Si in South America!: Boquete countryside :)

Living in London is awesome, but I'm a country boy at heart. My love for the countryside can be traced back to my childhood days when I lived in the small village of Launton, Oxfordshire. Myself and my best friend would spend all our free time roaming around the surrounding farms, armed with a nylon rope, looking for trees to climb. Early girlfriends were left disappointed - instead of being taken to a restaurant or the cinema, they got to visit one of our many tree houses...but I digress.

For this reason I was very excited to head to Boquete, a small town in the middle of a valley surrounded by lush green hills and coffee farms, with some hot springs thrown in for good measure.

The only slightly un-nerving thing is that it is full of wrinkly old Americans. This may have something to do with the town coming fourth in Fortune magazine's 2005 Retirement Guide (and other numerous retirement-related publications). It is important to remember that they are more scared of you, than you are of them, and as long as you don't corner them they will rarely attack. Fortunately I didn't have any problems.

First up was a hike through the countryside to see some waterfalls. Now I'm a man who likes a good waterfall, and this hike did not disappoint. The two hour loop took me past three large falls and through some lovely countryside.

The region is also one of the best places in the world to see the Resplendent Quetzal - a rare bird. Unfortunately, my 30 second google search had not given me the tools to determine whether I actually saw a Resplendent Quetzal, but I saw lots of birds...so I'm going to assume that I did see one. Another sight checked off the list. For some reason, whenever I see a stream or river I always have the urge to build a dam. Maybe I am distantly related to an otter or something. I spent 20 minutes damming a small section of the river (including time to destroy the dam and watch the water rush down), before heading back to town. A lovely day.

The next morning I was joined by Estela, who is from Panama, and she showed me around for the next couple of days. There seems to be some kind of craze in Boquete for creating large whacky gardens and opening them up to the public. We visited Mi Jardín es Tu Jardín and El Explorador, two huge gardens with everything from Dolphin murals to sewing machines with faces on them....it was an interesting but slightly surreal time.

The next day we rented quad bikes (or ATVs as everyone else seems to call them) and burned around the countryside. These were some powerful little beasts - I got mine up to 40mph at one point, before remembering that my protective clothing consisted of shorts, a t-shirt, flip flops and a broken riding helmet.

In the afternoon we visited the hot springs. It absolutely lashed it down with rain which made it even more fun (once we'd completed the 15 minute walk in the cold). There was also a resident monkey, which we had been warned about... It spends most its day trying to steal people's coats, shoes and especially food. It also doesn't like women, a trait demonstrated when it jumped into the water and tried to pull Estela's hair! The pools were nice though - they are natural-style rather than the swimming pool-style you see in much of South America.

After all the refreshment, the evening was spent at the local nightclub. I must admit, I was sceptical when I heard that the town had a nightclub - not only is the place full of old people, there are only about 10,000 people living there - but it was great fun. Mainly because a bottle of beer cost $1. I was re-acquainted with my old friend Mr. Hangover the next day.

After recovering, we rented a scooter and drove out to some of the coffee plantations surrounding the town. After reaching the top of a hill, we decided to stop for a coffee. It was a good decision because the heavens opened and it started lashing it down. The only problem was that it didn't really stop. This made the drive back rather interesting as the sideways rain limited my vision somewhat. We went past a castle, it was average.

Well, that is the end of Panama for me. This is going to be somewhat of a whistle-stop tour of Central America. Roll on Costa Rica!

In an unbelievable fit of ridiculousness I paid $9 for the cup of coffee I am pouring. Estela paid $2 for her huge iced-coffee. This is the famous Geisha coffee, which apparently scored 96/100 on the coffee index. It tasted the same as the free coffee in the hostel. I am still annoyed with myself.

At Mi Jardin es Tu Jardin.

This is El Explorador - it starts off with a re-creation of the Nativity scene made from old garden implements. Baby Jesus is a large stone. This was one of the less bizarre sections.