After about 25 meters (ahem, we use meters now), we were in someone’s front yard. A woman in a barn waved and pointed toward a path through a gated fence. “I guess we go this way,” I said as we looked at the hand painted metal sign that read something like “Properidad Privida, No Pase.”
We walked through anyway, as there was no where else to go. After about a half hour up uphill hiking/walking over rocky path, we were on the actual trail.
No long into it we came across a man carrying a large machete. He quickly noticed that we were Americanos. He began pointing to the trees saying “Quetzal!” Sounded like kate-zal-ay. This is the national bird of Panama I believe (I can’t check because I don’t have internet access right now.) We followed him back down the patch and stood at various points for probably about 20 or 25 minutes. At one point he pointed reverently high into the trees. “Donde! Donde!” I said. Something flew out of the tree. I caught a glimpe, so did Ryan.
“Quetzal,” the guy said. Alright, if he says so.
He showed us where he was hanging out under a huge tree with a young woman in a traditional dress. He swung on a vine.
After a few comments on how beautiful the area was and a thanking him for helping us see the bird, we bid adios to our machete-welding amigo.
Our Quetzal-spotting amigo
Waterfall at the end of the Pipeline Trail
We finished the trail with a newfound excitement about Bocas since talking to the flower children. Just as we were getting back to our rental car, a woman appeared asking for 3 dollars from each of us for hiking the trail. She had a book for us to sign, and gave us a receipt, so it has to be legitimate, right?
We came back to the hotel and had the rest of our calzones, only to agree that we were both still hungry. We drove down to Sugar and Spice, a bakery and café, and ordered two salads. We loafed around a little, realized we forgot the ATM card, so ended up having to postpone our withdrawal until later that night.
Upon arriving back at the Inn, owner Jason stopped us at the gate with a handful of fabric swatches. The swatches were of the material that James Bond’s suits were made of for the movies. He had some connections and planned on ordering one at a fierce discount.
We stopped in our room for a bit before making our way to social hour for our free sangrias. There were some other “whities” already enjoying theirs.
Jason and Ryan talked more James Bond, but I pulled manager Danny aside to ask if there were any local insects that could possible do more harm than some itching with a bite. He said no. This was before I formed my theory that my worst bites are just jellyfish stings gone wrong., I had noticed my ankle had 2 large edematous bites and assumed they were new, We had picked up hydrocortisone earlier at the farmacia. 1% cream for 8 bucks. Should have brought some with me instead of my benadryl dabber that seems pretty dinky to me at this point.
We decided on Big Daddy’s for dinner. A combo of trip advisor and Danny encouraged the choice. I got fish tacos, grilled fish for Ryan, platacones for both of us. Ryan says they were the best platacones he’s had!
We stopped at the ATM, I had my OFF Deep Woods can at the ready to deter any ladrones. We settled in for a long day of busses in the morning.
The following morning we again enjoyed delicious Boquete coffee, fruit, cereal, granola, and a today a muffin while we watched the birds eat the fruit put out for them on the garden statues.
After paying Danny for the room, we decided to drive back up to Finca Milagrosa to purchase a burlap coffee bag. We saw one framed in our hotel room from Café Ruiz, and wanted something like that, only from our favorite coffee estate.
We drove back up the mountain to Milagrosa and actually found it down a along road in disrepair, totally off of memory. I was impressed with us for finding it. We were driven in a van by our guide last time.
I knocked on the gate and Tito, the owner, let us in, He speaks English, but I insisted on purchasing the bag in Spanish. A huge burlap bag with Finca Milagrosa on it for 10 bucks!
After buying our bag, we filled the car with gas and returned it to the dealership. Cash only. Crap - we didn’t realize it was cash only. Abel, the manager, drove us to the ATM, we paid him, and told him to let us out anywhere because we wanted to grab a few things before the bus stop.
I don’t think he understood, because he kept talking of dropping us at the bus stop. No problem, there is a supermarket next to the bus stop anyway. Well, turns out it’s a good thing Abel was driving us. The policia were having some sort of huge doing, and all the roads were blocked, and the bus stop was relocated. Abel shouted to a few of the cops, who shouted back, then told us the bus just left and we could catch it. He starts peeling down a highway-type road toward David. In a few minutes, we find the bus on a stop. We hop out, thank Abel and we are on our way to David in a bumpy yellow school bus. With racing stripes. And lightning bolts.
Once in David Ryan stopped in a bano for 25 cents, I decided to hold it until Bocas - about 3.5 hours. Not one of my better ideas. Anyway, we found our bus to Bocas del Toro, it was pretty small. The bus man shoved my suitcase under a seat in the front, and I sat right in that seat, on top of it. He motioned for me to move to a different spot since I would be on the bus longest, with lots of people on and off between then (at least I think that’s what he said) but I remained. Ever since our Ecuador trip I like my stuff where I can see it- under my seat and against my ankles. Our bus twisted and turned through the continental divide and dropped people off along the way in seemingly well…nowhere. They seem to drop people off on the side of the road where we could see nothing but trees and steep slopes on each side. At one point a women dressed in traditional garb got off with her kids and what we think was a pig in a cardboard box. Immediately upon stepping off the bus she reached into her bag and started hurling empty coke bottles, juice boxes and plastic bags into the grass/woods behind her, with absolutely no shame. Ryan and I starred is disbelief at this women’s utter disregard for her surroundings. I think this littering Indian woman stunned us the most out of everything we’d seen in Panama.
