Days 13-14 Boquete
Luckily we are a very punctual group of travelers and nobody has ever held up the others. We are waiting in the lobby of the hotel Laguna pat Bocas del Toro and it is pouring with rain just for a change. Esther our tour guide is supposed to meet us at 8.30. 8.50 and we are getting anxious as the launch we are supposed to be booked on leaves at 9. Fortunately the jetty is only a 2 minute walk away. I find my valuable plastic bags, cover my case and wait outside. Esther appears from the opposite direction to expected and casually strolls over to our group. She has been to the dock to purchase the tickets that she told us she had pre purchased, to discover the boat is booked out and we have to wait for the next one and this is now going to hold us up for the taxi that is supposed to take us to the bus station and then of course the bus. The upshot was that we travelled in pouring rain, some of our luggage got wet and we missed the early bus and had to get the next one which was very crowded.
The annoying thing about this was that she had told us the tickets were all pre-booked. Sometimes we just don't know what is going on.
The bus trip is a story of its own! The idea with Gecko is cultural experience hence we take a local bus which is 30 seater with 40 people on it. The seats are built for Pygmy bums and none of the locals are impressed with traveling with us. I am sitting next to a young woman with a child of about 3 and she thinks 2/3rds of the seat is hers. Our cultural experience was traveling with freezing aircon and music so loud that our ears were ringing. Cultural experience equates to Gecko paying the least to get us from A to Z. The locals all had their earpieces in from their MP3s or were using their mobiles! A hour into the trip next to this wriggling child and all of a sudden, puke!!! He has vomited everywhere and fortunately I have good reflexes and jumped out of the way. Us extranjeros were the ones who came up with plastic bags, wet ones and tissues. What a smell!!! The bus stopped after 2 hours and she was able to get her bag off the roof ( where they all were in the rain, thank goodness for my plastic bags) and change herself and the boy. A few people got off at this stop so now only 30 people aboard this shitty little bus!!!
We arrive at a town called David and this is where we get our next bus which is an old yellow school bus. Fine if you are school kids! We are squeezed together and one of the girls is lucky enough to get the local pervert next to her. Linda is a senior sergeant in the NSW police force, he picked the wrong person to sidle up against. He quickly changes seats and sits next to a young girl and starts the same thing with her. It was on! Sarah, our Swiss air attendant, yells out, "don't touch her, she's a child" he got such a fright and by now everyone knows and the conductor came and spoke to him and moved him away. People got on and off the bus so good people watching, one interesting person was an old man, impeccably dressed and clutching onto his fighting cockerel, we saw a few people with these around the town and one night walked past a lane way with a fight happening at the end.
Eventually we arrive at Boquete. A town 1200 meters above sea level and famous for its dormant volcano which the energetic are allowed to hike up and see over the rim. What a pretty place, green, cute architecture and many indigenous people evident.
History is that it was founded and influenced by Swiss and German settlers who saw the agricultural possibilities and hence the older architecture has the Swiss chalet look about it. Now it is the hiding and retirement place of many American and Panamanian retirees who enjoy the benefits of an inexpensive lifestyle and a cooler climate. As you can imagine there are also plenty of backpackers due to the activities offered such as canyoning, zip lining, rafting, hiking, etc. the girls opt for a hike in the morning and the 4 women book for a coffee plantation tour. Davidson fortunately escapes all us "mothers " and finds a few friends of his own age and heads off with them during the day. ( he actually told us today that he enjoys being with us and being looked after as he is a novice traveller and none of his friends will save up and go with him)!
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The hostel is not my idea of traveling but even though I don't enjoy the noise, the place is very clean, the bed OK and the staff very courteous and helpful. The second night was much quieter thankfully!
The first night the girls have located a French restaurant they had read about and off we head. Esther is not impressed as she wanted us to go to a restaurant where she usually takes her travelers. We have discovered that her taste and ours do not match but if we go where she wants then she gets her meals for nothing as a perk for being a guide who takes her clients there. We've had enough of this as she is a very ordinary guide and essentially if we had travelled using lonely planet we would have got everywhere we wanted to as all the hostels and hotels can book you through to anything and there are travel agencies everywhere. She has little knowledge and has not been very helpful.
The coffee tour was fantastic, the best value tour yet. A fabulous guide, entertaining and so knowledgeable. The plantation is a small family concern headed by Don Pedro and founded by his father. They use organic principles and he has made every single piece of machinery, bar one, mainly out of old car parts! The piece of machinery he didn't make was the bag sealer.
We walk around the grove, learn about the different types of plants, their history, agricultural principles, how to pick and the process from growing to roasting. He then roasted some beans, showed us the different roasts and the best roast for type of coffee then we sat and tried the coffee. A great afternoon.
The difference that I note in both Bocas and Boquete is the higher prominence of indigenous people. In Bocas most of the boat men and street sellers were indigenous. The area they lived was run down and poor. In Boquete our guide was indigenous and told us about his childhood playing in the forest and picking coffee beans with his family. The women wore their traditional dresses, long and colorful and all wore their very black hair, long and tied back. I didn't notice the women working in the shops and can only conclude
that they worked in the market gardens. Once again cultural notes not addressed by our guide and difficult to remember to ask these questions when we next see Esther.
We let our judgement get the better of us and allow Esther her free meal choice that night, not again! After dinner everyone except me as I was so tired, went out for a couple of drinks. But we did get to drink the local mix called a pisco sour. Memories of Chile with Rhonda and Yvonne!
Tuesday morning, another early bus back to David. Esther and I are sitting in the lobby of the hostel and we experience a 5 second earthquake. It was numbing. The rumble like loud thunder and the shake. We sat there just looking at each other. People poured into the streets and we noticed the hospital was rapidly evacuated. The hostel staff said they had never experienced this before. I have to say that I was very happy to get on the bus and get away as it is not usual for just one quake like that.
So here we are again, another cultural experience on the old school bus. On our way to meet the public coach that will take us to Panama, a 7 hour trip, can't wait!
This is the last leg of our journey and we have all been disappointed with our cultural experience in Panama, whilst the towns we visited have been nice and we have participated in the tours that we offered we have seen very little of the way the locals live, have learnt nothing of their music, dress or customs and have been annoyed with the level of our accommodation and guidance. Lets hope things improve in Panama City but somehow I don't think we are going to the Hilton!!!
You are going to have to wait for the final epistle for the answers!
Adios amigos y familia.
PS. I have been very proud of my Spanish attempts here and have used it a lot and usually can make myself understood much to my surprise!!!
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