04/09/2022 From Bocas del Toro to Boquete
After one last smoothie bowl, we left Bocas del Toro by taxi boat at 12 noon. The four-hour-shuttle ride afterwards started off beautifully (from a scenery standpoint). But then the road got so winding that I had to sit next to the shuttle driver before something bad was about to happen.
What to expect
Boquete
Boquete is located in the western province of Chiriqui, Panama. It sits at the base of Volcan Baru, at an elevation of 1,131 meters. The town’s cooler rainforest style weather has made it a popular destination for retirees and expats alike. The population of greater Boquete is about 25,000 people, with almost 1/5 of them being expats.”
expatra.com
In the evening we found a “fonda” for dinner (the local restaurants here in Panama). Half way through our meal six musicians came in, played a song on their instruments, all dressed in the same uniforms and then left again. A little random but highly entertaining.
05/09/2022 Boquete
Different ways of travelling
In our hostel Blasina Beer Hostel we had breakfast with a French couple who told us fascinating stories about their low-budget travels around the world, such as tenting and hitch-hiking. We really are flashpackers compared to them😉.
Do the Lost Waterfall Hike
After breakfast it was time for a hike: The Lost Waterfall Hike. We caught a shuttle in town for $2.50 that dropped us off near the entry. Other backpackers had told us that it wasn’t a tough hike, but only the walk over the suspension bridge and then up a hill to the entry point of the hike, was already quite challenging.
How were we going to survive the massive hike that was awaiting us the following night? After paying the 10-dollar-entry fee for the waterfall hike, the hike got easier – luckily. On the hike we were walking to three different waterfalls that were all stunning in their own way.
Once we got to the first waterfall, it started raining really heavily, so our raincoats came in handy. The rain definitely added to the adventure, as the paths through the jungle were now muddy and slippery. Later on we even had to use ropes to climb up little hills to get to the third waterfall.
After three hours we came out at the entry point again – both totally soaked. But we really enjoyed the hike a lot!
Perfect (shuttle) timing
I was already dreaming of the shuttle come by, when we stepped onto the road. Unfortunately, it only comes once every hour. But someone must have heard my wishes, as the shuttle magically appeared when we walked towards the street. Inside the van there were already some other (very wet) travellers we had met along the hike. We got along really well with a couple from America (her) and Australia (him). So we arranged to meet up with them for a drink again later that night. Our first “couple date” after the meet-up with the Dutch couple in León, Nicaragua 😉.
Couple date
We stuck to our word and cooked dinner at night, which was big enough to last for the following night as well – German efficiency😉. Then we met up with the other cross-cultural-couple for a drink, which was so enjoyable. I love that about travelling: you meet so many like-minded people with whom you just click instantly. This couple was definitely one of them and we hope to meet them again somewhere in the world!
06/09/2022 Boquete
Being very social
This morning we had a coffee date with an Aussie guy we had met on the shuttle from Bocas del Toro to Boquete. Out of a sudden we have become social butterflies on this trip 😊. Jonathan from Melbourne was a fascinating guy, who had just moved to Panama due to the pandemic and the strict covid laws in Australia. We really enjoyed both meetings a lot! But it was new to us to actually make plans with other people.
Visit the Tuesday Market
After coffee and some free pancakes at our hostel, the Aussie guy, Blake and I went to the local Tuesday Market. While the two boys were in deep conversation, I went crazy at the market and bought all those delicious baked goodies, chocolate treats and energy balls I could find. After all, I told myself, we needed some energy for upcoming activity during the night…
In the afternoon we played some table tennis at our hostel, walked around town and overall took it pretty slowly to give our bodies some rest.
We slept for about two hours at night until our alarm woke us up at midnight again. The only question I had in my mind at that time was: Why???
07/09/2022 Boquete
Have you ever hiked up a volcano in the middle of the night to be at the summit for sunrise? No? We haven’t either and I don’t know why we had to start with it now.
Hike up Volcano Baru (at night)
Vocano Baru is the highest point in Panama. From the summit you can look at the Atlantic Ocean on the one side and at the Pacific Ocean on the other side.
Just a little intimidated
We knew we would regret not doing this hike. But we – or rather I – was also quite intimidated going into this 6.5-hour-hike. I made the mistake of reading the comments about this hike a few hours before starting it in which everyone was ranting about how tiering and tough this hike is. Overall, it’s a 13.5 km hike up to the peak (at 3474m).
Illegal hike at night
We got dropped off at the bottom of the volcano at 0.25 a.m. together with one other backpacker from Germany. Without a guide or any idea where to go, we started the hike. When we passed the ranger station at the entry, we had to turn off our flashlights and had to be really quiet because apparently it is illegal to hike up the volcano at night – a fun fact I only found out about on the drive to the start of the hike. Great!
A very long and dark hike to the top
After what seemed like hours, we reached the first sign in the dark, which said in Spanish: “You’ve hiked up 3 km, 10.5 km to go to the summit”. Honestly?! That was NOT an encouragement!
It was very helpful to have the other German guy with us as he kept talking and we only had to listen, which saved our breath and made the time go by much more quickly. We took a few water and snack breaks (we were prepared for once – thank you, Tuesday Market) and looked at the city lights below us and at the stars above us.
At some point two backpackers came towards us who had to give up since she wasn’t feeling well. They told us to hurry up if we wanted to make it for sunrise and that it was going to get much steeper from here – two bits of information I did not want to hear in that moment!
(Almost) made it for sunrise
In the last hour, the German guy left us to speed up a bit (which was fine with us, we didn’t want him to miss sunrise from the top by slowing him down). We didn’t make it quite for sunrise to the peak, but we had a great spot for sunrise overlooking all the other mountains.
The good thing about arriving late for sunrise was that we had the summit all to ourselves as the other ten backpackers were already making their way down again. Most of them, however, had taken the 4×4 drive up the volcano – another possibility of getting up there. We had decided against it for two reasons:
- We wouldn’t have had the same satisfaction at the top
- It was $125 each!
We’ve made it!
We had to really climb up the last few metres, pulling us up with a rope and with our last bits of energy.
But when we made it the view was incredible: We had a clear view onto both oceans and felt like being on top of the world (well, we were on top of Panama at least with it being the highest point of Panama).
For some reason, I started crying (more like wimping), because I was so exhausted and in so much pain. But also because I was so happy and proud of us that we had made it!
Hiking down or driving down?
Unfortunately, going down is always painful on Blake’s knees as we remembered from the Acatenengo Volcano hike in Guatemala in 2019. Because of this (and because check out was at 12 noon and our shuttle was leaving at 12.30 to the next place and there was no way we were going to make that by hiking down), we approached one of the four-wheel drives to give us a lift down. I bargained him down from $50 to $30 each (I’m getting better at it 😉). Together with the German guy, we drove down the bumpy rocky road, which still took 1.5 hours. I could not believe that we had hiked that all up before!
Our bodies were exhausted, we were tired and frozen (needless to say how windy and cold it was at the top). The cold shower at the hostel did not really help either.
We napped for an hour, packed our backpacks, checked out and caught the shuttle to our next destination on the coast: Santa Catalina.
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