The best of Boquete

Feb 26

The days here in Boquete are quite lovely. We wake up to tropical birds singing. I wish it were easier to see them. We did catch a glimpse of two parrots flying by us on a walk to town one day. The sun is shining all day most days. Sometimes in the early morning there are big white clouds hanging on the mountain tops and there might be a very slight mist. The first day we arrived I thought I was walking through a sprinkler at first, then realized what it actually was. The area around Boquete is spectacular with mountains all around, lush green forests and it is the windy season until March so we have daily winds. They are refreshing; the sky is bright blue with no sign of pollution. The temperature is usually in the mid 70’s. It is now 11:00 a.m. and it is 77 with a low of 64 tonight.

There are many reasons to like Boquete and most of them I have described here. Dining out is much cheaper than Panama City, almost half the price. But we have yet to find a fine dining experience here and I doubt that it exists. There is no movie theater here and we have only seen one DVD store and it had mostly Spanish tiles. The few English titles we have seen or they were action or horror films, not our cup of tea. There are three or four grocery stores but only one that is thriving and fully stocked. For soy milk we went to the organic store.  It is small but did have almond milk which we bought and it worked just fine. They didn’t have any soy milk.

The town has one main street with commercial/retail. It consists of real estate offices, banks, a few small grocery stores, souvenir shops and tour companies that can arrange trips throughout the area: visit to the volcano, river rafting, and nature hikes. If you go on either side of the central avenue you will find residential neighborhoods with an occasional business or eatery. About 30 miles to the south is Panama’s second largest city, David, with a population of 104,000. It is an agro hub not a cultural center. Lonely Planet, the travel series we most often use, lists four eateries in David: one is a Chinese food cafeteria (personally I cannot imagine anything worse), a café that specializes in juice and smoothies, a Lebanese restaurant and a grocery store for self catering. That gives you a picture that speaks a thousand words.

So for us, this area does not meet our criteria as a place to hang our hats for a year or two. As I have mentioned, part of the odyssey is to locate a place in Mexico or Central America where we can live while the City of Vancouver decides if it will allow four miles of Bakken oil cars to cross through downtown daily to the port where a proposed oil transfer terminal is to be built. We also have since discovered that there is an oil refinery on the drawing board as well. Additionally there is a proposal for coal terminals on the Washington coast that will bring six miles of coal trains through downtown as well. When we left in June to live in Portland for the summer we would see long trains with Bakken oil and coal trains sitting on the tracks daily waiting to pass through Vancouver. So it is already happening but not to the extent that is proposed.

Frankly, we are pretty disheartened and feel that we will not be able to return to Vancouver. Money talks in the US…heck anywhere that is the case so we expect that some form of these proposals will go through but the permitting process will take at least another year and possibly more. Ron and I have traveled a lot and enjoyed living in other countries so feel that if nothing else, this is our opportunity to have a last fling, as it were, to live outside the US. Given our age we want to take advantage of the chance to do this while we are still very healthy. If we don’t return to Vancouver neither of us knows what we want yet. We love the Portland area but living in Oregon will take a 9% cut in our income due to state income tax. In addition housing is quite a bit more expensive in Portland. But as Ron likes to say ‘it is only money’.

Tonight we had the best meal we have had in Panama, so I have to retract my statement about the lack of fine dining in Boquete. Mango restaurante had a very interesting menu with a chef who works to source local organic ingredients. We are delighted with our meals. I had a roasted red pepper soup with goat cheese and pesto with a watermelon salad that had feta, red onions, mint, radishes, and kalmata olives. OMG it was great. Ron had a pork vindaloo without red dye #24 that is used in most Indian restaurants.

Feb 27

Today we walked a bit out of town to a private garden. It was all uphill. Of course the good news coming back was that it was all downhill. The gardens are on an estate that seems to be growing over time. The latest addition was a coffee bar. Although the coffee wasn’t very good, the view was great. The other couple there was from The Netherlands although they now live in coastal Panama part of the year and in Canada part of the year. 

