Day 18: Eenie, Meenie, Miney... Golfo de Chiquiri

I was headed out of Boquete and my friend, Leon, is headed up the mountain to see if he can make it to the tallest point in Panama. I wasn't really sure where I was gonna go, there's a few places in Panama I'm interested in going so I headed to the bus terminal in David to see what buses were headed out. I happened first upon the Horncitos mini bus and ended up sitting next to a crate full of baby chickens. My first real chicken-bus experience! It was cute because they were babies, I'm sure if they had been full-sized stinky chickens I would have not been so entertained. Local buses in Central America are called chicken-buses because, occasionally, your seat partner may be a chicken.
The Horncitos mini-bus takes you part of the way to the Golfo de Chiriqui, a rickety collectivo taxi takes you the rest of the way. I arrived on the boat dock and this giant Panamanian man comes up and offers to take me to Isla Boca Brava where the hotel is, for free with his family. I was a little trepidatious after Costa Rica at offers of help, but the taxi guy seemed to be ok with it so I went.

The guy, Alex, and his wife are a young couple who were enjoying the weekend on the boat with their even younger cousins. They were so sweet, he instantly plopped a mango in one of my hands and a beer in the other. The Golfo de Chiriqui is absolutely stunning and mostly uninhabited, really a paradise.

Once they  took me to the hotel, where his wife works, Alex offered to take me fishing and island hopping for the afternoon. The proprietor of the hotel, a woman from San Diego, said they were great people so I happily agreed to go with them. They bought some plates of food while I changed and checked into my room and insisted upon feeding me lunch. We headed down to the boat dock and Alec turned to me and said "Tu eres el capitan." (You are the captain!) So, I drove us away from the boat dock and around the island, much to the entertainment of all of the Panamanians at this gringa driving the fishing boat.

We did some fishing, some swimming at a completely deserted beach and drank quite a few beers. They even wanted to take me back to their place for dinner but I was still sick and not up to more fiestas.

I love Panama!