Dzień siódmy, tydzień w podróży 🙂
Date: Sunday, December 29, 2013
City: El Valle to Boquete, Panama
Sleep: Refugio del Rio
Poranek spedzilismy jeszcze w El Valle, aby w poludnie wyruszyc do Boquete. Postanowilismy odwiedzic wodospad o nazwie “El Chorro Macho”.
Ten spektakularny 85-metrowy wodospad posiada naturalna lagunę, która według legendy jest zaczarowana.
Aby dostac sie na ten wodospad z El Valle, trzeba isc przez okolo 30min w kierunku La Mesa. Droga do wodospadu jest bardzo dobrze oznaczona, wiec nie powinno byc problemow z dotarciem na miejsce. A jezeli ktos jest wygodny moze wziac autobus ktory kosztuje $0,35. Wodospad otwarty jest codziennie od 8am do 5pm (lub od switu do zmierzchu). Wstep kosztuje $3,60. Na terenie parku jest duzo wiszacych mostow ktore sa dodatkowa atrakcja 🙂 Szlak jest zadbany, ale lepiej ubrac wygodne buty bo moze byc slisko.
We spent the morning in El Valle and decided to see a waterfall called “El Chorro Macho”. After that we moved to another city called Boquete.
This spectacular 85m high waterfall has a natural lagoon, which according to the legends is enchanted.
If you wanna get to this waterfall, you have walk about 30min in the direction of La Mesa. The streets are very well sign posted so you should have no problem to find it. But if you’re lazy and you dont want to enjoy the weather you can just take the bus and it costs only $0,35. The waterfall is open daily 9am-5pm (or dawn to dusk) and the entrance fee is $3.60. The area has many suspension bridges which are an extra attraction 🙂 The trail is well maintained, but your shoes should be comfortable since it may get a little bit slippery.
Rainforest and one of many suspension bridges.
Waterfall and bridge.
We were a little bit late, because until 2009 it was possible to see the waterfall close-by or even take a bath in the lagoon. Now you can just see the waterfall from the distance, due to the safety reasons, I believe.
I wouldn’t be myself if I wouldn’t hurt myself 🙂 I walked into a branch in our way to the waterfall and that’s the effect – scratched forehead till the end of our trip.
W lesie jest rowniez oczko w ktorym mozna sobie poplywac. Byl wczesny ranek, wiec malo kto korzystal, poniewaz temperetura wody byla naprawde niska. Ale coz, Arkadiusz wskoczyl i stal sie atrakcja dla turystow z Azji :D.
There is a swimming hole in the forest. When we got there it was still early in the morning so nobody was swimming, and the water temperature was pretty low. But well, Arkadiusz had to jump in and quickly after that he became an attraction to Asian turists haha 🙂
Po odwiedzeniu wodospadu wybralismy sie na przystanek autobusowy i okolo godziny 11:30am wyjechalismy z El Valle. Autobus zabral nas do San Carlos, a podroz trwala 1 godzine. Wysiedlismy na skrzyzowaniu i musielismy dojsc okolo 5min do swojego przystanku. I wtedy stalo sie cos czego sie nie spodziewalismy – samo poludnie, niemilosierny upal, a my nie moglismy zlapac autobusu! Spedzilismy na przystanku 2 godziny, przejechalo jakis 8 autobusow do David, ale zaden nie chcial sie zatrzymac, poniewaz wszystkie byly pelne. Ich trasa zaczynala sie od Panama City, wszyscy wsiedli tam i zaden nie chcial zabrac nikogo po drodze! Z przewodnikiem w reku badalismy mape pod wzgledem kierunkow w jakich mozemy jechac. Wybralismy autobus ktory jechal do Citre, ale wysiedlismy w miejscowosci o nazwie Divisa (1,5 godziny jazdy). Tam zlapalismy autobus do Santiago, dojazd zajal nam kolejna godzine. W Santiago wsiedlismy w autobus do David i przesiedzielismy w nim 3 godziny. W David wsiedlismy w ostatni (!) autobus do Boquete i po godzinie w koncu bylismy na miejscu! Przejechalismy niecale 450km, cala podroz zajela nam 7,5h jazdy plus 2h czekania na autobus! W Boquete bylismy okolo godziny 10pm, bylo ciemno i nie moglismy znalezc swojego hostelu… 🙂 Ale na szczescie w koncu sie udalo.
PS. Boquete.. czekajcie na wiecej postow z tego magicznego miasta! Jest tam naprawde pieknie i mam nadzieje, ze kiedys ponownie tam zawitam!
After seeing the waterfall we went to a bus stop and left El Valle at 11:30am. The bus took us to San Carlos and the trip lasted an hour. We got off the bus on an intersection and walked about 5minutes to the next bus stop. And then something happened! Something we did not expected – noon, the sun was high, and we couldn’t catch the bus! We spent over 2hrs trying to do so, there were about 8 buses to David that passed by without stopping, because they were full. Their route started in Panama City so everybody got in there and the bus wouldn’t take anyone on its way, which was ridicilous! With the lonely planet guide book in our hands we looked for the map and checked the directions we could go. We took the bus going to Citre but get off in a city called Divisa, which took us about 1,5 hrs. Then we took a bus to Santiago, which was another 1 hour drive. In Santiago we catched the bus to David and spent 3 hours en route. Then in David we took the last bus (!) to Boquete and finally, after an 1 hour we were there! In total we travelled almost 450kms, we spent 7,5 hrs in the buses plus we tried to catch one bus for 2 hours. It was pretty late when we get to Boquete, I would say 10pm, it was really dark and we couldn’t find our hostel… 🙂 But well, after a while we did and could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
PS. Boquete.. my favourite one! Stay tuned for more posts about this beautiful city that I call my future retirement stop!
