoon colorings, monkey agility, ability to hang by their tails, utter fearlessness, and kitten cuteness. I will try to google image an image of a kinkachu and post it.

The hostel has their own kinkajou that was a rescue named Rocky. This was awesome because you got to hold him and realize just how amazing these creatures are. Though he weighed about 5 pounds he was stronger than many larger dogs I have experienced. He was able to lift himself up using solely his tail.

While we were there we did about 8 hours worth of hiking in the rainforest and saw many amazing wildlife. Two toed sloths, many frogs and birds, and Mike even saw a wild Boar. There were tatantulas and interesting varieties of snakes there as well. The area is just teeming with wildlife, and we were informed that biologists have discovered more than 3 new species just in the past month alone. We got to eat with a local with his family, tour an organic coffee farm, try different fruits, peppers, and fruit wine, drink amazing coffee, hike through a beautiful river, and even play in a fusball tournament for beers! Not to mention seeing a 140 ft waterfall back in a canyon no wider than a car!

Truly amazing and no words I know can really portray how incredible it really was. We left today and came to Boquete a nice little town in a valley with 7 to 9 thousand foot peaks on either side. Not sure of the gameplan for tomorrow but there is loads to do here so it should be good. Enjoy the kinkajou picture!