CENTRAL AMERICA

I will try to guide all the “save a buck” adventurers to the places I hiked with no guide or group. Common sense and good care is needed, as ill intended people can be found in any country you travel, and the forests are full of life that includes spiders and snakes. If you would like to hike to the waterfalls on your own, take the bus from the main street in Boquete. You will see the buses in front of the grocery store located on a corner, the one with the big red and white sign with beer bottles on top. The bus will say Alto Quiel and Bajo Mono on the front window. Take it to the last stop and ask when they return and what time the last one is running. When you exit the bus, the road in front splits three ways. To the left: The unpaved road to the left will take you to a waterfall with an entrance fee of $3.00. Soon you will see a metal gate and the sign on it will say “Familia Landau”. Their house is to the left of that gate and someone will approach you for the fee. The road to the waterfall is the one past the gates. This hike is mostly in the shade of the forests and you will cross a few mountain springs, some over metal bridges. The time to get there can be anywhere from 30 minutes up, depending on your speed and number of stops. It certainly is not a flat terrain but it is shaded and rich with vegetation. The waterfall at the end is high and if you want to refresh you can stay under its fall but there is no pool to swim in at the bottom.     Straight ahead: The road ahead from where the bus stops will take you to three waterfalls with a $5.00 entrance fee. It is still a paved road for about another 1.5 km. You will see a big blue and white sign on the right when the road splits again and you will have to take the unpaved road to the right. The wooden smaller signs will guide you. After you cross the river on the hanging bridge there is another arrow pointing uphill. You will follow the path up, through an iron gate at some point and up even more. You will reach two wooden homes on the right. One is painted blue now and this is where you will be approached for the entrance fee. You will still have to go higher. It is a harder climb if, like me, you are not used walking up mountains. It took me 30-40 minutes from the point the paved road ended up to the first waterfall. I did not stop at all, even as the climb was making me sound like a tractor with a noisy engine. Yet, the view is beautiful. In the beginning it is out in the open, not much in the way of forests, and being less covered you have a wonderful open view of the surrounding mountains and valleys.   The first waterfall you will reach you can view from across, sitting on the benches specially positioned there.       To the second and third waterfall you will have to walk 10 minutes more (for each) through forests and on upward stairs. If it rains the path becomes muddy and slippery and the forest dark. I had that luck after the second waterfall and I had to walk in the rain all the way back. To the right: That might be for you to discover. If you do, please post your comments here so others will know what is found there, too. It is a paved road and someone told me a free waterfall is 10 minutes away. I walked a bit, found one small waterfall and kept going as I did not believe that could have been it. Fifteen minutes away there was still nothing else and I turned back. The walk was nice but since I did all of this in one day I decided to give up on this last new direction. I met two people going that way. They were told the free waterfall was 3 km away. If you venture that way please take pictures of the fall you find and share them with the rest of us. Another one of the rare free things left to do in Boquete is the garden called “Mi Jardin Es Tu Jardin”. It is within walking distance from town and has a gorgeous view of the surrounding mountains. Donations are appreciated but not asked for and the person in charge is funny.  He can tell you the story of the garden if you speak Spanish. If all my understanding was correct then he said that the present owner lives in David and works or worked in road construction. His father was a well traveled businessman (“negocio”) and stock market investor (“bursa”). He was born in 1910 and passed away in 2010, leaving the garden to his son from David. He was inspired by places he had seen in his travels and different magazines and made requests to add one thing or another by showing pictures to his crew of gardeners. Since coffee plantations are abundant in the region I asked if he drank coffee to live 100 years or just water. I was told vodka and coffee. The longevity secret is now yours. LOL Also, if you will be in Boquete on a Tuesday, there is a local market before noon. Might be fun to see. It is on the first right after the bridge.

