We were dropped off on the side of the road where there was a small sign indicating Lost and Found was up the large hill. We walked and walked and walked straight up and just when we thought we were there we came to a sign with two chairs that said, take a rest you are about half way. We kept going and finally made it to the only cloud forest in Panama. Lost and Found had great views of the nearby volcano and great hiking trails. The hostel is owned by two Canadians and is run mostly by volunteers. It felt very homey. We eat breakfast and decided to try out their scavenger hunt, which supposedly would take 5 hours on the trails and would win us a bottle of rum if we completed it. The first task was a labyrinth made of very large plants. We couldn’t believe it but it was a huge labyrinth and it took us close to 25 minutes to complete. We then hiked up the rest of the hill, which was very, muddy, quiet far and really slippery in our sandals. Just for fun we took a detour and went to the very top to the Mirador or Look out. From there we were able to see the Pacific Ocean is was definitely worth the extra effort. We then had to find the bearded tree, which was more difficult to find than we thought and the decent down the other side of the hill in the mud was a slippery mess. We finally found the bearded tree headed to the river and small rapids and decided we should head back as we didn’t want to get caught in the dark trying to get up and down the muddy trails. We got back to the hostel tired and muddy. Not too tired to participate in some drinks and a foosball tournament, which we both lost.
The next day was Christmas Eve, we both were fairly down and decided to head to the closest town about 30 minutes by bus to get internet access to Skype our family. We hiked down the hill to the road again in the slippery muddy mess and waited on the highway for the next bus to drive by. In town we ended up at an internet cafe with a dozen 10 year old boys playing computer games and listening to the loudest 90’s dance music ever. The Skype on their computers didn’t work and so while the owner was out we hooked up our own computer and were able to make a few short calls home. The owner came back and so we disconnected our computer and called it a day, but not before picking up Christmas cookies at the local bakery for everyone back at the hostel. It was so strange to see all the houses and trees decorated for Christmas with green grass and palm trees. We headed back to the hostel for Christmas dinner. The volunteers had made two ducks, a potato type recipe with a local root vegetable “yucca”, and salad. After supper we were all gathered in the common area for Christmas games and drinks. The games got crazy that is all I can say! It was so much fun! We found out that one of the volunteers – Jane, a Scottish woman recognized us from Peru. She also was able to take a leave of absence and travel for 6 months.
The next day was Christmas Day and 10 or more of us decided to participate in a tour to a local farmer “Kune” organic fruit and coffee farm. He served us fresh fruit for breakfast, and some of his organic coffee. We then toured his farm, where he had various herbs, orange trees, papaya trees, mango trees, banana trees, sugar cane, yucca, chickens and roosters. He showed us how the remove the red shell of the coffee bean, how they then roast it. Then we saw how he gets the sugar juice from the cane and we all drank fresh lemonade mixed with the liquid cane sugar. Next he told us the story of how he became an organic farmer and how he became involved with tours and then making fruit wine. We also had a history lesson on the origins of coffee. Since it was Christmas he opened one of his older bottles of fruit wine “blackberry” 9 months. It was delicious! We all had lunch and then were on our way back to the hostel for Christmas dinner, but not before getting a chance to buy some of Kune’s coffee, which has been rated as a 81% out of 100% for taste by the professionals. We were all starting to feel like a family, a couple from Cincinnati – Angela and Andrew, Till a German, Bard a Norwegian-and fellow game boarder, Nico one of the volunteers, Kim a British man cycling Central and south America, Jane the Scot, and Bob a fellow Canadian from Ottawa. Christmas dinner with these friends was wonderful. That night we played silly drinking games with a British couple, James and Emma from Ireland and Vlad a young guy from Sweden. It was an early night as the next day we were off to the hot springs with Bob, Vlad, Vlad’s girlfriend Suzanna and Sharon from Israel. That morning we said our goodbyes to all people and staff at the hostel. The hot springs were refreshing considering all the rain that we had the four days we were at Lost and Found. There was even a devious resident monkey which took off with Bob’s shoe causing Vlad to run after the monkey, which he did eventually drop. We were then dropped off at a nearby hostel in a famous North American retirement city of Boquette. It was raining hard there and was so windy. We headed to the grocery store and found Yah peanut butter, which we had not been able to find since leaving Canada. Back at the hostel it sounded like a hurricane and the power went out a few times. We had plans to head to the Caribbean coast to Boca Del Tora the next day but everyone coming from there had said that it has been down pouring there for over a week now. We decided that we had had enough rain and would be heading to an island on the Pacific coast “Boca Brava”, where people had been raving about the beautiful weather. The next day on the way to Boca Brava Scott had mentioned that there was a disc golf course along the way at the “Waterfall Hostel”. I said that’s funny the volunteers at Lost and Found had said the owners were looking into buying that hostel as it had not been open for about a year and was for sale. On the bus we spoke to an expat Brit who knew the area and through some confusion realized where our bus was stopped for a tree clearing due to the crazy weather the previous day was literally right in front of the Waterfall Hostel. We yelled at the bus driver to stop got our bags and walked over to the hostel grounds. The grounds keeper was there and he explained that yes there used to be a disc golf course there but that it had been closed for a year and that yes the owners of Lost and Found were looking at buying it. He said the bar was open there though and that the waterfall and pond there was public if we wanted to go for a swim. We bought some beer and had a beer with the groundskeeper as it was so hot out. We then went over to the waterfall where we stood under the falls, swam and jumped off the falls into the pond. It was a pretty amazing two hour break from the bus trip. We thanked the grounds keeper and stood on the highway to pick up the next but. We were back on the road to Boca Brava.
