I heart Boquete

I really like this place- the people, the weather, the culture, my hostel, the pace of life, etc.  I super dig the school here too.  With these two weeks, I will have made major progress on my conversational Spanish.  My Spanish is still pretty terrible though....don't get too excited about my 'attempt at being fully bilingual' skills...I am still light years away from that point.

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......

Boat, Bus, Bus

Getting from Bocas to Boquete via public transporation involves a boat ride, a bus ride, a transfer, and another bus ride - totaling roughly 6.5 hours.  The final bus ride was also on a jam-packed, old American school bus.... 3 adults to a seat!  Not quite an actual chicken bus, but not far from it either.

I was super nervous about the trek, but I lucked out!  I met a man from Boquete on the boat ride out of Bocas.  He was heading to Boquete as well, so I asked to tag along.  He took great care of me.  He was so nice, it almost creeped me out....ah the jaded complexities of a city-girl's mind.  He even walked me from the final bus stop all the way to my hostel.  I actually saw him and his family the next day too.  They gave me a nice tour of the town and took me to dinner.

I arrived late Saturday, so Sunday morning, I got up and hit the town.  I went for a nice walk around the city (it's small, but spread out), grabbed some groceries, visited the park where they hold the 'Festival of Flowers' (although the festival is in March, many of the flowers are still in bloom), and also grabbed a bite at a restaurant/bakery near my hostel. (p.s. I had a very sweet, guava empanada, that was life changing..... muy deliciouso!).

Re: my new school - It often rains here in the afternoons, so that's when they hold classes.  It allows students to do activities in the morning, when the weather is a bit better.  I am the only person in my class (ahhhh!  Spotlight on Leslie!), but I think this setup may actually be good for me.  I also met some other students that I really like as well, so hopefully we gel into a nice crew over the next 2 weeks.

Below are pictures of the hostel, the town, and the grounds at the 'Festival of Flowers.'

The hostel, my room, and the view from my room (I can hear the river from my bed.  It's awesome!)

The town

The grounds at the 'festival of Flowers.'

I am looking forward to some fun outdoor activities, new friendships,  cooler weather, and quiet nights.   So far though, I am digging Boquete!

Bocas del Toro

Here's a super quick recap of my time in Bocas: I went to school every morning, and  then visited different beaches in the afternoons (one by water taxi, one by bus, one by bike).  I also took a tour of the Smithsonian Research Institute on the main island, ate some cheap local food (rice and beans, rice and beans), hung out a bit with some peeps from school, and went on a cocoa plantation tour (the most interesting part of my Bocas experience).

Here are some pictures form the different beaches:

The beaches were fan-flipping-tactic, but I am ready for a change of scenery AND weather!  Now, off to the mountains.....Boquete, Panama!

Where am I?

My first stop in Panama: Bocas del Toro.  See map below.  Bocas is an island district off the NE coast of Panama.

I left Nuevo Arenal this weekend and took a shuttle to San Jose.  I spent the night in San Jose, then caught a very early flight to Bocas.  The town is small, so I walked from the tiny airport over to my hostel - Hosteluego.  It's a nice joint, which I think I need for my first big hostel experience.  Below are photos of the hostel, shared bath, my private room (worth the extra $), kitchen and common areas.  I probably won't post this many photos of subsequent hostels, but for now, I am a true first timer (and it's a really sweet place.... by way of hostels).

My new school is small, similar in size and number of students to my school in Costa Rica; however, the classrooms are all indoors here.  It takes some getting used to.  I kind of enjoyed the open air classrooms in CR, even when it was a million degrees.  You could learn, while still keeping an eye on everything going on at the school, stop class if anything interests was happening, wave to people on their way to the bathroom, etc.  Here, it's all business, all the time, in the classrooms :)

The 'big' town (and I use that term loosely) where I am staying, is the biggest town on the islands.  It's VERY different than anywhere I visited in CR.  The town is really dirty, kind of run down, and full of people that are here mostly to party. Costa Ricans keep their cities, towns, and land really clean, so the trash here is probably the biggest shocker for me.....it's all what you're used to, I suppose.  Anywho,  it's an interesting dynamic here, nonetheless, especially since the backpackers/vacationers/locals all mix together here more than I saw in CR.  It's a unique place, for sure. Below are some photos of the town.  There is a special kind of charm here though, I will at least say that- super laid back and easy going.

Right now, it's the super slow season in Bocas.  The hostel is quiet, the town is sleepy, and it's kind of hard to find tours that are running, since they don't have enough people to run them.  My plans to explore every afternoon take a little more finesse under these circumstances!

My first 2 days were rainy (boo!), class placement for school was a bit frustrating, and I was sad that the other students here aren't my friends from Tamarindo.  :(

Even though I got off to a rough start, today, the sun came out and I got to visit another island.  I took a water taxi with a couple people from school to Red Frog beach, and the 'how do I like Bocas' scale, is now tipping back towards 'like!'  The beach was amazing!  Best beach I have seen in a while.  Crystal clear, warm water, small waves, very few people around, etc.  We even needed to hike a bit from the boat dock to the beach, so we got to check out the jungle for a bit too.  Way cool place.  More fun times in Bocas to come.....hopefully!