A proper mountain trail, a treasure hunt through the jungle and views worth every uphill step.
My stay took place in March 2022. Details checked and updated in September 2026.
Getting Dropped Off in the Middle of Nowhere
I discovered Lost and Found Jungle Hostel while researching unusual places to stay in Panama. It was hidden high in the mountains between Boquete and Bocas del Toro, surrounded by cloud forest and accessible only by hiking uphill from the highway.
Naturally, I wanted to stay there.
At the time, the hostel’s website described the walk as a 15-minute hike. That sounded manageable—although I suspected it might feel slightly different with my entire backpack strapped to me.
I had also convinced Zach, whom I had met in Santa Catalina, to meet me there. He had remained at the beach while I travelled to Boquete, but he shared my interest in living differently, travelling independently and finding places away from the usual tourist route.
He had never heard of Lost and Found before I mentioned it.
That made two of us.
The morning after hiking to Boquete’s three waterfalls, I packed my freshly cleaned clothes, checked out of La Casa de Doña Cata and began looking for transportation heading toward Bocas del Toro.
Lost and Found wasn’t located in a town with its own bus station. I needed to make sure the driver knew exactly where I wanted to go and would drop me beside the highway.
Travelling without my phone added another layer of uncertainty. I couldn’t follow our progress on a map or watch for the hostel’s location as we approached. I had to trust that the driver understood my request and would remember to tell me when we arrived.
Eventually, the vehicle stopped and the driver indicated that this was my destination.
I stepped out with my backpack and found myself beside the highway in the middle of the mountains.
There was no town, reception desk or hostel building waiting for me. Instead, I found a sign pointing away from the road and up into the forest.
Lost and Found was somewhere above me.
The advertised 15-minute hike may have been accurate for someone carrying a small day bag and moving quickly. With a large backpack containing everything I had been travelling with for months, it felt like a much bigger challenge.
This wasn’t a paved walkway or a tidy set of stairs leading toward reception. It was a proper uphill hike along a natural mountain trail. I had to balance the weight on my back, watch where I placed my feet and keep climbing while wondering how much farther I had to go.
Thankfully, there were plenty of signs pointing me in the right direction. Getting lost while trying to reach somewhere called Lost and Found would have been funny afterwards, but considerably less entertaining while carrying all my luggage up a mountain without a phone.
Eventually, buildings began appearing through the greenery.
I had found Lost and Found.
More importantly, I could finally take off my backpack.
The face of someone realizing that a “15-minute hike” means climbing a proper mountain with everything she owns on her back.
A Lower Bunk, a Private Room and Rum at Sunset
After checking in, I was shown to my dorm and immediately claimed a lower bunk.
Finding a lower bunk always feels like a small backpacking victory. I wouldn’t have to climb a ladder every time I wanted something from my bag or attempt to lower myself quietly from the top bunk in the middle of the night.
Even better, the bed had a curtain, giving me a little privacy in an otherwise shared room.
I dropped off my belongings, made myself comfortable and returned to the common area to wait for Zach.
Because we were arriving separately, I had no way of knowing exactly when he would appear. Without a phone, I couldn’t send him a message asking where he was or whether he had found the correct roadside stop. I simply had to trust that he would eventually make his way up the same mountain.
He did.
After completing his own climb, Zach checked in and went to find the private room he had booked. Once we were both settled, we returned to the common area to spend the evening together.
I bought a bottle of rum, Zach supplied the Coke and we ate dinner while watching the sun disappear behind the surrounding mountains.
The hostel’s isolated location created a different kind of evening from the ones I had experienced in Panama’s busier destinations. There was no nearby town to explore, no second bar to try and nowhere else to go once darkness covered the trail.
Not that hiking back down the mountain after drinking rum sounded particularly sensible anyway.
Instead, everyone remained around the hostel. We played cards, chatted with the other backpackers and listened to their travel stories.
That is one of the things I enjoy about remote hostels: when there are no outside distractions, strangers actually spend time together.
