Boquette

Trip Start Feb 04, 2008
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Trip End Jul 03, 2008


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Flag of Panama  ,
Wednesday, March 5, 2008

After Lydia had joined us we headed to Boquette after a few days in Panama City.  We arrived at our hostel, and chilled for the evening.  Next day we headed out to the Coffee plantation of Cafe Ruiz.  I was amazed to discover that the coffee bean is in fact a fruit which is a little smaller than a cherry and contains 2 beans.  It goes through many processes before becoming the roasted bean. Firstly they pre dry them then they take off the skin, they float them in vats, any with mold or insects float and they scrape them off the top and send them to Nescafe or "No es Cafe" Which means its not coffee.

Then they get 2 other skins off the bean and then dry them for 3 hours.  Then they are ready for roasting.  A very interesting day.  It made me realise its worth shelling out on decent coffee so you dont get ground up fungus and insects in your coffee, from inferior beans Amy and Lydia
Amy and Lydia
 .  Coffee in Costa Rica was awful, apprently they cut it with cows blood to give it a darker colour, how true that is im not sure, but it sounds about right, i´ve had some.

In the afternoon we decided to go to the animal sanctury which is run by an English couple from Winchester who moved here a few years back.  They had all manner of birds and monkeys.  The toucans were amazing.  Brightly coloured beaks that look like they were made of wood and painted!

On our last day we hired a big 4 wheel drive car, and ventured up`the volcano, it was a strenous walk to almost the top at around 3200 metres, the air was thin and cold.  But the fews from the top made it worthwhile.  That afternoon we went to some local hot springs in a place called Caldera.  A small family run farm next to a river.  Hot water wells up from the ground and they have constructed a few rudementary pools which we sat around in for an hour or so.  We just paid the guy a dollar, and it was a bit more authentic than our Baldi springs experience in La Fortuna. 

I´m getting a little behind on the blogs so this was about a week ago now.  We have either not had access to the internet or its been busy travelling around.  After Boquette we headed off to Bocas Del Toro. A cluster of Islands in the Caribbean.

Bye for now.
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