Adventures with David & Gail

Boquete weekend! - Our trip to Boquete started much like our trip to Panama City. Cholo picked us up in his Panga (but not quite as early!) But whoa! Let’s step back a minute. Yes, we just got back to our boat on Thursday morning early, and here we are taking off on Saturday morning! We would not have planned another trip so soon, but our friends Deb and Chuck Eldridge on Neytiri organized a trip to Boquete for the 7th Annual Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival. Plus, we had heard really good things about the area and it is considered a must see. So we climbed aboard the panga with 3 other couples, Deb and Chuck, Linda and Mike from Casa del Mar, and Claudia and Claudius from Flying Fish (our friends from Grenada, Bonaire & Curacao who had caught up with us at Red Frog the day before), and headed out for another adventure.

By now, the panga to water taxi to taxi to bus was old hat for us. But this time the bus ride was only about 3 hours to David and not as fancy as the one to Panama City. It was actually over packed but we managed to get two seats together at the back of the bus. Since we were not in the middle of the bus, we were relatively comfortable although Gail’s feet did not touch the floor. In David, we changed to a more traditional converted school bus (a new one – which was a pleasant surprise) for the 45 minute ride on to Boquete.

Boquete is in the Caldera Valley, 3500 feet above sea level, sitting in the middle of Panama’s two coasts. It is the largest city in the Chiriqui Highlands. The area surrounding the town is coffee plantations, orange groves, gardens, and newly built “gated communities” full of “snow birds”. This area has a growing ex-pat community and many of the local coffee plantations are being purchased for development. Sadly, many of locals can no longer afford a home in their own town. The rugged peaks surrounding the town are often obscured in clouds. However, you can see Volcan Baru at 11,000 feet on a clear day.

Deb had arranged for a 3 bedroom house which was lovely and as an extra bonus, was in the same “gated community” that the music festival was being held. Claudia & Claudius were staying in town.

First order of business was some lunch and then we went to the music festival. It ran from noon to six on Saturday and Sunday. We were able to catch the last few groups, including the highlight of the weekend, Maria Rivas and her Libertango band from Venezuela. She performed a nice blend of jazz, Latin and rock music. The weather was cool and mostly sunny which was a nice change from Bocas (warm and rainy).

We planned some exploring for the next morning, but no one had a definitive agenda. We headed out in search of a local garden, but discovered that it was closed. We ended up taking a taxi ride to another “garden” which turned out to be a little underwhelming, although the views were lovely. We also could feel the full force of the northerly cold front that was coming through. Up in the mountains the wind was gusting at least around 30 knots with drizzle.

Back to town for the famous fish tacos at Big Daddy’s. The tacos and margaritas were great. We had decided to extend the trip one more day and stay with Claudia and Claudius. So we confirmed that we could get a room at their hotel the next night and made some plans to do a coffee tour in the morning. Then we headed back to the music festival. Once again we caught a few of the last acts. However, the weather was not as nice as the day before as very light mist fell most of Sunday!

Monday morning we took the Coffee Ruiz tour. We had done a nice coffee tour in Minca, Colombia, but it was mostly in Spanish and only involved the processing plant. While we could make out the gist of what was said, we definitely got more information on this tour. Our guide, Carlos, spoke excellent English and the tour started at the farm and went through the roasting and packing. Yes – we learned all the steps to making coffee: Picking, Floating, Squeezing, Fermenting, Washing, Pre-Drying, Drying, Aging, Peeling Sorting (by size, shape, density and color), Roasting, Grinding, Packaging! It is amazing coffee is not more expensive than it is! The tour ended with a coffee tasting. But even with an expanded understanding and appreciation of coffee, Gail still likes a little coffee with her creamer!

We took Carlos advice and had lunch at a local cafeteria, El Saborosan. Good food, lots of it and good prices. We did a little shopping and explored the town and headed back to the house to gather our belongings and move to Hotel Fundadores for the last night. We definitely recommend trying “VRBO.com” (Vacation Rental By Owner) for booking. While the hotel was adequate, it was quite underwhelming after staying at the house!

If we had stayed longer, we would have explored some of the hikes in the area, but we had done plenty of walking and enjoyed sitting and reading while we waited for Claudia and Claudius to return from their explorations. We did find the local ice cream shop and topped off the last evening with an ice cream cone!

We caught an express bus back the next day. It bypassed David, went through some lovely countryside and only had 9 of us on a 30 person bus. Our first time on a bus in Colombia or Panama that the bus was not packed! So our last bus ride (at least for awhile) was very comfortable. A few boat rides and we were back at Red Frog Marina and Wildest Dream!

Now with all our land based trips done, we have no plans as of yet except to head back to Miami. We have about 1000 miles to go and want to get there before June. So, stay in tune and see how we do!