Higher and Higher, up to Boquete

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  Boquete, Panama
Monday, March 3, 2008

To heck with islands and beaches...lets see some of the highlands of Panama. Today we head to the mountain town of Boquete, which in north of David. David is Panamaīs second largest town. Population of Boquete is 5000 and they say it is the land of eternal spring.  It is known for its cool, fresh climate and pristine natural setting. There is plenty to do if one chooses to do it. Visit coffee plantations, dip in the undeveloped hot springs, hike up the volcano, or look for quetzals (colorful bird - national bird of Guatemala), view the many gardens of flowers, fly with the zip line canopy tours, or merely sit along the bank of the river and relax. Or...spend the day in the internet cafe catching up on all my back blogs and uploading pictures. That is the plan for tomorrow.

Letīs see... we caught another water taxi, ironically, back to Altimirante, and then a bus to David. This bus went up and over the many mountains and jungle covered hills of Panama

Banana Shipping in Almirante

. It was a windy road and took a little over 3 hours. Beautiful scenery...green green green and some blue, when we could catch glimpses of the waters. It really gave a feeling of what the interior of Panama looks like.

We met an American lady on the bus who was moving from Costa Rica to Boquete. Had some interesting conversation with her. She joined us on the next bus to David, but she had to sit in the back.  The trip to Boquete on the old school bus, took about an hour. Itīs a dead end road, so to get out we will need to backtrack down to David. Mary pointed out a bar that most of the local expats go to. Itīs called Amigos.

Fred and I found our home for the next couple of nights. It is called Pension Topas and is along side the river. It is run by Germans and seems to be very clean. The grounds are lovely with flowers, volley ball, soccer, swimming pool, covered patio and great paintings on the walls. This hotel will cost us $32.  It is about 4 blocks of the main plaza.

We dropped our packs and headed to Amigos. Fred was in his shorts and although I had long pants on, I had a short sleeve top.  It soon cooled off so much, Fred had to walk back to Pension Topas to put his legs on and bring me my jacket

Breakfast at Hotel Las Olas

. And I thought I wasnīt going to use the jacket I have been carrying around. Well we just came from 90 plus degree weather, and now are in the mountains, where it really cools off at night. 

Mary stopped into the Amigos. Then Phillip, who has spent 4 months out of the last several years here, came and joined us too. We all had Atlas beer. The new owner, Mark, said he couldnīt get Panama beer right now, as ĻsomethingĻ or someone fell into the vat. So Panama wasnīt selling their beer right now. Okay then, Atlas it is. Atlas is still a very good Panamanian beer. I also order a large plate of homemade french fries. Shook some salt on them, dipped them in catsup and went to town on them. I think from being in the sun, the salt tasted really good.

We stopped by the 24 hour supermercado, picked up some snacks and beer and headed home. Well tomorrow, I will catch up on the internet and we will see what adventures we will  have in Boquete.

Jane and Fred

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Covered patio outside our room at Hotel Las Olas	Entrance to our hotel, Nope not in Nepal	Fellow water taxi leaving Bocas del Toro	Snug as a Bug in a Rug
The pool at Pension Topas	Topas brand of coffee

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