Boquete, PanamaThese are probably the last words I will write on this trip.
In 3 days I will start making my way (in a long, exhausting journey that includes 3 flights and over 40 hours) back home.
And as always, the thought of home coming has mixed feelings for me. On one hand, I wish I could travel more and more. On the other, I miss the people in my life, and I am very excited to start applying all the conclusions I reached and changes I went through during this journey.
And what a journey it has been for me.
After Bocas Del Toro, the amazing chain of islands in Panama, Joost and I moved inland, to a sweet city called Boquete, where there is a huge national park with nature reservations (Cedero de Quetzales is one of them) of rare animals and birds and lots of coffee plantations, which are said to be the best in the country.
We went tracking into the jungles, trying to get to the top of Volcan Baru (used to be a volcano and now a nature reservation). This turned out to be some experience… The road turned out to be much longer and more challenging than we had thought, after 5 hours of tracking inside the jungle, almost drowning in swamps or slipping off rocks, crossing shaky bridges over growling waters and not knowing where the end of this trail is – we got to the starting point again, starving (we didn’t bring any food with us because we had no idea this would take that long) and exhausted. A nice guy we met along the way, when we were making the last but the most vicious trail uphill towards to entrance to the park, gave us some cookies and juice which was so unbelievably reviving at that point. He was genuinely a god-sent, and doing this just out of goodwill, not wanting anything in return except for a nice friendly conversation (which in itself was a difficult task, as we were so out of breath!).
The following day we decided to take it easy and go visit the natural hot springs right next to Rio Kaldera – small ponds naturally spouting from the ground with very healthy minerals. After we were boiling hot, we got out of the hot water and jumped into the freezing water of the river, where dozens of butterflies with all colors circled us cheerfully.
Boquete has such a great atmosphere. The people are truly nice, welcoming and helping and you actually feel very safe. We met some cool people; two of them became wonderful friends – Tatiana and Erika. One is Panaman who studied in the States and is now traveling with her friend until she gets back to her home town, Panama City, and the other is Costa Rican-American, who also lived and studied in the States, moved back to Costa Rica, started traveling at a relatively older age and caught the famous travel bug. Ever since then she takes off some place else for 1 month, once a year.
We all stayed at the same hostel and at night, in the old kitchen of the place or over dinner or a nice hot cup of tea, we had culture-crossing and very interesting conversations.
After 3 days in Boquete we made our way back (9 hours by bus) to Costa Rica. Our destination this time was La Fortuna, the little village right below the active Volcano Arenal. It’s so great to have a relatively well-developed bus system, which can take you from one country to the other, using the Inter-America highway. The quality of the buses, too, is quite good and comfortable. You just really need to watch out for your belongings and carry anything valuable on you, in a hidden place!
We got to La Fortuna yesterday at noon, after the most amazing 4.5 hours bus drive between green mountains and valleys and small villages which I couldn’t take my eyes off. I wish I had more time to explore these little hidden corners saturated with magic. As I was sitting on the bus, gazing out the window with amazement, I played with the thought of spending a good few weeks here, living in a small wooden hut between the mountains, writing my days away…
The first day we came we already took the tour up the volcano Arenal, which was another funny experience, when instead of seeing the volcano, the eruptions and the lava streaming from the top, we got caught up in the heaviest rain I have ever experienced in the middle of a rain forest, got soaking wet and caught in the dark. Imagine making your way between the mad jungle vegetation when the rain just pores down, your clothes and shoes are completely wet and you can’t see a thing! But, we were with nice people and laughing all the way…
From the rain forest, freezing and shivering, we got to an observation point from which you can see the volcano. Luckily the clouds scattered enough to enable us to actually see the two mouths of the volcano muttering red smoke every few minutes and the lava making it slow way downhill. This volcano was asleep until 1968, when it erupted all of a sudden and killed about 80 people. So, climbing to the top of it is not an option… But ironically enough it brought a lot of prosperity to the people of La Fortuna – the small town right beneath it – because of all the tourists that flow here all year long.
The tour ended in the Baldi hot springs, and that was the most luxurious thing I have done in this entire trip - a huge spa with lots of pools in different temperatures - freezing cold and steaming hot, especially after being so wet and freezing, it was so AMAZING, that I actually thought that getting caught in the rain like that was all planned!
We have two more days here, and lots to do, before we take the bus back to San Jose. Then it is goodbye Costa Rica, goodbye Joost, goodbye CentroAmerica… my journey back home begins. And maybe it’s good that I have such a long journey, which will give me some time to process and prepare myself.
I know home coming will not be in any way easy, but perhaps it is also a part of the journey, seeing what has changed and what has remained the same and finding my new balance among it all.
I am not ready for words of conclusion just yet… There are two more days which is a whole world… tomorrow we will just hang around this sweet little town, maybe do some shopping for gifts to take back home, then the following day we will make all the way close to the Nicaragua border, to do the Canyo Negro tour – a 3 hours boat ride in a wide river which splits the jungle into two, where you can see all types of wild life, from monkeys to alligators, Iguanas and 50 species of birds… I can hardly wait.
So, there is still much to explore. And perhaps words of conclusion are not even appropriate to something as huge and as intense as this, especially seeing that I know now in my heart that this journey will live on in my heart and in my being long after I return home.