Surrounded by mountains with lots of rivers and waterfalls, lush vegetation, rich in animal and bird life, the growing town of Boquete (in the Chiriquí Province of Panama) has attracted many foreigners in the past years. Its climate, its beauty, as well as the inexpensive cost of living have made it a haven for many. Unfortunately this is precisely why land and property prices have become exaggeratedly high compared with most places in other areas of the country. I learned quickly my first day here that not much can be done anymore for free. The hikes and walks that I usually enjoy on my own are sold here as guided tours and the information to get to the trails, waterfalls and hot springs with no organized tour, it is hard to find. Even to get to most of the waterfalls you will have to pay a fee. I will try to guide all the “save a buck” adventurers to the places I hiked with no guide or group. Common sense and good care is needed as people with mal intentions can be found in any country you travel and the forests are full of life that includes spiders and snakes. Another word of advice is to pay the one or two dollars extra per night for a hostel in which you will feel good and welcomed in order to avoid frustration and bad attitudes, especially when the money you save on the room price will be added to your bill somewhere else (some hostels charge over a dollar per day for each bag you leave with them after 11am, the check out time; or they charge double the price that a laundry in town would cost if you gave them your clothes to take there for you, a short walk you can do in 5 minutes). Staying at the right place will make your adventure more enjoyable. You will meet more like minded travelers and you will not be affected by an “all for the money” attitude of owners that try to sell you tours but will have no time to give information. Located near a park, in a central but noisy spot, Hostel Mamallena had a nice atmosphere and made me feel at home. I moved there after spending three nights in a hostel where I felt like I was walking on egg shells around an unfriendly owner, and where I was met with excuses to some of my requests. The last straw was, when after three nights on a hard to climb in to upper bed I asked to move to a bottom bed after all the other people in the dorm had left. I was allowed to, but the linen was not changed and when I questioned it I was told it was changed the night before last. Problem was, if that was true, there was still one night of someone else sleeping on it. I decided to move and I was not sorry. I should have done it earlier but they had a “no refund” policy. Another couple decided to move even though they would forfeit their money. So try not to pay for too many nights in advance at Hostel Nomba. Now for the fun things to do: the hot spring in Caldera. The bus to Caldera leaves from the center of the town, near the central park, but there are not too many going that direction. The one at 7am leaves from the street close to the Mamallena Hostel while the one at 9:30am leaves from the street across the park from Mamallena. Before you get dropped off also ask when they will return and when the last run is. The road to Caldera follows the road towards David for a while and later it will turn east. Ask for the entrance to the Aguas Termales or Los Posos Termales. The bus ride will take about 40 minutes. Follow the road to the right and if you chose the Los Posos Termales you will be there in 30-40 minutes. The road will take you over a dam and a river. After the bridge over the river the road splits. The blue and white sign indicates the hot springs of Los Pozos, 500m to the left. The sign to the right indicates 4km to the “Aguas Termales La Abuela”. The gate to Los Posos has a small and maybe inconspicuous wooden sign. Some people missed it. The entrance fee is $2.00 per person now, July 2012. No worry, the care taker will find you. There are three or four pools of hot water surrounded by walls made of piled up rocks. The “crazy monkey” that hangs around the place can put on a good show but it might not be too funny if it grabs something of value to you. I saw the monkey when I first entered the area after the gate. A local guy going the other way told me “Crazy monkey” and indicated to me to put my camera away. Memories of the monkeys in South Africa came to mind and I recalled they were always looking for food and smelling if you had any with you. Want to guess what the single item of food in my backpack was? A banana! Of all foods available that is what I chose to take with me today. So my fast thinking was: “Better to lose the banana than lose the camera.” I offered the banana to the monkey in return for taking pictures of it. So in the region of Boquete even the monkeys will to be paid. The “mono loco” ate the banana following along my side and at times holding it on its tail. It even threw a good part of it away. I picked it up and the monkey took it back out of my hand later. It sure was used to people more then we were used to it. At some point it stopped following and I did not

