THE HIGHEST POINT IN PANAMA [Vanlife Panama w/ Snow and Curt]

75 wow that’s a pretty cheap lunch yeah the tortilla is kind of pricey for one tortilla but it’s kind of a specialty thing i’m not really a morning person but this is a morning place because you’re in a cloud most of the day but here early super clear and just beautiful beautiful i’d let the cat and the dog out around us is pretty much just farms this is the ranger station ranger was super nice said you can use the bathrooms here fill your water if you want cell reception you said go through the fence over here and go by the tank i might check that out just for the fun of it but there’s barbed wire on the bottom and above not something for the animals this kid saw trail is closed and we can hunker down here emily’s working on some videos and i’m trying to work on photo investigator app of mine because in the new version that apple’s announced they’re basically putting all the features people pay me for free into ios not the first time apple has done this to me they call it sherlocking because there used to be a really popular plugin for mac os that would it’s called sherlock and you could search through your stuff which is now just a part of the operating system that’s been a little stressful gotta not be stressed too much out here got all these pretty places to explore good morning danny got us some info about climbing barú the tallest point in panama we can hike on this side of the mountain by ourselves but we won’t be able to leave until after 5am because of covid-19.

this way is free at least but we’ll be hiking up a four-wheel drive road normally we would be okay with missing the sunrise but in this area it gets cloudy this hike would also be 16 miles round trip which is a little much for us in one day but we figured out option number one i had a great morning chatting it up with the park ranger here they call him guarda parque it’s more like a guard than a ranger because he was saying how he’s seen on tv our rangers get guns and cars he had a little envy of those rangers he’s got a machete here yeah he said you know what trail’s closed but if you guys want you can walk up over here this road apparently goes two to three kilometers up to a bunch of farms and stuff so they’re growing strawberries the nicest guy just chatting it up with him for like yeah a long time but you made him a coffee we’re having our coffee he comes out with uh those hawaiian sweet rolls same brand you get in the u.

s that’s so funny my dad loves those yeah he said you know well first he asked me do you eat bread he’s like uh he’s like would you like some bread it’s like oh he’s like let me get it and he came out with the bread even said hey take one for your wife because emily was working on the video super nice and now we’ll get to check out what’s up here he said there are still quetzals they tend to be in the morning we still probably have half an hour until the time they tend to run away it gets too warm we better go for a walk now before it starts to rain by the way some info i picked up from the ranger was you can get a vaccine here even if you’re a foreigner just got to go to the right place and they’re doing it in the town over here right now it’s 30 and up so i can get it emily can’t but yeah it sounds like we might be able to get the vaccine here i could get the first dose now and then wherever we are in a couple weeks get the second one so we might try that out sounds like they have plenty here we wouldn’t be like stealing it from a local or anything yeah something to think about for us hey you working on a video yeah i got some good news tell me we just hit 2000 subscribers me too babe you’re doing great with the videos thank you oh my gosh 2 000 people like you oh my gosh thank you so much for subscribing i’m so excited to put out more videos for you guys this is a great news for me so apparently i can get the vaccine right here and there’s no line so i’m not like taking it from the locals or anything like that this is the astrazeneca vaccine which apparently isn’t as in high demand i was really hoping we could get the vaccine here this is only 30 and up right now so i can get it and we can’t they only do it from 7 a.

