Boquete
BOQUETE is set in the tranquil Caldera Valley, 1000m above sea level. Some 37km north of David, it is the biggest town in the Chiriquí Highlands, and sits smack in the middle of Panama’s two coasts. The road to Boquete ends in the highlands, so those wishing to travel on to Bocas del Toro from here must go back to David before catching a bus onwards. The slopes surrounding the town are dotted with coffee plantations, flower gardens and orange groves, and rise to rugged peaks that are usually obscured by thick clouds. When those clouds clear, however – most often in the morning – you can see the imperious peak of Volcán Barú, which dominates the town to the northwest. Foreign investment targeting retirees from the US has flooded the area in recent years, seeing the construction of all-inclusive luxury condos and the clearing of cloudforest to make way for golf courses and retirement homes, causing various tensions within the community. For all that, Boquete remains an attractive destination offering a host of activities.
The main attraction of Boquete is the opportunities it affords for exploring the surrounding countryside. As well as the climb to the summit of the volcano – a strenuous day’s walk or a couple of hours on a bone-shaking drive – there are plenty of less demanding walks you can make along the narrow country lanes.
One of these walks, heading out of Boquete to the north towards the hamlet of Alto Lino, takes you past the Café Ruiz factory, a ten-minute stroll from town. Tours explore the coffee-making process.
Boquete festivals
January’s Festival de las Flores y del Café (wferiadeboquete.com) sees Boquete’s otherwise tasteful and discreet appreciation of coffee and flowers give way to lusty, noisy rejoicing. Throughout the ten-day celebrations, which coincide with the coffee harvest, the local fairgrounds explode with flower fireworks – you’ll never see so many orchids – and the locals plant their own gardens accordingly. Stalls spring up selling food, handicrafts and coffee to the thousands of visitors wandering around, followed everywhere by loud, live music. In the evenings the rum is cracked open and people dance around the fairgrounds until dawn. Book accommodation well in advance and avoid the fairground area if you want to get any sleep.
The fairgrounds bloom again in April for the orchid festival, while the annual jazz festival in March is also a big crowd-puller (wboquetejazzandbluesfestival.com/festival-2018).
Cerro Punta and around
Almost 2000m above sea level in a bowl-shaped valley surrounded by densely forested mountains, CERRO PUNTA is the highest village in Panama. In the eighty or so years since it was settled, the town’s fertile soil has produced some eighty percent of all the vegetables consumed in Panama – there are little patches of cultivated land everywhere you look – although this agricultural boom has not done the surrounding forests any good. The town’s altitude gives it a crisp atmosphere, and the taste of the food and the smell of the orchids seem all the better for it.
Everything in tiny Cerro Punta is spread out along the main road from David and a side road leading towards Parque Internacional La Amistad. The scenery, together with the fresh mountain air, makes Cerro Punta a perfect base for hiking – the pristine cloudforests of the national parks of Amistad and Volcán Barú are both within easy reach and two of the best places in Central America to catch a glimpse of the elusive quetzal, early in the morning in the dry season (Jan–April).
David
Three Spanish settlements were founded in this area in 1602; DAVID was the only one to survive repeated attacks from indigenous groups. It developed slowly as a marginal outpost of the Spanish Empire, but in 1732 it was overrun and destroyed by British-backed Miskito groups raiding from Nicaragua. As settlement of Chiriquí increased in the nineteenth century, David began to thrive once again. Today, despite being a busy commercial city – the second largest in the country after Panama City – it retains a sedate provincial atmosphere. Hot and dusty, its unexceptional modern architecture spreads out on a grid, with recent attempts to restore original colonial structures in the east side. While it is not so much a destination in itself, plenty of travellers stop here en route to or from Panama City, Costa Rica, Boquete or Bocas del Toro, and find they enjoy the visit. At Carnaval, of course, things spice up considerably, and David also has a festival all of its own: the Feria de San José thunders its way through ten raucous days every March.
David centres on Parque Cervantes, a fine, tree-shaded place to people-watch with a cup of freshly squeezed sugar-cane juice (caña) perked up with tropical lemon, or a dose of coconut water (agua de pipa). Three blocks southeast of the park lies the oldest part of the city, where the crumbling colonial mansion that was home to successive generations of the distinguished Obaldía family, and former city museum, has sadly been left to decay. A couple more blocks southeast lies the city’s ancient bell tower, and the cathedral – worth a peek inside to take in the garish modern murals.
Isla Boca Brava
The attractive Pacific island of ISLA BOCA BRAVA has two beaches – both quite plain – and its patch of rainforest is crisscrossed by paths that are nice to ramble around while you seek out howler monkeys, armadillos and the like. The island’s small size ensures that you’re not in any danger of getting lost. You can also arrange a snorkelling trip to nearby islands with white-sand beaches.