Zach and I also had plenty to catch up on. We had met in Santa Catalina, separated while I continued to Boquete and then somehow reunited at a hostel hidden above a highway in the Panamanian mountains.
It was an unusual travel plan, but it had worked.
As the evening continued, the conversations slowly ended and people began disappearing toward their rooms.
Zach had a private room.
I technically had a lower bunk in the dorm.
This may be a solo-travel blog, but my family still reads it—so we’ll leave the rest of that evening in the Panamanian jungle.
I bought the rum, Zach bought the Coke—a perfectly balanced division of responsibilities.
A Hot Shower and a Very Strange Morning
The following morning, Lost and Found gave me one of the greatest luxuries of my Central American trip:
A genuinely hot shower.
Hot water had not been guaranteed during my travels. Even when a hostel claimed to have it, “hot” sometimes meant slightly less cold than the water outside.
At Lost and Found, the shower was actually hot.
I couldn’t remember the last time I had enjoyed one, so I stayed beneath the water much longer than necessary. I may have felt slightly guilty about taking such a long shower—but not guilty enough to leave any sooner.
I was in heaven.
Unfortunately, the peaceful start to my morning didn’t last.
While I was brushing my teeth, another guest entered the bathroom already complaining loudly about something. I no longer remember exactly what had started her rant, but at some point I commented that everything at the hostel had to be carried up a mountain.
She responded by describing herself as a strong, independent woman.
That was when I pointed out that she had needed the staff to carry her luggage up the mountain for her.
She did not appreciate my observation.
The conversation quickly escalated from a disagreement into her calling me dumb, white trash and racist. I tried to object, but it soon became obvious that nothing I said was going to improve the situation. She had decided who she thought I was, and the argument was no longer going anywhere productive.
Eventually, I made one final sarcastic comment that did absolutely nothing to improve the situation. As she continued her tirade, I stopped listening, finished getting ready and walked away.
Ironically, about 30 seconds later, I discovered that she was staying in my dorm—the same dorm where I had left all my belongings but hadn’t actually spent the night.
She didn’t say anything when I entered.
I made sure to wish her a great day.
The entire encounter was so bizarre that it still occasionally lives rent-free in my head.
When I told Zach what had happened, he immediately knew which guest I meant. He had seen the hostel staff helping a woman carry her luggage up the mountain when he arrived.
At least I knew I hadn’t imagined that part.
Zach assured me that he had my back if she confronted me again. However, we hadn’t travelled all the way to Lost and Found to spend the day arguing inside a dorm.
There was a mountain to explore—and somewhere along its trails, a treasure waiting to be found.
The kind of view that makes you forgive a hostel for making you hike up a mountain to reach it.
Following a Treasure Map Through the Jungle
Lost and Found had created a treasure hunt through the trails surrounding the hostel, so Zach and I collected a map and set out to find whatever was waiting at the end.
I no longer remember exactly how long we spent hiking. I only remember that we were gone for quite a while, following the map and exploring the mountain instead of rushing directly from one marked location to the next.
After exploring Boquete alone, it was nice to have someone beside me again. Zach and I could make fun of the strange encounter from that morning, talk about our travels and take our time figuring out where the map wanted us to go.
The treasure hunt gave the hike a purpose beyond simply following a trail. We had something to look for, clues to interpret and a reason to keep exploring whenever we might otherwise have turned around.
Along the way, we reached a small lake—or possibly a large pond. Whatever the correct definition was, it provided a good place to stop, take a few pictures and enjoy having part of the mountain to ourselves.
I didn’t have my phone, so Zach took most of the photographs from our time at Lost and Found and sent them to me later. I still had my ancient iPod Touch—the emergency Apple product I carried from the technological dark ages—but it wasn’t quite the same as having my phone available whenever I wanted a picture.
As a result, this part of my Panama trip has far fewer photographs than it normally would. In some ways, that meant I spent more time enjoying the day instead of trying to document every part of it.
