Archive for January, 2008
« Home
Boquete: land of eternal spring
Friday, January 4th, 2008Well, I suppose spring is sometimes stormy, eh? But apparently this wind is unusual, even for boquete. It storms on and off but in the interim i have gotten out for some hikes and now know that this is a really beautiful place. I had my reservations about boquete because it has become quite a retirement haven for americans. I didn’t want to end up in “del webb’s sun city boquete” 
. But the center of town still has some local flavor and it appears that the retirees stay in their mountain fortresses most of the time.
There is a real alpine feel with steep, green valleys and a crispness to the air. This is big coffee growing country. Jennae, a friendly brit and I decided that we would rent bikes (here at nomba), cab up 8 steep kms to a coffee finca (farm), then bike down another road back to town (and do a waterfall hike on the way). Well, after dawdling during breakfast at the finca it was becoming clear that the very stormy weather was not going to break. Since I’m still fighting my cold I decided I didn’t care to ride several hours in wind and rain (yeah, I’ll blame my cold) so I cabbed back down to hike in the sunnier valley. I’m glad I did. Tho the other 2 were troopers determined to make the best of it, it was clearly not an ideal ride.
Lots of friendly folks here at the hostel from holland, israel, germany, canada, japan and uptown oakland (yes, oaktown is in da house!). I can say that ryan, the owner of nomba, is a wealth of info after being a rafting guide boquete for several years and now running this hostel and a new one in panama city. He’s extremely friendly, helpful and good-looking. Heck, doesn’t hurt to be easy on the eyes.
Bocas Recap
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008
There is no need to detail my time in bocas del toro but I do have observations to share. We stayed in a casita on isla carenero which is directly across from bocas town. Maybe this used to ... [Continue reading this entry]
Bocas Del Toro, Panama
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008
[Continue reading this entry]
Peggy Rehm