Only just the one...

Hello, goats!

If you come to Panama, and you have any time at all this is where you go. Go to Boquete. It's not easy to get there, it's a six hour drive on paper that is more like eight hours because of rainy, winding two-lane roads with no passing zones, and a notorious lack of signage in David (dah-VEED) to let you know where the road to Boquete begins.

However, despite the trouble, this was the highlight of my trip to Panama so far. I mean, look at this place.

Just look at it.

I discovered this coffee plantation called Finca Lérida on the internet before coming to Panama, and it's really the only thing I didn't want to miss while I was here.

Why Finca Lerida? Coffee? Meh. But it has acres and acres of protected cloud forest that you can just hike around in. The lodge is totally silent except for the sounds of birds and frogs. You can see a million, millllllllion stars at night because you're on top of a mountain with no light pollution as far as the eye can see. It's funny--no matter how far I go from home, it's like I'm always basically just trying to get back there. *sigh*

Anyway, there are no toucanets in Colorado. Miniature toucans, I beg of you.

Immediately surrounding the grounds of the Old House and Ecolodge, where guests sleep, are all of the coffee bushes. Coffee beans grow as red "cherries" on bushes before they're picked and processed. I would tell you more about that, but we didn't have time to go on a coffee tour AND go to the trail Tim wanted to see, and it's not fair to torture someone who doesn't like coffee after they just drove you 8 hours to a bed and breakfast.
We went hiking in two places: the trails around the finca, which "look like Avatar" according to one of the Finca employees who gave us a map. (See how manly Tim is? Actually, I think this picture is a little too convincing: that machete was stuck in the tree like that when we got there.)

And, the trail to Volcan, which I wanted to follow so we could tell everyone we went where Spock was born, and Tim said I was stupid, and then asked, "was that really the name of Spock's planet?" (and I'm the stupid one) but we went there anyway. Also, Spock's planet is Vulcan, but we won't be too picky.

The trail to Volcan is sort of exactly what it sounds like. It's a road that leads to a volcano. And it's supposed to have some of the most quetzals anywhere in the country. We didn't see a single quetzal, alas (no-I really wanted to see one of those stupid birds. I really did.), but we did we this awesome bull, and simply some of the most amazing scenery I've ever seen in my life. I don't want to bla-bla-bla-blog about scenery, but if you've never been in a cloud forest at 6500 feet, it's enough to make you want to cry.
Something else that is equally apt to bring one to tears? Popping, not just running over a nail or something, but POPPING a tire on the rental car at 6500 feet, when you have to have the car back in 6 hours and you didn't buy tire insurance. That stupid bit of concrete at the top of the mountain cost us an extra $110.
The lesson here is: always buy tire insurance. That's one hell of a hole.

I begged and begged Tim to stay and extra day and to tell his office that when the tire popped, a hoard of angry mosquitoes swarmed out and gave him malaria and there was no way we could go back on Sunday, but apparently he has integrity and we're on a budget, so he said "no." Beautiful places turn me into a horrible person and I would do almost anything to stay in them. But no, I wasn't the one who popped the tire. If I had had about two more cups of that coffee though, I might have. It was amazing stuff.