Manic On Coffee, My Garden is Your Garden
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
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Trip End
Ongoing
Boquete,
Panama
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
We realized we had to backtrack one hour on a chicken bus to get to Boquete in the highlands. We all checked into Las Mercedes hostel for $6 a night (back to cheap rates), the rooms were more Datsun 180B than Mercedes. We ate a steak which was a strange sensation but the best Fillet Mignon i have ever tasted, mine was cooked at medium rare to perfection by a careful chef. If i´m going to eat a steak, it must be fine quality and i am particular about this. I also must detach from the thought of it being from a cow to enjoy it (a feeling left over from my 3 years of being a vegetarian days)
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.The Chiriqui highlands lie halfway between the Pacific and the Caribbean bordering Costa Rica. There is mist covered mountains, pristine forests without the CR crowds and cool, refreshing streams.The region´s black soil supports a number of small, charming communities, Boquete is one as well as Guadalupe, Volcan and Cerro Punta. The highland farmers enjoy a seemingly idyllic life, cultivating the soil among the crisp mountain air and producing some of Panama´s best crops ranging from coffee and citrus fruit to thoroughbred race horses and rainbow trout. The province is also home to the Ngobe-Bugle people. The women are recognizable by their full, long coloured dresses. The fabrics are nowhere near as impressive or detailed as what we saw in Guatemala though.
Boquete is nestled in a mountain valley at 1060m, with the sparkling Rio Caldera running through it plus grade 5 rapids for rafting....... tempting. Flowers, coffee, vegetables and citrus fruits flourish here on the rich soil. The coffee is considered the countries finest.
We did a 4 hour educational coffee tour with Andreas with the cafe Kotowa coffee plantation that has organic, shade grown coffee
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. The tour was run by a Dutch guide named Hans who was absolutely passionate about the coffee. We learned the whole processing business which included checking every bean individually ( i wouldn´t have believed it if i hadn´t seen it), trekked around the farm and factory, saw how the employment of the indigenous Indians worked and learned how the finest quality 100% Arabica coffee is picked, sorted, dried and roasted using stringent rules. We saw the old factory that was still working with water power. At the end we tasted many different roasts and learned to taste the flavours of chocolate, nuts, acids and fruits in the coffee and how to distinguish how much body the blend has. We found the whole time very interesting and informative.We picked up our fresh laundry, one more item missing, this time swimwear. The ladies don´t necessary steal it, it gets mixed with someone else's clothes.
We went to a wonderful garden called ¨Mi Jardin es Su Jardin¨. The Spanish name means ¨My Garden Is Your Garden¨,a brilliant concept. This beautiful and slightly absurd garden is at someone´s residence and free to visit. I loved it. There were fish ponds, bridges, flowers, plants, little paths, a shrine, hummingbirds, butterflies and lots of wacky animal and people cut outs scattered amongst all this including two giant flamingos which i adore all surrounded by cloud covered mountains. A rainbow even appeared as we trekked around. We did a hilarious photo shoot amongst the gardens. What a generous concept, not even a donation box. I bought a tub of fresh strawberries and ate a whole jar of caviar, as you do. We will have dinner with Andreas again.
