Days 13-14 Boquete

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.

Caldera River Boquete

Central Plaza Boquete

 

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 museum! The chassis from the original car that supplied the parts for the machinery

Ripe coffee pods but not nespresso!

Home made ladder for those un reachable beans to be picked

Coffe beans drying in the sun after the fermentation process

Don Pedro

Roasting machines, made from car parts with the funnel being the old headlamps!

Light, medium and dark roasts!

Boquete

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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Boca Del Toro

Days 10-12 Panama. Bocas Del Toro

 

The Costa Rica part of the trip is over. The 5 of us board a nice little mini bus and head to the border which is a 40 minute drive away. The country side is hilly and lush with poorer thatched dwellings evident. It doesn't seem to matter how primitive the houses are, most of them seem to have a satellite dish on their roofs!

At the border we lug our bags off the bus and are immediately hassled by men wanting to assist us. A difficult way to earn a dollar. Esther, our guide for the Panama leg finds us. She is a portly very black skinned Caribbean woman of Jamaican descent and an English accent very difficult to follow but very enthusiastic. We follow her to the first point where we line up for our exit sheet to fill in. We line up again to have it processed. The sight in front of us makes me really wish that my camera is not so deep in my bag but here is not the time to unpack it. Ahead of us is a very old and dilapidated railway bridge with gap. Holes and rickety timbers. Next to it is the original steel walkway, parts in rusting state of disrepair. This crosses a reasonable size river. This is the border crossing over which we have to walk and trundle our bags. I must say I felt very nervous crossing but was reassured by the more seasoned of the travelers that there are much worse ones to cross, particularly in Africa. This knowledge doesn't make me feel any better. On the other side is another queue at a very worn out grotty looking building set to the side of a very grotty little village that I guess survives due to the border. The sun has come out and it is hot and humid with a lot of muddy puddles to avoid. You wouldn't want your Louis Vuitton luggage here!

The passport is signed and we are given customs forms to fill in then off to the next queue to pay $3 and a little paper stamp is fixed next to the printed stamp, the next queue where the customs form is snatched from my hand , go I am told so I do as they suggest with the others behind me. This took around an hour but other travelers tell us it can take 4 hours depending on the queue and how the officials are feeling on the day! We are loaded onto a disgusting dirty little Mini bus with no air con and all the windows open. Esther starts talking and I have no idea what she is saying due to the noise and the accent. At least we are handed printed sheets ( with badly written English) with a little bit of info on Panama in general and the area. We discover that our itinerary has been changed and we have 3 nights here now and not 2 as per the original itinerary. It does seem though that depending when you booked your trip, the travel notes vary so none of us really have much idea of what is going of until we arrive. The trip notes don't give any hotel info, I suspect this is so we can't check out the places on trip advisor before we leave and not book!!!

We head off in this horrible little bus and about 30 minutes later arrive at a rather smelly and grotty little ferry terminal and wait with a few locals and a few school girls dressed in their Catholic school uniform (80% Catholic here). We board what is described as a high speed launch ( and it is) don our life vests and off we set for a 30 minute trip from the mainland to Colon Island. This place is an unexpected pleasure!!!! As the island approaches we see colorful buildings and restaurants on the water front, lots of very nice catamarans and sailing vessels moored nearby, very pleasing!

 

 

We climb off the boat, grab our bags and head up Calle trecera (3rd street) to Hotel Laguna. Looks OK! Staff very pleasant as they usually are then lug the bags up 3 flights of stairs. Met halfway by hotel staff who assist at least!!! First time!!! As usual we are given the worst rooms in mediocre hotels, tiny window overlooking next doors gutter. gecko tours do us proud with their hotel selection. Have to squeeze past bed to get into the mouldy bathroom with the broken shower hose and glass door hanging off one bracket. Bad luck really, hotel full. Can't work out why though the cleaners can't scrub the mould off the glass and the tiles. I understand that it is very humid here and hard to keep mould free but why can't these places keep up simple standards of cleanliness? Bedroom looks more like a ski chalet than a tropical room but it it is clean and bed OK. Walls are paper thin and the reason that I am writing this at 4.30 is because the neighboring room came home at 3 am and put on TV so I have been listening to a Spanish soap opera for the past 90 minutes!!

The town is similar in architecture and feel to Key West in Florida but not quite so exclusive and sophisticated, high end backpackers place! It does have a nice vibe and as we have discovered, some good restaurants at reasonable prices, good bars and great music, mainly reggae.

We settle in our rooms then meet with Esther in the foyer and head off for a late lunch and a quick meeting to map out the next few days. Esther it turns out is very nice but more of a facilitator than guide and considering she lives in the area she doesn't actually seem to have much local knowledge except where to eat and is a little put out when we decide that we will do our own thing for dinner as 2 of the girls want to head off on their own.

Us remaining 3 make plans to meet at 6 for an early dinner and that is when we discover it is actually 7 pm and that there is a time difference, none of us had been made aware of this! these are the simple things that we don't seem to be informed about.

