Boquete Day 336 20/08/2015

The mountain town of Boquete is apparently one of Panama's top destinations and we'd decided to head there from El Valle. There's no direct bus service so we had to go back to the Interamericana, get a national bus to David and then the local bus up to Boquete. We had breakfast at the hostel, which had been seriously downgraded to cornflakes and dried crackers, packed and walked back to the main road. A van to the Interamericana was just leaving and we jumped aboard with our luggage taking a third seat (there's no luggage space on the smaller vans). Wherever we have been on our travels the bus drivers have, with very few exceptions, driven like they are possessed. For some unknown reason today was an exception and we didn't go over 30km per hour as the driver and his mate attempted to pick up more passengers on route. Simon got increasingly more frustrated as we slowly made our way back down to the main road! From here we needed to flag down a national bus to take us to David, 277km to the west. Despite our slight nervousness, flagging down a bus it wasn't a problem as every bus heading west stopped in an attempt to pick us up although it was nearly an hour later before one was going all the way to David. The bus had come from Panama and was nearly full by the time we boarded so we sat near the back on the top on opposite sides of the aisle. We paid our fare and the conductor said he would return with change. Half an hour later he was back and what he said got a bit 'lost in translation' as we thought he said we needed to change bus in Santiago but when we thought about it, it was actually that he give us our change there which he did after the 30 minute lunch stop. Back on the Interamericana there were roadworks all the way from Santiago to David despite only small sections of the road being worked on. It took us nearly 5 hours to do 100km. It was certainly a tedious day of slow journeys. Just after 1730 we finally arrived in David to find the next local bus to Boquete was a chiva, still painted yellow from it's days as a US school bus. A few minutes later, crammed full of passengers, we headed off and chugged up the hill finally arriving in Boquete just before 1900. It was a picturesque journey through the increasingly hilly countryside with the colours of the sky changing with the onset of sunset. Our hostel, Refugio del Rio, was only a few minutes walk from the bus stop and we checked into our room, had a quick shower and headed out to Big Daddy's for a fish and chip supper for Simon and chicken tacos for Diane, washed down with a couple of beers. A good end to a long travelling day!

Waiting for our bus on the interamerican highway 

Our bus from David to Boquete