Boquete, Panama is in the news again, this time via the Washington Post. I have been living in Boquete for several years now and it is always exciting to see our little village make ‘the big time’. With the Holiday’s approaching, along with the snow and sleet in many areas of the world, Boquete is a great destination for an awesome adventure.
By David Taylor: Special to The Washington Post
Friday, November 19, 2010; 10:46 AM
“The words "zip line canopy tour" brought visions of a childhood dream: gliding over emerald rows of plants in Panama's coffee highlands. I imagined flicking under the dark green leaves of coffee trees, just yards above the rich soil, getting a thrill and a deep appreciation of a new place at the same time. Sitting at my home computer, that vision struck me as pretty irresistible. My wife, Lisa, and I were planning a trip to see my cousins in Panama, so I typed in a few lines, and zip! I had a reservation.
In Panama City with my cousins, we strolled the atmospheric old quarter, Casco Viejo, taking in its jazz clubs, galleries, restaurants and New Orleans-style aura, then flew to Boquete. Nestled in Panama's coffee highlands, Boquete is far from the brutal humidity of the capital and known more for rafting, coffee farm tours and gringo retirees than for history. (Our taxi driver told us that the name of Las Ruinas, a restaurant outside town, refers to a fake ancient ruin.) The area's oldest coffee mill dates to 1917.
More recently, the mountain air also spawned zip line tours, typically as a way to see a forest's upper reaches. (The zip's history goes back to H.G. Wells's 1897 novella, The Invisible Man,as a fair ride in which "one could be hurled violently against a sack at the other end"; Wells astutely observed that the notion held "considerable favor among the adolescent.") So we showed up at Los Establos Plaza, climbed into Boquete Tree Trek's open-sided diesel truck along with 10 other travelers from Europe, Asia and the United States, and rode up the mountain.
The air quickly got cooler, the road narrowed and we passed the dark green coffee leaves that I'd pictured. They were, however, way too low to fly under. Coffee plants can grow pretty tall but get trimmed to about eight feet for easier harvest. Some varieties prefer shade from a higher layer of trees; others prefer full sunlight.
Not long ago, coffee experts from the Roasters Guild journeyed to Boquete to probe its secrets and learned that the east-west curve of Panama (my cousins called it "the downspout effect," from its shape on the map) allows a unique web of cold air currents through the mountains. The currents cause a flourishing of microclimates - subtly varied blends of temperature, moisture and sunlight - that suit the finicky coffee plants.
If you have time, it's worth scheduling a coffee farm tour that takes you from plant to roaster. Panama's rainy season runs from April to December, but the Tree Trek folks report that May is drier in the mountains. In April, Boquete's bromeliad festival showcases the wonderland of the highlands' native plants.”
For Information about the links in the article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111902741_4.html?sid=ST2010111903682
To Book an Adventure Tour: http://www.boquetemountainsafaritours.com/index1.html
The complete Article in the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111902722.html?sid=ST2010111903682
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