Boquete, Panama

Had a great few days so far in Panama. Met a 21 year old Norwegian girl called Kate and so we headed from San Jose together to a city called David. Not a lot there, except a useful guesthouse with lots of travel info, a kitchen, laundry and the biggest supermarket nearby I have seen for 6 months!!! Oh and a casino. Kate and I had thought it would be a good idea to go one night as neither of had been to one before. The guest house owner, Andrea, had told us that as long as you are appearing to 'play' then you get free drinks. David is the hottest city in Panama and so the air conditioning was almost as much of draw as the free drinks. Free to get in and then you can get 100 credits for $1, and so if you only placed 1 cent bet, then you could appear to be playing on the fruit machines all night and have a very cheap night out. We will probably try and do the same once in Panama City, although we have been told they are not so generous with the amount to free drinks you get there unless you are playing serious money.

The day after we slowly headed to Boquete in the mountains. It's only one hour from David but a completely different world. It is much fresher and has an alpine feel. Very pretty and we were lucky as we got offered an apartment to rent for $7 each a night.

Yesterday we went on a fantastic hike along a route called 'Sendero los quetzales'. It took us up to 2500m with great views across Panama. Then the route went through the forest and climbed up and up into the clouds. The diversity of plant life always amazes me and the canopy was as impressive as Costa Rica but without the masses of tourists. We had to take two different local buses to get to the start of the walk which took 3 hours. The walk itself was about 7 hours ending back in Boquete. The last few hours went on forever though as everytime we asked how much further to Boquete, we got the response 'una hora mas'....but one hour later we would still be told it was one hour more!! This went on for about three hours and in the end we flagged down a truck and climbed in the back to get back into Boquete before sunset. Was a fantastic day out and only came across 4 other tourists the whole day. It was lovely to come back to a cosy apartment, take a hot shower, cook a meal and enjoy a glass or two of red wine. You don't always get that same feeling in dormitories and so we are making the most of our temprorary home before heading off to Panama City tomorrow.