Capital: Panama City
Population: 3,7 million
Language: Spanish
Currency: Dollar and Balboa
President: Ricardo Martinelli
Government: Constitutional Republic
Perched in the mountain, Boquete is a small town of 20,000 people. In Spanish, the word Boquete means ‘gap or opening’. It was through this gap that curious gold seekers trekked, looking for a cheaper and quicker way to the Pacific. It is a city with many faces. The faded buildings and local markets with colorful dresses are proof that Boquete is a working town. Many people work in coffee plantations or sale fruit in markets. Boquete has had an increase in tourist in the past few years and many tour companies catch your eyes on the main avenue. They often say eco-tourism but I am a bit skeptical about how ATV tours fir the eco part of their business! The last aspect of Boquete is its surge of retires who came to Boquete to find peace in their gated communities on the hills near town after a travel magazine ranked Boquete the best place to retire.
View from above
One of DQ favorite loop. Lots of climbing.
Street downtown Boquete
Parque central
Kids playing soccer….always
Entertainment on the Parque central
Reminder you are still in Central America
Safety first! Many homes are barb wired. Surprisingly, the town feels so safe!
Door to door rice salesman
Indigenous woman with her colorful dress
Pretty woman
Fire trucks. Wish I could see the firemen!!!
Boquete is famous for its coffee and its flower festival, which we missed. Plenty flowers are still there to make the town very pleasant.
Local barber
So we decided to make Boquete home for a while. It did not take us long to see potential here. Coffee shops, good food pretty cheap, cool nights (and that is a good thing in Wilma) and….good riding! The roads are paved and smooth, very little traffic and great scenery. Perfect! We found a cute little hostel owned by a German family with an interesting scene of the comic book hero, Tintin. Murals of Tintin are all over the place.
Our hostel. Tintin and le capitain Haddock
Dupont et Dupond
La piscine
Common area where we spend a lot of time, while waiting for the rain to top
Dear Wilma
The trick in Boquete during this time of the year is you need to make sure than any outdoor activity is done in the morning because by 2 pm, it is a waterfall from the sky! And I always forget the towels outside so I have not had a dried towel to shower yet.
We have done 2 major outings so far:
-1- The visit of the Ruiz coffee plantation, a family owned business. The 91 year old owner still hangs out at the plantation is very friendly. We were told he was offered 21 millions for his business but decided to keep it. Our guide, Carlos was a charismatic, knowledgeable guide with well-timed jokes. The tour was fantastic except for the annoying girl from Atlanta who thought the guide was speaking to her personally and would make noises of understanding after each of his sentences. Of course she had some personal experiences and she also had to share with the group! Did I mention she was annoying yet? Oh yes, the tour was great. We got to see the entire process from a baby coffee plant to a cup of joe. Generally, Each plant gives 4 lbs. of coffee and it takes 35 beans to make a cup of coffee. The plantation is also home to many other plants which will attract insects of fungus leaving alone the coffee plants. There are like 16 steps to the all process and NO, I did not memorize those so look it up in goggle if you are interested. There are many different type of coffee plant and the Geisha is one of their most expensive one (up to $500 a pound). A worker’s salary depends how fast he/she can pick. They get paid $20 to $25 dollars/day and Carlos seemed to be very proud of how well the workers get paid at Ruiz. They also get free lodging and free healthcare. But believe me this is no postal work here, the plants are not in a neat row but clustered and mixed with other hazardous plants. Deadly snake (Fer de Lance) and spiders love to mingle in the plantation too. We were told to wear good walking shoes but I noticed the kids walking barefoot in the plantation! By this time annoying girl had already asked the guide to pose and smile multiple times. We continued to the manufacturing plant where a room stored 2.5 million worth of coffee bags. We finished with a tasting of coffee and I have to say Dan and I did not really love their coffee. Best fact of the tour: We learned that Ruiz sales to Stumptown in Portland!
From baby coffee plants…
The life cycle of cafe
Multiple harvests as the coffee matures to bright red beans
Each red pod has 2 coffee beans
The million dollar room with our guide!
Coffee nap
The original coffee roaster at la finca de Ruiz
Panamanian wanna be
-2- If you come to Boquete, you can’t miss visiting the Explorador. It is a local gem, we were told. The garden is manicured with numerous blooming tropical plants. So far so good. BUT as you walk the garden, you start noticing very bizarre homemade things/dolls/scarecrows. It is supposed to remind you of the Wizzard of Oz but it is just freaky. Everything has eyes, glued eyes. Shoes, flower plants, pieces of wood..etc. It was so bad that it was great!
Not weird at all!
More weirdness!
Dan rocking in a bizarre doll house
I am smiling but I can’t wait to get out of here!
From Boquete, we are starting to organize the logistics of our return. The most important thing is to organize the shipping of Wilma. We found out that we absolutely needed the original title of the vehicle. A little tough in a country that does not have postal service. Our angel friend Laurence moved the earth to ship it to us STAT at a small rate of $85! It should arrive at the freight agent in Panama City this Friday.
We have a few more days in Boquete and more adventures to come.
Portland to Panama 