Flora and Fauna of Boquete

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Trip Start Dec 03, 2007 Previous
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  Boquete, Panama
Friday, February 15, 2008

Today is Chris and Hilary´s birthday! Happy birthday Hil. We will think of you as we
raise a Balboa and Soberana (sp) beer in a toast to the two of you and eat a wonderful lunch at the Hibiscus restaurant up in the Boquete mountains.
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Once we realized that our time in Boquete is quickly coming to a close,
we made the decision to rent a car for a week and quickly try
to see as many of the interesting little places that
surround  Boquete as we could

a Magnificent Owl butterfly

. These are not establshed tourist
attractions, so a little bit of roughing it and some ingenuity was
required to actually find these places. It has been fun, and
we feel a satisfaction in saying that we were able to see these little treasures.

To start, I should mention that we had an interesting experience on the
night that we completed the Quetzal Trail. Upon returning to our teepee
at dusk, we noticed that the ground seemed to be moving in a black mass all around the
cabin. Looking closer, we realized that we were standing in the middle
of a swarm of ants. Hoping that our cabin was not full of ants, we
opened the door, rushed inside and closed the door as fast as we could.
No ants except for the ones that had hitched a ride inside on our
pants. We quickly got rid of them. The next day, our landlord told us
that they were army ants foraging their way through the property. We
told him that we were thankful that they didn´t go into the cabin and
he suggested that we should have let them in as they are good
housekeepers

A neo glass wing butterfly.

! Every crumb  would have been cleaned out and the
place would have been left spotless. Hmmm. These ants attract a unique
bird, the Antbird, which pursues the insects that are being
flushed out by the ants. We didn´t see any of these birds as we
were too concerned about how we were going to get through the sea of
ants at our doorstep.

After our experiences hiking through a few Panamanian
primary forests, we decided to visit a nicely manicured
property called Paradise Gardens in the area called Volcancito. Two
years ago, a retired couple from Britain purhased this property 
with the idea of creating and opening up a garden to the public which
would feature their collection of 14 large birds - cockatoos, parrots
and macaws - as well as a butterfly house that they planned on
building

An ex Central American Coral snake. Deadly

. What they learned when they actually starting
living here, was that many Panamanians happily take young
wild animals into their homes but as the animal ages, they realize that
they don´t know how to take care of them . The animals would not
survive on their own if they were put back into the forests, so the
Saban family have changed their plans slightly to create a Rescue and
Release operation for these animals. What a noble venture. We loved
walking through their gardens, seeing parrots, an ocelot, a kinkajou,
the butterflies and then into the monkey cages. Chris was paid for his
caring ways with a capuchin monkey, by being poohed on, just as we were
leaving. Quite the souvenir.


Boquete also has a well known private garden called ´Mi Jardin es Su
Jardin´ which is located right next door to the Ruiz Coffee building
where we started our coffe tour

sunning

. This garden was full of hundreds of
varieties of flowers and whimsical decorations. Note in the photos the
figurines, fishponds, statues, windmills, chapel and viewing
tower. The owners must have had fun creating this garden, but
now it also must be quite the job taking care of it. Things grow fast
here. Behind the coffee shop, close to the river, we were
lucky to find 2 of 15 small rocks with petroglyphs on them. Apparently,
the area that we found them on, was once an old Indian cemetary. As the
story we heard goes, foreigners started digging in the cemetary and
found many golden objects in the graves which they stoled and took back
to their home countries ... 

On another day, we headed
on the highway with our new American neighbours, Joanne and
Murray, towards the hot city of David in order to find some
Hot Springs and a giant rock with petroglyphs in the area called
Caldera

wet Big Blue a pet parrot abandoned by its owner

. Easily, we found signs pointing to the Hot Springs and after
driving a few kilometres on once again another rough road we got out of
the car and walked in the heat for 45 minutes on a rocky trail to a
private ranch where the hotsprings were located. The waters of
these springs have been used to the alleviate pains of hundred of
people as they ´favour circulation, produce relaxation and have
analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties´. The temperature ranges
from 39 and 42 degrees - mesothermal waters.

Upon returning
to the village of Caldera, we asked a young boy if he knew where a big
petroglyphic rock, or Piedra Pintada, was. He pointed in the direction then offered to take
us there. If he had not done this, we NEVER would have found it. It was
on private property, in a cowpatch, and literally off the beaten track

Cows checking us out at Caldera springs

.
But there, suddenly looming ahead of us, was a massive black rock,
just covered with painted petroglyphs. What a find. Studies have been done on this
rock but the meanings in the writings are still a mystery. It is
typical of petroglyphic rocks in that it is found near water and was
probably a religious area. Sacrifices may have been made on it in order
to appease the rain gods. Burial grounds may be near by.

On
Valentine´s Day, we joined our neighbours to take a 5 hour guided
walk up to a waterfall at the north end of Boquete. The guide was a
local man who spoke fairly well in English and was able to recognize
many of the medicinal wild plants that were on our trail, as well as
identify the birds that we either saw or heard as we walked

Is this Tim´s crew

.
Once
again, we walked into a primary florest with huge sequoia trees,
cedars, avocadoes, strangler figs and 3 types of trees that only
grow in this area. The only one that I can remember was called a Bambito
tree. The wood in these trees are a reddish colour and
similiar to mahagony, but with no rings. The guide also talked about both
the poisonous and non poisonous snakes that are here - green
snakes, vipers, coral snakes, and the dreaded bushmaster snake. Happily we have
not seen a live snake yet. Butterflies and wild flowers were our constant companians and at
one point ... even a family of Quetzals! These birds are known to be
elusive and one of the most beautiful birds in the world. We have been
fortunate to have seen them in both Costa Rica and here.

Scarlet Macaws

The only
disappointment that I had, was not seeing a sloth. I continue to look
for them. They are here!

Our neighbours had some bad luck. In the middle of the night, intruders
broke into their rental house and stoled their two computers and a
little bit of cash while they were sleeping. We were happy that we did
not bring our laptop down with us this time. The portable hard drive
that we brought down has been great and the internet cafes are cheap.

Two weeks remain for us in Boquete before we start the next phase of our trip. At the end of February, we are meeting our good friends Gail and Pat from Bellingham, Washington and will travel with them for 3 weeks. At this time we have started to plan our trip, which will start in Panama City and end up in San Jose, Costa Rica, by asking fellow travellers for advice about what to see and where to stay. We have some good recommendations for a great trip.

Our last two weeks will end on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica where we will meet up with our Quebecois friends, Diane and Claude. Staying in a cute villa on the ocean with old friends will be a great way to end our
time in Central America.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Shy kinkajou,aka honey bear	White throated capuchinn getting friendly	flowers and fishponds galore	Chris and Mooey
Mi Jardin Photo 1	Mi Jardin photo 2	Murray and Joanne walking to Caldera Springs	Connie on top of the petroglyphic situation
One big petroglyph near Caldera Springs	petroglyph Rock. Lots of action	Recycling old tires. Brilliant	Road tour. great shots
C and C on the waterfall trip	Our guide engulfed within a 1200 year old Sequoia	One of 3 bridges croosed on the waterfall taril	un amigo on the trail

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