We continued following the map, hiking through the area and searching for the remaining clues.
Eventually, we reached the end of the treasure hunt and discovered what had been waiting for us.
I won’t reveal exactly what we found. Part of the fun was following the map without knowing where it would lead, and I don’t want to spoil that experience for anyone planning to stay at Lost and Found.
I don’t remember the exact route, how many hours we spent hiking or every clue we solved along the way. What I remember is spending most of the day outside, laughing with Zach and exploring a mountain I probably never would have visited without choosing such an unusual hostel.
The treasure hunt had done exactly what it was supposed to do: it encouraged us to explore beyond the hostel buildings and turned an ordinary hike into an adventure.
After returning to the hostel, we were ready to relax with another drink.
This time, we chose wine.
The first stop on our treasure hunt—and already worth following the map.
Wine, Sunset and Questioning My Career Choices
Zach and I bought some red wine and found somewhere to sit as the sun began disappearing behind the mountains.
We had spent most of the day moving—following clues, hiking the trails and exploring the area around the hostel. Sitting still with a glass of wine felt like the right way to end it.
The view was beautiful, but the conversation is what I remember most.
Although Zach and I had met in Santa Catalina and spent time together there, we were still getting to know each other. Lost and Found gave us something we hadn’t really had before: an entire day without schedules, transportation or another destination competing for our attention.
As we watched the sunset, Zach told me more about his life in the United States. He worked as a travelling nurse, earning what sounded to me like a ridiculous amount of money. He had sold most of his belongings, lived in a van and saved as much as possible so he could continue travelling.
His system was simple: work an intense schedule for about a month, then take roughly a month off to explore somewhere else in the world.
Meanwhile, I had spent years trying to fit travel between jobs, contracts and whatever money I could save.
Clearly, I had chosen the wrong profession.
What I liked about Zach’s arrangement wasn’t only the amount he earned. He had deliberately built his life around what mattered to him. Instead of collecting possessions or waiting for a limited number of vacation days, he worked hard for a concentrated period and then used that freedom to see the world.
It was unconventional, but so was meeting someone at a beach hostel and agreeing to reunite at a remote lodge hidden in the mountains.
At some point, we saw the woman from that morning again. Zach reminded me that he had my back if she decided to say anything, but she left us alone. There was no second confrontation and no dramatic ending to that part of the story.
We simply returned to our wine, our conversation and the sunset.
That evening became one of my favourite parts of Lost and Found. The treasure hunt had given us an adventure, but sitting together afterwards gave us the chance to slow down and talk about where we had been, where we wanted to go and the different ways people create lives that allow them to keep travelling.
The following morning, our paths would separate again.
I was heading toward Bocas del Toro—and first, I had to get myself and my backpack back down that mountain.
I don’t have photographic evidence of the wine, but the sunset beer did make it into the camera roll.
Back Down the Mountain and On to Bocas
The following morning, I packed everything back into my backpack and prepared to continue my journey.
By around 10 a.m., I was ready to leave. Zach and I were separating again, and I was trading Panama’s cool mountains for the tropical beaches of Bocas del Toro.
First, however, I had to get myself and my backpack back down the same trail I had climbed two days earlier.
Going downhill was easier than hiking up, but I still had to watch my footing while carrying everything I owned. The signs led me back through the forest until I eventually emerged beside the highway again.
Two days earlier, I had stood in that same place, looked up at the mountain and wondered what I had signed myself up for.
Now I was leaving with memories of rum at sunset, a glorious hot shower, one extremely strange bathroom confrontation, a treasure hunt through the jungle and an evening drinking wine with someone I had met only days earlier.
It had been a short stay, but Lost and Found had delivered exactly the kind of unexpected adventure that made me want to visit it in the first place.
With the mountain behind me, I turned my attention to finding my way toward Panama’s Caribbean coast.
Next stop: Bocas del Toro.
Two nights at Lost and Found: rum with a view, a jungle treasure hunt and one very sweaty climb up the mountain.
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