A day of hiking

Sunday morning, after breakfast, found a bus that would take us to a place called “Bajo Mono” where we were about to embark in a 3 hour hike to a waterfall. The truth is that it may not usually take 3 hours, but less and that it may not have taken us 3 hours, but more. We must go at the weakest link speed…hehe. Trini! Hurry up! The trails are called “Los Senderos del Quetzal” We didn’t see the quetzal, but what a fun and beautiful walk! The first point of interest was the housing of the local Indians “Gnobe-Bugle”, with their colorful dresses hanging on the clothes lines. Then were the obstacles; logs acting as bridges to cross the river, bridges barely wider than a foot with only one side barrier, mud, cliffs and rocks, There was also nature; the green, the bugs, the flowers, the hanging vanes and there was THE WATERFALL! What a pay off to the effort and the patience of the kids. Putting up with the “we are almost there” “we are almost there” when we were still not there requires patience. There was one point when Trini said to me “Mom, we should go back, this is not the day to do this” “I think we have seen enough; we have seen bugs, flowers, water, mud.. we have seen it all!” My response was always “we are still missing the best part” Anyway, talking, singing, complaining, crying, looking at bugs, taking pictures, playing follow me the leader games and eating cookies and chocolate, WE MADE IT! Just to add a little bit more excitement to our expedition, it started to rain, rain hard. Matt took his pocket knife out and cut three perfect umbrellas. Samantha was in heaven using big leaves as umbrellas were a big innovation; she is all up for that! Trini didn’t last long with hers before getting tired of it so she and I shared the real, Chinese umbrellas I carried in my backpack. We were now back, at the starting point, and the bus is there just in time to take us back to Boquete.

I realized our adventure was not over when the bus at full capacity (12 including the driver) stops to pick more passengers and more and more. We ended up being 25!. Matt, the girls and I are cramped all the way in the back with another man. Not as bad as the man sitting in between the two overweight ladies and their packages We manage to end the ride all the way back to town in the bus with very little air and with a very small desire to breathe. I was so proud of my family!