Boquete, Volcan Barú, Chiriqui
I spent an amazing weekend in the mountain region Chiriqui in Panamá. The city of Boquete which I visited lies at 1060m. The climate is much cooler than in Panamá City, it has about 25°C all the time. The main product there is coffee, milk and flowers. The people there say that Boquete is the city of eternal spring. Since it is 600km away from Panamá City I decided to travel by plane which is quite affordable in Panamá. After checking in to my (this time really luxurious) hotel, I first took a long walk around Boquete and the surroundings. In the evening I had a good meal at a local restaurant as well as a nice conversation with Mack from New Zealand and some local retirees from the UK. Before I went to sleep I had my first hot shower since I arrived in Panamá 6 weeks ago, amazing :-)
On the next day I met two IAESTE trainees from Switzerland, Mascha and Denise, who work in Chiriqui. We spent a nice day strolling around in Boquete and having a couple cups of coffee. We visited a place called "Mi jardin es su jardin" a private garden open to the public and a nice waterfall afterwards. After having dinner and some shopping, they left me at the evening and my day speaking my native german dialect was over. The girls work in a dairy, unfortunately, 6 days a week. Denise has to make cheese (what else, she is swiss ;-) and Mascha works in a laboratory.
On Monday was my great day. I got up at 4:30 am and took a taxi to the entrance of the Volcan Barú National Park which lies at about 1700m above sea level. After an exhausting hike of 5 hours and gaining 1700m of height I reached the summit of Volcan Barú at 3470m. It is the highest point of Panamá and I was a little bit proud of myself because I made it in just 5 hours. Usually one can see both oceans, the pacific and the atlantic, from this point. But the weather was not very nice, so I just saw clouds. But it was nice up there anyways - 10°C and strong wind. After 9 hours I finally arrived back in Boquete. Volcan Barú is quite different than austrian mountains. The forest ends at about 3300m above sea level which is very unusual in Austria, where we usually have glaciers at this height. I also saw Colibris at 3200m in Austria we have Steinbock's and Gemsen ;-)
I went to bed very early this day. On Tuesday I slept long and had a nice breakfast and a short walk in the town of Boquete. Finally I had to travel back to heat of Panamá City.
Boquete is a very nice place with cool weather and rich vegetation. There are lots of retirees from around the world who enjoy the climate and the low prices.
Feel free to also view my Boquete Gallery: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
On the next day I met two IAESTE trainees from Switzerland, Mascha and Denise, who work in Chiriqui. We spent a nice day strolling around in Boquete and having a couple cups of coffee. We visited a place called "Mi jardin es su jardin" a private garden open to the public and a nice waterfall afterwards. After having dinner and some shopping, they left me at the evening and my day speaking my native german dialect was over. The girls work in a dairy, unfortunately, 6 days a week. Denise has to make cheese (what else, she is swiss ;-) and Mascha works in a laboratory.
On Monday was my great day. I got up at 4:30 am and took a taxi to the entrance of the Volcan Barú National Park which lies at about 1700m above sea level. After an exhausting hike of 5 hours and gaining 1700m of height I reached the summit of Volcan Barú at 3470m. It is the highest point of Panamá and I was a little bit proud of myself because I made it in just 5 hours. Usually one can see both oceans, the pacific and the atlantic, from this point. But the weather was not very nice, so I just saw clouds. But it was nice up there anyways - 10°C and strong wind. After 9 hours I finally arrived back in Boquete. Volcan Barú is quite different than austrian mountains. The forest ends at about 3300m above sea level which is very unusual in Austria, where we usually have glaciers at this height. I also saw Colibris at 3200m in Austria we have Steinbock's and Gemsen ;-)
I went to bed very early this day. On Tuesday I slept long and had a nice breakfast and a short walk in the town of Boquete. Finally I had to travel back to heat of Panamá City.
Boquete is a very nice place with cool weather and rich vegetation. There are lots of retirees from around the world who enjoy the climate and the low prices.
Feel free to also view my Boquete Gallery: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
posted by Martin Loitzl at 06:40
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