2) Boquete and the Vulcan Baru challenge

The night bus from Panama City to David was freezing and the next bus from David to Boquete was pretty small... we arranged a stay at the Mamallena Hostel in Boquete from our Mamallena Hostel in Panama City. This time we were much luckier. In Boquete the Mamallena Hostel is probably the best place to stay... great location, great staff and good rooms! The first day we simply wandered around the small city. When we went to the super market to get some food for dinner, we were surprised to see our first real "drive in"... an old lady drove her car right into the fruit and vegetable section of the supermarket :P
Later we subscribed to climb the Volcan Baru at night and thus went to sleep early. The hostel equipped us with torches and gave me a warm jacket. Just after midnight (19.11.) we were driven to the entrance of the national park. The road is easy to follow as even some special cars use it, still the climb was tough. 14km in length and over 1.6km in height. It took us about 5.5h to get up to the summit at 3.475m. After we crossed the 2.800m mark we started to feel a headache from the height - we slowed down, drank more and the troubles were settled 150m of height later. We started with about 20°C and ended close to 0°C at the summit. All in all it was gorgeous! There were hardly clouds and we saw many cities from above. Later, when the sun started to rise we could see the Pacific ocean and below us some clouds. The wind was blazing and from time to time a cloud went over the summit. Just when we were about to see the sun, we could also get a peak of the Caribbean sea. As it was freezing we turned and started our way back... somehow we calculated a little wrong and went out of food and later water. However, the real trouble was going all that way back down with loose rocks under your feet... that was a nightmare after the tough but nice hike upwards and the rewarding views... back down we fell into our bed and slept till late afternoon. We cooked dinner and fall to bed again as we were to drive towards Bocas del Torro the next morning^^

"drive in" in the supermarket

No idea how she managed to go across the barriers :/

Clouds towards the Pacific

Mountains and clouds beneath us towards Columbia

I simply couldn't resist^^