Staying in a castle, did a walk that was supposed to be flat but was definitely uphill and was supposed t be cloiudy but was very sunny. Hitch hiked on the way back to save $10
Day two market and chill market was like a church fate lots of American expats
Day three swinging bridges canceled as I was too heavy
We arrived in the mountain village of Bouquet and were greeted by our very unusual hostel, we were staying in a castle! It was a bit out of town, built by a Dutch man who, after moving to Panama, had missed seeing European castles and what else was there to do, apart from build his own of course! He had chosen to build it on a hill overlooking the countryside, so the hostel has beautiful views. It also had these cool hobbit hole like houses you could stay in!
We were both still a bit knackered from our partying in Bocas del Toro and the long journey to get into the mountains, so we just wanted a chill activity for our first day here. We saw online that there was a flat walk not far from the town, it was supposedly a gentle walk to a waterfall and back. We checked with our hostel who confirmed it was a flat easy walk, they also said it would be cloudy all day so perfect walking weather. So we decided to go for it.
After being wayyy overcharged for a taxi to the start point and then paying a further $10 USD each to do the walk at the entrance, we were ready for our relaxing stroll along the flat walk.
The cloudy day turned out to be boiling hot sunshine without a cloud in the sky… and I can only assume the locals here are descended from mountain goats, there is no way in hell I would describe the walk we did as flat by any stretch of the imagination! It was a fun walk but definitely one we were not in the mood for. After forcing ourselves up hill for 20 minutes we did get to see a tree that was over a thousand years old so that was pretty cool! Grace was very much not in the mood for a hike and would complain ‘ohh look another flat bit’ every time we had to climb up some rocks or walk up a hill!
We did get some added danger in the walk though when we had to cross over some rivers and got to wobble about on some pipes and very ropey looking bridges
We eventually made it to the ‘waterfall’ which was a trickle through some rocks and very unimpressive and then headed back to the start of the trail.
After paying $20 each for a taxi to the walk and the walk itself, we were reluctant to spend yet more money paying for a taxi back again. As Panama is one of the richest and safest countries in central America, hitchhiking is relatively safe and common here. We decided to give it a go, luckily for us the first car we saw looked like a good bet. It didn’t have tinted windows, meaning we could see the driver and he didn’t look like a huge angry man fresh from prison, but rather a friendly looking guy in his 50’s and the car itself was a pickup truck, so we would be able to sit in the back, not with the driver, and in the extreme case we could easily jump off the back if necessary! So I stuck an arm out and did my best Spanish negotiating, the guy kindly offered to drop us off on the outskirts of town as he was only going past it and not in. It was a bit of a bumpy ride but saved us an hours walk and the man refused to take any money. All in all a successful first hitch hike.
On our second day we had decided to check out a local market we had seen advertised, we had really enjoyed most of the markets we had visited on our trip, it’s normally a nice way to see the locals going about doing their day to day activities and experience some local food, music and culture.
It turns out that Boquete is mostly inhabited by American expats. So the market was mostly various church groups and retirement communities advertising for members. On the plus side we did get a nice Cuban sandwich to try which I’d never had before but had always seen on American shows. It was very tasty.
After viewing what little there was of the market we headed back to the hostel and made use of their swimming pool and jacuzzi for the afternoon!
The next day we were supposed to be visiting some hanging bridges, they asked our heights and weights and gave us a ticket, however when they realised we were two women not a man and a woman they told us we could no longer go, as I was to heavy for a woman. Admittedly I am heavy for a woman but probably weigh the same, if not less, than an average male so I’m not entirely sure why I was too heavy? Surely the bridge wouldn’t know or care if I was a male or female but they refused to allow us to go so we didn’t get to see the bridges!
On the plus side, we used the day instead to plan the next leg of our travels to Asia!
But first we’ll be moving on to our next stop the beach town of Santa Catalina, I’ll tell you all about it soon, lots of love Alice x