Yesterday was a write off for this trip. It rained continuously for literally whole day (24h)! This place is actually the origin of the weather system that caused the record-breaking snowstorm that hit US two days ago. I have never experienced non-stop downpour like this: over 100mm rain was recorded by the evening! It was also windy too with very strong gusts.
It might as well since we couldn't do any activities anyway. Eric's diarrhea was getting worse. He finished only half of his breakfast and threw up shortly. I went to buy some bread, Gatorade, bottled water, and Imodium for him at the supermarket. He rested whole day in the room and I stayed with him. We didn't go out to eat so to give his stomach a rest. Towards the evening, it seemed his body had improved slightly.
This morning, he felt a lot better and we decided to do some activities since the rain was forecasted to slow down today. We first drove to the river gorge at Los Cangilones de Gualaca. The river has cut through the rock to form a mini canyon. The recent rain had swollen the river so much that we couldn't see the bottom of the canyon.
We then drove to Caldera to visit the hot spring. Followed the route guide, we parked our car at the first bridge. As soon as we walked to the second bridge, a local dude appeared from nowhere and started to follow us! The interesting thing is we didn't see anybody on our drive in. He couldn't speak English and we don't speak Spanish. He started walking with us together to the hot spring. We paid the $4 entrance fee and found two hot pools. This guy went in one pool and gestured me to join him. I stayed a bit and went down to the river to cool down. When I came up, he's trying to ask us when we're leaving (I figured that what he was asking). He then gestured he would like to come with us (?) Not knowing exactly what he meant, we ignored him and went to the second (and more beautiful) pool. Eric didn't want to join me to dip in the river nor the hot spring due to his condition.
As we're leaving, this guy started to shadow us to our car and just stood there watching us. Eric and I looked at each other and started to drive away as fast as we could. It's so creepy. Thinking back, what did he want from us? The only answer that made sense is that he had been waiting for tourists at the gate. Upon seeing us, he popped out and tried to peddle his guiding service and followed us in.
After taking Eric back to hostel (his tummy still felt tender), I drove to Vulcan & Cerro Punta on the other side of the volcano to check them out. Disappointed to find all the strawberry fruit stands empty and shut! Must be out of season.
We met one more fellow hostel friend from Santa Fe: Steve. He arrived today at the same hostel we were staying. Pretty jealous of others' fantastic snorkeling experience at Isla Coiba. Everyone was depressed by this non-stop rain. Someone related the news that 15 stranded hikers were rescued from the top of Baru Volcano today. What were they doing up top in this weather?
Your version of the Boquete is so different than I have have envisioned and heard about. It looks pretty rustic and basic. Safe drive back to the city tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteOk. None of the pictures I showed you are taken in Boquete (other than the one said "Boquete" in it and the one from our window looking at the backyard). One is the hot spring in Caldera about 30 mins driving SE. The rock canyon is at Gualaka about 20 min drive SE further from Caldera.
ReplyDeleteBoquete is quite rural looking too outside the main street. Most side roads are even paved. Imagine Whistler.