Advertisement
Santa Catalina
Santa CatalinaI returned from San Blas Islands and headed straight to Santa Catalina, on the Pacific Coast in Panama.
Santa Catalina is known for diving at Coiba Islands, but as I don't dive, I did not do that. I spent next couple of days just planning the next leg of my trip.
From Santa Catalina, I headed to David and then to Boquete. Boquete is at a higher altitude, a mountainous area known for its hikes and coffee.
There I experienced rain for the first time on this trip.
I did the Three Waterfalls trail where I saw some majestic waterfalls up close. Unfortunately, due to the rain, the third waterfall was closed, but the other two I was able to see up close. I had taken a local bus to the waterfalls, but on my way back there was no bus. So I hitchhiked on the back of a pick-up truck, it was a fun experience. However, some taxi guys stopped and asked the driver and his friend why they were giving me a free ride (hurts the taxi business). And the driver and his friend asked me to come and sit in the front with them,
Boquete: Three Waterfalls Trail
Boquete: Three Waterfalls Trail said they will charge me $2 for the ride (to honor the idea that they were charging me) and gave me a beer in lieu of that 😊
Next day, I was planning to do the Il Pianista trail, but that's a trail best done in a group of 2-3 people. Luckily, I met another traveler I had met in San Blas in my hostel and she said she had booked a guide to do this trail and 2 other people were going on the same tour. So we did the hike together the next day. The hike itself is not complex, but on this hike in 2014, two Dutch girls had gone missing and later found dead, hence the precautions. It's another matter that we figured later that our guide was suspected to be involved with that case. It's a crazy story and I don't want to use this blog to describe it, just suffices to say that while I enjoyed the hike and the people I hiked with, the story of those two girls is still on my mind.
That evening, me and my friend from the hostel explored Boquete town and just relaxed. Boquete is
Boquete: Three Waterfalls Trail
Boquete: Three Waterfalls Trail also well known for Geisha coffee, the most expensive coffee in the world. No wonder it has lot of people from around the world (especially from USA) settling down there.
Next day, me and my friend from the hostel and another traveler went for a horseback ride to Caldera, a place near Boquete. It was good to see that like every other means of transport, one had to feed the horse before and after the ride (bananas were their favourite). Also, my horse was the laziest one, but I didn't mind as I was having a relaxed time. Post the ride, we went to the Caldera hot springs and enjoyed a dip in the natural pools. The evening was again spent exploring the town and just chilling together.
I loved Boquete most among all the places I have been to in Panama. The hikes, the town and the friends I made were all special and that's what will stay on my mind.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.048s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0189s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
