panama must-visit: paradise gardens

Yesterday I visited Paradise Gardens, this animal rescue / wildlife park in Panama, near Boquete. It was amazing. They have a bunch of birds (parrots, Macaw, etc ), several different species of monkey, some large cats, and even a baby ant-eater. They even let me in the monkey cage!

This place is amazing. Definitely worth a visit! And Boquete is great too, so you could stay there and come visit Paradise Gardens when you weren't hiking the local trails, touring the coffee plantations, or enjoying the hot springs. Oh, and they're always looking for volunteers. In fact, I bet that by the time my sister finishes reading this post she'll already be packing her bags!

Anyways, pictures will do a much better job of illustrating this than my descriptions. So, here they are:

take me to your fruit loops!!

I think this is a tamarin. The guide who took me around was great and told me all the names, but I immediately forgot.

Interactive monkey tour! I think this is a spider monkey(see disclaimer above)

this was slightly scary, but totally awesome. I was a little nervous when it was playing with my ear - didn't want it to think that it was a snack!

Macaws play-fighting. Man are they ever loud, especially when they're fighting!

One of several of the big cats they have at Paradise Gardens. I would love one of these as a pet. Except for the whole "they're wild animals with really sharp teeth andd claws" thing. Details, details.

right: baby anteater. Awwwwwww!

bottom: video of me with the monkeys - apparently they think I'm a human jungle gym. That's fine by me, as long as they don't think I'm an edible one!

Volcán Barú night hike

So, last night I did a spur-of-the-moment hike of Volcán Barú, Panama's highest mountain. (But you already knew that, because of course you followed the link, you big nerd you). On a clear day you can see both the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean (again, you already knew this). Unfortunately, it wasn't a clear day for us, although we did see the Pacific Ocean. I'm going to spice things up a bit, and this trip report will be done in bullet form!

• 6 pm (wed): two guys from my hostel, Nir and Omer, invite me to join their hike up Volcán Barú. Which stars in 5 hrs. I quickly grab dinner, shop for supplies, and do a quick internet stop. You know, the essentials.
• 8 pm (wed): bedtime - got to get up in 3 hours!
• 11 pm (wed): wake up for the hike, but it's a flase start - it's cloudy and rainy so we're going to wait and see how things are in an hour or so. Back to sleep!
• 12:40 am (thurs): it's a go! Quick run to get some caffeine and emergency snickers rations, then off we go
• 1:23 am police escort to the volcano - there are no cabs at this hour, so some cops give us a ride to the start of the trail for a couple bucks. I thought they were going to make us ride in the cell part.
• 2:08 am: we make it to the ranger station (the official start of the hike, but the road's so bad cabs / cops dropp you off further back) - 1.5 km down, 13.5 km to go
• 3:10-3:30 am: tea break. That's right, even while scaling a mountain we can still sit down and have a cup o' tea
• 4:15 am: and then there were two - Omer decides to head back. Nir and I continue on
• 5:39: I can finally stop holding my flashlight - it's light enough to see where I'm walking without it. This is great, although I do miss the starscape - it was probably the most stars I'd ever seen - great view of the Milky Way. Even saw a shooting star!
• 5:59 am: 2.5 km to go! I am exhausted, and the last part is probably the steepest. Still, the end is in sight!
• 6:49 am: we reach the top of the trail only to discover that the real summit is another 20 minutes away
• 7:07 am: I hit the real summit - I'm the king of the world!8:19 am - after enjoying some breakfast, meeting a soldier who offers us tea and takes two of our sandwiches (tea seems to be a common theme for this trip), and meeting two new hikers who will join us on the way down, we head back down whence we came
• 12:33 pm. 11 hours after we first starteed hiking we are all done! I beat a hasty retreat to our hostel, where a hot shower and a soft bed await
  

bullet points are great and all, but still, they don't replace pictures (below)

1.5 km into the hike - 13.5 more to go to get to the top! Note that it is indeed quite dark - I wasn't exaggerating when I said "night hike!"

a little thing like being on a mountain at 3 AM won't keep us from having our tea

I made it to the top! By "King of the Hill" rules I think at that point I was the ruler of all of Panama (since this is its tallest peak). I'm glad noone tried to tackle me off though - that wouldn't have been so fun.

