Taking a hike in National Park Volcan Buru, Boquete - Panama

Whilst Linda and Tony enjoyed visiting some local gardens, Pete and I decided to take a hike in the National Park Volcan Buru that sits about 30km's outside of Boquete. As you can see from the pictures, it was absolutely beautiful and made up for the fact that it was a seriously steep hike on the way up. We took the Quetzal trail through the forest, rather than heading volcano bound, and just did the first part of the trail as landslides have caused it to close further up. On our way we passed coffee plants, banana trees, crossed grazing land and roaring rivers and saw the most beautiful flowers. The roads were lined with Datura flowers which look like fairy's drinking cups!

Celebrating in Boquete, Panama

We all absolutely adored Boquete. A days drive from the blistering coast of Catalina (without an hitches this time!), we arrived in the very beautiful and very cool mountain town of Boquete. We had booked in at Isla Verde (http://www.islaverdepanama.com/): a perfect place with beautiful gardens. Linda and Tony took a pretty suite with a balcony overlooking the river and Pete and I had a cute little round house in the gardens. It was a real treat!

We were also in Boquete to celebrate Tony's 65th birthday. After a surprise birthday breakfast, we went on a tour to find out more about Panama's premium coffee and take a walk in the mountains. We now know there is as much to making the perfect coffee as there is to making the perfect vino, including aging it! We went to one of Kotowa's coffee farm (it is a famous Panamanian coffee house but also supplies Starbucks, supermarkets etc), our guide was brilliant and we learnt about the process from picking to the packet! The tour finished with a coffee 'cupping' saw us come together with another group to decide on roasts and our personal perfect cup of coffee. Fascinating stuff, for coffee fans I'd really recommend it! In the evening we walked to the Panamonte, a beautiful hotel created in 1914 that has a great dinning room for birthday drinks and dinner. We hope Tony had a memorable one!

We spent 3 nights in Boquete enjoying the town and it's laid back charm. Evenings weren't complete without a bottle of Abuelo rum and a game or ten of black jack!

Panama - Coiba National Park, Pacific Ocean

After our trip to the prison it was time to feel free and dive into the pristine Pacific Ocean water of the Coiba National Park.

The little islands are amazing, pure blue water and white sand.... and the fish were vibrant colours dancing along to the soft beat of the waves.

Paradise.

Panama - Santa Catalina, Isla Coiba

Maudie and I went on a day trip to this unique island and ecosystem. Since the mid 1900's the island was a penal colony for vicious Panamanian criminals. Its location some 30 miles off shore in the Pacific Ocean meant, once people had been sent to Coiba they never left.

This unique situation was bad for the inhabitants but great for wildlife, as the island has and hopefully never will be developed for tourism. The prison only closed in 2004 and the last prisoners left in 2008.

We saw free flying Scarlet Macaws roaming the palm trees on the beach, and huge mango trees bursting with fruit. It was funny to be behind bars after the drive down to Santa Catalina, and Maudie we defiantly in need of a little rehab.

We really enjoyed exploring the buildings and the whole island had a feeling like the prisoners had not been long gone....and perhaps they could be hiding just around the corner!

Panama - Police, Surfing, Action!

After Isla Grande the race was on to get over to the Pacific coast and a surf town called Santa Catalina, this is how it panned out:

We got the small fishermans boat back to the mainland, with Dad holding on for dear life. Then we got a love themed Chicken Bus, which raced along at 90km an hour going so close to other trucks that he smashed the rear view mirror and showered Maudie in glass. Then a city bus back to Panama, followed by a cab to the airport to pick up a hire car. Mum drove the first 150km then I took over, 20 minutes in I was hauled over by the police and read my rights for driving at 123kmph! But I managed to get off with a $40 bribe, a historic day in my experience with authority! After that is was plane sailing (at 100kmph). We arrived in Santa Catalina, as the sun was going down with one slow puncture and a raging thirst for booze!

We had the foresight to reserve two rooms at Sol Y Mar (http://www.solymarpanama.com/) and were not disappointed, we had adjoining wooden lodge style cabins, with amazing aircon, huge beds and hot water! The hotel is run and owned by a Portuguese surfer called Luis, he is a wicked host, who cooks, lets you help yourself to beers and will drive you out to the local surf breaks to get the best waves of the day.

We had three really nice nights in this town, it was astonishingly hot (40C during the day), even at night (30C), but the beaches are a dream and beer's are cold. Maudie went surfing for one day, but my ribs were still giving me pains, so I sat it out on the beach. At night we all went out for lovely dinners and during the day mum had the best fried fish plate she's ever had - and at just $2 a plate it was a bargin!

Nearby is the national park of Coiba, which Maudie and I visited on a special day out of snorkling and exploring a prison, abondoned just 5 years ago...

Panama - Isla Grande, Carribean Sea

We arrived in Isla Grande after going through the Panama Canal, mother persuaded the tour man to drop us off at a motorway junction and we negotiated a taxi driver to whip us up the coast for and hour an a half to a small fishing village.

Once their we had one of the locals take us over to the small island for just $3 a pop. Our first night at the Half Sister Moon hotel was not up to scratch. No electricity and poor (very expensive) rooms meant we had a terrible nights sleep, but the views of palm washed shores in the AM were pretty spectacular.

We packed up our gear and headed around the coast to a much nicer spot with aircon and lovely hammocks - dad enjoyed many a snooze, once he worked out how to get in! We sunbathed, ate little fishes and explored the shallow warm sea.

Isla Grande is a little island for lazing around, so that's just what we did..... bliss

Panama Canal - Crossing a continent by boat

Travelling from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific through a canal that divides a whole continent is an experience we will never forget.

Mum and Dad had been wanting to do this journey for a long time and everyone was really excited as we spent the days preceding the trip visiting museums and reading books about the history of this mighty project.

The canal is 77km long and it is a shining example of human technical excellence, perseverance and pure greed. Where the French failed over 100 years ago the American picked up and fulfilled their dream of being able to get warships across the oceans faster than anyone else.

The Panamanian people were paid a handsome $250,000 a year for a 100 year lease on the 10km strip of land.... a mighty sum in 1910... but not so by 1990. When the USA handed the canal back to Panama in 1999 as a millennium gift, the Panamanians made more money in the first year than the whole of the last century. For more interesting facts visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal.

We set off from the Causeway on a sunny morning and motored along with high rise vista of modern Panama in the distance. We went under the Bridge of the Americas and past the huge shipping container yard. The first lock is the mighty Miraflores, and it can raise and lower 500,000 tonne ships in just a few minutes. The locks themselves have 50ft thick walls of pure concrete to hold back the water pressure.

Then we went on through Lake Gantun and onto another set of huge locks called Gantun, then it was plane sailing through to the Pacific ocean. We noticed a change in temperature as the Pacific tends to be fierce compared to the protected waters of the Atlantic!

It took over 8 hours to make the journey and was a wonderful day, but if we'd chosen to go the only other way round - via Chile and around, that would have added 32 days to our trip!