We find a place called Boca Bamboo , it is big, has a massive screen showing good music video clips and has a special board at reasonable prices which is good for our youngest tour member Davidson as this trip has broken his budget. The trip notes say $25 a day is enough, it is if you don't want to buy water , have a drink and are able to find the cheapest restaurants in town. $40 would be a fairer sum for a tight budget as neither of these countries have been cheap to eat. I digress! We were very happy with our choice, food was good, drinks a reasonable price and a live reggae band came on and they were very good.

As usual I was home and in bed before 9. The heat, the humidity and this cough drain me!

What is helpful here is that Panama currency is the USA dollar so no more converting! What is annoying though is that the prices given are not real as 7% tax is then added on plus a 10% service charge. We discovered that this service charge (tip) is a new thing here and used to be discretionary but we all know that backpackers are very tight with money unless it comes to buying alcohol then it is a free for all. Have actually found this amongst the younger travelers, it is always a fuss about how much gets spent at restaurants, tips, travel etc but money is always available for alcohol ( except Davidson who hasn't spent anything on alcohol).

At our meeting with Esther she talked about the tours that were available to us the following day and how we needed to book our tour for the following destination as it would be Sunday when we arrived there and the offices would be closed. (Only one day in Boquette now as 3 here and I have opted to do a half day coffee plantation. Tour).

Davidson is desperate to have a surfing lesson and us 4 girls opt for a day tour on a boat, dolphin spotting in Dolphin bay, red frog beach and snorkeling, buy lunch if you want it but we have all done this before and decide to take out own food and drinks. ( a very good move we discover as the food place looked rank)

We are ready at 8.45 as we have been told to be and take the 2 minute walk to the boat to discover it leaves at 9.30 and the other small group of people are 20 minutes late. We are then told that red frog is closed to us due to high seas so we are going to Zapatillos beach instead. We spot the dolphins and get a few pictures, then taken to the spot where we are meant to order lunch which is prepared whilst we are at the beach but as previously said we just hang around for the boat driver to return. We think he is pissed off with us as he would probably get a commission on the food.

We get to the island and are told that we have to pay a$5 fee to the rangers as it is a national park. We haven't been told about this and know damned well it is going in his pocket as no tickets are produced. We bring this up with Esther and yes she forgot to tell us about this but we should have be given a ticket. Something that we didn't like was that the assistant on the boat was the drivers son and he was only about 12 years old and he wasn't there for the fun, he was working and he was the one who had to collect the money from us. We asked why he wasn't at school but no answer .

The beach was actually a little island and was gorgeous. We didn't see the interior of the island, the idea was that we just swam and that we did, lovely sand and warm water that was safe to swim in. We spent 2 hours there, the boatman said 3 but it started raining and the clouds were getting heavy so we wanted to leave. There were actually about 6 boat loads of people.

We returned to the restaurant area which was also the fuel stop and a little further out where we were to snorkel. The boy gathered the snorkels and masks. No fins. Off we went. Meryl and I went in first then Sarah joined us. We were very disappointed as there was very little to see, the equipment was terrible and kept leaking so head up every 20 seconds. We didn't last long. Annoying as on return we discovers that the boatman could have pointed us in the direction of the reef which was a little further over and we could have at least seen something! Actually don't blame him, the tour operators should be responsible for this as they take the money and make most of the profit and I am sure the $5 was the money the driver got for the trip out. We also discovered that most of the boat men are indigenous and it is difficult to get them to send their kids to school. We all agreed that the big tour operators should know this and not encourage their clients to use this service as it promotes child labour.

Poor Esther got an earful when we returned. Particularly when we saw the opposition tour people with a much better tour for $15 more including lunch and 2 snorkel reefs. If I get a bit more sleep and my sunburn isn't too bad in the morning, I may be tempted to have another day at sea!!!

We all had various plans for our second day on Colon but a bug struck everyone in various forms and we all got up late and faced a morning of constant rain. The girls went off with Davidson in the afternoon on a local bus that took them to what sounds like a nice beach and Meryl found them there later in the day.

I strolled around the town, got some breakfast then booked on a return taxi boat to RedFrog beach which is privately owned land. For $10 I had a return boat trip and a good walk through the property and found the beach but I had decided not to expose my skin to any more sun and once again the water was too rough for my liking but it was a pleasant afternoon.

We met up for our final dinner where once again we jumped into a water taxi and headed over to another island and had a very pleasant evening sitting in a restaurant by the water called Bibis. Not a late night as once again we were on the road again the following morning bright and early.

We have all quite enjoyed this place and Geckos finally got something right by keeping us there for 3 nights which gave us 2 full days. I guess if everyone had been feeling OK it would have been better but we have a mix of coughs and gastro between us with Meryl suffering both!

We have endured our share of rain on this trip which none of us expected so the lesson is that if the sun is shining, get out and do something!

Our beach trips have now come to an end and tomorrow head off on a rather long journey to Boquete which is in the mountains and famous for its dormant volcano (the highest peak in Panama) it's agriculture due to the fertile volcanic soil and its coffee, due to the town being 1200 meters above sea level.

