After leaving the Waterfall Hostel, we headed toward a town called Boquete. Boquete is a little higher in elevation up in the mountains. Therefore, we were finally in a bit
cooler in fresher air. It did not take long to notice the beauty of this area. Luscious green mountains and rolling hills all over. It’s full of beautiful gard
ens abundant in flowers of ever color and shade. Along with Gardens we visited an animal rescue center. We got to see various monkeys, tropical birds, wildcats, anteaters, and more! We had so much fun. I think Boquete has been one of my favorite towns as a whole on this trip. Xela (minus the cold) Guatemala, Antigua Guatemala, Granada Nicaragua, and Boquete Panama.
Boquete is number 4 on the list of top places in the world to retire. We decided to stay for a week or so in Boquete and enjoy the tranquility and ended up staying eight or nine days. This past week was Semana Santa (Holy Week) and all Latin Americans have the week off. Most people go to the beach for the Holiday, but we quickly realized that a lot of people like to escape the city heat and head to the mountains as well. I really enjoyed seeing the celebrations around town. On Good Friday there were floats and a big parade with hundreds upon hundreds of people marching along. It was really interesting to see the Latin American/Catholic side of Easter. I also got to tour a coffee plantation here which is something I’ve always wanted to do. Boquete is famous for it’s coffee. I toured with Café Ruiz who won number one in organic coffee in the international contest last year. The sad part is that a lot of coffee farmers are selling their land to foreigners that come to retire. They can sell the land for a lot of money and make more off the land then they did raising and selling coffee. What does this cause? There is higher demand for coffee than the supply can meet. The retirement boom has caused the people who have lived in Boquete their entire lives to move outside to buy land because they can no longer afford land in their hometown. Sad.
On to Volcan Baru. Josiah and Gordon had been talking about how they wanted to climb the Volcano just outside of Boquete. This is the highest point in all of Panama at 11,398 feet. Yikes! Dropping to freezing temperatures at times, this did not seem to appeal to me too much. They were set to go and I kept thinking in the back of my mind I didn’t want to miss seeing something amazing. But still, I didn’t have proper shoes and I’ve never hiked up any mountain! But
with the encouragement of others I gave in and we set out. I quickly realized I had met my match, as the climb was very rocky and steep. We started hiking at 10:00 p.m. in order to reach the summit for sunrise. Ahhh! I never thought we were going to make it. We kept hiking and hiking for hours (which seemed like days) through the somewhat moonlit path. 8.26 miles we climbed up and 8.26 down. It was tricky because we were hot and sweating but the temperature kept dropping. I was confused. Do I put on more layers or take
them off? This was a lot to think about when exhaustion set in. FINALLY we reached the summit and it was still pitch black. I quickly piled on the layers. I was wearing a tanktop, a t-shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, a sweater, two hoodies, and a blanket. I do not mess around when it comes to cold. I passed out for a short nap until Josiah woke me up because colors were appearing on the horizon. Oh my gosh, it didn’t take long for gorgeous shades of blue, orange, yellow, and pink to consume the sky and start to illuminate the cloads BELOW us. Yes, we were above cloud level. The clouds almost looked like waves of ocean
water below us. If you are lucky you can see both coasts of the oceanI’m so happy that I survived to see this. We welcomed the suns heat and quickly our frozen limbs began to regain feeling. We soaked in the beauty for a couple of hours, and then looked at each other and realized what was to come. BACK DOWN THE MOUNTAIN!!! Noooooooo, I had never been so overwhelmed with exhaustion in all my life. My knee was killing me from the hike up, and I had blisters on my heels that screamed with pain with every step I took. Our bodies were angry with us from lack of sleep, but also for pushing them to their physical limits. Slowly we inched down the mountain. We tried to go as quickly as possible because our beds were quietly waiting for us and I can swear I heard mine calling my name echoing through the forest. (Okay, so I was a bit delirious). Just as we thought to ours
elves we had to be reaching the end of what felt like torture, we see a sign that said 6 kilometers to go. We fell down at the side of the road in agony. I had pretty much lost hope. With Josiah’s encouragement we kept going. I saw a whole new side of myself. I was enraged by the end of the hike asking myself “why!?” over and over. I literally couldn’t force myself to take one mor
e step. Josiah was more physically exhausted than I had ever seen him as well. We were not looking good. We came back, passed out for hours, and Josiah had to walk across the street to order a pizza because I could not walk down the stairs. Haha, oh sigh. I can giggle a bit now looking back on it. It really was a learning experience and I can honestly say I will never do it again. So, if any of you want to come to Panama I will gladly travel with you but if you want to hike the volcano you are on your own!!
Our time is winding down here. We just have a little over 5 weeks left! Josiah is focusing on getting into a school for the fall so he can start his art degree, and I’m just contemplating what life with look like for the next year. I have always tended to plan my life one year at a time, and this is the first year in a long time I have no vision. There are things I want to do, but they require a decent and satisfying job first. I know I want to be in Indianapolis near my family and friends; I want to get as much of my car paid off as possible so I won’t be tied down to it anymore; I want to get all checked up on my health; and I am thinking about taking a fund raising course to get ideas for a non-profit. If anyone has any good job ideas send them my way because for the first time in my life I feel like I need to make a decent amount of money to get ahead on things. I guess I will take things day by day and see where I end up! We love you all and we’ll be back in indy at the end of May. I can’t wait to get some great hugs!
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