Back in December, in between Surfing in Bocas Del Toro and Exploring the remote Caribbean Coastal town of Calovebora and the Santa Fe National Park, we stopped for five days in Boquete.
Oh, yes. This was in Panama…
It’s a really heavily touristed town in the Northern Central Highlands of Panama, at an elevation of 3,500 – 4,000 feet. If I had to draw a comparison, I would say it is the most similar to Ella, In Sri Lanka, so, if you liked hiking with tons of people and hanging out with hippie tourists and influencers in Ella, you will probably like this busy little town as well.
Me, not so much.
The area around Boquete is beautiful though, and Tam finally got to spend some time in the jungle and some pine forest. She loves being in the jungle over anyplace else. The only problem here, is that the jungle is at about forty-five degrees from vertical everywhere, and that meant she had to walk uphill.
All of these pictures are from the day that we hiked the “Three Waterfalls Trail” outside of Boquete.
She did better than expected on these hikes, and didn’t even complain more than two thousand and seven times (okay, two thousand and twelve).
In all seriousness, we did have fun, but yeah, quite a few people around.
I wasn’t able to get a picture in time, but I saw this monkey jump on the bridge.
Bad monkey!
Im not sure what she is looking at though.
We walked by this little guy after the bridge. I like to think he is there for good luck or something, but it looks like maybe he is just getting home from fishing.
Tam is never so happy as she is when we are out wandering around in the jungle.
Some thorny flowers along the trail. Everything up here is beautiful, but wants to bite you, suck your blood, or stab you (or some combination of all three).
In the end, all the effort usually seems worth it.
Hunting for nice waterfalls, and cheesy tourist shots always go together, I suppose.
Yep. Speaking of cheesy…
There really are some beautiful places in the jungle.
Near the end of the hike is this great little overlook spot where you can take a break and reflect on the couple thousand feet you just hiked up and back down.
Or just sit and catch your breath.
Every time I hike in the jungle I end up looking like this. This trail was pretty steep, with several spots where you needed to use hands and feet, or some frayed old ropes that someone had tied along the trees. It was in ankle deep mud most of the way, and there was just no sense in wearing flip flops.
Besides, it takes me back to being a kid when I got to run around with mud squishing up between my toes and splashing all over.
Good times!
After a day hiking (and a couple of days before hiking), we stopped at this great little restaurant in Boquete.
La Creperie.
La Creperie is owned and operated by Jean Claude, a French gentleman living in Boquete permanently now. He is just the sweetest guy, and redefines the concept of service. He was running around like a squirrel making sure that everything was perfect, from where we sat to how the table was set.
His restaurant is super cute (if you notice, all the chairs are named after different cheeses), and he sells all sorts of his own spices, teas, and creations in there. He creates these heavenly flavors in his food with fresh items directly from the garden in the back yard of his restaurant. He runs the place by himself, and does everything from the service, to barista’ing, to cooking. These were the best savory crepes I have ever had.
And his coffee…
Jean Claude grows his own Geisha coffee, and he roasts it all on-site at his little plantation at his home in the mountains.
Geisha coffee is the most delicious coffee I have ever had. It originally came from the Gori Gesha Forest in Ethiopia, and was brought to Panama in the 50’s, but didn’t really catch on until 2004, when a Panamanian plantation entered it in a coffee competition and broke all the records with their 94.1/100 score. Now the coffee is grown in a few select plantations in Panama, and, because it is fragile and difficult to grow and highly sought after, it has sold for as much as a thousand dollars per pound in the past.
Luckily, Jean Claude did not charge me that much for the several French presses of coffee I went through.
It really was delicious.
All in all, Boquete was a bit too touristed for me, but, as usual, we discovered some great little spots, and found a way to have fun and make the best of it.
Wind, Water, Waves, Wander 