A fortnight of Spanish lessons

After what seemed like forever, what with long flights and long stopovers I arrived in Panama City feeling extremely jetlagged and very tired.  However, I was delighted to see my friend Amy once I got to the hostel and she kept me awake with chatting and planning out trip until 10pm that first night!  I was stil wide awake at 4.30am the next morning as my poor body had no idea what time it should be on!!

We headed straight to Boquete which is heading towards the Costa Rican border and in the mountains of western Panama.  Much cooler than Panama City and surrounded by cloud forest, Boquete proved an idyllic location to spends two weeks.

Views across the mountains above 
Boquete town.

A view of the town from the bridge.

We stayed with a friendly Panamanian family in the small suburb of Los Naranjos, about a 30 minute walk outside of the town. We were extremely well fed by the grandmother and enjoyed chatting and laughing with the daughter and grandson as well.

The family we stayed with in Boquete.

We attended school in the town 5 afternoons each week and were very studious, studying in the cafes in the morning as well as doing more homework at night.  I was lucky enough to end up with private lessons on the first week.  This really helped me to progress and learn a lot.  I can now read and write quite confidently the basic things, but speaking is proving infinitely more difficult.  It takes me a long time to translate what I want to say in my head and then even more time to speak it in Spanish. My aim now is to get more confident at speaking the things that I have learnt over the last two weeks.

Spending the morning studying in one 
of the many cafes.

We made use of the weekend that we had between our two weeks of study with an exhilarating trip along 12 zip lines through the tree canopy of the cloud forest.  I was initially rather terrified, but after the first one, was whizzing along at speed and addingg sound effects as I flew along!  We strolled through country lanes, alongside coffee farms and took in pretty views of the surrounding areas.  The Pipeline trail was a pretty walk and gave us the chance to see the beautiful, brightly coloured Quetzale bird.  Having a guide on the walk proved essential as otherwise we never would have spotted the birds hiding among the high branches in the thick forest.

Getting ready to whizz along the line!

Up close with a coffee bean fruit!

The beautiful Quetzal bird.

Learning some salsa moves at the school 
on Saturday morning.

It has been a really good two weeks in Boquete learning Spanish, experiencing the Panamanian hospitality and exploring the local area.  I'm now back in Panama City and our other friend Jo has just arrived so now the real travel can begin!!  We are heading out to the Caribbean Sea tomorrow to the archipelago called San Blas.