Boquete in the Rain
Trip Start
Jan 22, 2006
1
4
9
Trip End
Feb 12, 2006
Where I stayed
Boquete, Panama
Saturday, January 28, 2006
While most of the travelers we have met have been 50+ we have met a few people traveling with kids, and one woman with two adorable little redheads who are planning to move here. Panana, especially if you have a bit of money to smooth arrangements is a very kid friendly country. It is the only country I know of south of the US where you can drink the tap water, that makes a huge difference since sometimes where the water is bad it is tough to remember the ice cubes and the shower water and the tooth brushing water could make you sick. Would be even tougher with little kids.
We arrived here Thursday, did a recon tour and a visit to public market and supermarket for supplies and came "into" town for supper at the Boquete Bistro. On the way home it was doing the "mist" thing that is so common in Boquete. In the night the "mist" hit with a furry. A storm which came from the Carribean(where there is no DRY season) swooped in over the mountains and hit us hard. The little cabina is solid as a rock, and not a drip or a draft got in, but we were awake a lot from the noise of high winds and rain. Even after sun rise it kept up....but in an erratic way that made for sun, rain, wind and rainbows at the same moment. We ate in both breakfast and lunch and finally ventured out for a hike to dinner. My bad knee was giving me trouble so after a nice Mexican meal a taxi was called and we rode home in (pickup truck) luxury and stayed dry.
Today we had booked a coffee tour. The weather was "better" though not without itīs downpours. It was a great trip with a guy named Hans who is Dutch and moved here 8 years ago. He did a very fun, interesting and informative tour. It started at his home up in the hills where he bought land. Turned out the land had coffee plants....which live something like 60 years....so he put his workers to work clearing it when they werenīt working on his house. (By the way, if you want to come here and rent a car he has a cute cabin for rent...with satelite t.v.). We learned a lot about the two kinds of coffe, the roasting process, the handling, cleaning, sorting etc. Execellent job. I donīt drink coffee, though he did encourage me to taste it. The man who had started the coffee processing came from Scotland to Canada to Panama in about 1917. So foreigners have been coming to Boquete for a long time.
