Middle-aged flash packers

Although Boquete offers both, in our minds, Boquete was going to be all about hiking, flora and fauna rather than zip lines and coffee tours. S was particularly keen to climb Volcan Baru and view both the Pacific and the Caribbean Sea from the summit. The volcano is just under 3500m high and a 1600m, 13km ascent up a rock-strewn track so it would be quite a challenge.

Although MH had told us the weather would be fine now until April, my Boquete weather forecast was saying nothing of the sort so we packed raincoats for our first hike of our stay which was the pipeline trail.

Unlike the Pipeline trail in Panama City, this pipeline carries water. It’s not very long, less than 4 miles there and back. The highlight is a waterfall.

For us, it’s all about the journey rather than the destination. We love jungles and rainforests. The noises, the flowers, the birds; it combines to make us the slowest walkers ever, stopping all the time to look and listen. This time we really got lucky and saw a quetzal bird. It looked very forlorn, sitting hunched up on a branch. A male was flitting around but I think Mrs Q was having a bad day and just ignored him so he flew off. These weren’t the resplendent ones but it was still quite a thrill to see them.

As we walked along the trail, the water pipes would occasionally squirt out water at high velocity. The first time it happened, we virtually left the ground in fear.

We finished hiking about 3pm and no rain had appeared so it seemed that MH knew what he was talking about. However, we decided to nip into the minimart nearest to us to pick up some provisions and the heavens opened. Not just a little bit of drizzle but full on monsoon style rain. Cue the rest of the afternoon and evening in our room other than popping out for some rather delicious tacos.

Today we attempted the quetzal trail. Waterproofs packed, we were delighted when we reached the start of the trail as there was only one other car there so we could park easily. However the other car was there because, like us, he hadn’t realised the trail was closed for the foreseeable future due to a landslide. The man in the ticket office still sold us a(discounted) ticket so we could walk to the point of the landslide and come back again. All of 1km. We set off but our heart wasn’t in it so we turned back and decided to do the waterfall trail instead.

This is a spectacular trail. There are three waterfalls to see on this hike, and today they were all in full flow thanks to yesterday’s rain. We were pleased yet a little disappointed to receive the over 59’s discounted entrance fee without being asked to present our ID. We can no longer hide from the awful truth that not only are we old we look it as well.

The trail was quite slippy but it was worth the effort and we quite enjoyed the challenge of the return journey where we had to use ropes to negotiate the muddy rocks and steep descents. About half way back, the heavens opened and made the paths even more treacherous. I did manage to do a Tarzan-like swing on one of the ropes, straight into a muddy bank. We had thought about having coffee and cake in town after the hike but my trousers were so filthy S said no and made me sit on a carrier bag in the car. So here we are again, in our room watching the rain that was supposed to never happen.

Volcan Baru is off the agenda as tomorrow also looks wet and there’s little point in a 26k arduous climb to see nothing but cloud at the top.

Ah well, that’s travel for you.

Can’t wait for Boca del Toro.

Taco time