Spring Break, sparknotes version.

I still need to pack for the next two weeks, so this is going to be the sparknotes version of spring break.

Kristie and I embarked on Friday night, catching the 9:45 bus from Gamboa to Panama city (which, thankfully, was late, as Kristie didn't finish her report until 9:30 and then packed in 15 minutes!). We took the 11:45 overnight express bus from Panama City to David, and then took the public bus from David to Boquete where we checked into our hostel. The overnight bus was more comfortable than I expected, but I still didn't sleep all that well, so I napped as soon as we checked in. There were books scattered around the hostel, so I picked up one that looked interesting: Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer (it had interesting aspects...I liked the story and the characters, but it was rather predictable and written strangely--switching between first and third person). Kristie and I walked around town...

The main road.

The iglesia (church), the prettiest building in town.

Across the road from the church this
cross was intertwined with the trees.

Boquete is a town in a river valley between mountains in western Panama. It's at about 1,200 meters elevation and so much cooler. That means fresh produce and pretty flowers!

These interested me because the flower itself is the little white
thing in the middle, while the colorful things are not petals, but
sepals (modified leaves surrounding the flower).

Bananas!

Walking along one of the back roads, I saw this line of old jeep-type vehicles that amused me:

Junk jeeps along the side of one of the back roads.

While we were in Boquete Wenley, Chhaya, and I went to a wildlife rehabilitation center and Kristie and I climbed Volcan Baru (a volcano, hence the name, and the tallest mountain in Panama at 3,474 meters). I'll tell you more about that later.

On Wednesday we traveled to Bocas del Toro. On the way back to David, we stopped at a second hand bookstore which made me very happy. I limited myself to six books (Georgette Heyer and Dorothy Sayers).  Then we took a bus from David to Almirante (about four hours) and took a water taxi to the main island (Isla Colon). Unfortunately, due to a mix up at the hostel we wanted to stay at, they hadn't gotten our reservation, so we had to find somewhere else to stay. The first night we stayed at Hotel Casa Max which was taken over the next morning by a film crew for Paradise Lost starring Josh Hutcherson (when the hotel owner told us this, Wenley, Chhaya, and I had no clue who this was, but we soon found out...). Here's the hullabaloo from outside the hotel. They had a mule cart and kept loading and unloading wood...

Also, right across the street was a hostel run by Princeton alums (members of Terrace...can't you tell?)

Bocas was hot, but pretty, and I went to the beach and snorkeled. It was nice to get acquainted with my snorkel and mask and I got excited for the next course.

Alright, I'm off to Coiba for a week and then back to Bocas for my coral reefs course!