Boquete and Panama

Beginning of October 2018

Boquete

The border crossing from Costa Rica to Panama went smoothly. The first destination was Boquete in the mountains. Known, especially in the USA, as a retirement paradise because of the mild climate and affordable prices.

Angi from Lübek came with me from Bahía Drake. She had been working as a volunteer in a hostel there and wanted to see more of the region before leaving.

In Boquete, I actually wanted to hike to the Baru volcano, from where you can see both oceans. However, the weather was mostly very bad and the prospect of a view was almost hopeless. So we decided to skip the 26km hike and instead do the Sendero Quetzal, a day hike through the jungle from Boquete. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the namesake of the trail, the very rare quetzal bird, but the landscape alone was worth the hike.

That was it for Boquete and I headed to the capital, Panama City. Angi continued to Bocas del Toro in the Caribbean to return to Costa Rica from there. I skipped this part to finally leave Central America after six months...

Panama City

Panama City is probably the only modern city in Central America. I stayed here for a total of ten days. One reason was to rest a bit and the other reason was to organize the sailboat trip to Colombia.

However, the city doesn't have much to offer. Most of the countless skyscrapers were probably built for the purpose of money laundering. In between are the huge, overcrowded and stuffy streets.
Nevertheless, there are some interesting areas. For example, the Casco Viejo, the old town, which was probably a ghetto for a long time and is now gradually being restored. There are also some nice cafés and restaurants. Or Ancon Hill. A green hill surrounded by the city with countless animals, especially many toucans (yeees, more toucans 🤩).

And then there is, of course, the impressive Panama Canal as a connection between the Pacific and the Atlantic. I visited it twice because it's so interesting. The visitor center is at the Miraflores Locks, at the old part of the canal. Unfortunately, you can't visit the considerably larger locks of the expansion project yet. But you can see the giant ships passing in the background. And the Miraflores Locks are not small either. They are built for ships with about 300m length and 30m width. This is where these beautiful time-lapse videos were created: