As mentioned in the last blog on Saturday 12th September we were heading from Montezuma, Costa Rica to Boquete, Panama. The itinerary we had ahead of ourselves was in order: bus to Parquera, boat to Puntarenas, bus to San Jose, bus to the border (Paso Canoas), walk across the border, bus to David, and finally a bus to Boquete. It won't come as too much of a shock when I tell you that come 10pm we were walking around the border town of Paso Canoas desperately trying to find a room for the night. Unfortunately we hadn't prepared to fail and so hadn't looked up any information on accommodation in the area. Making things increasingly difficult to get a room was the fact that Paso Canoas was holding its annual carnival the day we arrived. We did eventually find somewhere to rest our heads albeit a little more expensive than we normally budget for a nights' accommodation. Annoyingly it wasn't any better than where we normally stay either. However, we were able to get a nights rest and woke up the next day raring to finish our journey to Boquete. Our first step was to wander around aimlessly until we stumbled upon and passed through Costa Rican immigration. We then had to head to the Panamanian immigration to be allowed permission to enter. This is where we hit a snag, our flight out of Central America leaves from Costa Rica, this flight followed by numerous others on a £2500 tickets was not enough to persuade the immigration official we were going to ever leave Panama. The only resolution to this was to by a bus ticket from David, Panama back to San Jose. Whilst this was a pricey affair it was even more frustrating as the ticket we got was for a bus leaving about 14hours after we arrive in Panama. It was obvious to all concerned that we weren't going to be using the bus ticket at all. However, rules are rules so we had to comply. Once through that rigmarole we finally made it in to Panama and rather promptly in to a minibus to take us to David. We arrived in David about an hour later and were soon on our way to Boquete.

In Boquete we booked in to Hostel Palacios owned by Pancho Palacios. Pancho was the most energetic and helpful owner of a hostel we have come across. On arrival he sat us down to give us directions around the town and its surrounding hills, all in Spanglish, with a huge emphasis on the Span. After our confused but much appreciated directions we set off to get some money out to cover us for our stay. This was where the problems began which would consume most of the day involving phone calls back to the Natwest fraud department and numerous attempts at the ATM. Thankfully we did eventually get our money out. Whilst loitering outside of the banks a local woman approached us with a digital camera in her hand and her small daughter. She told us she had been learning English and that her assignment was to interview some people in English. She gave her daughter the camera and she pointed it at sue and I. We were both beaming massive smiles as we waited for the picture to be taken. Only after standing like that for about a minute did the woman tell us that her daughter was taking a video of the interview. After the drama of our day we has enough time try and book our coffee tour but we were extremely disappointed to find that cost had more than doubled since our edition of the Lonely Planet had been written. Without being able to justify the cost we instead set off to one of Boquete's unique gardens. Billed as being similar to Alice in Wonderland we thought it would quite an interesting place to spend a couple of hours. While it wasn't quite as reflective of Alice in Wonderland as we hoped, it was an experience seeing trees dressed up in the clothes we donated to charity the week before we left England. There were other strange aspects including paint brushes with faces on and a flower box made from a computer monitor. I am sure the pictures will give you a better idea. We went out for dinner that evening and then to an interesting jazz bar (which had no jazz) before heading back to Hostel Palacios. When we got back to the hostel we were invited for a drink with Mads (Belgium), Alexander (Norway) and a local guy call Joel (pronounced the same as Noël). We thought we were going to be having an early night but they had bottles of rum that they were insistent on sharing. Sue went to bed a little before me at about 2am but the extra hour she had did nothing to help her hangover which was comparable if not worse than mine.

With hangovers to deal with we decided that on our second day in Boquete we would indulge our new found passion for hot springs. It was about half an hour outside of town by cab and then a good 20 minute walk though difficult and unsigned terrain but eventually we found it. To be honest we were a little underwhelmed and over heated by the springs so we wandered down to the river where we had much more fun sitting on the rocks and swimming in the rapids. We returned to Hostel Palacios where we made ourselves a homemade meal for the first time since we started out trip. With dinner finished we joined the group we met the day before (minus Joel, who had been kicked out after being found sleeping in the garden in the early hours by Pancho). It was our turn to supply the booze having drunk them dry the night before. We got some beers in and another bottle of rum (amusingly called Ron out here - sue had therefore fallen out with Ron the night before). Things started fairly civilised but the pattern of the night before started to immerge amongst us all apart from Sue who was abstaining. Pancho Palacios also joined us as the evening wore on. After refusing to have a glass of Ron earlier in the night he eventually decided to have one, then two and no more...alright one more...how many have I had now....okay one more then bed...well if everyone else is having one I will. With Pancho now more than merry he started to dominate proceedings with his colourful tales. I assume they were colourful as, with the drink, he had completely dropped the Glish from his Spanglish. Poor Sue was the person to whom Pancho directed most of his conversation and could only nod and laugh when she thought it was appropriate, it wasn't entirely impossible to guess what he was saying as Pancho was kind enough to act out all his stories in a one man, two hour long Charade marathon. We got to bed around 1am which was late enough as the following day we were off to Panama City. I will update you on that soon enough.

John