In the last week, I tried rock climbing, took a coffee plantation tour and visited a nearby river (twice), for some swimming, playing and relaxing.
Rock climbing: a small group of us from school went together. Our 'guide,' Cesar melendez, is one of the top 50 rock climbers in the world. He practically ran up this rock wall we visited. It was amazing to watch. This sounds cheesy, but it was almost like watching a ballet. It was beautiful. (Climbing photos of Cesar are in a couple places below).
Anywho for the first-timers (ie NOT top ranked climbers), rock climbing is hard. Holy heck. I got up the wall 2 and a half times taking different paths. I was also super flipping sore the next day too. It was tough, but fun, so I might be inclined to try indoor climbing as well, one of the days.
Coffee Tour: again, a couple of us from school went on the tour. The plantation we visited is small, and it's very much a mom and pop shop. All the beans are picked and sorted by hand, and most of their beans are processed on site in a small shack using homemade machines. Seriously,when the owner bought the farm 25 years ago, he couldn't afford production equipment, so he took old car parts, washing machine parts, etc and made his own machines, that they still use today. It is fascinating how Mr. Tito figured this all out. We learned all kinds of interesting things about coffee and then got free samples. I don't generally like coffee, but with a little coffee in my sugar, I was able to get on board with Mr. Tito's medium roast. In anycase, it was a very informative tour.
* a very important tool used in the roasting process: a scroon. (a spoon welded to a screw driver). For some reason I was fascinated by this. Plus, it's the only one of its kind in the WHOLE world (more than likely), so I had to get a photo with it.
Caldera: Saturday, our little group went to a town 30 minutes away to visit some swimming holes and do some more rock climbing (well, some people did more climbing.....I just had a couple failed attempts). Cesar joined as as well, just for fun, so he could do some climbing there too. We did some jumping/diving into the river, swimming, climbing, hanging and even some fishing (sort of). There was a small waterfall at the river, where we could catch little fish in our hands (as the little fish tried to swim up the little waterfall, they would fly in the air a bit, and we could easily catch them with our hands...it was an odd but enjoyable activity). Super fun and relaxing day.
Caldera remix: Sunday, I went with some folks from the hostel to a different spot in Caldera, just to hang out and do a little swimming. The water here is a remarkably comfortable temperature, considering it gets pretty cool here at night. I think it has something to do with the volcano on the north side of town, but I am not quite sure......
Anywho, there are some really great people running, working, living, and visiting this hostel. Sometimes people can make all the difference, and I think the folks here have really made Boquete a special place for me. I have even gone out a couple times at night with everyone....and it certainly takes some special people to make that happen. Haha.
I don't know my exact route south from here, but I think I will be heading out of Boquete with some friends from the hostel and school early next week. More to come......