After a couple hours our driver pulled into a rest stop. “20 minutes“, he told us in Spanish. I hopped off and bolted to the bano. It wasn’t horrible, but not clean either. As I expected, no toilet paper. Once again I used the pack of black and white tissues I bought at JoAnn fabrics that had a fancy “W” printed on them. I bet it was the fanciest toilet paper that bathroom ever did see.
Ryan and I bought ice cream bars at the little food area, also a coke and ginger ale, then it was back to the road. The mint ice cream bars were defective and upon taking a bite the chocolate shell sheared off and landed on the ground below.
I read and occasionally looked out to enjoy the scenery, but boy was I happy when we arrived at the water taxi area. The usual chorus ensured.
“Taxt! Taxi? Taxi!!! TAXI?!?!” About a dozen men, some with laminated name tags, others with only desperation, yelled and tried their best to convince us to let them take us to the water taxi. We found a couple other whities and shared a taxi with them. Our driver yelled at the other taxi guys “Tu Papa! Tu Papa!” while pounding on his chest. I’m pretty sure it was a taunt to the other drivers, an “I’m your daddy now” of sorts.
We were hustled down to the water taxis, the guy tossed my suitcase onto the boat, and I stared at until I was on the boat as well. I had a vision of the boat driving away and me standing on the doc, never to see my stuff again.
Thankfully we were all aboard, with Ryan and I sharing the front seat with the driver. We bounded over waves, with each slam making me look over my shoulder to see if my suitcase was bounced out of the boat completely. About 20 minutes of this, and we idled up to the dock. There were only a few men yelling “taxi” at this point.
We went to the tourism office and the guy there called our hotel, which sent a taxi for us. We’d neglected to stop at an ATM or put more dinero onto our check card. We hopped into the cab and took the surprisingly long and bumpy off-road ride to playa bluff. Steph looked over and said “this is out there” which it was.
It’s funny how things seem to work themselves out. We had 12 dollars left and the cab ride ended up being exactly 12 dollars. This was quickly followed by Erwin the restaurant owner saying “you don’t need money here.“ What were the odds? We obviously did need money eventually but he put all our food on a tab that we paid at the end of our stay.
Our room is in the center of the building with a sliding glass door and 2 windows with a king bed, small table and chairs, and pretty nice bathroom. The lights are dim because the entire place is on solar power. Its an eco-lodge. There’s a ceiling fan, but no a/c, and the gardens in the back have dart frogs, snakes and more. The owner pointed out a sloth high in the trees when we arrived. It was the size of a dog up there, pretty big sloth. We were hoping to see it closer. We would eventually see a green parrot in the trees the following morning.
Walking into our room at Playa Bluff
We came back around to the restaurant after putting our stuff down, starving since our lunch was menial. Erwin was the managers name, born in Belgium, raised in South Africa, sniper for the military for 17 years, spear fisherman, crocodile owner, possible president of a ramshackle turtle-watching club. Anything else you want to know? Because by the time we got 2 waters, we knew this guy better than we knew each other. We ordered dinner and drinks at the same time. I became increasingly worried as he launched into a story of finding giant crates of pure Columbian cocaine washed up on Playa Bluff shores on a regular basis.
I wasn’t worried about being taken out by drug runners, I was worried because it had been 20 minutes since we ordered our food and he made no mention of it. The lone worker in the kitchen stood there polishing silverware. “He didn’t tell her“, I thought. I tried to telepathically alert Ryan to the situation.
Finally I picked my menu back up and when I saw the opportunity I asked “So what would you recommend?” Nachos was the answer. He turned his back for a minute and I whispered “We need to order!” Ryan responds “I thought we did!”
He turns back around and I order the club, Ryan orders the fish, and 15 minutes later we were eating. Phew! This whole time we are listening to the most bizarre soundtrack of Rhianna, Bob Marley, salsa, bachata, Whitney Houston, Daddy Yankee, Juanes, “you sexy thang“…you never know what will play next.
After dinner the hotel owner came back and took the edge off by talking to Erwin about fishing the next day. Did I mention we are the only guests tonight? Here we are 30 minutes from the civilization of Bocas Town eating fish sandwiches with Norman Bates. Just kidding. Erwin is cool, just a little out there. He even told us that he’d leave the fridge unlocked in case we wanted a late night soda. Thanks, Erwin! Although on second thought he did just get done telling us that the property’s dogs will attack to kill anything that moves in the night, so not to enter through a certain gate. Um…thanks, but I don’t think I’ll be needing any late night drinks.