“Santa Fe??? Hee!Hee!Hee! What is there, in Santa Fe?” asked my Panamanian friends from the capital city when I announced my intention to visit the small town of Santa Fe. “There are no tourists” they complain, not a “touristy place”. If that was the only problem, there is no problem at all I was thinking. I heard there are beautiful mountains and I miss them living in Florida. I am looking forward to green views of majestic peaks, waterfalls, lush vegetation and clean air. So on a Tuesday morning in July, 2012, I rolled my bag to the “Metrobus”, the modern new addition to the public transportation of Panama City. Just one year earlier the only transportation options within the city were either taking a taxi or taking the colorfully painted but crowded, hot and narrow seated “Diablo Rojo”. The Metrobus has air conditioning and it is way more spacious for the same price of $.25 one way, except that you have to get a “tarjeta” in advance and it will cost you $2.00 before you get to add funds on it. I find that to be a great idea as this way it will always get recharged and not thrown away. From the main bus terminal at Albrook Mall I took the bus to Santiago. It was a comfortable ride and we even got to watch a movie on the flat screen TV mounted in the front the bus. About three hours later I had to change the bus in Santiago’s main  terminal. I was rushed into another bus, much smaller, which was filled to maximum capacity. By that I do not mean “each seat taken” but rather each seat, space on the aisle and stairs. From my lucky spot on a seat I could see people hanging out the door like a cluster of grapes, while the little vehicle was moving away with open doors. At each stop the situation on the aisle would shift and remodel into a different enchilada, with yet more people coming in and different ones hanging out the door. I could not stop thinking of the song we sang just a few weeks ago, in Brazil, the one that stated “we are one”. I was beginning to feel that oneness in this pitiful little bus moving away at normal speed but slowing down and sounding like it will give up on us all at each uphill part of the road. While the bus would sound like an exhausted creature ready to die, my mind was creating passing images of all  these people having to unload, and of myself with my rolling bag on the side of the street waiting for the next ride towards Santa Fe. But no, the bus miraculously made it and by the last station in Santa Fe it got much lighter, as first the grapes on the door disappeared, the aisle cleared soon after and by the end there were even vacant seats. What a nice ride! Once in Santa Fe I parked my bag under the bed in a hostel with one dorm and a few private rooms. The place was beautiful, rustic and with a magnificent garden with lots of plants and colorful flowers. Called La Quia, it is owned by a couple that moved to Panama ten years ago. Built of a mixture of stone, brick, wood and bamboo walls, with red roofs and bamboo doors, the two separate buildings constantly exchange inside and outside air as the bamboo parts of the walls have gaps in them. Not bad, as the weather is nice enough all year round and the bamboo walls are strategically located so the rain does not hit them. Santa Fe is a quiet city apart from its roosters, that can put out quite a concert beginning early morning. You can hear their voices clear, some confident and loud, others strangled and guttural and yet others more timid, the sounds coming from near and far. I wondered if they communicate with each other this way, over the hills and the vegetation of the town. Surrounded by rivers and high mountains, and located at the end of this bus ride, Panama’s Santa Fe has a lot of hiking to offer. A few different waterfalls one could hike to would take between 6 and 8 hours time round trip. The tube ride on the river would be less than 30 minutes to get to and a wet few kilometers long. I chose to hike to Las Cascadas Del Salto and I enjoyed the gorgeous views of the countryside and river valleys, unobstructed by any clouds. I crossed several streams and picked mangoes from the road, making my way up the mountain with my breath sounding in my ears like a mythological dragon. I was happy not to see or smell any fire or smoke. It meant that my body was still functioning well and it had not overloaded just yet. Right before the waterfalls I passed through the village of El Salto. The people here have embraced organic agriculture for over 15 years and they are proud to show you their farms. One of the farmers, Egberto Soto, showed me the way to the waterfalls and moved away a young tree that had fallen on the road. I took a minute to study the little white beads like flowers, while my guide said something with the Spanish word “pica”, a word I did not understand before I touched the white pretty beads. They stung and I retracted my fingers as fast as I learned a new Spanish word. LOL While I enjoyed the waterfalls Egberto prepared a meal for me. It was a dish of spinach and eggs with rice and green peas cooked over a wood fire, and a tomato and onion salad. All the ingredients where from his organic farm and while I was enjoying my meal I found out that he is 25 years older than he looks and has ten