Boquete Mountain Safari Your Path to Adventure

BOQUETE, A Shangri-La of coffee amid cool, green mountains

Sherman's Travel Magazine, Spring 2010 • Sherman's Spotlight on Panama • By Victoria De Silverio

 

Tucked in the green Talamanca highlands on the western flank of Panama near the Costa Rican border, the winsome hamlet of Boquete enjoys springtime climes year round. And, with its cheerful avarian style cottages dotting the flowery hillsides, Boquete resembles an off-season Swiss ski village. In town, modest churches mingle with boutiques and cafés, and outfitters offer white-water rafting, hiking and birding excursions.
 But there are many happy reminders that one is in Panama, such as men crowding stands selling lottery tickets; indigenous Ngöbe-Buglé women in brightly colored embroidered dresses; and mules hauling sacks of coffee, the region’s most celebrated asset.

 

Conquistadors and gold rushers used the valley as a shortcut (boquete means “gap” or “opening”), and by 1911 Europeans had settled the town. Among them was Norwegian Tollef B. Monniche, who designed the Panama Canal’s emergency dams and founded Finca Lérida, now one of Boquete’s largest coffee plantations. Boquete’s alpine microclimates and rich volcanic soil are ideal for producing high-quality beans. In 2007, a pound of rare Panamanian geisha beans sold at an auction for an unprecedented $130, and last year prices hit $300. Smooth and sweet with notes of honey, lemongrass, lavender, jasmine, tangerine, and tea, the coffee brewed from geisha beans is singular.

 

To understand what makes Boquete coffee so special, visit some of its small family owned estates. On a Boquete Mountain Safari coffee-tasting tour,(507-6627-8829; http://www.boquetmountainsafaritours.com) guests get a closeup view of artisanal coffee production, from the bean planting to roasting, and then they taste the brew.

 

“Coffee is like a mystery,” says Finca la Milagrosa owner Tito Vargas, a local with the dirt-stained hands of a farmer and the dark steady eyes of a mystic. He named his farm Milagrosa (“miraculous”) because naysayers doubted he could grow anything on a depleted 20-acre plot with his machines made of spare parts—like the grinder that relies on a car transmission. But the proof lies in Milagrosa’s delicious coffee. At organic farm Finca Dos Jefes, California-born owner Rich Lipner sprays the trees with a brew of molasses, phosphorus, and nitrogen, and cultivates the fields according to the lunar calendar. Boquete Mountain Safari tours culminate at Finca Lérida with a cupping, a professional tasting to evaluate the aroma, body, and flavor profile of several varietals, hosted by the operation’s head of quality control Andrès Lopez. Visitors gain an appreciation for coffee’s complexity along with a quickened pulse.

 

http://www.shermanstravel.com/spotlights/Panama/Boquete

Boquete, Panama Named as One of the Best Places to......?

We are always getting requests for interviews and tours from various magazines and video producers; NY Times on line, AFAR Magazine; Trinome (Canada); Cable and Wireless (Panama); About.com (http://gocentralamerica.about.com/od/panamaguide/gr/BoqueteMountainSafari.htm ). Boquete is a hot spot for photographers and adventure writers.

Several months ago Jason Varney(http://varneyphoto.com/ ), photographer, was in Boquete shooting the pictures for the new Sept/Oct issue of AARP. He contacted us about our Horseback Riding in the Mountains Tour. We were delighted to take him, his assistant, and a representative from Ancon Expeditions (review on TripAdvisor http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g298424-d1070367-Reviews-Boquete_Mountain_Safari_Tours-Boquete.html ). It seems that Boquete is always in the news; as a great eco-tour destination, or for that retirement paradise.
 "..... if you want a temperate highlands retreat surrounded by unmatched natural splendor, the mountain town of Boquete, an hour’s flight from Panama City, is close to heaven. Here expats settle amid rain forests, coffee plantations, burbling streams, and hummingbirds hovering over dazzling flowers."

