Boquete - Finding a Sweatshirt and Finding a Friend

Here I am, back in Panama.  You may wonder why since I was just in this country three weeks ago.  Well, when I entered Costa Rica this last time - the man at immigration was in a bad mood or something and only gave me a 30 day visa instead of the standard 90 days.  He wouldn't even tell me why.  He just said, "It's my decision." 

So, I guess you could say I'm exiled right now.  While I was annoyed to have to travel all this way on bus again, it is really nice to be here in a cool climate and on a different type of adventure. 

It reminds me how traveling alone can be not so lonely after all. 

This morning, I went downstairs to get the hostel's free self making pancake breakfast and said hello to a girl who had slept in the bunk above me the night before.  It turns out that she is also traveling alone and was happy to embark on a day of random wanderings with me. 

We started off just walking around town, stopping at any shop that caught our interest.  No schedule and no agenda.  It felt sooo good. 

My friend was looking for a sweatshirt because she is going to do an all night volcano hike tonight and the top is going to be near freezing.  We couldn't find a sweatshirt for sale anywhere.

We stumbled upon this parking lot full of painted rocks that had been made into really interesting sculptures.  We were about to leave when we decided to analyze how these sculptures were made (since my new friend is an archeology major).  I noticed that behind this one sculpture of a woman's butt was a sweatshirt!  I swear that the universe was giving her this gift.  It even smelled good :]  Now she won't be cold.  We laughed and laughed about this find and how perfect it seemed. 

Next, we ended up buying really cool Panamanian looking shoes for 6 dollars and finding another store where everything was only 1.50.  A 1.50 store!  haha!

We also bought some tiles from this woman's tile workshop.  They were beautiful.

Next, we grabbed some good coffee and mamones (my current favorite fruit) and headed up the freeway to a "mirador" that we weren't even sure would be at the top of this road.  It was, though... and we got to see the tiny little town of Boquete. 

We returned to town and started off on another adventure.  We didn't end up making it to our destination, though, because it started pouring.  We did meet this really interesting Panamanian woman who turned her house garden into some sort of tourist stop.  

Now, here I am... sitting on a couch in a sweatshirt and my new shoes, happily writing - which is something I have wanted to do for some time now.  I have soooooooo many stories to catch up on.  Stay tuned.

Oh, and I still need to explain how this border crossing was different, but almost as ridiculous as last time.