Globetrotters

Up up & away! My menopausal meltdown in the fierce heat of Playa Blanca inspired us to head for the hills! We decided to visit Boquete, a community of expats in the mountains about a 5 hour drive from us.

The town itself is not much to speak of but the landscape is spectacular! Set at an altitude of 3,878 feet on the slope of Volcan Baru towering 11,450 feet above sea level.

Boquete enjoys eternal spring & is home to coffee plantations, jungles & the elusive resplendent quetzal bird. The ‘bajareque’ is a “unique weather phenomenon that occurs when a fine misting rain is pushed from the Atlantic & into the highlands. The mist is so soft it ‘caresses the face’ as locals say.” (Excerpted from Frommer’s Panama).

When we arrived the mist felt more like a smack in the face, blown as it was on a wild wind. Wonderfully cold, I felt immediately chilled! I delighted in each goose bump popping out while Hans yelled “TOO COLD! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? WHERE’S THE SPRINGTIME?” He put on his windbreaker while I soaked up the cool.

We stayed at Finca Lerida, a B&B coffee plantation high above the town.

They had their own trails through the jungle & also offered guided hikes. Why would we need a guide with marked trails? We set off on a two hour trek through the jungle on a trail that ran along a ledge sticking out from a mountainside. Amazing views of the foliage above & below us & a clear blue sky (along with the breeze!) made for great hiking. BUT no bird sightings.

So we broke down & hired a guide. Jason arrived the next morning armed with his bird book & promptly informed us (in excellent English) that he was rather new at this! Uh-oh! He proved to be more modest than truthful as we ended up sighting 2 of the elusive quetzals & A SLOTH!

Why hire a guide? Well it’s NOT about the looking in quetzal bird watching, it’s about the listening! Jason listened for the birds & then imitated their call to lure them to us! The female came to check him out as a mate (not cute enough, I told him after she flew off) & we watched her flit through the trees for quite awhile. The male came to challenge Jason & we had a spectacular view of him flying through a patch of sun that irradiated his iridescent plumage so he positively glowed, his long tail flowing out behind him-what a sight! Truly resplendent!

Where we had stood staring stupidly into the foliage, Jason spotted birds at a glance & pointed them out to us-WOW! If you’re reading this & planning a trip to Boquete, call him locally at 6718-62-79-he’s well worth it!

The sloth sighting was my all time fabulous favorite! Jason pointed out a big blob in the tree above us & said it was a sloth. I wanted it to move so I could get a good look but Jason told us it only moves 2 hours out of 24 & then a mere 20 yards before stopping to rest again! SOOOOO SLLOOWWW is the sloth that it actually grows algae on its fur!

As he told us these facts IT MOVED! Ever so slowly it uncurled from its balled up position, unfurled a paw & began to CLIMB DOWN THE TREE! I had to stifle myself so I wouldn’t freak the poor thing out. On the verge of imploding, I punched Jason in the arm to vent my excitement! He took it in stride, smiling at me & said “It’s very exciting yes?” YES! The little critter climbed down to where we got a great look at him & calmly munched some leaves, then curled up in a fork in the tree for another snooze. Awesome!

We took a tour of the coffee plantation & I recommend you call ahead to schedule this with the manager himself. Coffee is his passion & his tour in intense, you will never feel the same about coffee again! We spent 2&1/2 hours learning about the coffee production process, from the field to the tasting room.

It’s much like making wine & since Hans grew up on a farm growing wine grapes (among other things) he proved a good student for our coffee maestro.

Finca Lerida strives for sustainable ecologically conscious coffee production & works hard to develop environmentally sound practices. For example, coffee requires a LOT of water to process BUT the government is quite strict about effluent entering the rivers (put this in the back of your mind for future reference OK?). So Finca Lerida has developed a process whereby the water remains in an enclosed system. The technology is quite advanced & the entire process is a continual science experiment.

Finca Lerida specializes in gourmet coffees. We did a ‘cupping’ with the manager who tastes brews daily to ensure quality control. With each taste test he knows exactly what happened in the process to produce a less than perfect brew-amazing!

Our drive to Bocas del Toro took us over the Continental Divide & we lucked out with the weather! Clear blue skies offered panoramic views of the mountains all the way to the coast-WOW! Big rains had washed out the road in many places which made for challenging driving. But Hans & the Fortuner handled it fine. The Caribbean side of Panama is quite poor & we saw lots of wooden huts with thatched roofs & people living in appalling conditions.

Bocas is an archipelago with many islands scattered around the ocean so we boarded a skiff ferry to take us to the biggest island, where we began our explorations. As we motored out of the marina my Caribbean dreams were dashed. Ramshackle shacks lined the shore with dilapidated docks leading out to tiny buildings perched precariously at the end of each dock. I asked Hans what those were & he just looked at me- “Outhouses”. HUH? You mean “plop plop fizz fizz oh what a relief it is” directly into the ocean? Hans nodded. NASTY! Rewind your tapes to the coffee plantation’s strict gov’t guidelines for disposing of effluents into the rivers! No such protections exist for the ocean, just a big toilet it seems.

Luckily we spent our 2 days in Bocas far out on the water, away from shore-LOL! On one boat tour I asked our guide (a local Panamanian) about the ocean dumping. He yelled out “NASTY” & I just cracked up! He went on to say how Panamanians are not at all ecologically aware of how sensitive the ocean is & trash as well as sewage finds its way into the sea. He felt this hurt his business as tourists go to Costa Rica for eco-tours because Panama needs to clean up its act. Interesting to hear a local say what I thought about when we visited Costa Rica. I do believe that sustainable tourism may help save the planet, along with giving locals work.

Now we’re back at Playa Blanca for awhile. I’m back to being ‘swampthing’, sweaty & soaked whenever we’re outside, which is LOTS! The good news though is that they’ve completed the ‘Laguna’ here-the 2nd largest swimming pool in the world! It’s 17 acres of salt water (600,000 gallons!) we can swim, kayak, even sail on-FUN! And COOL too-LOL!