Brent was raised a mountain boy in the Rockies, and I had the Black Hills in my backyard, so as much as we love the beach, it's a great treat for us to be in the mountains. We enjoyed the cool, misty weather; I put jeans on for the first time since we landed at PTY.
We ate a lot of good food and especially are in love with a little bakery called Sugar and Spice. Their breakfast was fantastic, and we bought a loaf of raisin walnut bread to take home. The coffee was fantastic, as well, but that's pretty much to be expected in Boquete, which is serious coffee country.
Our highlight and lowlight was the same thing: Volcán Barú. We left early in the morning and saw a lot of people gathered at the trailhead. We're both fairly experienced hikers, and we work out regularly, so we found ourselves more concerned about how some of them were going to make it to the top -- and not in the least concerned about ourselves. But, we should have been.
As it turned out, those folks had no trouble getting up there, because a lot of them (and all of their luggage) were passengers in the Jeeps that passed us by. As for ourselves, Brent's knee started hurting -- an aftershock of an old injury -- and we were forced to turn back around kilometer 9.
I'm slow to admit athletic weakness, but I can't say I was all that disappointed. I mean, it would have been amazing to see the top, for bragging rights if nothing else, but that climb is no joke. I was pretty worn out, and not looking forward to the fact that we had to go back down. It's about 13 kilometers to the top, quite steep at times. I was on my toes for much of the trip, a fact my calves were still reminding me of four days later. That same steepness is even more brutal on the way down.
Even though we came up short, we had a good time, Brent's knee recovered, and we were rewarded with some beautiful views from the trail.
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