we couldn't see that much below us due to the clouds, but we did get some good views of the clouds themselves

neat view of a nearby mountain

cool flowers growing along the trail

all done! Definitely ready for a shower and a nap. Those really sharp ovservers might notice that this is the same sign I was by when I said I was 1.5 km into my hike. One of the people who was hiking with us was picked up by someone with all wheel drive and gave us a ride, so we didn't have to walk the last 1.5 km. My feet were very happy about that development

4 days in paradise - relaxing in the San Blas Islands, Panama

As promised in yesterday's post about exploring Panama City, here's my report on the San Blas Islands. We flew out to San Blas bright and early on Monday. Except we didn't really fly to San Blas. We just flew to the closest point from Panama itself (you can also drive there, but it requires 4x4s, and can take up to 10 hrs if the roads are really bad, so we opted to pay $20 more for the 20 min flight). We then took a 45 minute boat ride in choppy seas. The boat was completely exposed, so our only protection was in holding up a plastic table cloth to block the spray. I found myself debating what was worse - getting soaked by sea spray, or the burning in my arms. Luckily I got good at reading when we'd get splashed, so I could raise my arms only then.

We spent two days on a larger island, where we'd take daytrips to the beaches, and 2 days on a smaller island which had a nice beach itself, and from which we could easily travel to other beaches if we desired. I would highly recommend just staying on the smaller, more picturesque islands. On the big island everything was crowded, and our porch had a view of the cafeteria building's roof. On the small island we were in one of 3 cabins, and had a porch with a view of the ocean and some other islands. Much better.

We spent our days sunning, swimming, hammocking, combing the beach for shells, and snorkeling (props to kim for bringing a mask and snorkel, as they didn't have any on the island).

Some highlights / amusing moments

• on our first morning we saw a dolphin right by the boat!


• one morning I ran 80 laps around a building in order to run 5 miles. Not cool. Oh, and a small chihuaha kept on chasing me, making my run even more fun.


• one of the islands had a sunken ship right off the shore, which had tons of cool coral growing on it, as well as lots of tropical fish


• night time is Ron time!


• all that relaxation was great, but by the time we got back we were all excited to return to civilization

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking:

me happy to have survived the flight in our tiny plane. Many of you have seen this first-hand (Kristen and Ani especially) but for those who don't already know, I'm not a huge fan of flying, and I'm REALLY not a fan of prop planes.

The "bathroom" at the Carti (San Blas) airport. It was basically the exact same as the bathroom in Slumdog Millionaire, except it was over the ocean, so i guess slightly more hygenic

Kim, Barb, and I at the entrance to the Waily lodge - our little slice of paradise

the Waily beach

me enjoying the fruits of my labor after opening a coconut myself. (No need to dwell on the fact that it took about 15 minutes and a good deal of cursing).

a few of the shells I found on the island. I wonder if any of them will make it home uncrushed.

kim and barb search for shells - too bad for them I already got all the good ones!

hanging out on a palm tree

Hanging in Panama City

As I write this post, my time here in Panama City is running out - I am catching a night bus tonight to David, where I will stay at a really cool hostel (check out the link - axe throwing! Disc golf! More waterfalls to jump off of) for a few days. Then I'll either head to Boquete for some hiking, or back to my beloved Bocas del Toro for a few more days of chilling in the hammocks / pool area of the Aqua Lounge during the day, and poker at night.

However, don't let me get ahead of myself. It's been about a week without any updates, and I plan to fix that. As I mentioned in my very brief post I spent Monday through Thursday in San Blas, an Archipielago of 365 tropical (ie covered by palm trees) islands north-east of Panama City.

Whoops - once again, I'm getting ahead of myself. Lets start at the beginning. On Sunday morning I arrived in Panama City at 4 AM after taking the night bus from Bocas del Toro. (Note to future travelers - dress warmly for the night bus - they put their AC on arctic ice storm). After a brief nap (somehow my sleep on the bus wasn't that good - who'd have guessed that?), I met up with Kim and Barb, travelers from the west coast (CA and WA) who I'd met in Bocas del Toro. We then went out to see all that Panama City had to offer. Turns out, not too much - by dinner time we had seen all we wanted to see and were ready to go (good thing, as our plane to San Blas was going to leave the next morning).

