On the map from the previous entry, you'll see just south of Bocas is the town of Boquete. As the crow flies, these are less than 20 miles apart, but between them is a set of extinct volcanos which serve as the Continental Divide and are the spine of the country of Panama. I flew in to the town of David (third largest in Panama) and took a cab up to a little town called Bambito. Picture a road coming from the bottom of the map above directly into Boquete. Picture a parallel road to the west of it and that is where Bambito lies. I stayed at this beautiful resort (the most I paid for a hotel the entire time) and the weather was perfect. Temperature in the 60's in this high altitude (about 6,000 feet above sea level) little town.
On a whim, I followed a dirt road that extended from the back of the resort up a hill and two miles or so later I was rewarded with finding this most amazing high mountain meadow with grazing cows and sheep. Occasionally a man and horse would ride by. I climbed a bit further and was further rewarded with this amazing view of Volcan Baru, which I would visit the next day. I don't feel regret about losing my camera in this situation because I didn't bring it with me. The image is my own for me to have for myself. It was such a special moment, perhaps the true highlight of my trip.
The next day, after being served breakfast by Latin America's Vince Vaughn look-a-like (HOT). I caught the local bus which runs up and down the road from David up to the town of Cerra Punta. Shhhhh, this town is totally undiscovered by developers. I didn't see any American tourists and there aren't any big houses with security gates around them. This town, at 6,500 is just a hop, skip and jump from the border with Costa Rica. Actually, I rode the bus a couple miles further up the hill to the little town of Guadalupe.
From here, I set out to climb up to the trailhead of the Quetzales Trail. What was so cool is the the Quetzales Trail links the town of Cerra Punta to Boquete. I had my backpack and was hiking from one place to the next. It reminded me of hikes that one can make in the Alps of Switzerland.
I strategically chose to hike the trail from Cerra Punta (6,500 feet) to Boquete (3,500 feet). This was not your well worn, well maintained European hiking trail. This was a slip and slide on one's rear end in places kind of hike. The hike itself was spectacular as there were vista points but most of it was under the canopy of a cloud/tropical forest. The hike took me 6 hours and my quads were killing me for the next few days. All I can say is Dr. B, he did a freaking amazing job for my feet to have held up to this pounding.
Near the end of the hike, I ran into a couple of fellow American hikers who turns out sat next to me on the flight from Houston to Panama City. We started talking and it turns out they are from a little town outside of Olympia, WA. We bonded and it was nice to end the hike with nice people who weren't all about bragging about what they had done and saw. They were there for the enjoyment of the moment.
We arrived at the trailhead and the ranger station was still a 3km trek downhill. My quads were dying so they were nice enough to give me a ride. It is their rental car that I left my camera. There is a miniscule possibility that I might get it back. The couple had yet to visit Bocas and were planning on it later in their trip. I told them about Ozzie's restaurant and if they go there and mention me, I left Ozzie my email address. It's a lot of things to have to go right for it to happen, but stranger things have happened!
That evening I treated myself to a wonderful dinner at a highly touted restaurant in Boquete. After hobbling a half mile to the restaurant, I was floored that the interior was straight out of New England B&B. White linen table cloths, flowers in the center of the table, polished silverware, you get the picture. I had an amazing ceviche followed by a huge piece of fresh grilled trout. It turns out the chef at the Hotel Penomene is a Swedish transplant and has brought his flair to Panama and now brings it to the local seafood to make amazing meals.
I have to admit that my hotel in Boquete had DirecTV and I watched American Television well into the night. I got caught on my episodes of the OC and Gilmore Girls. Ahh, now I know why Christopher went AWOL on Lorelai.
Friday morning was spent wandering around Boquete and then hopping on the bus back down to David and a flight back to Panama City. This portion of the trip was one of the highlights of my week!
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