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Published: January 25th 2015
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After our time in Bocas (see that blog post), we traveled by chartered van to the hillside community of Boquete, at 3800 ft. elevation in the northern mountains of Panama. Just outside the town is Panama's highest point, the volcano Baro. More importantly, though, the City lies in a valley noted for its rich coffee plantations, its tropical cloud forest with their abundance of birds and animals, gorgeous scenery, plentiful waterfalls and hikes, and a hot springs. Not surprisingly, a tourist culture has grown around the town, and now there are also whitewater rafting, horse-back riding and zip-line excursions, as well. Furthermore, many Americans have discovered its idyllic setting and climate and decided to make it a retirement area. So the real estate market is booming, and the town has become a real mixture of Latinos and Americans, Spanish and English, the young and the retirees. Poke into a bar and you'll mostly see grey-haired ex-pats.
Arriving around 2:30, and after settling into our hotel, we went to a tour provider to learn the options for the next day's activities. Three of us, Stuart, Michael and I, chose to do a guided hike for the morning, and I chose a
coffee tour for the afternoon, an activity I had missed out on in Costa Rica's Monteverde when I was there seven years ago.
Our guide for the hike, John, was amazing! The goal: to see howler or other monkeys, resplendent quetzels and other exotic birds, butterflies, hummingbirds, sloths and possibly other animals, while also finding several waterfalls, marvelling at Panama's oldest tree, all while getting in some good hiking.
We were not disappointed. Early on, we saw some colourful hummingbirds and several of, arguably, the world's rarest butterfly, with its transparent wings, as well as a crab in the middle of the path. Then we ran into a bunch of Campuchin monkeys whom we watched playing in the treetops for a time. They didn't seem too pleased with our presence and began breaking branches above us that landed on the trail behind us. We did see the waterfalls and the oldest tree, a toucan that was quite camouflaged against a tree and enjoyed the hike immensely. Then, towards the end of the hike, our guide finally spotted a quetzel. We got great photos of a female up on a tree branch. Eventually she flew off, but almost immediately,
The oldest tree in Panama
has survived two volcanic eruptions a male came to the same spot and took her place. So we got both genders of this very rare and beautiful bird. We never did see any sloths, though.
The coffee tour was led by an American who came here to retire but bought an abandoned coffee plantation as his rural home. He revived it, though the prices are too depressed for any farmer to make a living off a coffee farm. Despite outrageous coffee prices in the chic coffee cultures of this world, the price paid to the growers is a pittance, and hasn't changed in 30 years--you know where all the money is going in the coffee houses of this world. He especially decried that it is the indigenous Panamanians, who live in the Comarcas (reservations) without running water, electricity, or roads, who are the workers on the coffee farms, because no one else will work for so little and it is about the only job available for these poor people. He was critical of the coffee giants, especially Starbucks, whom he said could afford to do much more for the people, but saw hope in the actions of a few elite coffee buyers who had
Resplendent Quetzel
The ultimate trophy of the jungle trek a more sympathetic approach, and was quite positive about Costco's practices, as well. That said, he's found other ways to make money off coffee, tours being one, and selling outside the normal system, another, and pays his workers at least double the going rate, plus provides decent housing and employment benefits to his workers.
After learning all about the coffee growing conditions and the coffee market, the coffee harvesting process, and touring the plantation which, fortunately, is in harvest season, the final phase of the tour was to actually roast four pounds of coffee beans. I volunteered to be his roaster and, following his detailed instructions, we produced 3-1/2 pounds of excellent coffee, some of which I and the others got to take home as souvenirs.
Boquete, the little jewel of western Panama, was a wonderful experience. I could see why it is such an attraction for retirees from the north. We could have easily spent more time there. But one full day was all we had, and by the end of that day, we needed to get to bed early for the 4:15 a.m. departure for Panama City on Friday.
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