For the complete article on AARP on line:

http://www.aarp.org/home-garden/livable-communities/info-07-2010/best-places-retire-panama-boquete.html

To contact Boquete Safari: http://www.boquetemountainsafaritours.com/index1.html

Boquete, Panama: An emerging market in Agricultural Tourism (Part 2)

Most visitors to Napa Valley, for wine tastings, or Kona in Hawaii, for coffee tastings, probably don’t view themselves as Agri-Tourists. They are either enjoying the beautiful scenery as they drive to different estates; or they are on a mission to find the best wine or coffee, that no one else can find. Napa Valley, in California, is one of the most successful examples of Agri-tourism. Napa has gone as far as declaring itself an “agricultural preserve”. The economy in Hawaii was actually built around agriculture and tourism; sugar cane and pineapple. However, with some brilliant marketing, and award winning coffee, Kona Coffee, as a symbol of Hawaii, has replaced the pineapple. (To understand the Kona/Panama connection, and the “marketing” issue; read this blog article: http://boquetesafaritours.typepad.com/boquete_mountain_safari_t/2008/08/kona-coffee-scandal-know-the-origin.html

The blending of agriculture and tourism is beneficial for the health of agricultural land; and provides a more enriching experience for the tourist. Hawaii has embraced the Ag Tourism experience. When you type “Kona coffee tours” in your search engine, the selection, scope, and variety of tours is mammoth. The total value of agritourism in the state of Hawaii [in 2000] was pegged at $26 million. Approximately 1,350,401 visitors toured the Kona side of the Big Island in 2007. (How many of them are experiencing the coffee tours is a statistic I cannot find.) The State of Hawaii has realized the benefit of Agitourism to its economy. They are considering legislation to encourage tourism on agriculturally zoned land. Activities on ag land, to supplement income, can range from conducting tours, selling products produced from the land, or operating a B & B. By selling the roasted coffee at the estate, 100% of the added value of the roasted product can stay in Hawaii.

 Coffee production in Panama generates approximately $32 million dollars in revenue, and creates about 8,750 jobs. The Chiriqui Province alone is growing coffee on 10,000 hectares (there are about 2.5 acres per hectares; so that means about 25,000 acres), with elevations starting at about 4,000 feet. The total Kona coffee area is about 2,290 acres, with elevations between 500 and 3,000 feet. So what do all these numbers mean? That Boquete’s coffee growing area, due to its greater size, and higher elevation, can provide a more diverse experience for the agritourist. Boquete’s rich volcanic valley has many different micro-climates that allow for the production of coffee with an array of flavorful and aromatic differences. Although Boquete coffee has won countless awards world wide, surpassing Kona coffee accolades, the marketing of Boquete Coffee Tours has not reached the world market, as Kona has. Tourists travel to Kona just for the coffee; or Napa just for the wine. If Boquete Coffee, as an agritourist destination, could capture some of the 1.3m guests who visit Kona each year, the Boquete farmer would not be selling his coffee green for $1.00 or $2.50 a pound ( http://forest.mtu.edu/pcforestry/people/2005/Daniels.pdf. ) Single Estate specialty coffee from Panama sells in the United States, on line, for $7.00 to $12.00 a pound. This added value, by roasting and packaging in the area it is grown, could remain in Panama to enrich the local farmers, instead of the international market. http://www.coffeefrompanama.com/Gourmet_Estate_Coffee_s/1.htm

Please don’t misunderstand me, the numerous internet coffee houses selling Panama coffee has enhanced the awareness of the brand “Panama Coffee”. However, many of the small farmers don’t have the money to promote their ‘brand’ like Ruiz, Kotowa, or Hacienda la Esmerlada http://www.haciendaesmeralda.com/ .  So they are forced to roll their crop in to a larger companies exports, and not realize the added revenue they could be receiving.

Several years ago, on my first visit to Panama, I stayed at Finca Lerida. Since it is high in the mountains, the evenings were spent chatting with John Collins (the owner of Finca Lerida) about coffee. Since he is a born talker, and has an incessant passion for coffee, I learned a lot. And one of the first things I learned was that Boquete could and should be like Kona and Napa. The coffee is here; the quality is here; the passion for coffee is here; we just don’t have the marketing dollars. With the new administration, and some of the Boquete locals pushing to get Panama City politicians to remember Boquete, when deciding on where to put those marketing dollars; there is hope that they will look past the Canal and the Free Trade Zone, and see the potential market and dollars in the Boquete Valley.

My company, Boquete Mountain Safari, has always known of the possibility of this emerging agritourist market; so we have started the first, Kona/Napa type of coffee tour in Boquete. Now we just need the international market to take a look.

http://www.boquetemountainsafaritours.com/coffeetours.html

The picture above is Tito from Finca la Milagrosa; learning to make coffee, on one of our coffee tours. You get to meet and talk with the owner of the coffee estate.

