My final country in my three months in Central America was Panama. I only had six nights before my flight to Bogota so wanted to pick one destination plus the city I’d fly out of. Most tourists I met coming up from Panama had landed in the city and than headed straight for the archipelago of Bocas Del Toro on the Caribbean side, I’d been to four Caribbean islands with my final stint in Little Corn, Nicaragua been the cherry on the cake. I’ve also met some people who look like they’ve been eaten alive by sand flies, I’m trying desperately to avoid them! For those reasons I chose not to go to Bocas.The other very popular destination off Panama is the San Blas islands, which a lot of travelers go to on five day boat trip crossing between Panama and Colombia. Unfortunately my forward planning when booking my flights at the start of my trip (when I didn’t know everything) backfired a bit as I already had my flight from panama to Bogota booked, and as such unable to do the boat crossing. I have however heard mixed reviews of San blas tours, and if the weather is bad the crossing can be a shocker! I even heard a tale of a boat having to be abandoned as it was sinking, the very dodgy captain unwilling to do so till the last minute and subsequently hiring a small plane to find the wreck which obviously was carrying a shed load of cocaine. Of course of also heard plenty of other people say its an absolute highlight of their whole lives…but as I’ve not been able to go you know which views I’ll choose to remember most!!

I chose a place that several others had recommended, Boqueté. This is only an hour from the countries second largest city David, but is up into the mountains with a very temperate climate.(As such expat retires are rushing in buying up property here too.) The area is famous world wide for some of the best coffee in the world. It’s also home to Panama’s tallest volcano. “Baru”

On my arrival after the whole days hectic travel from Costa Rica a few girls ambushed me into agreeing to climb the volcano, and as you didn’t needed a guide just transport it was a cheap activity. Also my previous attempt to climb a volcano in Guatemala had not come off, and the other one I would have attempted in Nicaragua was when I had my vicious cold. So it was my last chance. It’s a climb twelve hour round trip you start at 11pm to reach the submit at sunrise when on a clear day you can see both Pacific and Caribbean oceans. Its not so high at 3475m, but having done next to no hiking since South America three months prior I was a bit nervous. I also made the mistake of googling reviews which said its a fairly hellish climb, and one tour guide I met told me he used to do it three times a week with people, and 90% of them cried. Decision made anyway, and Facebook plan updated..the following day was laundry, relax, and was just heading out in the evening to buy my snacks for the climb when the guy in the hostel said it was too rainy and not to go! Lesson learnt, don’t brag about something your going to do…wait till you’ve completed it!

Boqueté is a fairly small town, and the first place since Guatemala where I saw indigenous women in traditional clothing. And the average makeup of the locals was fair darker than Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras. Structurally it’s not got much to it, but for a bit of people watching and things to do around the area it’s a good spot.

To make up for a slightly wasted first day I stepped it up the next day. Firstly I took a tour of a very small artisanal coffee plantation. I have to confess I didn’t think it would be very interesting, it was! The place we went to was a tiny operation, and Tito the owner is referred to as the mad scientist for his experiments in finding the best soil and mix of berries. He’s won many awards, his berries are picked by hand, and the machines which process the berries into beans he made himself from various things like spare car parts and a tumble dryer…serious meccano! Couple of things I didn’t know before…the flower of the coffee plant smells a lot like jasmine; lighter roasted coffee beans have more caffeine than dark roast, the difference between light; medium and dark roast is only about a minute extra roasting between each other; if coffee has been sitting on heating device or has been made with boiling water it’s harming the coffee and changing the PH level to dangerous (over prolonged periods of ingestion) acidic levels, if coffee is eating away at the enamel coating on your cups and mugs your slowly poisoning yourself. To finish the tour we sampled some of his finest, and munched on some (probably too many) of the ground beans and the difference between the three blends was quite remarkable. It was definitely an education, and will change my coffee purchasing habits. He also confirmed that Starbucks has incredibly low caffeine content, hence why they have to sell pints of the stuff!

