Sendero de los Quetzales - Cerro Punta to Boquete

Rodrigo and I hiked Sendero de los Quetzales the first day we were in Cerro Punta. It was raining a cold, but still a very nice hike. The hike started in Cerro Punta and ended in Boquete. Due to the lack of a road between those to spots, its either a 6 hour hike or a three hour drive. That made logistics a bit complicated, but it all worked out. Enjoy the pretty pictures :)

I got to the rangers station, checked in, and asked for a map. They proceeded to show me this. Doesn't show elevation, doesn't have grid lines, doesn't do much of anything actually.

So, we were about 30 minutes into our hike and I heard something big move. I timidly look around the corner and see these guys looking at me. We weren't on the trail yet, but the hike started with an one hour walk up the side of a mountain along a road only passable by an ATV.

Our trail was comparable to a slow running stream.

MUD!!!! Love my boots though :)

Lunch Anyone?

Landslide that had occurred recently. Saw it in the middle of the hike, but heard about it in the beginning. It knocked out a road further down the mountain and made it a little complicated to get to the trail head.

Everything in the jungle here will either bite you, sting you, or prick you. I had to get used to that. I had never seen thorns on the bottom of a leaf before. I fell a few times (have I mentioned that there was lots of mud?). The first time I tried to grab onto a tree and ended up with a few thorns in my hand. The times after that, I just went with it.

More poky things.

In a taxi in Boquete!!! Made it out alive :-) We had a really nice taxi driver pick us up at the ranger station. He made a few stops on the way back to Cerro Punta to show us some stuff. The rest of the pics are from the trip back after the hike.