Im on the move again.

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Trip Start Aug 26, 2005 Previous
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  Boquete, Panama
Sunday, March 4, 2007

Suffering from a serious cold I was debating how long I could stay in Panama and feel sorry for myself but decided to give myself a good kick in the backside and get moving.
As I had visited Central Panama on my previous visit 3 months ago, the only option was to head north to the highlands.
I woke early, full of energy and snot and before I knew it, I was back on the travel wagon. An 8 hour bus north through Panama towards Costa Rica, but not that far. The ride was pleasant enough, with this funny old man beside me laughing the whole way when I told him, yes we have cows in australia, and sheep. And when I pulled out an apple, he was staring in awe and asked where I got it. It seemed like a stupid question, I said in Panama City. He said, did you get it from a tree, I said no, I bought it from a shop. He said, we dont have apple trees in Panama. And a close inspection revealed he was right. The apple had come from the USA. How about that.
I arrived in David, which was much much warmer that Panama City, but luckily I wasnt staying long. I transferred onto a chicken bus. Yes it did have chickens. Lots of them. There was even a local kid with a green parrot on his shoulder and a bag full of baby parrots, he was presumably going to sell. I rode this bumpy bus for an hour, up up up, to a little town called Boquette. At around 1100 metres above sea level it was a perfect temperature after the blasting heat from the big cities.
Its a beautiful lazy town, nestled amongst cragly mountains, where they grow the best coffee in Panama. There are loads of farms and trees and jungle and ive already spotted the mountain ill be climbing in the morning, providing I wake up early enough.
Chau chau for now.
It didnt take long for the first adventure.
I set out in the morning to find a decent hill to climb. After walking along a winding, steadily increasing road, I had a great view back toward the town and found a lookout and coffee place. I got chatting with the guy working there and asked if he knew of any good hills to climb. He pointed toward the side of his huge property, full of coffee plants and there, in the distance was a big enough hill to be called a mountain. He said it takes around 2 hours to climb. Sounds good to me. He finished work and we set off toward the hill, picking up his friend along the way. Great practice for my Spanish, which is returning very quickly. It was a super steep climb, and very dry and dusty. The thick tree canopy and ferns and leaf litter was hiding a very dry dusty soil below. Every few steps up, we slipped a few back. It took a little over 2 hours to reach the top, but the view was amazing. From the top we were able to see Volcan Baru - Panamas highest point and dormant volcano at a little over 3000metres. It can be climbed, but takes around 11 hours. So ill save my volcano adventures for a later time. We sat on a big rock at the top and admired the town of Boquete below before sliding down in all of 20 minutes.

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