Our first stop was the Miraflores Locks, one of the series of locks in the Panama canal (as soon as I knew I'd be going to Panama I was determined to see the Canal - this was the only must-see thing on my checklist). It was pretty awesome watching the huge-ass cargo ships be pulled into the locks by these train cars, and then see them slowly rise up as water filled the lock. The Miraflores lock also had a cool movie and museum which had a lot of interesting info about the history of the canal.

After that, we went to Casko Viejo, a gorgeous old neighborhood with some fantastic architecture. We just had to be careful not to wander too far, as only the few blocks close to the water were really safe. (We ended up here for dinner as well - it was great to enjoy a nice outdoor dinner and stare at a building which was probably older than the USA).

After our afternoon trip to Casko Viejo, we headed back to the Hostel for some rest. We ventured back out again right around sunset, so we could walk along the Causeway (basically a long narrow peninsula with a great ocean view of boats entering the canal) as the sun set. Unfortunately, our cab driver misunderstood what we wanted and took us all the way to the end of the causeway, where our view of the sunset was obscured by a large hill. Oh well. It was still a nice walk. We then cabbed to Casko Viejo for dinner (as mentioned above) - I'm glad it was a pleasant night, because the service was sloooooow!

As a final bonus in Panama City, I was able to catch up with former 1216 roommate Tyler in between his trips to Columbia and China. We grabbed a beer, and chatted about traveling, the meaning of life (travel), and all that good stuff.

And the next morning I left for San Blas, which will be the subject of the next post.

As always, pictures below - enjoy!

kim, barb, and I pose for the obligatory "us with huge ship from the canal in the background" photo

a boat exiting the miraflores locks

me expertly piloting a boat through the panama canal

cool view from Casko Viejo - new city viewed from the old city

1216 mini-reunion in Panama City! The busy travelers find time to grab a beer during their very brief time in the same city

adrians adventure to the land without internet

today I am leaving for the San Blas islands. While I have heard they are a total paradise, they are without internet. (maybe that is part of the appeal). Either way, that means I will not be updating my blog for the rest of the week. Will be posting again after my return on fri.

adrian's caving adventure

A few days ago I went on a cave tour with several friends I'd met in Bocas. After some haggling over the price (we got him down to $25 per person), we took off by boat. After about 30 min we entered a small shallow river - our guide had to stop and push us with an oar twice. We entertained ourselves by searching for sloths, and Barb won the eagle-eye prize by spotting one! We then did a 10 minute jungle walk to the cave. On the way we saw a red poison dart frog, some cool baby pineapples, and some cacao plants with seed pods (what they use to make chocolate).

Finally we made it to the cave, got our flashlights, and headed in. The ceilings of the cave were anywhere from about 10 feet high to 35 feet high, and we were walking in a stream which was usually a foot deep, but occasionally as deep as 4 1/2 feet. We walked very slowly so as not to trip over submerged rocks, or fall into sudden deep parts, and ducked as the occasional bat would fly on through. It was definitely an adventure. It was made even more exciting because I had my camera with me and wanted to make sure it stayed dry, so I only had one hand free for balance. Oh, the sacrifices I make for all of you so I can have good pictures for my blog! (fun fact - at one point our guide was taking a group photo of us and he tripped backwards over a rock - luckily he managed to keep my camera out of the water!).

We wandered through the cave for a while, and even went swimming in an underground pool. This trip was really awesome. I'd say it was my favorite expedition so far! Pics below. Enjoy!

our group of the intrepid explorers outside the cave

look at all those bats! This is right at the entry of the cave, but the guide didn't show us until we were leaving. Good call.

cool rock formation

swimming in an underground pool

group photo in the cave

now for a more serious moment

bad-ass pic

I don't want to toot my own horn here, but I really, really like this pic. Kudos to Kim for taking it!

bathroom-wall philosophy in Bocas del Toro

So, I've noticed that artists seem to really like hostels. Specifically, they like decorating / painting any unadorned surface in the hostel (a great example is rockin' J's in Puerto Viejo). This includes bathroom walls. Below are two of my favorite pieces of graffiti from the Mondo Taitu bathrooms. (not pictured: apparently one of the showers has "you're naked! tee-hee!" scrawled on the wall. Unfortunately I failed to take a pic of this one so you'll have to take my word on it).