m to 1 p. m we’re here at noon i’m so glad danny’s able to get oh my gosh there’s nobody here no and the girl said i’m not allowed to get it yet she did say that so yeah that’s weird because there’s nobody here i know it’s okay it’s okay she said not long i’ll be able to get it i said wow not many people are getting it and they said well a few people have gone today but but it’s certainly not as in high demand as i imagined yeah maybe maybe they’re just about to do the 20 plus yeah maybe everybody’s already vaccinated this is a good time for me to get it i mean what how could it be better this is too easy i thought we would have to get on a list and everything hello vaccinations are here we gave him my passport to confirm my age and identity and now we just wait a little bit and uh get stabbed in the arm yeah i’m just a little in shock i can’t believe i actually got vaccinated today i know yeah that’s so great yeah you know i think it’s something everyone should do just so we can get back to not wearing these things yeah but in panama there’s actually a fine if you don’t wear this in a city 25 bucks it’s nice that they’re vaccinating travelers yeah it feels like a really loving country that’s true and i read that about panama city that there’s so much immigration different areas that it’s kind of anything goes a refreshing attitude there okay oh i got my card and everything i got my first dose astra zeneca didn’t have to fly home and figure out what to do with our pets or anything didn’t have to fly home didn’t have to pay and we heard that panama would do it for foreigners but i still was wondering you know if i would be taking one of the doses that somebody wanted but this place is empty yeah it seems like they might start my age group soon because yeah there’s no line here they’ve been doing this three weeks now for 30 and above they did 60 and above before that for a while and he said when it comes to the emily’s time it’ll probably be the pfizer not the astra zeneca oh okay we’re heading to the guard post here where you start the hike to climb baru i’m not feeling super well after that vaccine honestly i was a bit of a rough night i’m sure i’ll be feeling better soon but so we’re not gonna climb the volcano today but we’re getting so close that it’s starting to go up the road before this point was really nice pavement or at least nothing too rough but it’s really deteriorating oh there’s a nice stretch though and we only have 650 meters left so about half a kilometer and definitely the view of the volcano is much better from this side volcan is the name of the town fittingly and there’s the highest point in the country right there we got to check out a canyon this morning which was pretty cool we went to canyon matcha del monte it was really nice it wasn’t a crazy hike or anything probably just a mile maybe less that we wandered around but it was nice waking up and being able to see something cool and starting our day off on the right foot yeah it’s pretty cold up here we’re getting a nice breeze yeah let’s say it’s 73 but it feels i’m in the 60s yeah loving it graham’s going to love cuddling i love these mountains that mountain on the left is alto chiquero and that’s all we could see from the other side where we were here we’re also able to see baru on the right which is i believe a nine mile round trip hike with 5000 feet elevation change hoping we’ll be able to do it on a nice day like this wow so the ranger said we are totally good just stay here and he’s writing down the email for me to get permission to climb the mountain later he did mention you need a guide so not stoked wow with how windy and cold it is down here i can only imagine in the summit must be we figured out option number two we can head up from this side but we’ll need a permit and a guide again we won’t be able to leave until after five a.

