So- I have officially been relinquished of alarm duty as I hit dismiss instead of snooze when it went off, so we got up when Barbs' alarm went off and really had to rush to make the 6am boat across to Almarante where we would start our bus journey to Boquete! We just made the boat but was an unnecessary rush... Whoops! We had to get a taxi for $1 each to the bus station and then catch a bus to a city called David, where we would then catch another bus (chicken bus- little old Panama man with a live chicken on this bus FYI) to Boquete... Our ride to David was about 3,5 hours and not the most comfortable as they really packed people onto the bus, but the views were outstanding! We drove through this incredible mountain range (saw a sign with the name "Valle la Mina") and it was beautiful to see... The ride to Boquete from David was about an hour and we arrived around 1pm. We booked into a hostel called Mamalena which is an old boarding house converted into a hostel... We booked ourselves onto a full day trip tomorrow to hike, see the hot springs and waterfall! (Managed to allow the guy to get us to leave at 9:30am so I can have time to have my Origini interview)...

We were starved by the time we arrived as we hadn't had breakfast so we went for a nice healthy lunch ;) and then decided to take a walk to what was listed as a thing to do by Lonely Planet - called El Explorador - apparently some type of Alice in Wonderland garden... It was a 45 minute "hike" so we hit some monster hills to get there... Not too sure what we walked into to be honest haha... Had to pay $3 (discounted from $5) and literally walked into some parallel universe garden where every item imaginable had been used in some way or form in the garden- there were also swings and see saws etc so we found the children in us and had some fun... The setting was really beautiful though with the beautiful mountains in the distance so we ended up finding a spot and lying down and resting... Barbs and I have been attacked by some insects as we have bites all over (the joys of Central America) so we are dying of itchiness and are constantly rubbing cream on the bites to try help... Yuck! We then made our way back down all the uphills and when we got back into the cute little town, I heard the church bells tolling so I decided to go to mass... So nice after so long! We had decided to cook again tonight (it's just us girls now as Ryan went straight onto Panama City) and the girls went to buy the food while I was at mass... When I got back to the hostel, we watched Hangover in the tv room and had a good laugh :) We then made our delicious dinner- a yum chicken salad filled with all sorts of veggies and goodness!! (Unfortunately messed it up with having M&M's for dessert but anyways...) Very long day ahead tomorrow so after chatting to a few peeps in the hostel we have come to shower and get into bed... We've just heard our boat to Colombia has been delayed by a day due to some border issues or something which is messing with our plans a bit so trying to figure this out, but for now it's time for bed after another interesting day in this fascinating country!

Lesson of the day: Never hit snooze, rather just get up!

Moment of the day: Seeing the man with his live chicken on our bus today... Bless!