My first stop was a little town called Boquette - up in the mountains - after the heat of Corvovado it was nice to feel a chill in the air The town is surrounded by lovely scenery including the obligatory waterfalls and of course a volcano!
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| OK I´m getting bored of waterfalls now! |
I knew this one was inactive but most importantly it was walkable! The bus dropped us off at midnight for the 10 mile hike to the top! 6 hours later I was watching the sunrise peeking its head above the clouds - despite being the most senior (ok oldest!!) hiker I was first up!
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| Volcan Baru |
Well if the ascent was tough the descent was tougher - lots of boulders and scree on the way down combined with a steep pitch made for slow going!
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| Sunrise at the top of Volcan Baru |
You'd think after hiking for 12 hours I'd want my bed but more beach time beckoned and I jumped on a bus to the Caribbean coast!!
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| The Caribbean coast - not always sunny but always beautiful |
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| The sun came out! |
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| Cute Panamanian kids on the beach |
10 hours of bumpy windy roads and a couple of boat rides later (the harder a place is to get to the nicer I generally find!) I checked into my tent hostel in Red Frog beach Not much to do here but wander the deserted coast and search the jungle for red frogs!
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Here he is!
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After all that beach it was time to head to the city - make that Panama City - I'm not usually a huge fan of the metropolis but P.C. has a certain charm There is an old town - Casco Viejo - a 21st century skyline and a gorgeous bay between the two. Also nearby is the Panama Canal - which is like... well a really big canal!! But when in Panama...
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| Panama City skyline |
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| It´s hard selling hads in Panama!! |
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| Hanging out in P.C. |
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| Panama Kitty ( do you see what I´ve done there? haha!) |
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| The Bay |
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| That Canal |
There was some considerable drama on my last night as a large building near my hostel caught fire - a notorious drug den and home to a local gang Los Batros Locos (named I´m assuming because they are crazy and if you look at them in a funny way they will batter you!) It was thought that the drug dealers started the fire accidently while using crack - sadly 7 people lost their lives - more innocent casualties in the despicable world of drugs...
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| The fire |
One thing I had to think about while in P.C. was the tricky obstacle of the Darien Gap This is an area of impenetrable jungle between Panama - infested with crocs, bugs and FARC guerillas!! Even the Pan American highway which runs from Alaska to Patagonia stops here! Not a place for a stroll!
Also on my mind was the historical precedent of Scottish cock-ups in the area - in 1698 the "Darien Scheme" was a badly thought out plan to convert the jungle into a centre of foreign trade - half the national wealth - about half a million pounds - was invested - out of 16 ships that left Edinburgh only one returned - most of the 3000 Scots were lost at sea - those who made it died from malnutrition or yellow fever. Those who survived that were picked off by the Spanish Conquistadors!
So you can see why I was nervous! My options were to hike through the jungle with about 50% chance of survival - take a boat with 100% chance of survival (well 99.9%) but 100% chance of seasickness or to fly...
One short - and very expensive plane ride later I was in Colombia!
