Relaxing in Boquete

8 July 2009

Boquete is a relaxed small town in the north of Panama, set in a beautiful open valley between many hills and mountains. Boquete brings us a week of nature and relaxation. We stay in a charming little cabana (La Isla Verde) set in a stunningly beautiful garden. We have our own kitchen – ah finally homemade meals, we buy lots of fresh fruits and veg in the local market. Oddly enough, the local meat manufacturer seems to have swiss roots, and I spot one of my favourites in the meat section: a real “Landjäger”.

The mornings we take long walks of 3 to 4 hours enjoying the surrounding nature – rivers, forests, great views over the valley, and lots of coffee farms. Some of Boquete's coffee is marketed as gourmet organic coffee, and sold directly via internet auction.

One day we take a rest from our long walks and go to visit the natural hot springs, about 40 min outside of town. These are natural all right; we get dropped off at the end of a dirt road right before a bridge, we cross the bridge and follow a dirt path which leads through many trees and over some small creeks. Suddenly a lady calls out from a farm house and charges us two dollars for using the hot springs as this is private property. And finally we discover the 2 to 3 hot springs, very small pools with steaming hot water! The pools are about the size of a jacuzzi, and the water is so hot that steam rises from it. Small bubbles rise from the ground. This is an amazing place – especially as it is 100% set in nature, no development, not even a stand that would sell a drink.

We also start to enjoy a small outdoor place behind our hotel: Big Food Grill. This is one big oven with a few plastic chairs around it – we go there a few times. Once we order diet cokes for drink, and the waitress (the daughter of the man behind the BBQ) says that they don't have that, but that the order is OK anyway. A few minutes later, she drives off in a car, only to return 15 minutes later. After that, we get our drinks. We suspect she drove off to the supermarket to get our cokes...

You cannot leave Boquete without picking up at least two words of Spanish:”Se Vende!”. Good thing we are enjoying Boquete now as it appears the whole region is For Sale. We did not see one piece of land or house that did not have the infamous For Sale sign. It appears that this is a favorite spot for North American retirees. Wonder what it will look like in a few years . . .