Author Archives: blevine32
Such an easy change to make in life…but it takes a lot of practice.
Too many need power and authority to give meaning to their work.
Backpacking Boquete, Panama Travel Guide – Average Daily Cost – $18 Per Day
Backpacking Boquete, Panama Travel Guide
Boquete, Panama : How to get there and what to do:
Boquete, Panama proved to be the perfect change of pace from the hot sun of Costa Rica.
Boquete is located in the hills of Northwest Panama, and it’s a great spot for all types of travelers. While this mountain town is a hub for backpackers traveling through Panama, tourists and retirees have also found Boquete to be an ideal place to relax and take in some nature. We loved our five day stay here and look forward to coming back.
The heart of this small city is a few streets offering shops, tour centers, markets and restaurants. There is a beautiful bridge that crosses over the Caldera River – a great place to spend a day reading and relaxing.
How to get to Boquete, Panama :
From Costa Rica: After six hours of traveling we arrived in Boquete, Panama. We started in the Osa Peninsula in Puerto Jiminez, Costa Rica. We took a ferry across the Golfito Bay to a town called Golfito, Costa Rica. From Golfito we jumped on a local bus headed to “Canoas” or Paso Canoas, Costa Rica, the west coast border town between Costa Rica and Panama.
We then had to go through the somewhat challenging process of immigration. Panama expects you to have an outbound departure ticket when you come into their country. We think it’s a bit of a scam; they either make you buy a bus ticket back to San Jose, Costa Rica ($14) or a plane ticket back to your home country. At an internet café in Canoas we decided to buy a flight back to the US – ten minutes after we got our stamp we canceled the reservation.
We crossed the border into Panama, a country that looks like a “sister country” of the United States. The highways are new and beautiful. The buses or “collectivos” are jitney-style and offer air conditioning. It’s a pleasant change from some of the more rural aspects of traveling through Costa Rica.
We jumped on a bus from the border to David, Panama, a transportation hub located in the northwest of Panama. After about five minutes at the station, we boarded a bus for a 1 hour ride to Boquete.
If you are coming from San Jose, Costa Rica, there is a morning bus from the Tracopa terminal that leaves at 7:30AM ($15-20). This bus takes about 9 hours to get to David.
If you are coming from Panama City, Panama, there are daily flights to David which are about $100 each way. There are also both day and night buses from the Albrook Terminal. Look to spend between $15 and $20 on the bus from PC.
Many backpackers come from Bocas Del Toro, Panama. There are shuttles that run direct between Bocas Del Toro and Boquete ($29). We suggest you bus to David and take a bus from David to Bocas ($10). This route adds an extra hour or two to your travel time, but is an easy opportunity to save money.
Where to stay in Boquete, Panama:
The Gaia Hostel. We had an amazing experience at this top rated hostel ($13). Its clean, comfortable, and spacious. Amenities include free wi-fi and inexpensive laundry service — but not much in terms of tours and activities. If you’re looking for help arranging tours or excursions, take a walk to Hostel Mamallena, located in the Central Park square.
Word from the wise: always bring ear plugs and a sleeping mask to any hostel!
Top 5 Things to do in Boquete, Panama:
1) Hike Volcan Baru.
Kate wrote a great guide about our experience trekking Volcan Baru. Check it out in the above link.
2) Visit The Lost Waterfalls
This fantastic hike through a cloud forest that will bring you to three gorgeous waterfalls. It takes 1-3 hours to complete the trek depending on your level of fitness. On the way to the falls it is very common to see monkeys, sloths, and fascinating birds including quetzals.
3) Boquete Coffee Tour
Many people head to the fincas of Dos Jefes, Kotowa or Café Ruiz. All of these are beautiful coffee plantations with plenty to see. You will learn a lot during one of these sessions. The process of how your favorite brewer selects the coffee they serve may or may not scare you into switching to tea. We were impressed with the level of English at Dos Jefes. If you are on a short trip, this is not to be missed in Boquete.
4) Cliff jumping and climbing at the Mini Canyon
A lot of backpackers love this day trip provided by Hostal Mamallena. Boquete features some incredible rock formations that are great for climbing and cliff jumping into the water. Bring sunscreen as the sun is very powerful in this area.
5) Visit the Hot Springs
There are four or more pools at the Caldera Hot Springs and they are all-natural!! Skip the tour guide on this one and take a taxi — be sure to also arrange for a ride home. Entrance to the hot springs costs $5. Tip: Go in the early morning or in the late afternoon as the water gets very hot during midday.
Average Daily Cost of Travel in Boquete, Panama – $18-$23 Per Day
Hostel: $11 USD
Food: $5-$10 USD
Transportation: $2 USD
Traveling to Panama or Boquete, Panama for the first time? Post a question in the comments section below, we’ll respond with advice!
Things that are of value are usually out of the ordinary. Same with ideas.
Interesting New Technology: Spritz Speed Reading
Elite Daily said it well when they said, “The reading game is about to change forever.”
First try using Spritz at a speed that the average American reads, 250 Words Per Minute:
Now, what exactly is Spritz?
Spritzing is reading text with Spritz Inc.’s patent-pending technology. When you’re spritzing, you’re reading text one word at a time in our “redicle,” a special visual frame we designed for reading.
Why does Spritzing work so efficiently?
What Spritz does differently (and brilliantly) is manipulate the format of the words to more appropriately line them up with the eye’s natural motion of reading.
The “Optimal Recognition Point” (ORP) is slightly left of the center of each word, and is the precise point at which our brain deciphers each jumble of letters.
The unique aspect of Spritz is that it identifies the ORP of each word, makes that letter red and presents all of the ORPs at the same space on the screen.
In this way, our eyes don’t move at all as we see the words, and we can therefore process information instantaneously rather than spend time decoding each word.
Try it again, this time Spritzing at an average of 350 words per minute.
I’m not too sure how many people would use the 500 words per minute feature, but if you are studying for a class you don’t really like…..
The most important question: When can we actually use Spritz? This is the company’s answer on their website:
So far we have received interest in licensing our technologies from content providers, mobile device manufacturers, educational software developers, web portals, wearable manufacturers, e-book companies, and several others. We are actively working with these companies to bring Spritz to you. If you are interested in helping us bring Spritz to your website, mobile app or anything else, please visit us in the Developers section and sign up for more information.
Looking forward to testing out this technology with a real book soon. Let us know if you have done any reading with this technology and if you like it!
Global Possibilities sums up this new Elon Musk Interview well:
“As Musk says in the interview, when he was in college he came to the conclusion that a few things would have a huge impact on humanity: the development of the internet (giving our civilization a kind of nervous system, so that any part of the system can know everything that is happening anywhere else and communicate with any other part), clean energy (both production and ways to use it — if you have clean electricity but transportation still uses oil, that doesn’t work), and making life multi-planetary. He got involved in all those areas, sometimes simultaneously and while putting all his personal money into his projects, rather than develop another social network or a better way to deliver ads next to search results or whatever, which is what a lot of other really smart people are doing these days.”