A Saturday in Boquete

Boquete is a region of Panama in the hills, near a famous mountain/volcano (more on that later), and so the atmosphere here is cooler, breezier, and way less humid than the rest of Panama.  You can see in the vegetation that it's less humid here, too. 

Our airbnb is in a region with a sign that says "Jardines de Boquete",
which means "Gardens of Boquete".

Although this is kind of the extent of the "gardens":
nicely manicured playgrounds. 

From one point in the neighborhood,
we can look down to the Caldera River rushing by.

Our first night, we went to a local restaurant for dinner.  I think I have eaten at restaurants more times in this past week than in the past 5 years!  (Maybe I even said that in the previous blog post). 

I'm wearing a dress that Aisa from UNACHI gave me
as a thank-you gift for my presentations there.
She nailed me, I think! I love it.

Having been to so many restaurants, the next day for lunch we went to . . . a restaurant!  But not just any restaurant, a strawberry restaurant, of which there are many in Boquete.  

See the giant red strawberry?  
Also, the steepness of the hill: this is on the way up to
the Volcan Baru.

I love how colorful the seating area is.

Lunch: we split a strawberry split.  

On my Big List of Things To Do in Panama, since even before I arrived here, was "climb the volcano".  The Baru Volcano has been long dormant, and opened up recently as a national park.  

Here's the clip from my tickler file:

🌋 National Geographic lists “Hike a Volcano” as one of their top 20 most exciting travel experiences; to do between December and April. A sustainability leader, Panama recently launched its 1000 kilometers of trails project, which seeks to bring outdoor recreation and green tourism to rural communities and protected areas. First out of the gate is the Ruta de la Caldera system of five trails around the extinct Valle de Antón volcano (venalvalle.com). The treks take in waterfall-speckled landscapes, according to their photographer who hiked sections of the route over five days.

I just realized that the Valle de Antón is in a completely different part of Panama; huh.  Well, at any rate, I I've been jonesing to hike up Baru.  There are various routes up the volcano; the one from the Boquete side is 13 km long.  Hikers who want to hike the volcano are supposed to have a guide and to register with the ministry of the interior here, because it's an arduous hike.  

We'd tried to connect with a guide beforehand and had trouble finding one who would respond. We also discovered we're going to have to leave Boquete earlier than we'd planned (Monday instead of Wednesday) because of upcoming road closures --- another Panama story for later! So we decided to just head to the base of the park on Saturday afternoon to explore the base of the volcano.  

Even to get to the base of the volcano involved a long and very steep drive up a very windy (but paved) road.   At the entrance to the park, the road --- which is also the hiking trail --- turned to dirt and gravel.

The road is dirt and gravel that constantly shifts under your feet;
it's at about 23% grade. 

We told the park rangers at the entrance that we were only hiking for about 5 minutes, so they waved us through without making us sign in or having a guide.  I asked if there was anything worthwhile seeing just 5 minutes along the trail, and they told me about a "mirador" (viewing spot).  It was much more than 5 minutes up, but it was worth pausing and resting there!

View One from the mirador.

View Two from the mirador.

View Three from the mirador, back
 toward the volcano still yet to climb.

I am so, so glad we got to do this!  One of the things we learned is just how hard and treacherous this hike actually is -- or rather, the ways in which it's hard and treacherous.  The road is steep, yes, but the need for careful footwork is an even bigger challenge.  There's a small chance I'll try to come back someday with another friend to try to do the entire ascent, but this little piece convinced us that my husband does NOT want to try it.  It's very easy to fall hard on this road. 

Going down is, in some ways, much more challenging than going up;
it's super easy to slip because the gravel and dirt are so loose.

We figure, according to the various apps on my husband's phone, that we went about a half mile along the trail up the volcano (1.7 km round trip), climbed 132 or maybe 169 meters vertically (depending on which app), and rose to a max elevation of 1951 meters.  

So that's the other reason I'm happy: I DID climb up the side of a volcano, even if I didn't climb all the way up.  I even ran for little bits up, and also did my billy goat imitation running/hopping down the hill. 

Driving back down the paved road. There are farms on either side,
and the people who live and work here walk along the road, 
which has no shoulders and no sidewalk.  
Drive carefully!

After all that, we drove back down the windy road to our AirBnB, where we had dinner not in a restaurant, because eventually I do have to go back to being the real me.