m the guy costs 90 each this hike would be more scenic as it’s a trail and not just a road and it’s also shorter than the than the road that we would have walked on the guard said that there are spots that would be hard for some breathe to get up with scrambling or rock climbing both sides are about 6 000 feet elevation gain this side is a little bit less so that’s also a big plus well i’m just using this opportunity of cool weather to clean up the trunk a bit and i wanted to show you guys our electrical system these are 155 amp hour so there’s two of them makes for 310 amp hours they’re in parallel this is a 1000 watt xantrex pure sine wave inverter but yeah we built these boxes so we can load up the trunk and not worry about anything hitting all that electrical it’s wild how when you have a closed container it can really change shape going up to high elevation because of that i think our water container fits seven gallons instead of the five it used to which is a perk i noticed while looking through the trunk that this propane bottle seems a little bit expanded i don’t like that at all they have this over you know valve that should release pressure if that that gets too much but uh we decided let’s cook with it get some of that gas out of there so emily’s setting up shop with some baked potatoes i’ll use that gas oh wow excited these good job baby tasty and meanwhile i finally am fixing the vans headlight we got these led headlights that are epic but we’ve had one headlight out for months we don’t usually drive at night so getting some good work in today wow i love high elevation spots like this you get the views up above the clouds nice temps thanks for perfect banning especially how they see wow the clouds rolled in we’re in the fog i’m seeing a couple raindrops so we better find the little buddy let graham free here because we haven’t seen a single threatening creature you having a good time man this is the first pet i’ve ever had i love this guy when i moved in i was working from home on my abs and he would just bum rush me like full speed right at my face last second turn and go around the back of my head he did it over and over and he was testing me but now i guess we’re cool probably wouldn’t be roman is free without me trying not to worry too much it was a big thing to first let him be outside free we had some rougher times where i got scraped up trying to grab him out of a bush or something but now he’s pretty mature best little buddy snow and curt are crossing the border today super excited to meet up with them soon it’ll be fun we decided to leave that epic spot even though it’s beautiful natural the ranger was super friendly i kept chatting it up with him and on the way out he said he appreciated my company gave me a huge smile it felt really great but we need to get a shower we need to get some more water for the vans we’re gonna head over here a little bit higher elevation and it’s called alto respingo area there’s a couple really nice hikes in this area so current snow can coming up with us here real comfortable spot you know we’ll have showers water internet all those things for a day or so and hopefully uh be able to do some of the things in the area so we’re meeting back up again with swimming curt they just crossed the border double vanning again it’s been pretty sweet having snow and curt meet up with us again up here in panama this place is a beautiful garden town here is called cerro punta there’s this hike up this thing you know it’s a rainy day so our other plant kind of fell through but it was a break in the rain i think we’re gonna head up that check it out but this spot hotel has been great it has these beautiful grounds it has a really nice lounge upstairs we were all hanging out last night which is great in this cold climate to have a spot with a fireplace in there looks like a ski lodge it’s been amazing so the last option we found to get up baru is driving up snow and curtain are also excited to go this way with us we could get a guide to take us up to the top in his four-wheel drive car this option will be able to go for sunrise since his company has pull with the guards here it’s 90 each which is the same price as walking up with a guide on the trail anyway so might be the one so today we’re gonna go do the acclaimed most beautiful hike in panama and curt’s gonna come with us it’s called trail of the quetzals so we’re going to be looking for some quetzals here the campground owner said there are quetzals and even baby quetzals and i have never seen a quetzal so we’re super excited look that’s celery right there yeah spent the night two nights on the other end of this trail and it’s hyper closed they don’t let you in but when there was a gap in the guards some people did do it and the guard who came after that he didn’t mind and i became friends with him but when i talked to this guard here he said the trail is closed right here where we are so oh well i was talking to jorge and over there we spent the night at the other guard post with faustino and they told me i could go a kilometer at least a little ways and he said well the trail’s really dirty if you’re very careful yes you can go i don’t know if it was the name dropping or the confidence but he gave us the go ahead to hit up this trail and there’s the the guard booth here on this side this guard track looks just like the one that we slept at for a couple days yeah wow i think that would be baru in the clouds here and clearly they don’t want you to go that way they say there’s a loose tiger on the trail very similar we’ve got a cool picnic area here officially it’s closed because a hurricane damaged it pandemic i’m sure contributed to it’s not being well kept at the moment it’s really nice to be up here great weather for a hike oh this is a sweet mirror door here i recognize that cliff way out there that was up above the valley we were last night we were up over a hill over there peaks and valleys and farms you love it such a perfect place with your alaska shirt yeah keeping me warm instead of bears we have sloths oh right there see look we gotta go up more altitude profile oh there’s the altitude oh great wow so we’re on the trail of quetzals as promised the trail is not super well cleared but it’s not bad either it’s not as dirty as i thought it would be i thought we would be walking through again yeah i mean up here we’ll see if there’s a some kind of a tree in the way and things like that but hey as long as they let us go i’m cool with it and here it even says you need to have a guide but pretty lucky that i did the name dropping of all those guards but kim you know danny he dangerous danny he’s not gonna use a guide yeah i can see why they’d be a little worried of letting people in here without having it up kept yeah this trail is definitely getting overgrown we should have brought the machete you got your machete curt i do not we need a machete on this one i’m gonna buy one today looks like the trail is heading up this corner here pretty overgrown this is looking beautiful oh we still got steps are you gonna tap it with your foot all right curt thinks that he spotted quetzal i’m so excited this would be my first one so i knew he would be a good luck charm well i knew he would find one danny and curt checking out this bit is a little overgrown oh okay so we’re not sure if we want to keep walking we have already walked like two miles almost two and a half miles the beautiful trail here the birds are really beautiful and the sounds of the birds are really calming the typical hike with danny he’s like here’s one more thing we have to check out yeah we’re gonna call this the end of the trail here because looks like it becomes pretty steep downhill and what with the nature of the trail not being completely kept up you know but it was beautiful up here great temperature for a hike possibility we see it gets all my way back yeah this trail is a little overgrown but it’s not bad i’m gonna give it 10 points for the isolation you can’t even drive to the trailhead as well as it’s not even open so i’m giving it a hundred more points for that feels good yeah this is one of the best parts up oh these aguatillos little avocados are what the quetzals like yeah that’s their food and they’ll eat this they’ll swallow this thing whole they digest this off but their digestive system germinates this seed and so it’s like a symbiotic relationship between the little avocado tree and the quetzal nature we made it back safe and sound time to get some lunch okay we’re gonna end it here because we have a big adventure going on volcán barú with snow and curt thanks so much for watching and we’ll see you guys then.