In 3 days I will start making my way (in a long, exhausting journey that includes 3 flights and over 40 hours) back home.
And as always, the thought of home coming has mixed feelings for me. On one hand, I wish I could travel more and more. On the other, I miss the people in my life, and I am very excited to start applying all the conclusions I reached and changes I went through during this journey.
And what a journey it has been for me.
After Bocas Del Toro, the amazing chain of islands in Panama, Joost and I moved inland, to a sweet city called Boquete, where there is a huge national park with nature reservations (Cedero de Quetzales is one of them) of rare animals and birds and lots of coffee plantations, which are said to be the best in the country.
We went tracking into the jungles, trying to get to the top of Volcan Baru (used to be a volcano and now a nature reservation). This turned out to be some experience… The road turned out to be much longer and more challenging than we had thought, after 5 hours of tracking inside the jungle, almost drowning in swamps or slipping off rocks, crossing shaky bridges over growling waters and not knowing where the end of this trail is – we got to the starting point again, starving (we didn’t bring any food with us because we had no idea this would take that long) and exhausted. A nice guy we met along the way, when we were making the last but the most vicious trail uphill towards to entrance to the park, gave us some cookies and juice which was so unbelievably reviving at that point. He was genuinely a god-sent, and doing this just out of goodwill, not wanting anything in return except for a nice friendly conversation (which in itself was a difficult task, as we were so out of breath!).
The following day we decided to take it easy and go visit the natural hot springs right next to Rio Kaldera – small ponds naturally spouting from the ground with very healthy minerals. After we were boiling hot, we got out of the hot water and jumped into the freezing water of the river, where dozens of butterflies with all colors circled us cheerfully.
Boquete has such a great atmosphere. The people are truly nice, welcoming and helping and you actually feel very safe. We met some cool people; two of them became wonderful friends – Tatiana and Erika. One is Panaman who studied in the States and is now traveling with her friend until she gets back to her home town, Panama City, and the other is Costa Rican-American, who also lived and studied in the States, moved back to Costa Rica, started traveling at a relatively older age and caught the famous travel bug. Ever since then she takes off some place else for 1 month, once a year.
We all stayed at the same hostel and at night, in the old kitchen of the place or over dinner or a nice hot cup of tea, we had culture-crossing and very interesting conversations.
After 3 days in Boquete we made our way back (9 hours by bus) to Costa Rica. Our destination this time was La Fortuna, the little village right below the active Volcano Arenal. It’s so great to have a relatively well-developed bus system, which can take you from one country to the other, using the Inter-America highway. The quality of the buses, too, is quite good and comfortable. You just really need to watch out for your belongings and carry anything valuable on you, in a hidden place!
We got to La Fortuna yesterday at noon, after the most amazing 4.5 hours bus drive between green mountains and valleys and small villages which I couldn’t take my eyes off. I wish I had more time to explore these little hidden corners saturated with magic. As I was sitting on the bus, gazing out the window with amazement, I played with the thought of spending a good few weeks here, living in a small wooden hut between the mountains, writing my days away…
The first day we came we already took the tour up the volcano Arenal, which was another funny experience, when instead of seeing the volcano, the eruptions and the lava streaming from the top, we got caught up in the heaviest rain I have ever experienced in the middle of a rain forest, got soaking wet and caught in the dark. Imagine making your way between the mad jungle vegetation when the rain just pores down, your clothes and shoes are completely wet and you can’t see a thing! But, we were with nice people and laughing all the way…
From the rain forest, freezing and shivering, we got to an observation point from which you can see the volcano. Luckily the clouds scattered enough to enable us to actually see the two mouths of the volcano muttering red smoke every few minutes and the lava making it slow way downhill. This volcano was asleep until 1968, when it erupted all of a sudden and killed about 80 people. So, climbing to the top of it is not an option… But ironically enough it brought a lot of prosperity to the people of La Fortuna – the small town right beneath it – because of all the tourists that flow here all year long.
The tour ended in the Baldi hot springs, and that was the most luxurious thing I have done in this entire trip - a huge spa with lots of pools in different temperatures - freezing cold and steaming hot, especially after being so wet and freezing, it was so AMAZING, that I actually thought that getting caught in the rain like that was all planned!
We have two more days here, and lots to do, before we take the bus back to San Jose. Then it is goodbye Costa Rica, goodbye Joost, goodbye CentroAmerica… my journey back home begins. And maybe it’s good that I have such a long journey, which will give me some time to process and prepare myself.
I know home coming will not be in any way easy, but perhaps it is also a part of the journey, seeing what has changed and what has remained the same and finding my new balance among it all.
I am not ready for words of conclusion just yet… There are two more days which is a whole world… tomorrow we will just hang around this sweet little town, maybe do some shopping for gifts to take back home, then the following day we will make all the way close to the Nicaragua border, to do the Canyo Negro tour – a 3 hours boat ride in a wide river which splits the jungle into two, where you can see all types of wild life, from monkeys to alligators, Iguanas and 50 species of birds… I can hardly wait.
So, there is still much to explore. And perhaps words of conclusion are not even appropriate to something as huge and as intense as this, especially seeing that I know now in my heart that this journey will live on in my heart and in my being long after I return home.
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