Volcán Barú

Boquete, Panama

Between the Bocas islands and the Lost and Found hostel I had been drinking a lot, so in Boquete I decided to take it easy. Which for me means less sitting around drinking beers and more hiking to exhaustion.

Boquete is a beautiful Panamanian city with a temperate climate and a bunch of American retirees. On Tuesdays there's an outdoor market that the locals refer to as the "gringo market." The vendors aren't all gringos, but there are quite a lot of white people selling organic things.

I did several hikes in Boquete, but the only really noteworthy one was Volcán Barú. The summit of Volcán Barú is famous for being the only place in the world where you can see the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at the same time. That's if the sky is clear, which it never really is.

I had been binge-watching Sense8 with a British guy at my hostel, and I left mid-episode around 11pm to catch a shuttle. I brought a walking stick I had scavenged earlier from a kooky garden nearby. Also 4 liters of water, a couple Snickers bars, a few layers of clothing, and a temperamental flashlight.

Our shuttle arrived at the base of the volcano 15 minutes shy of midnight. Besides me there were 4 European guys who lost me within the first kilometer of hiking. On simple tourist hikes I'm always the fastest. On difficult mountain hikes I'm always the slowest. But I'd rather challenge myself and look bad doing it then walk laps around a lake.

The hike started at 2100m (600m higher than "mile high" Denver) and would climb to 3500m over 14 kilometers. The goal was to reach the summit before sunrise at 6am. For me this was a struggle.

But I loved the solitude of hiking up a mountain by myself in the middle of the night. It felt like cheating. If you play life by the rules there are certain places you're supposed to be at certain times. Alone on the side of a mountain in Panama at 4am felt like coloring outside of the lines. And the views of the city lit up at night were awesome.

The last kilometer wrecked me. I think I rested more than I walked, and it took me close to an hour. But I still reached the summit 10 minutes before sunrise. Which turned out to be perfect timing, because atop a 3500m volcano it's pretty damn cold and windy.

The summit and sunrise were both underwhelming. I had read in The Lost and Found book that sunrise atop Volcán Barú was a religious experience. For me it was - kind of cool.

It was cloudy but you could still see cities and some distant blue that was maybe an ocean and maybe the Caribbean. You get a good look at the rising sun from that height. The sun is, you know, bright and round.

For me the view at the top is like the cherry on top of the ice cream soda. It's nice, but you don't buy an ice cream soda for the cherry. Likewise, hiking for me is all about the hiking. Lovely lookouts are just a bonus.

The hike back down was easier but physical and mental fatigue made it interesting. On more than one occasion I spotted a sasquatch that turned out to be a tree or a fencepost.

I'm not really sure how you are supposed to get back to Boquete from the volcano. When I reached the bottom I saw no taxis or buses. But I did find a nice Canadian woman who was dropping her boyfriend off at the volcano. I hitched a ride back with her and was asleep in my bed just shy of noon.