Boquete

Another travel day today. Up at 5 to get to the 6 am ferry back to golfito. It's funny how even after taking the route once, it's all so much easier. The minibus system en route to David didn't seem nearly as hectic this time. I love the 2 man system they have. One guy driving, one guy working the side door searching for passengers flagging the bus down from the side of the road and collecting money as people exited the bus. For all the money we have, it's a little crappy to think that panama has a better system for rural public transit that works in a cheap, fairly efficient manor. You can more or less get to any reasonable sized town by simply getting to the main road and flagging one of the 30 passenger buses down. There are designated stops as well, and points that the guy seemed to linger a little as though it were a good chance to get more passengers at that point. Again, once we know what we were doing, it is an efficient means to travel and only 2$ for a fairly long ride.

The bus terminal in David is bustling. Lots of destinations to the region as well as long distance places as well. We found the boquete bus no problem (a school bus!) and we quickly on the last leg of the journey.

Boquete is a mountain town. Maybe elevation 3600 but towering mountains on most sides. It has a cool central square that our hotel is on (see crummy iPad picture) and is pretty condensed. Lots of expats running around here. Disappointing to chat with one of our hostel hosts and learn that some are very interesting in integrating, but many don't even bother learning Spanish or interacting at all. The hostel is great. An older building, well kept up and in a great location.

It is much cooler here as well. The first day of the trip that either one of us want to wear long sleeves. We napped a bit, and I had a good run (albeit up hill into the wind) and we had a really good dinner of various Panaminian fare at the place right next door to our hostel. Looking are doing a coffee tour and a hike to a waterfall with possibility of spotting a quetzal tomorrow. I was playing the call in the room tonight so we know what to listen for.