The next day was Christmas Eve, we both were fairly down and decided to head to the closest town about 30 minutes by bus to get internet access to Skype our family. We hiked down the hill to the road again in the slippery muddy mess and waited on the highway for the next bus to drive by. In town we ended up at an internet cafe with a dozen 10 year old boys playing computer games and listening to the loudest 90’s dance music ever. The Skype on their computers didn’t work and so while the owner was out we hooked up our own computer and were able to make a few short calls home. The owner came back and so we disconnected our computer and called it a day, but not before picking up Christmas cookies at the local bakery for everyone back at the hostel. It was so strange to see all the houses and trees decorated for Christmas with green grass and palm trees. We headed back to the hostel for Christmas dinner. The volunteers had made two ducks, a potato type recipe with a local root vegetable “yucca”, and salad. After supper we were all gathered in the common area for Christmas games and drinks. The games got crazy that is all I can say! It was so much fun! We found out that one of the volunteers – Jane, a Scottish woman recognized us from Peru. She also was able to take a leave of absence and travel for 6 months.
The next day was Christmas Day and 10 or more of us decided to participate in a tour to a local farmer “Kune” organic fruit and coffee farm. He served us fresh fruit for breakfast, and some of his organic coffee. We then toured his farm, where he had various herbs, orange trees, papaya trees, mango trees, banana trees, sugar cane, yucca, chickens and roosters. He showed us how the remove the red shell of the coffee bean, how they then roast it. Then we saw how he gets the sugar juice from the cane and we all drank fresh lemonade mixed with the liquid cane sugar. Next he told us the story of how he became an organic farmer and how he became involved with tours and then making fruit wine. We also had a history lesson on the origins of coffee. Since it was Christmas he opened one of his older bottles of fruit wine “blackberry” 9 months. It was delicious! We all had lunch and then were on our way back to the hostel for Christmas dinner, but not before getting a chance to buy some of Kune’s coffee, which has been rated as a 81% out of 100% for taste by the professionals. We were all starting to feel like a family, a couple from Cincinnati – Angela and Andrew, Till a German, Bard a Norwegian-and fellow game boarder, Nico one of the volunteers, Kim a British man cycling Central and south America, Jane the Scot, and Bob a fellow Canadian from Ottawa. Christmas dinner with these friends was wonderful. That night we played silly drinking games with a British couple, James and Emma from Ireland and Vlad a young guy from Sweden. It was an early night as the next day we were off to the hot springs with Bob, Vlad, Vlad’s girlfriend Suzanna and Sharon from Israel. That morning we said our goodbyes to all people and staff at the hostel. The hot springs were refreshing considering all the rain that we had the four days we were at Lost and Found. There was even a devious resident monkey which took off with Bob’s shoe causing Vlad to run after the monkey, which he did eventually drop. We were then dropped off at a nearby hostel in a famous North American retirement city of Boquette. It was raining hard there and was so windy. We headed to the grocery store and found Yah peanut butter, which we had not been able to find since leaving Canada. Back at the hostel it sounded like a hurricane and the power went out a few times. We had plans to head to the Caribbean coast to Boca Del Tora the next day but everyone coming from there had said that it has been down pouring there for over a week now. We decided that we had had enough rain and would be heading to an island on the Pacific coast “Boca Brava”, where people had been raving about the beautiful weather. The next day on the way to Boca Brava Scott had mentioned that there was a disc golf course along the way at the “Waterfall Hostel”. I said that’s funny the volunteers at Lost and Found had said the owners were looking into buying that hostel as it had not been open for about a year and was for sale. On the bus we spoke to an expat Brit who knew the area and through some confusion realized where our bus was stopped for a tree clearing due to the crazy weather the previous day was literally right in front of the Waterfall Hostel. We yelled at the bus driver to stop got our bags and walked over to the hostel grounds. The grounds keeper was there and he explained that yes there used to be a disc golf course there but that it had been closed for a year and that yes the owners of Lost and Found were looking at buying it. He said the bar was open there though and that the waterfall and pond there was public if we wanted to go for a swim. We bought some beer and had a beer with the groundskeeper as it was so hot out. We then went over to the waterfall where we stood under the falls, swam and jumped off the falls into the pond. It was a pretty amazing two hour break from the bus trip. We thanked the grounds keeper and stood on the highway to pick up the next but. We were back on the road to Boca Brava.
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