Gone Fishing Panama Resort Hotel Chiriqui

... tried to take pictures, but what also comes with that kind of<br>elevation? Clouds! I couldn´t see a thing. The other trail that I took<br>went to the Rio Oro (River of Gold). Supposedly, you can pan for gold<br>here. I don´t know. I didn´t try, but I did climb around on some rocks<br>and then I slipped and busted my ass and it hurt really bad and I saw<br>stars. That wasn´t the only time that I ate it out there. It is just so<br>rainy and muddy right now. Going up was the easy ...

There's something about Boquete that just sucks you in...we're still here and still lovin' it! Nevermind that it downpours every afternoon, it's still perfect to us. Keeping in tradition with Bocas, the day we chose to explore a local hike, it not only rained, but thunderstormed for four hours straight, of course. But it wasn't a wash. We spent some much needed quality time in bed with our books, made a delicious hostel-cooked meal ...

... random rain showers- to keep things green and lush. Our hostel is perfect. It´s quiet,clean and overlooks a stream which is more like a small river. The grounds are full of tropical fruit trees- cherry guavas,limes and chili peppers, and local wildlife- lizards and black squirrels. We have a private room with our own bathroom complete with a HOT shower, for only 25 bucks a night! We thought it was a steal..<br><br>Restaurants are a good ...

... couple from London and they&#8217;ve really answered a need and all the animals are native to Panama. They had capuchin monkeys, ocelots, anteaters and many other animals that we never heard of before. There were the giant Parrots, the small Panamanian parrots and a couple of Toucans. Toucans are really socials birds, they want to be right in the action and are very comedic.<br><br>The animals once rehabbed, are released if possible ...

... I said this before? <br>Anyway we got back on the bus, the bus drivers having helped us A LOT and we appreciate them not just ignoring us and driving off which we have heard off at the boarder! <br><br>There are lots of food and clothing/nicknack stalls that would entice anyone and make them forget they need to get back on their bus I'm sure...<br><br>Driving off Shane and I were lucky enough to get a chemical wash to the face as the bus was sprayed with something ...

... boats pass through the tiny tiny locks. It seems impossible that these behemoths actually fit in the canal and they have only 2ft of space on each side of the ship. It's an impressive sight and a pretty amazing engineering feat. Anyway back to what I've been doing recently. I spent about 5-6 days recovering in Panama City, mostly watching films and reading books. I ventured out one day to Parque Metropolitano, a ...

... Boquete I enrolled in a Spanish schoolm Habla Ya for 10 hours of one-on-one intensive learning. I even had homework! My teacher was really nice and I think I´ve learned quite a lot in a short space of time but I need to practise and maybe read books. The days and evenings have been spent in relative relaxation with only a couple of excursions of note. One of these was to some nearby hot springs that I went to with some other people from the hostel, including two fellow ...

... honest and helpful, even if they can't speak much (any) english. We finally see the sign for or hotel, but once again the Lonely Planet's directions are way wrong. (Side note, this is by far the worst Lonely Planet editions we have used, and most travellers in Panama will unsolicitedly share the same opinion with you. Really, really bad guidebook). So we pull up to a chain-link gate, and the driver yells toward a local lady who is ...

... each side of the island. We started off by heading to Merida, a very sleepy village, where we stayed at "Monkies Hostel". A really lovely hostel that is also a farm. All of the family worked together here and we made friendships with the sons and daughters easily - very handy for practicing Spanish! We spent a couple of nights here, the first Mary and I went to a local street party (Mark backed out due to the likelihood of dancing...borrrrring!) as it was Mary's birthday ...

... our walk down to a river and spent the afternoon lazying by the cool water (actually the water was bloody cold). On arriving back at the hostel we soon discovered that our peace and quiet had been shattered by the arrival of 10 or so Irish travellers who by the sound of it had started drinking at breakfast time. The next day we said farewell to an apologetic owner and headed to David. It was here i had a big decision to make