This one is especially relevant (and inspired this post in the first place) since it's in a hostel full of travelers.

I liked this one because of the word play. I'll let you make your own assessment of whether you agree with what is written or not.

my favorite store in Panama

Today I would like to highlight my favorite store in Panama - a Ferretería/Mercado/Panadería (hardware store/market/bakery). At long last, I will no longer have to make 3 separate trips when i want to get 2 eggs, a hammer, and a donut! When I get back to the US I am going to start a similar chain of stores - I'm gonna be rich!

the legendary store itself. Mere photos don't do it justice, but I at least wanted to get a picture of the sign so you'd know I wasn't lying.

the coconut pastries at the panadería portion of the store. These are so incredibly addicting it's not funny.

Life in Bocas

So, I've been in Bocas del Toro, Panama, for almost a week now, and am loving it! For those of you who don't know (and were too lazy to follow the link), Bocas is an Archipelago in the Caribbean coast of Panama. At first I was on the main island where most of the hostels, stores, etc are. However, after seeing the Aqua Lounge Hostel on a nearby island, I realized I had to stay there instead, and moved over as soon as there was room (yesterday). It is built right over the water, and has a swimming area with 8 foot high dive cut into the deck. I am writing this blog post while sitting in a hammock on the porch, in between swims. It's a rough life, but someone's got to do it.

For my first few days in Bocas, each day I'd go off on tours with other members of our hostel. (Most of the nice beaches are not accessible from the main island, and require a boat). The first day we did a triple-stop dolphin tour/snorkeling/beach trip. Good stuff - the coral and sea life here is much better in costa rica, where the coral was almost all dead. The next two days we just went to a beach and spent the day hanging out.

Now that I'm here on the aqua lounge, I don't even need a beach. I can just hang out on the porch, venturing out onto the deck whenever I want to go for a swim or sun. The other people in the hostel are really friendly, so we hang out over our free pancake and toast breakfast, or just chill on the porch. Oh, and I found a regular poker game here on Bocas, comprised of a bunch of ex-pats who are quite interesting characters. It's nice to sit back, play some cards, and just observe as these guys banter/bicker amongst themselves. With any luck I'll be able to support my stay in Bocas through my poker winnings - if so I may never leave!!

Pics below - enjoy!

some panamanian buildings built right over the water. They're like this all over Bocas.

me on Zapatilla beach

red poison dart frogs at the aptly named "red frog" beach

artsy shot of a coconut on Zapatilla beach - it is symbolic of man's ability to thrive in diversity, pushing out the shoots of life even in a sandy and inhospitable environment. Man, I'm so deep!

hanging out with some fellow hostel dwellers in the hostel bar

right: cool pic of a Panamanian house we passed on our way to the beach

below: movie of some fish taken from a dock- we could also see starfish, a spider crab, and some barracudas

things that are awesome: running water

As Joni Mitchel sagely observed in the song Yellow Taxi, "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." I can certainly attest to this - I came to realize what an amazing thing it is to be able to walk once I was constrained to crutches for a few months last year. I've had many such realizations while travelling, where the countries I've been in lack things that in the US we've come to expect as a given.

So, todays "thing-we-are-really-really-REALLY-lucky-to-have-reliably" is. . . running water! For the past few days in Bocas del Toro, they have been having trouble with the water supply, so we've been without it for as much as a 16-hour period. Let's just say that it's no fun when you go for a run (my roommates and fellow runners can attest to how much I sweat), get under the shower, turn the spigot, and . . . nothing happens. It is no fun, and I am sure my fellow hostel-dwellers were just as upset as I was that I was unable to shower post-run.
In the previous scenario the water came on an hour later, so it wasn't too bad. However, yesterday when I got back from a day at the beach all sweaty, salty, and generally in need of a shower, there was no water. 4 hours later, after dinner, there was still no water. The next morning when I got up, there was STILL no water. At this point I was getting desperate! I can barely describe how excited I was when, an hour later, I walked past the bathroom and heard a shower running. I didn't even tell my roommates, out of fear that they'd take all the water before I got to it!

