From Islands to Highlands: Panama's Misty Boquete
Heaven this time is Boquete, a pretty little mountain town in the foothills of the Volcan Baru, the highest point in Panama at 11,000 feet. No one can remember the last time Baru blew, or even rumbled, but the volcano still hasn't been classified as extinct. I hope my three days here doesn't include any volcano wake ups. I take the chance and settle in at Pension Virginia, right off the main town square. I fork over $7.50 and am shown a charming little room overlooking a small garden. Four turquoise-painted walls and a full-size bed with a flower print bedspread will be my home for the next three nights. Just off the hall is a balcony with a view of a chicken yard. Downstairs is a diner-style restaurant with ancient vinyl booths and dinners for $1.50. Will chicken be on the menu tonight? At least it will be fresh, I think...
Lounging in the pension's common area after a long day of planes, buses and cabs, I meet a fellow solo travelling woman. Heather is from California, a 20-year-old vagabond exploring Central America on a shoestring. She is talkative and tells me all about the free meals and lodging she's received in Panama. We go downstairs and have a big tasty dinner of yucca, vegetable and meat soup and beans and rice. The tab comes to $3 for both of us.
Heather is leaving the next morning for the coast. I ask her about her time in Boquete. She says it was amazing. But then she tells me about this friendly man in town. He told her he was a tour guide and would take her horseback riding for $4. She thought this was a fantastic deal and went for it. At the end of the horseback ride, given by a local ranch, the cost was really $25. She only had $10 in her pocket, so that's what she paid the ranch owner. Ever since, Heather has been trying to avoid this "tour guide" who wants to show her the valley for a cut-rate price.
I end up meeting the same guy the next evening.
A night at Pension Virginia refreshes me and I'm ready to seize the day in Boquete. What I really want to do is hike the much hyped but little-trodden Sendero Los Quetzales -- the Quetzal Trail. It is billed as the most scenic hike in Panama. Over 11 miles, the trail hops over lush slope that separates the Boquete and Guadeloupe valleys. The views, however, take second seat behind the wildlife: here there is one of the highest concentrations of quetzals anywhere. If you want to see a quetzal (a dazzling iridescent green bird known for its elusiveness) this is the trail to hike.
Being an avid hiker, this hike is one of the reasons I came here. I don't just want to hike it but TRAVEL OVER IT. From Boquete, one can hike the entire thing and be in the village of Guadeloupe in five or six hours. This is what I'm thinking I'll do, but am told I need a guide because the trail is easy to lose. I check in at the Hotel Panamonte, a fancy lodge. The owner recommends a guide, but I'm told I won't be able contact him until the afternoon.
What to do now? I set out for the town's Internet café.
I can hardly believe it - an Internet café here in the Panamanian highlands, complete with funky candles, glass tables, couches and a TV. I am excited to get in touch with family and friends in cyberspace. I spend $2.50 and get lunch, a cup of locally grown coffee and an hour of web time. The owner of the café is a big, round Panamanian with an engaging smile. His daughter works behind the counter. They've been open only eight months he says. He mentions that 80 percent of his business is from foreigners, business that has been good; he's doubled his computers and is ready to add more.
After the pit stop, I head out to Mi Jardin es Su Jardin and the Ruiz Coffee Roasters. I wander the gardens, get a personal free tour of the roasting facility, taste and buy coffee. By the time I wander home it's time for dinner. A mere $3.50 gets me a superb Mexican meal. When I get back to the pension, I speak with the trail guide over the phone. The verdict is grim - there are no groups going out and if I want to hire him alone the cost is high. I hang up the phone and sigh.
Then I meet him. The "tour guide."
He's in the Pension Virginia restaurant, where the phone is, and he overheard my conversation. He asks, "Where do you want to go?" By the time I finish telling him what I want to do, it clicks. This is Heather's weird tour man.
His name is "Ray" and we walk around the square and he explains the artifacts - old farming implements, mostly - that sit placed around the central fountain. He tells me he is a tour guide, though he also works at a restaurant in town. And get this - I can go horseback riding for $4 an hour. But the kicker was his offer for guiding me on the Los Quetzales -- $10! (I'd just been quoted $40-$50.)
Just to be sure, I ask if he'd met an American named Heather.
"Oh yes! Nice girl! I took her horseback riding!"
Same guy. Strange how small towns with just a few American girls can attract this kind of thing. I escape "Ray" in the Internet café. Then I meet Enrique, the guide I'd just talked to on the phone. Strange how you can be recognized in small towns where you're the only American girl. It only took 16 hours and I'm already being recognized on the street. Enrique and I chat and the $50 guiding price drops to $20. I'm wondering now if I should hike Sendero Los Quetzales without others going. My instincts say "no."
Easter Sunday is in three days. That means the guides won't be working. It's not looking like this hike is in my future.
I spend the next few days exploring the misty Boquete valley. The mist is what is most entrancing here. After morning sunshine, the mist sweeps in from the higher elevations and stays all afternoon. It's a cooling and lovely mist that keeps everything in town green and bushes bursting with fuchsia and orange blossoms. I enjoy this as I spend the next day walking a country road up and down the valley. Up, down, up, down. While it's not a full-blown hike, I'm definitely getting some exercise here. And the views are great - miles of coffee plants on mountain hillsides, chickens in the road, horses, and wildflowers everywhere. The "neighborhood" is varied, from nice haciendas to tin-roofed shacks and everything else in between. Along the road I pass Wei-Mei Indians dressed in their traditional colorful dresses, Panamanian schoolchildren in blue and white uniforms, farmers in pickup trucks. Everyone says hola and waves. It's the way here.
Tomorrow will find me taking the long way - the bus - around Baru Volcano to get up into the Guadeloupe valley. So much for the Quetzal Trail. Or so I would think.
Until next time, happy travels!
--- Colleen
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