After a busy couple of weeks, the last week has been relatively
relaxed. We woke in Panama City for a
pancake breakfast before heading to the bus terminal for a bus north back to
the Caribbean coast to Colon where we changed buses to get to Portobello. Colon is a dirty scary city and we were glad
to be leaving straight away. Once in
Portobello it took us a while to find the hostel owned by one of the Darien
Gapster owners, just a dorm room under a bar/restaurant on the hill. The town itself is sweet, like something out
of a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movie with ruins of the old fortifications and
canons scattered amongst the brightly painted wooden buildings set around a
deep water bay filled with sailing boats.
When we were in town they were filming for a new Escobar movie and there
were film crews on the main street. We
only arrived late afternoon and we were a bit fragile from the previous night
out so spent the day in the hostel watching TV and ate dinner in the restaurant
upstairs.
The next day in Portobello was a rain day and we were pretty happy as
it meant we didn’t feel guilty about not going out. We ventured into the village to pick up
supplies for lunch but no further. We
spent a delightful day lounging at the hostel watching TV on the laptop.
Friday was Rhys’s 28th birthday and we decided to leave
Portobello and head back to Panama City.
Although not the best way to start a birthday with a 4 hour journey we
were back in Panama City by lunch time and checked in to the Hard Rock Hotel in
the new town. It was incredible, we
looked pretty out of place checking in, you don’t realise quite how scruffy
you’re getting when you’re with other travellers all the time. Our room was huge, on the 44th
floor with a massive bathroom, luxurious complimentary toiletries, fluffy
bathrobes and views out over the skyline and into the bay where you could see
ships waiting to traverse the canal. We
changed and headed to McDonalds for lunch (a treat for Rhys’s birthday!) before
visiting the infinity pool for a swim and a beer (where we were politely asked
whether we were actually staying there and in what room!!). We spent the next couple of hours in our room
with a bottle of gin and a bottle of rum in our bathrobes listening to music
while the sun set and the lights of the city came on. We even had a knock at the door and were
handed chocolates without a word, it was a wonderful place. Later we headed to the Hard Rock Café for
dinner and a mojito in one of the hotel bars.
We had intended to leave Panama City the next day but after a great
night’s sleep in the super king bed with fluffy pillows and a feather duvet we
couldn’t bring ourselves to check out until the last possible moment which didn’t
give us enough time to make it all the way to our next destination. Instead we checked out at noon and headed
back to the hostel in Casco Viejo, back to a 10 bed dorm and roughing it – a bit
of a downer after the Hard Rock. We
spent the day watching TV, catching up on correspondence and eating ice cream
by the cathedral before spending happy hour in the bar.
We left Panama City on Saturday for a bus to David and a connecting
bus on to Boquete in the highlands.
Arriving after dark we checked in to a little hostel where we were the
only people and ate the baked beans Tim had brought out as a belated birthday
treat for Rhys.
It was another rainy day when we awoke and the couple who were working
at the hostel were in bed and of absolutely no use in helping us plan our day
(anyone going to Boquete, avoid Hostal Nomba, not only were they of little
help, we had to actually ask if we could have the free breakfast were first
offered a room without a working light and the room we did end up in was
dirty). We headed to another hostel,
Mama Llena, where they happily gave us advice on the treks we could do in the
local area. We chose Sendero Los
Quetzales and caught a taxi to the trail head arranging for a return pick up 5
hours later. The walk was pretty,
through forest and quite steep and muddy in places but wasn’t mind blowing and
it drizzled all day so wasn’t as magical as it could have been. We walked half the trail to a mirador before
turning around to head back to the collection point to wait for the taxi. That night we had a visit from James and
Fleur, an Australian couple we met on the Darien Gapster who were also in town
and had a couple of beers before they headed off and we had the remaining beans
for dinner.
We were ready to leave Boquete and the weird hostel the next day and
caught a bus back to David and an onward bus to Almirante. From there we caught a taxi to the port and a
boat out to Bocas del Toro, the main island of the Bocas archipelago. We checked into a 6 bed dorm where two
of the others had been there for so long they’d unpacked everything everywhere. After a couple of rums on the hostel balcony
we headed out for Mexican before bed.
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| Rhys in the pool, Hard Rock Hotel, Panama City. |
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| The view from our room on the 44th floor, Hard Rock Hotel, Panama City. |
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| Sendero Los Quetzales, Boquete. |
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