I once again woke up to a free pancake breakfast (good stretch of luck with hostels) and some good coffee. Talked to the Brits a bit before they headed off to Bocas. They’re essentially doing the same path I did in the opposite direction, so I gave them a few pointers and hostel recommendations.
At around 9, I left the hostel with a vague knowledge of the existence of a few hikes around town. At the north end of town, I turned at a sign for Volcan Baru, Panama’s highest point. The road rose steeply and I was treated to great views of the town and surrounding cloud forest.
After 7km (and an altitude of roughly 2500 m) the paved road gave way to a dirt path, and the houses became more scarce. At around the 10km point, the clouds started to roll in and they didn’t look friendly. So I had some lunch (I’m on a huge PB&J kick right now – cheap and awesome is a good combo) and headed back down.
The rain held off just long enough for me to get back to the hostel. Once it started though, it didn’t let up for the rest of the day. It worked out well because I was pretty exhausted anyway and the rain gave me an excuse to do nothing but sleep and read (I totally called the ending of Shutter Island about 50 pages in, by the way) for the rest of the day.