We left pavones to go to a different beach town in Panama called Santa Catalina. It isnt too far on the map from pavones, but after 5 buses and 2 taxis, it took more than 13 hours and cost about $35. also, on one bus we had to stand for 2 hours and crouch over bc we are all way too tall for the buses. and, on that bus, there were 3 chickens. we also had to cross the costa rica-panama border, so i have pictures of that as well.I hate days when we move locations. days traveling are expensive and a waste of a day.
short bus where we had to stand for 2 hours
the roosters crowing
immigration
sniffing our bags
good food
In santa catalina, we stayed at Cabanas Rolos,
a simple hostel with common bathrooms, nice hammocks, and a not-so-nice but functional kitchen. Santa catalina had much easier waves to catch and bigger styrofoam topped surfboards unlike our first two days on real boards.
Meaning that we didn't get nearly as bruised on our ribcages and knees and chests, but it wasnt as rewarding. it also had a sandy beach and bottom so we didnt cut our feet, and could pretty much walk out to the waves without paddling a lot. this means less chaffing. we had to walk to the surf beach from our hostel which took about 25 minutes each way, but the roads are all paved. So bizarre. Costa rica supposedly has better infrastructure but i have barely seen an unpaved road here in panama.
surfing beach 25 min from our hostel
perfectly paved road!
beach close to hostel, no surfing
Boquete, Panama
We spent 2 days in santa catalina, then headed to boquete which is in the northern mountain region of panama. this 4-bus trip also took nearly 12 hours. Boquete is more jungle, with rafting, zip lines, and hikes to waterfalls. we did a 4 hour round trip hike to las cascadas (waterfalls) near the quetzal trail yesterday (tuesday).
taxi
horse on the walk to the waterfalls
above one of the waterfalls
on the way back our taxi was pulled over bc it was a pickup truck and we had 5 people in the truck bed. he got a ticket.
police troubles... taxi driver in yellow
grant had a massive desire to climb Volcan Baru the same night as this 4 hour hike...
Volcan Baru has two sweet qualities: it is the highest point in the entire country of Panama, and, from the top, you can see both the Pacific ocean and Caribbean sea. Im not sure but it may be the only place in the world you can see both by just turning around. after some convincing nick and i joined grant on this trek, and i will never do it again even though it was amazing. i napped from 8 to 1130pm, but the other two guys didnt sleep at all because they are crazy. our hostel took us in a shuttle to the base of the volcano at 12:15 midnight so we could hike to the top by sunrise which was at 6:10am. the trail was a little over 13 km (8ish miles) long one direction and had a vertical rise of 1800 meters so around 6,000 feet up. hiking in the dark is pretty miserable, as is hiking in the daylight haha. basically i looked two feet in front of my shoes with my headlamp pointed there for 5 hours while we stumbled uphill on very rocky steep terrain.
this was taken somewhere between 2 and 3am on one of our snack/rest breaks, and that is nick's sweatline. he overdressed to say the least. so climbing up is miserable and you cant see anything. we got to the top around 5:25, took a 20 minute nap in this super ghetto "hut" 
(more like a shack, im wrapped in the pink and white blanket and grant is in green), and then climbed the last kilometer to the summit before 6am. the sunrise was amazing, and we didnt have too much cloud cover so we could see both oceans. 
(thats the caribbean)
(thats the pacific)one of the coolest things ive ever seen. it was pretty cold up top and we had lots of layers on but it went away pretty soon after the sun came up. after taking a bunch of pictures for 45 minutes we decided to head down. 4 hours later and lots of foot pain and maybe a reverse - hyperextended knee for me when i slipped and fell, we made it down. never again, but worth it once.
some scenery we missed during the night, as seen while walking down. a sheep grazing field.
we are going to bocas del toro tomorrow, a beach area on the caribbean side of panama to hang out for a few days and then head north to costa rica again.
2 comments:
That hike looks amazing! Nice pictures of the sunrise. Keep posting with pictures when you can! Seems like you're having quite the adventure. Don't forget today is Mother's Day if you have access to the Internet!!
great pictures! keep posting pictures and comments!
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