November 20th 2022 – February 14th 2023

I arrived here in Boquete, Panama: (translated to English as ’The Valley of Flowers’, personally it could also be translated to ‘The Town of Rainbows’), Sunday evening November 20th 2022 at Isla Verde. https://islaverdepanama.com to save some money as a volunteer for the owner Eva helping her out with things that need to be done at her hotel. I left Rivas, Nicaragua on a Friday afternoon taking a taxi to the border at a cost of $20.USD, then crossing the border and walking about 2 km, I got a bus that late afternoon to Liberia for $5.00, arriving at 6pm there were no buses heading to San Jose, Costa Rica, so I spent the night there at a cost of $20., the lady woke me at 5:15am so that I could catch the 6am bus to San Jose, as I had no alarm to wake myself up with. I then stayed 1 night in San Jose, where I was located I did not like the area very much, many homeless men laying in the streets on a piece of cardboard, many families on the streets begging for spare change, the area did not seem to safe as police officers warned me about being very careful with money and valuables as not to get robbed. McDonald’s restaurants everywhere along with many of the other United States fast food restaurant chains, I was just not impressed, glad to keep moving on very quickly to get to the final destination of Boquete, Panama.

The first thing that I observed being here in Boquete, is the amount of Americans living here, the locals have told me that the so called ‘Americans’ have taken over this small town, thus becoming another American city outside of the USA, liken to Vilcabamba,(pronounced Beelcabamba in Spanish) Ecuador, thus this is now the second place that I have been to that is a American town, in a Latin American country, I’m sure there are others, I just have not been to as of yet and personally would like to avoid altogether. When the ‘Americans’ from the United States find a nice place to relocate to and then other Americans join and take over the place, it becomes ruined as far as I am concerned, the prices rise and cost of living goes up drastically. This may or may not be good for the locals, as some may benefit from earning a higher income being hired to do gardening or house cleaning, but others I believe suffer due to the increase costs of living.

Me as a traveller going from country to country on a very low fixed income, I need to travel to places that are very affordable to live and such places that the so called “Americans’ have invaded and taken over are way too expensive for me to visit, stay and live, for me it’s like being in Canada with the high cost of living, thus why I had to leave to seek out lower costs of living. So I need to avoid visiting ‘dollarized’ countries, because the exchange rate is too costly.

This time of the year it is the end of winter season with summer about to start, but with the end of winter the days are very misty, not raining, but a fine rain or mist, its different and kinda cool I suppose. The locals have a name for it or describe it as “Bajareque’ or ’Sereno’ I attempted to translate these words and failed, but I am led to believe misty weather. I have been told summer and dry season being much hotter starting in December and ends about July, and winter season starts July and ends in December. The nearby city of David (pronounced DaVeed in Spanish) by bus is about 1 hour and 15 minutes at a cost of $1.75 and is said to be much hotter weather all year ‘round, because David’s elevation is 24 meters, whereas Boquete’s elevation is 1,131 meters, and the distance between these two places is only 48 km, so elevation makes all the difference in the world as far as weather and temperatures go. I have taken the bus to David a few times and the weather was always much warmer. David is a typical crowded city with traffic, pavement, noise pollution, many people and shops/stores and again all of those American fast food restaurants everywhere, being McDonald’s, KFC, Wendy’s and so forth. But the locals here did tell me that in David compared to here in Boquete, restaurant and accommodations are cheaper, whereas the in Boquete American priced. I went to a restaurant a couple of times just for a salad only, at a cost of $8.00 each time, again salad only no protein as in adding meat to it, but the prices at another restaurant were $10. & $12. for salads, add another $2.00 for the meat. These prices convert to $10.70 & $16.00 CAD, I think back home in Canada these would be considered expensive salads for sure.