The gardens seemed to be near the end of the season. The property was quite large with a lot of different plants but nothing spectacular. It was good to get out and stretch our legs.

On the way back, we stopped by the gelato place and found out they had sorbet, so we told them we would return. We also stopped in a sandwich place and looked at the menu and decided to return there as well. In the afternoon we walked down our street until it ended at the highway and then came back and walked up another street that ended at the local cemetery. There a caretaker spoke with us and showed us where we could take some steps back down the hill. We ate dinner in our room. We had take-out vegetable soup and cornbread that were delicious. It was a nice break from sitting in a restaurant. We watched the News Hour by streaming. Ah the simple pleasures of life.

Feb 28

Today we made a hot breakfast with eggs and bagels.  We went to town to get a few items then came back to the room. Later we went to the sandwich shop we found the day before for lunch and split a great bacon and chicken sandwich and topped it off with a sorbet for me and ice cream for Ron at the gelato shop. Yum!

I spent the afternoon reading all about Costa Rica from a very informative website by a gringo who has lived there for five years and he is determined to tell about the real Costa Rica. He was detailed, frank and most helpful at dispelling myths about the place. My favorite thing he said that made me laugh so hard I was crying was in Costa Rica the Spanish word for pedestrian is ‘target’. Having lived in places where this is the reality I appreciated the humor. While I was reading about CR Ron worked on our taxes. We have a CPA that actually does our taxes but Ron has a lot of prep to do for her. So far so good. Hopefully no information that is needed is locked away in our storage unit in Portland! We had a good dinner tonight at the Art Café.  It wasn’t as good as Mango but it was second best so far for Panama.

March 1

It has rained off and on all day with a ferocious wind. We went out for breakfast at Sugar and Spice where I had my second huevos rancheros which were, once again, to die for delicious! We spent almost all day in the room on our computers or reading. We had leftovers for lunch then went to Big Daddy’s for dinner. We had fish tacos last time so this time I had a salad which wasn’t good and Ron had grilled red snapper with fries and slaw which was good. A quick stop at the grocery store and we came home and watched two episodes of Downton Abbey. Ron has managed to download a software program that now lets us stream programs that we usually can’t access outside the US. We turned in early as we need to get up at 6:00 for our waterfall hike pick up at 7:00.

March 2

I didn’t sleep well at all but that isn’t unusual for me. Fernando picked us up at a little after 7:00 and we hit the trail by 7:30. We were in a rain forest in a national park. The path was wide initially but very rocky with rocks the size of tennis balls and oranges. I had to watch every step or I would trip or twist my ankle. But what a great hike. 

All we heard was rushing water from a creek quite close by and birds of every description. We hiked uphill for two and a half hours, pausing to look for and at birds. 

The thrill of a lifetime: we got to watch a quetzal and Ron got some terrific shots. These are magnificent birds. I am still squealing over the fact we got to see one. 

We also saw lots of butterflies, some chickens, a turkey and geese at a house along the way. Along the trail we saw lots of bromeliads (a parasitic plant native to the tropics that grow on other plants, mostly trees). We also saw a very large tree reported to be over 1500 
years old!

We went back to the car and it was 11:50! No wonder my feet hurt. Fernando drove us around the farms in the highlands and we ended up at a coffee finca which also has hiking trails, a hotel with expensive rooms, a restaurant and a coffee plantation. The estate was built in 1929. We had an Americano which was strong as requested and are still waiting for a coffee from Panama we like. So far most coffee here has a wine like taste to it and it isn’t pleasant to our palettes.

We were tired so we had Fernando drop us off at the Sugar and Spice where we eat frequently because the food is so good. We split a sandwich and picked up chili con carne and cornbread for tonight;s dinner as most restaurants are closed on Monday and what is available is not good. This evening will be viewing two more episodes of Downton Abbey.