After a great lunch in almost a family’s front room for 3$ I returned to my hostel for a planned siesta only to be accosted and strong armed into a trip to a canyon and hot springs. Turned out to be great fun, despite torrential rain. The canyon wasn’t impressively high as some others, but meant we could climb back up quicker to jump in repeatedly. The hot springs were by a river on a finca and the fifty year old owner was actually in one of them, boasting that he’s not had any illness for thirty years as he swims and drinks in the water every day, so I drank a bit. He then took us down to the river to cool off, even though it was lashing down and demonstrated how he submerged himself in the strong current of the river for about forty seconds. When I tried I kept floating up so helped me out and held me down…second near drowning in a week! But it was really invigorating, and switching between the hot spring and the river with only four of us there was quite an experience. Too rainy for any photos though.

The next morning the magic water I drank decided to play with my tummy! I didn’t feel terrible, just quite tired…. and I was good friends with the porcelain by the end of the day. My charismatic roommate Aemi cajoled me into making a fun film with her, originally just to film her but somehow ended up being in aswell. It was a lot of funny being silly, and she’s done a very decent job of editing it! Freddy One of my cheapest days in a while, and a good check that I’ve not started to take myself too seriously in anyway! Thanks Aemi, bloody good fun darling!

Following day, pretty comfy easy travel day to Panama City; only two bus changes. I have to say the travelling side of travelling has really tired me out in Central America, often changing transportation six or more times to get from one destination to another. Yes experiencing local transport is a big bit of experiencing the culture, but it’s taken it’s toll on me. I mentioned in a previous blog how I miss the nightbuses of South America, they are much more comfortable, and getting from A to B is easier even if the distances are much further, but they also mean you don’t miss whole days just sat on buses, plus you save a night on hostel accommodation. My father suggested I use my time sat on these buses to practice my Spanish; when your sat on a hot bumpy noisy bus, it’s not just me the tourist wishing I wasn’t there…it’s everyone. Everyone just tries to sleep, read, zone out!

I only had one full day in the city so I got up early and was heading out to see the Miraflores lock of the Panama Canal at the same time as another girl from my hostel from Buenos Aires. A right result for me as I really haven’t been speaking too much Spanish lately, and had a whole day only speaking Spanish. She also helped figure out which buses we needed to get to the lock, which ended up taking two hours to get to. The cities chicken buses are something else in Panama, totally psychedelic! With tunes blasting at full blast. Ironically the chicken bus is 50 cents, whilst the air conditioned metro bus which is not overly crowded only 25 cents…go figure?!…

We got to the canal lock just in time to see the mornings slot last and massive cargo liner passing through. Something which was much more interesting to see than my photos of it. It’s a seriously impressive bit of engineering, and some of the facts and figures pretty staggering. Including how much the vessels pay to pass through..€€$$££!!!!!!!! After the two hour journey out, we cheated with an 4$ each cab ride return.

The area that our hostel was in was right in the middle of the tower blocks of a mini Miami, including the Hard Rock Hotel. We headed up to the swimming pool level to watch the skyline change as the sun disappeared whilst supping on mojitos. The view was great, and bar pool area seriously swanky for me in denim shorts and Havaianas. A little bit decadent, but worth it for the view alone.

And that was my final night on Central America. Thirteen weeks and seven countries. I wish I’d had another month and been able to slow down at times. When you look at the size of central america compared to just Argentina alone you can understand why you’d think three months made sense to me, but its just packed of things to see! (Red dots on Map photo, indicate where I’ve been…thanks Sony Cybershot camera with built in GPS…sweeeet!). I hadn’t expected anything from Mexico and was swept away by the place ending up spending seven weeks just there. Mexico has been my food highlight unquestionably, and possibly the friendliest people. When I look back on a lot of the fun stuff I’ve done, a lot of it has been around the water…the ocean, cenotes, canyons, waterfalls, rivers, lakes, diving course, riding horses and bikes through the shore, …anything like that and I’m having a blast! Whilst the landscape is not nearly as dramatic as South America, it has the adage of two beautiful coastlines. And with the relative smaller scale from the start of one day too another you can go from hot coast to cool mountains, or rural farm lands to beautiful Colonial towns or big modern cities! If you have a month or a few weeks, just pick one or two countries, aside from my logistics whine it’s incredibly easy travelling around. As a single white blond female, other than the usual male under-breath harmless comments and stares I had no problems, and felt safe everywhere…except maybe at the bottom of that river for a minute rafting!