Jill and Gary picked us up at ten o’clock on the dot. They are very prompt. They have a car rented for a month while they are living in David and are happy to pick us up and go with us to places they have seen before. They said we must absolutely positively do the hike to see three separate waterfalls on the Lost Waterfalls Hike.
As Gary parked the car roadside, Stan and I looked up with a bit of awe at the immense hillside in front of us. Were we planning to hike that steep green hill? Oh yes!
Now note, Jill and Gary are 10 years younger and have hiked the Camino in Spain and hiked up Kilimanjaro. Next October for Jill’s 60th birthday they plan to do the Everest base camp. — Stan and I are strong for early 70’s folk, but we are definitely out of our league here with Jill and Gary. Funny though, they don’t seem to know that!.
The trail is rated “moderate” on the All Trails app but I’m calling BS. That thing was hard, straight-up in mud and with roots and rocks. We have never done anything so hard in all our lives. When I say straight up I mean vertical. We pulled ourselves going up selecting foot holds and vines to hold on to for a bit of stability. At one section a ragged rope is tied to primitive post or a tree. I was just glad to have something to hold on to as we climbed straight up on a muddy, stony, root-lined path. Forget poison ivy, a sturdy vine or a root as a hand-hold was a welcome sight. We slipped and we stretched our legs to step up onto tall steps or down long steps to only then have to tight-rope walk across a small limb to avoid great vats of mud.
There are three water falls on this hike. Each is purely spectacular and frigid. Gorgeous, fast-moving water falls over the cliff pouring downward and bouncing on huge boulders below. The water pours over the cliff so hard that a veil of mist clouds the area. Once we reached this point we did not care that the mist soaked our clothing. Not one bit! We earned the wetness! We worked for this! We wondered, though, where does all this water come from??
Local advice to tourists says . . . as you do the Lost Waterfalls Hike, by-pass the number one falls and save it for last. We did that. Good advice. Solid advice. The first falls on the hike is so spectacular one might be disappointed to see the second and third falls later on.
Today’s hike was hard. I mean hard. It tested our legs, our knees and our lungs. When we stopped to take a breath or a drink of water the views were incredible –like none anywhere else.
Once it was all done, we all agreed it was worth it. Just a bit of info though, had Stan and I ventured this hike by ourselves, we would have stopped at waterfalls Number 1 and thought that is enough, this trail is too wet and too dangerous. We would have headed back down again still felt pretty good about ourselves. But we did it today. Todas! Thanks to Jill and Gary, their confidence is us and their encouragement tonight we are comic book super stars!!
According to our Apple watches we racked up 83 flights of stairs and 3.83 miles, all straight up and then again, straight down in mud.
Jill & Gary’s Castle Hostel in Boquete 
I am so impressed and jealous! You guys are so awesome!
🙂 !!