Today is the oldest you've ever been and the youngest you'll ever be again. – Author Unknown
Monday, April 22, 2013 (DAYS 414 - 422)
Ready for a new adventure, we wake at 8:44am ready to leave rainy Bocas behind in search of Lost & Found hostel– a secluded jungle oasis in the Panamanian jungle. After a quick brekkie at one of our favorite little local restaurants Bocas Blended aka The Batido Bus, our foursome is ready to head to the dock and grab the $4 water taxi to Almirante where we transfer via local bus to the town of David. Prior to opting for the local bus another taxi driver attempts to convince us to pay $120 to drive us to David. Scoffing at this highly inflated price I tell him that I know that the local bus only costs $8.45, and after realizing that I’m no novice traveler he finally agrees to drop us off at what appears to be an abandoned gas station, which is the town’s local bus stop. I always find it fun when introducing other leisure travelers to the side of backpacking, and today Taylor and I have convinced the Canadian twins, Kace and Haley, to join in on our adventure. Originally they only had plans to stay in Bocas for the next 10 days, but now they find themselves squeezed into an old school bus for the 4-hour drive across the mountainous landscape and experience their first chicken bus, complete with a live squawking bird aboard. The 173km (107 mile) has us arriving in the hectic transit terminal around 3pm. Missing the turn off for Lost & Found, we arrive in the small mountain town of Boquete instead just after sunset. Relatively exhausted from both an early morning and the craziness of transferring multiple forms of transportation we check in to a nearby hostel, grab a quick dinner, and call it a night.
Ready for a new adventure, we wake at 8:44am ready to leave rainy Bocas behind in search of Lost & Found hostel– a secluded jungle oasis in the Panamanian jungle. After a quick brekkie at one of our favorite little local restaurants Bocas Blended aka The Batido Bus, our foursome is ready to head to the dock and grab the $4 water taxi to Almirante where we transfer via local bus to the town of David. Prior to opting for the local bus another taxi driver attempts to convince us to pay $120 to drive us to David. Scoffing at this highly inflated price I tell him that I know that the local bus only costs $8.45, and after realizing that I’m no novice traveler he finally agrees to drop us off at what appears to be an abandoned gas station, which is the town’s local bus stop. I always find it fun when introducing other leisure travelers to the side of backpacking, and today Taylor and I have convinced the Canadian twins, Kace and Haley, to join in on our adventure. Originally they only had plans to stay in Bocas for the next 10 days, but now they find themselves squeezed into an old school bus for the 4-hour drive across the mountainous landscape and experience their first chicken bus, complete with a live squawking bird aboard. The 173km (107 mile) has us arriving in the hectic transit terminal around 3pm. Missing the turn off for Lost & Found, we arrive in the small mountain town of Boquete instead just after sunset. Relatively exhausted from both an early morning and the craziness of transferring multiple forms of transportation we check in to a nearby hostel, grab a quick dinner, and call it a night.
Rolling out of bed at 7:30am we are in search of locating Los Pozos de Caldera, the natural hot springs. Paying $1.75 for the local bus, we climb aboard in anticipation of spending the afternoon at this Lonely Planet recommended site, but instead we find ourselves sitting and waiting for over an hour as they attempt to fill the minibus with as many passengers as they can gather. I tell the girls, if you want to travel cheap these are often the types of situations you experience and it certainly will test your patience. The drive takes over an hour as I doubt we drove for long than fifteen minutes before the bus continues to make stops either dropping people off or picking up people alongside the road. As we reach our destination we realize that there is about a 5km walk down a dirt road to the hot springs. Sweaty, tired, slightly sunburned, we reach the hot spring with excitement only to realize it’s the size of a baby pool. Still trying to make the most out of the situation we lounge around in the water that boasts health-giving properties, but after 10-minutes the heat is just unbearable and we all agree that we would rather go for a cool swim at the river from the creaky bridge we crossed on the way to Los Pozos.
The next morning Taylor and the girls have decided to head back to Bocas del Toro, while I was determined to reach my goal of Panama City and seeing the Canal firsthand. As I am sitting around the hostel researching overnight buses from to the capitol, I meet a couple of German girls, Maria and Christina, that are also bound for PC and so we agree to take the last bus from Boquete at 7pm and catch the 10pm overnight to the city that was founded on August 15, 1519, by the Spanish conquistador Pedro Arias Dávila. This was also the city that was the starting point for expeditions that conquered the Inca Empire in Peru.
