As the crow flies…

Living in Costa Rica as “tourists” we have become accustomed to a “3-month ritual.” Every 90 days we are required to leave the country and remain out of the country for a minimum of 3 days. Upon re-entering, our passports are stamped and we’re good for another 90-days. We look at this as a great excuse to explore Panama! This time around we decided to head to the mountainous town of Boquete. Shielded from the rain by our Dollar Store ponchos, with backpacks in tow, we left the house at 6:15 AM and hiked down our dirt road to catch an early morning bus to the border town of Sixaola. There we “stamped out” of Costa Rica, walked across the old railroad bridge (see photo) and “stamped in” to Panama. The journey had begun. We took a 15-minute taxi to Changuinola -- with 90,000 inhabitants it’s the biggest commercial center of the Bocas del Toro Province. From there we hopped aboard a mini bus to David, the capital of Panama’s Chiriqui Province on the Pacific side of the country. It was now close to 10 AM. The scenic bus ride to David takes about 4-1/2 hours. From David we boarded a converted school bus to take us the last 30 or so minutes up to Boquete. By land our trip took about 10 hours. As the crow flies we were less than 100 miles from our starting point. Oh to be a crow!