Hasta luego amigos!

 

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La Fortuna to Puerto Viejo

Days 7-9 La Fortuna to Puerto Viejo.

 

On the road again. We depart after breakfast in a comfortable 20 seater bus which gives us space to stretch out. Our first stop is about 40 minutes out where the caffeine addicted get their hit of cafe con leche and all of us walk the bridge to view the iguanas which are camouflaged in the bamboo. Guess what, they call this the iguana cafe and the iguana bridge! The area is protected and there are many iguanas here to view, so prehistoric looking. There are apparently many to be found up and down this part of the river. We look at them and they look at us and not one moves!

Iguanas

Happy Stop

Back in the bus for another nap, I can't keep awake after the noise the previous night. Next stop Agusto has decided to go off into the rainforest and find us a poisonous frog to see. He didn't return for,ages and we thought the frogs may have found him first. He is tenacious and back he came with this tiny little brown thing that is apparently quite venomous. In past times the natives would boil them down to extract the venom them mix it with rubber and dip their arrows in it! Nice!!!

Toucans

Sloth

Massive poisonous frog

We stop again for a happy stop at a road side cafe where I got a decent sandwich and we headed off for the final leg and another sleep.

We arrived in Puerto Viejo around 3.30 so not too long a trip bearing in mind the 3 stops.

First impressions of the vicinity not too good, rubbish by the road side, squalor as we enter the area. The hotel is situated a 30 minute walk from the town, down a dirt road and set amongst the rain forest/jungle! They advertise themselves as a luxurious resort, laughable when in 3 days my bed linen and towels are the same, ants everywhere, mould covering the shower and bathroom. There is a bar and pool table, the pool is not clean enough for me to want to swim and the only food is a mediocre breakfast. You can buy water but nothing else. The good thing is that after a discussion with the manager I get a better room in contrast to the initial dungeon. I have a balcony that overlooks the water so the view is lovely and the sound at night pleases me. It is a pity because there is a similar place down the road that has been given some love and it is sparkling and we are envious!

The water here is too rough for me to want to swim and the sand is black or dark grey due to the volcanic dust. Not appealing. In places it is better but too for from here to walk to.

Because of all the rain there is no snorkeling so from my perspective the place is a major disappointment.

We all go into town on the first night for dinner, acceptable but not worth a second visit. In the morning there is a hike through the rain forest. It is a short bus ride then a 2 hour hike followed by beach time if the weather holds up. I woke in the morning feeling very unwell and thought that I would be better off having a rest day. I stayed in bed, ate a little breakfast which didn't warrant a repeat visit on the following days and at around midday ventured into town and bought some fruit, yogurt cheese and a tomato which did me 2 breakfasts and 2 lumches. Seedy hole is a polite description. Laid back vibe was what we were told, try a place full of pot heads and ferals with crappy shops interspersed as I discovered on the 3 rd day with a few decent cafes. I returned to the hotel and lazed around on my balcony for the rest of the day and later took another walk along the beach in the opposite direction.

Even though the sand is an un attractive colour it is very fine and nice to walk on and doesn't stain your skin. The water was pretty wild on one side with rain forest on the other with some massive trees and logs washed up and lying on the beach. That night we discover the resort next door and ate there, acceptable but pricey.

 

Playa Negra

Driftwood!!!!!!!

Hotel Perla Negra

 

View from bedroom balcony

Raining for a change

 

Day 3, feeling a little better but there has been quite a bit of rain and not a lot of touring activity that appeals to me. A lunchtime I walk into town with Craig, one of my fellow travelers and we get lunch and check out the shops, no, it isn't improving for me! Dinner is planned for everyone at a restaurant called flip flops! This is our last night as a group, once again an average meal then we proceeded to a reggae bar. Sleazy, manky, what else can I say? Not sure that I would like to see it during the day! We stay for an hour then most of us leave.

For me Puerto Viejo has been a big disappointment after the build up it was given. We expected good weather and beach time with water activity but as we discovered this weather was the norm and vastly over rated by Gecko. On discussion with the other travelers, none of us felt very safe with warnings not to walk in small groups at night, not to go here, not to go there etc. in fact getting a taxi is a hazard as they aren't licensed or recognizable and no meters. They have permission to work as taxis and they congregate around a corner with their crappy vehicles, they then charge what they think they will get out of you and every time somebody does something a tip is expected. Even in restaurants a price is given then they add on 13% tax then 10% tip so everything is actually 25% more whether or not the service is good!

Thursday morning and the group break off into their next stages of travel. The 5 of us who are heading into Panama are due to be picked up at 11 am, a couple have already left without saying goodbye to anyone, Craig and Agusto head off into town to wait for the bus to return them to San Jose and the 2 girls who are staying on but at another hotel wave us off.

10 days have passed and we are now on the Panama leg! Lets hope the next part of the tour lives up to our expectations!

Adios amigos y familia!

 

 

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