I came down from the cool highlands of Boquete into the sweltering hot of the lowlands and said, 'aww, helllllll no!' and hopped on the next bus back up to the highlands. To be honest, this was my plan all along but once the heat hit me I was even more motivated to get gone. So I got the next bus up to another place in the highlands called 'Lost and Found'. This place was founded by a few Canadians but I went anyway as it was set up in the cloud forest as a type of nature preserve. They developed a huge system of hiking trails throughout the forest that was quite impressive. They also had a pet kankajou which is always the sign of a top notch place in my book. The kankajou is basically a very large ferret with a long tail it uses as an extra appendage. The hostel had rescued him from a place that made him into a pet but had to get rid of him for some reason. They built a large pen where he could sleep and get some lovin' from the guests. 'Rocky' as he was named, is nocturnal but when he wakes up he starts slamming his tin water dish on the ground until someone comes to play with him. I jumped into the cage with his trainer (I seriously questioned their certification and training) and met Rocky. He was very tame and had a fettish for elbows, which he liked to nibble. Me too, so we got along just fine. He also liked to jump into pockets, as if they led somewhere he could not find but was determined to discover. He put his nose into my rain jacket and shiffed the pocket as if there was a hidden oppening that led to Shangri-La. We had a ball for a bit, then I moved under the main roof as the rain was coming down like crazy. I left the hostel the next day because their was much more rain in the forecast and I really didn't feel like getting wet in the chilly mountain air. the next stop was Bocas del Toro which is on the carribean side of Panama, just below the Costa Rican border. Bocas is actually an archipelago of islands seperated by saltwater coves, bays and mangrove lined causeways. I have no idea what an archipelago is but i've been wanting to fit that word into this blog for months now... and we're getting down to he nitty gritty of the trip so I figured now was as good of time as any. On Bocas, I met up with my old friend Wiley, who used to work with me at the West End Tavern back in the day. Wiley lives down here part time with her beautiful daughter Zeylia. She bought a piece of land down here yers ago and have spent a while building, planting and clearing the land. Her property is almost an hour out of town on the northern end of the island in a remote section known as Boca del Drago. Her land borders the ocean with spectacular views of the mainland and the ocean. I did not stay here as they had other guests already there, but she very graciously set me up with a friend of hers named Kurtis who lived in town and had an extra room I could crash in. I had a blast with Kurtis,
a 60ish expat who loves playing music and loves talking about it almost as much. We drank cans of ice cold beer and got to know each other passing the guitar back and forth. We hit it off right away, but unfortunately he was heading back to The States for his usual summer tour. He left a few days later and I made my way to Isla Bastiamentos, just on the other side of the sound. I got a boat taxi and made my way to a hotel that had jungle access to the 'famous' Red Frog Beach which was quite lovely. I met a British couple and we went for a long walk down the deserted beach until we found some good snorkling. The beaches were great
in fact one had some fresh turtle tracks from a big momma turtle that had laid her eggs the night before. It looks like a big tractor tread track but this is a turtle track. you can kind of see the flipper/feet marks on the side.
Really cool! This beach was actually called Playa Tortuga. On the flip side of a rocky outcropping we found a beach front bar with a observation platform overlooking the waves.
That was pretty sweet too. After 2 nights of desolate beach paradise I went back to Bocas town and met up with Wiley and Zeylia. I melted when Zeylia ran up to me to give me a big hug!
Little kids can be pretty cool when they aren't crying and they are happy to see you. Wow!