So, next time you take a shower (or even flush the toilet), be thankful for the fact that you know there is going to be enough water. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a second shower. Just because I can. Got to enjoy it while it lasts!!

updates from Bocas

Greetings from Bocas del Toro, Panama! I promised in my most recent post that you'd be hearing from me once I had engaged in enough shenanigans to merit a post. Well, I've been having a blast and now have enough subject matter for a handful of blog posts. Since I don't want to flood my blog with 5 posts in one day I'll be posting once a day or so (this post doesn't count - I'll have a real one up in about 30 min), so keep on checking!

P.S. for those of you who I owe emails to, sorry for the delay! I should be able to write tomorrow. As it is now I want to get out a quick blog post and then go jump off the high dive at my awesome new hostel which is actually built over the ocean (details about the hostel to be covered in another post - you'll just have to wait for more info!).

Coatis and Racoons and Snakes (oh my!)

So, as I mentioned in a previous post, last Saturday I went hiking in the Cahuita National Park. Saw a bunch of interesting creatures: a very poisonous (but thankfully sleeping) snake, a Coati, and a Costa Rican racoon. I also saw some monkeys trying to steal lunches, but I already covered monkey-thieves in my post about Manuel Antonio. Pics below:

Cahuita Point (where we hiked to)

A poisonous (but sleeping) snake. It was actually a bit off of the path - a ranger had found it and shown some other folks - so I felt a lot safer walking the paths knowing the snake hadn't been that close.

left: a Coati. below - video of the Coati. Larissa, I took thse pics/videos especially for you. Even though I had to get pretty close, which was difficult because I still have PTSD from being attacked by Beastie! (for those outside my family, my sister had a pet Coati, and it didn't particularly like me, except as a chew toy).

left: man scolding a Costa Rican raccoon, shortly before feeding it again. below: a video of the raccoon, who just wants more food, scaring the crap out of some girls, who in turn scare the crap out of him.

Adrian's Intentional Camping Adventure

So, for my last two nights in Costa Rica I slept in a hammock. But this time (as opposed to last time) it was on purpose! They have these huge open areas with rows upon rows of hammocks. Normally it's really cheap ($6/night), but J has a good grasp of economics, and since demand is increasing this week due to Semana Santa (as mentioned in my last post) he jacked the prices up 70%! Well played, J. Ya bastard.

So anyways, sleeping in a hammock has been fun. Seeing as I nap in them all the time, it wasn't much of a stretch to spend the whole night. The only problem is mosquitoes. However, this time I had a blanket to cover myself with, much better than the two blankets I used last time.

Of all the locations to sleep at Rockin' J's, the hammocks weren't the coolest, though. They also have a tree-house (well, that's what they call it - it's really just a tree on stilts) with its own fridge, tv, and water cannon! However, it cost 4 times the price of the hammock, so I decided to skip it. If it was actually in a tree I definitely would have considered it.

Anyways, that's all for now. Time to go out and explore Panama!

Hammock city in Rockin' J's

safe and sound (and with a place to sleep) in Panama

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, I pushed up my trip to Bocas del Toro up a day early to try and beat the huge Semana Santa rush to the beaches. I caught a 6:30 AM bus to Panama, where I walked over a rickety bridge into Panama. Once on the other side, I somehow managed to sweet-talk my way past having to purchase a bus ticket back from Panama even though everyone else I was with was forced to buy tickets. (Panama requires proof of exit, so even though I was planning on flying out of Panama for South America, since I didn't yet have a ticket I'd have to buy a bus ticket that I'd never use). I credit my spanish speaking skillz, and of course my charm and wit! (and luck might have had something to do with it too).

Anyways, we got in around noon, and there were still rooms in the hostels. So, I'm safely secured at Mondo Taitu, land of the 75 cent beer happy hour and free pancake breakfast. Looking forward to doing some surfing, snorkeling, and generally chilling in Panama. In the next few days I'll be posting some more entries about my last few days in Costa Rica, and will post again about Panama once I've got something worth writing about.

Pics below:

Me on the rickety bridge to Panama. Note the super-cool backpack-on-front look that I sport while traveling (larger pack is on my back). All the ladies love it! It gets really distracting when they keep on throwing themselves at me and I have to say "please control yourself - I'm just trying to get to Panama!"

At the Costa Rica/Panama border where I did the classic Simpson bit ("look at me boy! I'm in Australia! Now I'm in the USA, now I'm in Australia").