Spectacular Vistas and Beautiful Drives
Trip Start
May 20, 2009
1
4
8
Trip End
Aug 13, 2009
Where I stayed
Boquete, Chiriquí, Panama
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
We hit up the happy hour at our hotel and met some great people. Then we went out to dinner at Panamonte and had the most incredible Black Angus filet and hamburger, bottle of Argentinan white and tiramisu for under 50 bucks! Then we went out to Zanzibar, the hip little jazz bar (minus the jazz) in town, and ran into the same people from our hotel so we joined them for drinks and hookah. They happened to be sitting with the owner's daughter and a few other folks so we had a great time sipping Che Guevara's (rum and sugarcane). Couldn't have asked for a better introduction to Boquete!
The next day, we went straight to Palo Alto where the ziplines are for Boquete Tree Trek. It was a good tour and the lines were literally attached to trees in the jungle which was different than my experience in Costa Rica. We had a great time until they held us captive for almost 2 hours while the other gringos bought into their tourist trap of picture cd's and their restaurant. We had no way to leave, so that was a little bit of a bummer. When we finally went into town we grabbed lunch at a little local spot for 2.50 a person...the food was classic Panamanian and so damn good! Then we stumbled upon a river rafting place, booked a trip withBoquete Outdoor Adventures and headed off on a coffee tour. We went to Kotowa coffee farm and had a very thorough explanation of the process. The best part of the tour was learning about the indigenous Ngobe Indian and how they live and work at the coffee plantations in the area...our main objective was getting the authentic burlap coffee bags and tasting some incredible coffee, both of which were accomplished. After happy hour at the hotel, again, we headed to Mexican with our hotel owning friends from Pedasi, Panama then back to the Jazz bar, with no Jazz, for drinks.
The next day we headed off on our rafting adventure. Kim has been a bit accident prone on the trip and this was no different. In the middle of a pretty serious class 4 rapid we hit a hole and everyone, including the guide went flying out of the raft. Kim fell out and smacked her face on the paddle of the guy in front of her. I managed to get back into the raft quickly and when I saw Kim, she had a big cut over her eye and blood was running down her face. I freaked out a bit and then the guide got her back into the boat. It's healing well but she's had a cut and a black eye ever since. The rest of the rafting trip was great and it was definitely bigger and more exciting than our trip in Sarapiqui. On the way back to Boquete, kim iced her wound with a cold Panama Beer and we hit the medical clinic in town to get it cleaned up...after 7 bucks and a butterfly bandage the official medical diagnosis was, no stitches, phew!
After getting back to the hotel we ventured out again for a hike along the sendero quetzales trail. We were running out of daylight b ut still managed about a two hour hike...we wished we had more time as it was beautiful and only getting better, but there were just not enough hours in the day in Boquete.
Our last night out in Boquete we had another great dinner at Machu Pichu a Peruvian restaurant and hit up Zanzibar, the Jazz bar, one more time to enjoy their total lack of Jazz music...but we had more hookah and met up with some frinds from Bocas, Dennis and Ines, who picked our brain and travel knowledge all night. Boquete was amazing and it was the first time that we had wished for more time. We flew out the next day for Panama City where we would start or San Blas adventure...stay tuned!