Here in Boquete it is a beautiful small town with many specialty shops as in chocolate and coffee shops, bakeries, vegan ice cream, small clothing and shoe stores, many Farmacia’s, which I found seemed to sell very quality vitamins and supplements, along with many restaurants to satisfy just about everyone’s taste buds with Peruvian food, Pizza, Italian, burgers, and I have been told the cows here are grass fed, thus the burgers much healthier than in the US. A few big grocery stores serving different types and kinds of groceries for everyone to have a choice of foods and prices. A friend of mine that I first met in Vilcabamba, Ecuador at a writer’s group, she had told me she visited David and Boquete, and this is what she had told me about her experience; “I have to agree with the locals about the coffee there in the highlands of Panama an hour or two from Boquete by bus, first going to David, then from David up in the mountains, I brought a lot of bags of that particular coffee back to the States because I fell in love with the flavour. I bought it from a coffee farm that also has an archeological museum and archeological dig. I caught a bus from Boquete to visit that place, which I recommend. The museum is within hiking distance to two twin peak mountains that people hike. I went to see the twin peaks and found out about the museum and coffee plantation. They served us a cup of coffee after the museum tour and a tour of the botanical gardens there with more types of beautiful flowering ginger plants than I had ever seen. And there is a magical stream that runs thru the property where the coffee farm and museum is. What’s unusual about the stream other than crystal clear water is that there is a point where the stream reverses directions, very unusual. The archeological museum is worth the bus ride from Boquete. It was about two and a half hours long. You have to get off the bus in the city of David where you can hike the twin peaks, then walk or take a taxi to the museum. That coffee farm produces the best coffee in the Americas there.” I found out that this location was not outside of Boquete, but outside of David, which I did not go to because of the distance for me to travel to, but sounds very unique and worthwhile visiting.

The coffee tours here in Boquete are charging $30.USD for the tours and there are a few tour operations going to a few different coffee farms, thus find out which would be the best coffee farm to explore, I guess.

Another friend that I met in Vilcabamba also, she came here to Boquete to visit me and explore this small town as it has been on her list of places to visit and explore for many years, since she had a car to use to get around with, we have been traveling these surrounding mountains sightseeing and exploring the views, the countryside is so beautiful and pristine, so many Fir trees, coffee bushes growing everywhere, places advertising speciality and/or unique coffees to drink, coffee farms, quiet, peaceful small communities with well kept homes, I found the drives and explorations very relaxing and photogenic moments all over capturing water flowing in the rivers down and over rocks, waterfalls, grazing lands, trees, trees, mountains, flowers, horse’s, big Angus bull I believe. One area as we climbed a mountain side, the fence post’s were covered in moss making a very cool and unique eye appealing sight. The surrounding areas up and along the mountain sides are indeed, lovely, being in nature, very tranquil, relaxing and picturesque.

I really like Boquete and its surrounding areas, just if it was not a dollarized country, as for me being a so called Canadian, the dollarized countries throughout Central America are at least 30% more expensive for me compared to being a so called ‘American’, as the Americans like the dollarized countries as no need to exchange their currency, all of the dollarized countries are accepting the American dollar, but Canadians needing to exchange their currency to USD lose at least 30% right away, thus costing not only Canadians more for everything they purchase, but also for other travelers from Europe or Australia too I suppose, with the United States having a strong dollar against many other countries, thus why Panama likes the American dollar, for its stability in commerce.

As far as eating healthy here I am led to believe one can eat very healthy here, but the cost is high, especially at a store called ‘Organics’, yes a health food store for Vitamins, nuts, vegan foods, health products, but pricey. Even buying good nutritional foods at the grocery store, in general the food prices are not cheap, I have found them to be a bit pricey overall, but wholesome healthy delicious foods, where I could not find in other countries that I have been to. For the meat eaters, one can buy beef steaks and/or beef burgers that are grass fed Angus beef, Panama seems to be big on selling Angus beef, which is much healthier meat to eat that I have been told compared to factory farming with all of the injected antibiotics and whatever else is pumped into the animals. Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables at local small shops, priced reasonable compared to grocery stores. There is even a local Pescadería, being a fish store for all those who enjoy fresh or frozen fish and I have seen some meat butcher shops in all of the big grocery stores. Bottom line, here in Boquete many choices, very healthy choices for eating I believe.

When it comes to eating out at restaurants, for me I do find expensive and perhaps over priced, but again with me being on a small fixed monthly income, I find just about everything expensive as I do not have access to spending $2000.- $5000.USD per month or more, as it appears that these Americans do. Thus I suppose for them many things are very cheap and/or affordable for them, thus it is all relative I suppose, for the poor man expensive, for the rich man cheap.

The next destination for me when I leave Boquete will be Medellin, Columbia. I bought a flight ticket out of David to Medellin for a total cost of $430. CAD, which I thought was expensive but it is what it is. When I did a price comparison between the two cities, it appeared to me that Medellin was much cheaper and more affordable to visit and stay, I will soon find out when I get there, but I am looking forward to this next destination as I’ve never been to Columbia.