From Review: A must do when in Boquete on Feb 2009, (Jklam)

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g298424-d1070367-Reviews-Boquete_Mountain_Safari_Tours-Boquete.html#REVIEWS

To read part 1; click "All About Coffee" in the Categories section.

Horseback Riding in Boquete

 Horseback riding in Boquete is one of our most popular adventure tours. If you love horses, as I do, it is a great way to travel through the countryside. Even if you’ve never been on a horse before, riding can take you back to a time when transportation, by horseback, was the only way to travel. Horses make the journey an adventure. However, my love and respect for animals is not shared by everyone on this earth. When I lived in St Thomas, I would find kittens thrown in the dumpster, just left to die. It can be very heartbreaking.

As an Eco and Agro-Tour company, Boquete Safari has a mission to always help, without interference, the natural world. So it just seemed fitting for us to be part of the solution. The pictures below are from two horses that we rescued. The Little Girl (the black horse), was and still is, in pretty bad shape. She is 11 years old and just never had the care needed to maintain good bone and muscle mass. She is coming along however, and has not been beaten down, she is pretty feisty. Cliff, the bay, wasn’t so bad. He was so named because when he was a colt he fell off a cliff. He is blind in one eye. I’m not sure if he fell because he was blind, or he was blinded by the fall. He is such a good and easy horse, he has become everybody’s favorite; a gentle, smooth ride, with a little Paso gait.

We hope to keep slowly adding to the fleet. So you can feel good about taking a horseback riding tour with Boquete Safari; some of the proceeds are helping with the rescues.

Howler Monkey's on Patrol in Boquete, Panama

The rainy season is over in Boquete, Panama, but it was a rather wet one. Boquete, and other areas of Panama, had some severe flooding along the river. A couple of hotels were damaged, and a few homes along the river were washed away. The flood came so quickly that some horses, dogs, and pigs that were tied up in their yards drowned, as there was not enough time to let them loose. To me, an animal advocate, this is most tragic, as domestic animals are in our care, they were helpless, and no one could help them.

The river swelled so quickly that some of the trails in the National Park are difficult to navigate, and some areas are dangerous to cross. As the dry season sets in, and the rivers recede ,the trails will open again. In the mean time, Boquete Safari has found some new trails, still within the National Park. This is a great time of year to see the rainforests in Boquete, Panama, so our guides set out the day after the flood, to access the damage to the trails and find passage.

If you have traveled with us on our wildlife adventures, you know that we have a 90% Quetzal Sighting rate; that our guides have an uncanny ability to find wildlife that others would just pass by. So of course we have found a couple of Howler Monkey Troupes on our new trails.

This is a new category on this blog--I will try to keep up with the sightings of wildlife in Boquete, Panama and include at least one picture if possible.

This is one of the Howler Monkey's spotted on our wildlife adventure last week.

The Visitor Panama • Horseback Riding & Caldera Hot Springs

The Visitor, Panama's tourist newspaper, is printed twice a month and presents advice and features for tourists and information on the tourist industry. One of their writers, and a frequent visitor to Boquete, recently toured with Boquete Mountain Safari: Ursula Kiener Ford--sometimes Insurance Broker, sometimes Horseback Rider, but always a good source of information to tourists and anyone considering moving to Panama. You can read the complete article by clicking on the link below. If you need help with Insurance in Panama you can reach Ursula by e-mail : [[email protected]].

http://www.focuspublicationsint.com/New_Site/Visitor14-36/tours_visitor.html

A Boquete Panama Safari Tour

By Lee (Boquete Guide) | May 10, 2008

I received a pleasant surprise when Carol of Boquete Safari offered me a chance to experience one of their Boquete Panama tours. Although I have been on the occasional guided tour in other countries I have never been driven around Boquete Panama. I did the the Boquete Mountain safari. The tour was scheduled to depart Los Establos at 8:30am and it did!

Boquete Safari uses a 1978 Land Cruiser with an open back and seating for six passengers, they do have both larger and smaller vehicles coming for other tours. Our group consisted of two local high school students studying to be tour guides, a very nice couple from the US, myself, our driver and John our tour guide.

Although the terrain we traveled and places visiting were familiar to me, John did an excellent job understanding his passengers and provided keen insight and knowledge of the ecology and community. If speak English or Spanish he is an ideal guide, a native Boqueteno who spent 18 years in the US, this provides him excellent cultural and language tools for communication. (To read the entire article please go to www.boqueteguide.com )