Our bus arrives in Panama City at 5am and since the bus terminal is quite a ways from Casco Viejo and Lunas Castle, the hostel we are headed to, since it is so early we are unable to check in, but have the opportunity to leave our bags and toss our valuables in the lockers. Starving we venture out in search of breakfast before making plans to visit the Miraflores Locks at the Panama Canal. The morning walk along the boardwalk as the city skyscrapers are on the left and the ocean to our right, the city resembles Miami, and is certainly the most beautiful of all of the capital cities in Central America.
After a hearty breakfast in the city center we realize that sharing a taxi will be cheaper than taking two local buses to Miraflores, and so we flag down a taxi for the Canal for 20-minute ride and pay only $7 for all of us, after negotiations of course. While you only see a small portion of the 77km (48 mile) canal that took 33-years to complete, being a bit of a nerd I find this engineering structure quite impressive. The $8 admission fee could have actually been done for $3 cheaper, but tired from sleeping on a bus I’ve failed to maintain my budget savvy skills. Regardless of this fact, we are fortunate enough to watch several small sailing boats pass through the canal before two large cruise ships enter the locks simultaneously. As soon as this occurs there is a mad dash for the third floor viewing deck and in the midst of the chaos of people I end up losing zee Germans. Waiting for almost 20-minutes outside on the front steps to the building, I’m exhausted and decide to walk past the numerous tour buses and taxi drivers to the main road and jump on a local bus back to Casco Viejo. The cost, a mere .50 cents. After reuniting with the girls back at Lunas I decide that I’ve seen what I came to in Panama City and since it’s still early afternoon I tell them that I’ve decided to take the overnight bus back to David and probably head back to Bocas to spend more time with Coco and Cat.
Hanging out with the girls until 9:15pm to catch the overnight bus back to David, the cost is only $18.15. Overnight buses are great ways to avoid accommodation costs when you can, and since I not only had a free place to stay in Bocas, but also was able to spend an entire day in Panama City without paying the $13 for a night’s stay at Lunas I felt that this was, how do you say, winning! Budget travel is great but the downside is the fatigue that you often feel since I arrived in David at 5:30am and then jumped on the bus to Almirante at 6am, then after 5-hours I was once again feeling the Caribbean breeze on my skin as the boat skipped across the water. When I finally arrived at Coco's apartment it was 11:15am and over the course of two days I had traveled 1,196km (743 miles) and around 20-hours. In desperate need of a shower, food, and much needed sleep, this is the order of my only plans for the day. Later in the evening I caught myself watching Eat Pray Love on HBO, don’t judge me. And as I was laying there on my comfortable twin-size mattress on the floor in the living room I caught the part where they are enjoying American Thanksgiving and talking about what they are thankful for. Even though it is April, I thought I should also take this time to do the same as they were and just thank God for all the blessings and things in my life. It was a very solemn moment, but soon after I was fast asleep as my body was still trying to catch up on all of the sleep it had been deprived of over the past two or three days.
The next morning I slept in until 11am, and it felt fantastic. Totally rejuvenated I decided to take a solo walk around Bocas and readjust to the slow pace of island life. Since it was Monday and half price sushi at Coco’s favorite restaurant, I decided to treat her to dinner as a thank you for allowing me to crash at her apartment. I also had a chance to meet her friend Arturo, who is a lively fun Panamanian with long dreads and a constant smile on his face. The next day my Central American stalker has tracked me down yet again, one Krista Marie Braun. This has now become the fifth country she has followed me to, and seeing that she is my longest known friend since I left the States I felt obliged to meet her and Chloe at the dock to push them in the water as a, “Welcome to Bocas.” But fearing the inside of a Panama prison cell for attempted drowning I chose to just give them some big hugs and walk them around. The next few days we catch up on all of the San Juan gossip, as it’s been almost a month since I left, and even have time to throw an impromptu beach party in Coco’s living room for absolutely no reason. That’s just how we roll, yo.
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