Lost & Found

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We left Bocas Del Toro heading south towards David. It's a 4 and half hour drive. 2/3 of the way into it, we saw the sign for "Lost & Found Lodge" and asked to be dropped off along the road. I heard about this place from my Dutch friends back in Nicaragua, it was their favorite part of Panama so I wanted to check it out. I was a bit sketched out at first not being in a real city and just off the side of the highway. We followed the trail up the mountain and 20 minutes later we had found "The Lost & Found". My writing and pictures can not do this place justice. It was absolutely gorgeous! Way up in the cloud forest, this jungle lodge had breathtaking views of green rolling hills and the Pacific ocean. It is completely isolated from civilization and fully sustained by its own organic farms and coffee plantation. And, it is mostly operated by volunteers from all around the world. Just minutes from the hostel is the start of many hiking trails leading up to view points, water falls, and the river. In the mornings you can see monkeys coming up to the terrace to take their daily dose of bananas and at night you can see dozens of golden Beatles and giant rhinoceros looking bugs. Our first day there, we hiked up to the view point at the top of the cloud forest. It was an awesome view being just above the clouds overlooking the rain forest. Later that night we cooked dinner with the volunteers and other backpackers. Since you are literally in the middle of jungle without any sort of communication with the outside world (no Internet) you are forced to make really good friends with everyone. The hostel has a bar which they open around 9pm if enough people want it and hold daily Foosball tournaments. The winning team gets a bottle of rum! Even though we were in the cloud forest in the rainy season, we were super lucky and had nice sunny days the whole time. The following day we grabbed some beers, packed lunch, and hiked up to the river for a picnic and some swimming. We completed parts of the treasure hunt in the labyrinth offered by the hostel but we had to end it early as we were limited by day light. On our third day at Lost and Found, one of the volunteers offered us a ride to David (2nd largest city in Panama) where we took a bus to Panama City.

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