PanamaMalPaisTicasExamenes ahh I'm behind!!

¡Buenas noches mi familia y amigos! Disculpame por no pegar una entrada más temprano. Entonces, a sus delicias, yo tengo fotos para ustedes ver y cuentos (en inglés) para ustedes leer. ¡Disfruten!

Panamá

Now, you may be wondering, for those that actually remembered where I left off, that I was about to tell you about the hike out of Sirena Ranger Station. So why title this section Panamá? Simply put, this story is too complicated, too full of STUFF to be writing it in an internet journal. Besides, it's just not as exciting that way! So I have instead decided that it will be my pleasure to fully describe my thrilling, dangerous, graphic adventure to each and every one of you in person. Now that got your attention, didn't it?

Panamá was beautiful. Incredibly so. It was a looong trip getting to the town of Boquete, too. First, from Puerto Jiménez I took a boat across the Golfo Dulce to Golfito. It was a nice, relaxing ride but we sure were moving fast. Before departure I snapped a sweet picture of a pelican:

Golfito is known to be a rough, sketchy town, so naturally I was only there for 2 minutes. Just enough time to get off the boat and hop on the first bus to the border of Panamá. The bus was more packed than I'd ever seen - I was sandwiched, standing in the aisle, between an old guy with bad breath and a fat teenager without a shirt. Luckily the ride only lasted 3 hours...

The process of crossing the border wasn't too bad. I had to get stamped out of Costa Rica and get stamped into Panamá. The buses in Panamá were so different than in Costa Rica. In fact, if my friend in Dos Brazos Steve Prchal hadn't told me about the buses I might still be looking for them. They are basically big plain-colored vans. But air-conditioned thank goodness! That sure was a nice surprise. Not to mention the fare was cheap.

View from the 'bus':

I arrived in San José de David (people just call it David) that afternoon and took yet another bus to my final destination, Boquete. Boquete is close to Volcán Barú, so as you can imagine, it's high in elevation. The Boquete bus was a regular school bus (still cheap), but without being equipped with any special features, we chugged up that mountain at a snail's pace. I literally could have ran alongside our bus at some points.

Boquete was a beautiful mountainous town. Colder than I expected but very refreshing. I checked into my hostal called Mamallena and woke up early the next morning pumped to see some Quetzals. So now you know why I chose to go to Panamá in the first place. I heard about this trail called Sendero Los Quetzales which ranks among the top trails in ALL of Central America. After another 2 buses and a taxi ride, I reached the trail head for my Quetzal adventure. Here are a few pictures of the trail:





The first hour I saw some small forest birds but nothing special. I was a little bummed, especially after spending 20 minutes at the sign that said "Habitat de Quetzales" with my neck strained looking up into the canopies. Well, turns out it wasn't till I hit some lower elevation that I saw them:

Let's just say it was 100% worth the trip. Even if the pictures are a little grainy. I saw a male courting a female; he would fly in little circles around her and show off. I saw the unmistakable silhouette of a male high up in the sky as he belted out his song to the forest. I saw a group of 3 females searching for fruits near the forest floor (rare because they usually spend their time high up in the canopies, hence the grainy photos). Just an awesome, awesome hike.

Back to Boquete I went and enjoyed the quiet life of my hostel. The next morning I checked out, took the 5am school bus to David, another bus to the border, and begged my way onto a bus to take me to San José. Another in-person story there, if you must hear it :)

Next update: Check back Tuesday night same time for more!