Boquete, Panama

BOQUETE, PANAMA

January 1 – March 31, 2013

This winter we drove our truck camper to Texas and enjoyed sometime there before flying from Houston to David, Panama via San Jose, Costa Rica.

Arriving in David

We had made reservations at a residence about 4 km from the town of mountain village of Boquete. From David we took a local taxi to our destination (about 50km) Boquete. Our 1 bedroom apartment was ready for us to move in for the 3 months. Naturally, our first requirement was to go back into town and to stock up on groceries. They have a 24 hour grocery store and one can buy just about everything there including wine and beer.

It is a beautiful location, mountainous, lovely temperature and quite tropical. The area was lush, green and lots of colorful flowers and large trees with a pine forest right on the property. This area is also know for their coffee plantations producing world renown coffee. Almost every afternoon a bajareque would decend. It is like being in a misty cloud but you do not get wet and then a spectacular rainbow is visible. Due to the location of mountains and the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans the area is full of micro climates. As one walks downhill to the village (about 4 km) the country becomes drier and hotter. David, which is only 50km away) and is a very hot, dry and dusty city.

view of Volcan Baru from Kent's

in private garden in Boquete

a view from our district of Santuario, Boquete

We were in an area where you could have some great walks – up and down hills and visit with the local residents - some who spoke English and some who only spoke Spanish. We met some great people in the other two casitas that was on the property. Birds were also being feed with fruit and especially watermelon and banana – we had some very colorful birds visiting and I was able to get a few pictures of them. Besides birds the animal life included snakes. One came into our apartment and we take every snake to be poisonous. This one came in very fast – Irene screamed and Chris pushed over a chair and he changed direction. It took about 10 minutes for 2 fellows to herd him out the door and then he went so fast we were not sure of his route. After the fact we then put up a higher barricade and hoped no more would enjoy our company.

Chris was invited to work on a large mural in the swimming pool area for the owners, David and Cora Kent. The 3 of them spent almost 2 weeks in the morning working and it turned out quite dramatic – it really changed the pool area. The owners were very congenial and always asked if we wanted a ride into town when they went and even took us for a trip into David for the day. They hosted a few parties for the renters which were great fun. We missed them for one month as they were away on holidays and the house-sitters in charge of Kent's property kept to themselves.

The pool mural

Valentine party at Kents

We joined a local birding group and spent some hikes with them. We went into moutain trails with streams and bridges or up a 4 wheel drive road in the Volcan Baru National Park. We did some other hikes and drives with friends and we were fortunate to see the Resplendent Quetzal and the Three-wattled Bellbird. Very special birds to see.

Silver-throated Tanager

Blue-grey Tanagers

Flame-colored Tanager

along Pipeline Trail

Pipeline Trail

road in Volcan Baru National Park

The three months went by very fast and we got into a real routine. Every Tuesday we went to the local market to buy some special bread – Chris says the best he has had for years. He also gained some weight because of it – but it was delicious. After our shopping we would take a taxi back uphill for $3 and it was well worth it. The question has been – Would you go back? and our answer is, yes, but there are too many other places to see in this world - so we may not have time to return.

The town of Boquete