We got showered and tucked in to bed, and boy did we loose track of time. It was….get ready…8:12! That’s right, we were saying goodnight and turning lights out at 8:12. We woke up at 5:30 totally wide awake.
I put my cream on my bites, some seeping at this point. Ryan went for a run, and I wandered the garden covered in DEET, leggings, and my shawl. Not to get off subject, but pests (bugs, jellyfish, etc) really put a damper on my travel experience. The more stings and bites I get, the more fearful I am of getting more, and it interferes with my enjoyment of the beautiful surroundings. Really burns me up.
Anyway, I saw the snake again, more frogs, and when Ryan got back we saw a green parrot with an orange beak eating his breakfast with one foot on a branch. We got a picture of him.
I headed to the restaurant for our complementary breakfast. Helene, the co-owner greeted us and introduced herself. We poured ourselves some instant coffee and waited for our omelets. It was a pretty tasty little breakfast. Although Raul would spit on us for drinking instant Folgers after tasting the liquid gold from Milagrosa.
After breakfast we decided to walk an hour north to Playa Pristina, its exactly like it sounds, a pristine playa. Erwin told us about the area. He also told us about a lagoon nearby that’s completely hidden. “You can swim naked. Really,“ he told us with a serious tone. On the way to the beach we saw howler moneys in trees, mostly hidden.
Once there, we took pictures, swam a little with borrowed goggles and snorkels. We could see a few fish swimming around, large waves crashing just beyond the rocks on the next beach, and gray skies and thunder in the distance.
We walked along a little, in and out of the water. We decided once it started sprinkling and thundering more, we should go. I also had a bug land on me, that I’m pretty sure was a sand fly. I didn’t tell Ryan, for fear that he would try to drown himself if I brought up my bites one more time (kidding).
Playa Pristina with storm rolling in
We packed up and headed back down the trail. It was still sprinkling. Then it started raining. Then pouring. Then down pouring. Its an hour walk back, so there was no point in trying to hurry. We were quickly drenched and walked at normal pace. My hat was completely soaked and misshapen. My dress was vacuum sealed to my legs. Erwin had quite the smirk when we sloshed up the walk into the restaurant. I went straight to the shower. After we were showered and changed, we came down for lunch.
Ryan ordered the nachos. I ordered the “Dutch Chicken Satay.” Ryan’s was an entire bag of Tostitos dumped into a bowl, covered in chunks of chicken and cheese with salsa and sour cream. Mine was fries, chicken, and crunchy peanut butter passed of as “A spicy peanut sauce,” uh huh…yeah.
After hanging around the hotel, watching the rain, we decided to go into town to deal with the cash situation. The hotel reimbursed us for the taxi ride, so we had 12 dollars. I found another 15 in my purse.
The hotel called us a taxi and gave us a cell phone to bring along and call a cab for the way home. Ryan told me after lunch that he had diarrhea again today. Oh no! We bought him a Gatorade and wandered town a little, buying coffee and some waters to take back. We walked up to the atm and realized that we left the card in the hotel room. I used my credit card and got a hundred bucks from it, otherwise we’d barely have enough cash to get a taxi back.
We had a crappy dinner at a waterfront dive and grabbed some waters from a supermarket. The taxi number that I saved in the phone was nowhere to be found. We called the hotel and they sent one to get us.
Halfway down the dark road the driver slowed down to place a sign on his door. From what I glimpsed it said “ocupado.” I immediately took this a a notice to hooligans in the hills that “I have Americano’s in the car, come rob them please.” I got out my OFF Deep Woods. Ready to spray it into the ojos of any ladron that dare cross me.
Nothing happened.
He dropped us off and we headed in to bed. It was early of course, so I blogged a little first. Ryan was asleep by the time I finished page 1.
Sunday morning we woke up and, after looking unsuccessfully for sloth in the backyard, we had some breakfast decided to head down to the beach.
We packed some Mojo bars and water and headed back down to Playa Pristina. We went down farther on the beach than the day before, and found a palm tree to sit under between swimming and snorkeling. We saw some pretty fish in the clear water. It really is a postcard perfect place. Totally secluded.
We hiked back and rinsed out our water shoes, showered, and got a taxi to town, this time with the ATM card. We got some dough, had some batidos (milkshakes) and dinner at a slightly less crappy waterfront dive. We spotted the Playa Bluff truck.
This was good because Ranier and Erwin were out fishing this morning. They should be coming back for the truck any time now! Sure enough as we ate our dinner we see them pull up in a little boat and walk to the truck.
We just got our food, and we watched them mill around the truck for a bit not really doing anything, making a few cell calls and walking away. We tried not to hurry ourselves, but we wanted that free ride back to the hotel.
We waited by the truck and saw then walking back. Ranier explained that he left his keys on the boat and someone was bringing a spare, and that we could ride with him. We waited about a half hour, and headed in. They didn’t catch any fish, and only had one cd to listen to the whole day on the boat.
We got back, settled our bill, and hit the hay.
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