Gardens, Hot Springs & Cheap Eats

Hi All,

Little Joy is upstairs taking a post pancake breakfast nap. Haha. That leaves me to make you all jealous of our excursions in CA.

Boquete, the little mountain town in the Chiquiri Highlands, is a beautiful place. Extinct volcanoes, covered in thick rainforest, surround the hamlet. After our 14-hour bus ride on the 16th, we awoke on the 17th with an easy day planned - a lovely garden walk (Mi Jardin es su Jardin) in the morning and the healing hot springs in the afternoon.

A short walk away from town, just beyond a coffee plantation run by Cafe Ruiz, sits a several acre garden. Because of the amount of rain that falls in Boquete in the wet & dry season, the garden was landscaped with every sort of plant one could imagine. Im no flower expert, but I recognized hibiscus, peone, snapdragon, marigold. From an observation deck on the property, we were all treated to views of the garden, the volcanoes and the town of Boquete.

We, Joy, Andrew & I, walked back to town around Noon with an eyeball on lunch before jumping in a minibus for a short ride to the hot springs. South of town, a farmer in the rainforest, takes $2 donations from each person to soak in one of his three hot spring pools and enjoy the Rio Caldera. The first pool we entered wasnt that sweet due partly to an extremely loud traveler droning on and on about how Southwest is a crappy airline. WHO CARES, Im trying to soak in a mud pool here! We decided the river might be more fun, and we planned to try the SUPER HOT pool after a dip in the Rio.

The river was awesome. The current was strong, so Andrew and I were doing river pushups while trying not to get swept away. Then the three of us were going feet first over shoots, around rocks, over small waterfalls down, down the river. After an hour of river play, we hoped Southwest had vacated the hot spring area.

Thankfully, she was gone and as we made our way to the hottest of the hot springs a baby monkey started to play with us and other hot springers. Joy posted a bit about this little guy on facebook - he started crawling, swinging and jumping on us. He used Andrew like a jungle gym. Joy was trying to capture the moment and the little cavron made off with our empty camera case. In seconds, he climbed a tree, chattered at us and, after a couple minutes, threw the case back down at us. Pretty funny.

Making sure we had all our possessions, we took a last dip into the hotty, hot spring, and Joy was sure the healing power of the springs would KNOCK out her head cold.

Arriving back in town, Joy and I went back to our hotel before dinner. Can I say again how our hotel in Boquete is the BEST. Our room overlooks a small portion of the Rio Caldera, its perfect to fall asleep to, and could not be a more 180 degree difference from the hubub of our Panama City hostel & Panama City.

After dinner, Andrew, Joy and I added another traveler to our posse in Boquete - Paul De Montpellier, from Lake Tahoe. Total character and he joined us in our exploits for the next day and a half. Ill let Joy regail the waterfall hike tomorrow. For now, we plan our final day in Boquete before leaving for the Lost & Found Hostel, deep in the Cloud Forest of the Chiriqui Highlands. Spooky!

Hasta Luego!