Panama more than just a Canal
And so begins the Central American part of our long way home. We will be in Central for 3 months in total working our way north from Panama finishing in Mexico. Our first stop being Panama for just under 3 weeks.
Panama City
We made it to Panama City after taking a red eye flight from LA, seriously considering our decision making. Arriving at 8am after a pretty uncomfortable 6hr flight, we were dreading having to waist a few more hours until we could check in. However when we got to our hotel, not only was our room ready we also got upgraded to a suite.... Thank you travel gods (and Hilton rewards thanks to Boni’s Lincoln stays haha).
After a nap and a shower we headed out and were completely taken by the City and how built up it was compared to all other cities we have been to in the region.
On our only full day we helped ourselves to our first ceviche at the fish market and then did the completely touristy thing and visited the Panama Canal. We were a little skeptical going in (especially with the $20pp entry). Though we were captivated but the entire thing. We stayed for about 2 hours and watched about 5 boats make there way through the locks, looking up the many crazy facts about the canal all the while…What nerds!
El Valle de Anton
El Valle (The Valley), is a gorgeous little town situated in the crater of an old volcano. Previously over looked by tourists but we got the sense more and more people are putting this place on their lists... And so you should.
There is not much else to do here but hike the surrounding craters but they are all beautiful!
Arriving to town we started walking to our Hostal and it started pooring... Yep we are in the tropics now!
Day One - Sleeping Indian
Our first hike in Central America, we tackled La India Dormida (the speeling Indian). We are ashamed to say that we TOTALLY freaked ourselves out by reading about all the dangerous wildlife, and seeing our first snake on the way to the trail didn't help Chris. Looking back on it now it would have been a helarious sight watching us cautiously make our way up through the jungle, jumping everytime we hear something russle in the bushes or drop from the trees!
But we made it to the top unscathed... And it was well worth it. The view of the crater was amazing!
Day Two
After reading a few blog Chris decided to get a little adventurous and go on a hike much less popular than our first day and will very limited directions. Turns out directions are a good thing, as we got ourselves lost on a local walking track through the forest and had to ask a local woman for directions.
After a near divorce we finally found the proper walking track and it was well worth it. The track took is up to these rolling hills on the outside of the crater and gave is an amazing view of the terrain down in the Valley out towards the ocean.. Stunning!
Boquete
The journey from El Valle to Boquete was going to be our first challenging local bus trip, but we had it all planned out and prepared ourselves for the 4 bus and 7 hours of adventure.
After successfully navigating our first bus leg, we were standing on the side of the Pan American Highway waiting for our next bus to roll on down the highway. After about 10 mins we saw a bus that appeared to be heading in a more direct route, cutting off an entire leg. Chris quickly threw out his hand and the large double decker bus screamed to a holt to let us on... Win!
The rest of the journey was extremely smooth and gave us the confidence to continue to use the local buses.
Day 1 - Not so Lost Waterfalls
After a relaxing morning, and a fried egg breakfast 🤗, we decided to tackle a hike through the jungle to the Three Lost Waterfalls.
Still riding the confidence wave from our trip yesterday we went up to the local bus stop, asked for the bus to the Tres Cascadas and were quickly put on a bus (mini van) heading up the mountain... Nailing this bus stuff!
All three falls were as epic as each other, amazingly we were able to get up close and personal with the top two even being swimmable ... if you were game. Chris tried but couldn’t hack the cold water! It was a great hike, extremely tranquil sitting in the middle of the jungle with this beautiful water way flowing down the mountains...well worth getting a little muddy for.
Day 2 - Volcano fail but hot springs saved us
One of the most written about thing to do while in Boquete is to hike up Volcano Baru for sunrise. The volcano is unique as it is one of the few places where you can see both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans (on a clear day). Though it is a 27km round trip and you climb to 3450m a 12 hour hike.
As we aren’t travelling with the required equipment for serious night time hikes, we decide forgo sunrise and tackle it during the daytime. So we jumped in a taxi at 5:00 am and headed for the start of the trail. Though when we arrived, all we could see was a serious thunderstorm on the other side of the Volcano...after about 30mins of deliberation we decided (painstakingly) to give it a miss 😩.
Though to help heal our disappointment we took a bus out to these local hot springs, which was truly an odd experience. When you read ‘hot springs’ in the travel guides your mind immediately thinks luxury relaxation...however this wasn’t totally the case. It turns out the hot springs were located on a farmers property, he was just lucky enough to have a naturally occurring thermal stream running through his property. So to capitalise he dug a couple of holes, surrounded them with rocks and allowed tourists to come and enjoy them... as strange as it sounds it was a cool and super authentic experience!
Day 3 - But first coffee
On our last day in Boquete we went on a tour to a coffee farm on the base of the volcano. This was a very cool and interesting tour, especially seeing as how we both have an unhealthy relationship with the good stuff.
Our guide was very knowledgeable about the industry and explained some of the economics of the industry, she also walked us through each area of the farm - from growing and drying the beans to roasting their own brew... all culminating in TASTING (finally). This definitely highlighted to us the importance of carefully choosing what coffee/beans we buy, making us aware of how the industry often takes advantage of farmers and even worse, pickers.
Bocas Del Toro
Bocas marked the first (of many) beach stop and the first time we stayed in one place for some significant time. All up we were here for 5 full days and it was exactly what we needed after a relatively heavy schedule of hiking and moving around.
Being known as a bit of a backpacker party town we opted to steer clear of this and stay just outside the main town. This was perfect as we found an awesome hostel which was a collection of cabins nestled in the forest/jungle, with a happy hour from 5 - 7pm 😁!
Being our first time on the coast we definitely soaked up as much beach time as possible, spending our days exploring the beaches on the island of Colon. Our favourite by far was ‘star fish’ beach, with crystal clear calm water and as the name suggests beautiful star fish sitting in the shallows.
All in all an amazing week of relaxing at the beach and a wonderful way to round out our time in Panama!
