Nubes, the entrance to Parque Internacional de la Amistad was just a short taxi ride from our hotel, but the road made it's way through very picturesque farmland and gave great views of the Cerro Punta peak that gives the village its name. Despite the steepness of land, there were fields everywhere, even where it seemed impossible to plant and harvest. The various crops in the fields were all different colours giving the impression of a patchwork quilt having been laid over the mountainside.

Even though our taxi was a 4WD ute, we had to walk 10 minutes up the steep, dirt track from the park entrance to the Ranger Station. We decided to walk the Sendero La Cascada trail, about a 3 hour return walk with a short lunch break. The trail took us up a very steep, rocky and slippery path deep within the canopy cover. Although we were under the canopy, we did notice the abundance of bright flowers that were absent from the Costa Rican cloud forests. Two thirds of the way along the track, we reached the highest point and a viewpoint. Except there wasn't a view, there wasn't even a viewing platform anymore. It was in such a state of disrepair it would be best used as firewood. Skirting round the edge of the pile of firewood, all we could see was a valley full of cloud.

The path continued to a second viewpoint which had a similar view of a cloud filled valley although the structure for shelter was in good order. No bad thing, because what initially seemed to be cloud wrapping itself around us turned out to be rain, and it was getting heavier.

The final part of the path, we had been advised by the ranger, was going downhill to the waterfall. We thought the path up to this point was steep and slippery but this was a whole new level. It looked like this part of the trail was closed a few years ago due to disrepair. Apart from being badly overgrown, the path appeared washed away and where there were steps, half were missing or broken. We persevered in the rain hoping that it wouldn't just be another waterfall - we've seen quite a few in our time. Thankfully, it was a little different to the standard water falling over a cliff edge, the water was flowing left and right and back again as it bounced it's way down steep rocky slope into a small pool at the bottom.

On the way back up the path David noticed what he thought was a snake at the side of the path. It was well protected and hard to see from the overgrown path and given the number of poisonous snakes in Panama, it wasn't going to get poked with a stick to get a better view.

With the rain that had fallen, the trail back down to the Ranger Station was slow, slippery and hard going. Despite going slow, David still managed to upend himself and land heavily on his leg. How he managed to get his entire body horizontal at waist height will remain a mystery and the lack of YouTube footage, disappointing. Lack of hilarious footage aside, being a very rocky path, David was on the receiving end of the worst ever 'dead leg' and expletives were flowing from his mouth. The expletives dried up as the immediate pain eased but it was a slow limp down the remainder of the trail.

Walking down the hill from the Ranger Station to the park entrance turned out to be the most awkward for David. It was actually less painful to walk backwards down the hill than to put weight on a bent leg, so to the bemusement of some locals, he walked down backwards.

We stopped off at the restaurant at park entrance for a coffee before asking them to call the taxi to take us back to the hotel. They had a nice balcony overlooking the river while hummingbirds were flitting around and even a squirrel was running around in the trees.

Our taxi driver gave us the run down on the farms as we drove back to Cerro Punta. Around Nubes, the area closest to the park entrance, the small farms are owned by private families whilst closer to Cerro Punta, the farms are bigger and belong to Croatians on one side of the road and Polish on the other. The European owners arrived after World War II and their kids, who now run the farms, were born in Panama. Most of them employ 50 to 100 people in the busy times, who are mostly indigenous and come from other provinces to work here for few months.

Most of Panama's vegetables are grown in this region but fields are also given over for strawberries. Thanks to the big green houses, strawberries are grown year round although the winter season's (Panamanians consider rainy season, European summer, their winter though it is warmer) are used for making 'products' as opposed to having a dollop of cream on them before serving. Some Colombians have recently invested in the fertile land for growing high grade roses that will be exported back to their homeland.