Hot Springs -- Take Three

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So Boquete is one of those towns that everyone intends on staying in for 2 or 3 days and ends up being in forever. On Sunday I headed back to Boquete to potentially meet up with Maayan and Shachar again although I didn't actually know if they would be there or not. However, David isn't really a great town to stay in, so it would have been worth it anyway to go to Boquete since it is cheap and there are nice places to stay. Little did I know it would be a huge reunion. I walked in the door at Doña Cata around 9:30 and who was walking out but Maayan; he and Shachar were staying there too and were out "talking to two crazy American guys", who happened to be Chad and Tyler, who STILL hadn't left Boquete after 4 weeks, and the hotel owner told me that Darr had just shown up there that night too. As if that weren't crazy enough, the next day I run into this Israeli guy from San Blas in the internet cafe, then find out that Katja, Ericka, Joe, and Rochelle are all here too (all people I met on San Blas) and that I just missed Bradley, Lindsey, and Jaimie. Crazy little travel world here in Panama.

So needless to say, it has been a pretty fun time back here in Boquete since I know my way around the area and have tons of people to hang out with. Five of us went to the hot springs, and even though it was my third time, I just don't seem to get tired of basking on the rocks until you're too hot and have to jump in the river and then getting in the hot springs around 5:30 when it starts to get cooler outside.

Yesterday was kind of a chillout day in Boquete since I needed to use the internet and Shachar had to look for an alternate flight back to NYC and I met up with all the San Blas crew. Today Maayan and I were supposed to go camping but we got a really late start after seeing Shachar off and in the end decided to just get an early start tomorrow, so here I am once again prolonging my Boquete stay. Tomorrow we should really get an early start though so we can get to the other side of Volcan Baru and do some hiking and camp in Parque Internacional La Amistad (PILA). From there we intend to hike the Sendero Los Quetzales all the way back to Boquete, and then I may finally leave Panama....only 3 weeks later than I had planned.

Running into a bunch of people had an added bonus that I got more pictures of San Blas and the area, so I'm putting them in this blog to remember all the cool people I keep running into!

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Photos

Kuna village from above
Aerial shot of one of the islands from the plane

The boat landing
San Blas

Last night on San Blas
Jaimie from Australia, Bradley from the UK, and Judi from Canada heading up the party

River basking
Caldera

Finally a picture in the hot springs themselves
My first two trips I only managed to get pictures of the river

More of the crew...
Katja, Lindsey, Patricio, Joe

And rounding out the table...
Rochelle & Harriet