Many fast flowing rivers and steams, the biggest river flowing through the town is called Rio Caldera. Being January of 2023 I am here during the Boquete Flower and Coffee Festival which is also known as Feria de Boquete, which started January 12 -23rd, with a $2.00 entry cost.                                               https://www.travelbeginsat40.com/event/feria-de-boquete/  Now if one is a light sleeper staying anywhere within the town of Boquete you will have a difficult time sleeping and be very mad, annoyed or pissed off with the very loud music playing from the festival gardens echoing all over the town until 3:30 am each night, something to think about when making reservations to stay here during this festival, because it is LOUD.  The Jazz Festival starts here in Boquete on March 17 -19th, it looks like it could be great entertainment to see. https://www.boquetejazzandbluesfestival.com If one is into Zip Lining or outdoor adventures 

https://www.facebook.com/BoqueteAdventureCanopyTours/?paipv=0&eav=AfZ4C2yeLOLvQheC4lSQ7YmqsF5mVM-dG7rHQFkl1mr1zsYNoN2N2uX2ARXhULtzCDg&_rdr  or https://www.boqueteoutdooradventures.com

Now here at Isla Verde Hotel where I am living, there is a crew/workers/staff of at least 10 people I am led to believe, working to keep the gardens and landscaping looking clean and pristine, along with maids doing the laundry and cleaning of the rental units and reception people looking after all of the guests needs and answering all of their questions, a very busy place here, but the upkeep and maintenance happens daily keeping the entire place looking as perfect and clean as can be. I read in Panama City the minimum wage for a 40 hour work week is $450 USD per month and the workers here or the staff, apparently work more hours with less pay, and I wonder how can these people support their families on a low wage. So I asked them many questions, it turns out in order to survive on a low wage here in Boquete with so many American prices, they live together as a big family, maybe grandparents, brother and sister or brother in law and sister in law, this way everyone works bringing in much more income from many compared to only one individual supporting himself, which probably cannot be done. So if one is brining home a monthly income of $350. per month X 5 others in the household, well then that family as a unit has total earnings of $2,100. USD per month, now it works. As far as going to these restaurants here in Boquete, they told me too expensive, so they might go out maybe only once a month to eat. I am guessing if they have a large yard, they are growing some fresh fruits and vegetables to help with the cost of food. Bottomline everyone works and helps with the expenses to survive, which reminds me back in Canada the so called East Indians be it Sikhs or Punjabi’s would live in a big house with large families doing the same thing, many bringing in income to the household, with the intention of paying off the mortgage as soon as they could, then buying another home doing the same thing until everyone had a home I suppose, but also surviving affordably, could this be the meaning of team work?

Here at Isla Verde Hotel there are a couple of things that I’d like to see changed, for the better of course, in fact for the betterment of the environment. One thing is the amount of drinking water bottles that are produced by the guests not trusting drinking the water from the tap, as far as I am concerned way to many plastic bottles, although these bottles are recycled it is a waste of money and plastic. Solution: the owner could invest in purified water filter machines, expensive at first for start up costs, but being very conscious about the environment and doing something positive to reduce plastic waste, and be a eco friendly Hotel. Besides water is free, why do so many people pay more for drinking water than they do for a gallon of gasoline for their cars and not think anything of it, yet complain constantly about fuel prices, I just don’t get it or understand. Again water is free, but people would rather pay upwards of $5.60 per gallon to drink what they believe is healthy water when in fact it’s probably just tap water that people fear to drink in the first place. The second thing I’d like to see changed for the betterment of the environment is, the gardeners dump all of the leaves, and clippings from trees and bushes into the fast flowing river. I look at this practice as polluting the river, sure it’s greenery, compost organic plants, but not good at all to dump and possible clogged up the river down stream somewhere. Solution: Since it’s organic compostable plant leaves and trimmings, why not compost this on site, perhaps after a year or so, the decaying materials will turn into some extremely beneficial highly nutrient soil to be added back into the gardens or to be sold or given away. This is a much, much better alternative than dumping into a pristine river, again I just don’t get it or understand. This can be changed into something very beneficial to the owner’s garden and again claiming to be an eco-friendly Hotel which some people like and possibly draw more business with such a claim. But people need to start doing something positive about the environment instead of the harmful ways we treat and do with the environment. The owner appears to be kind, thoughtful and compassionate, I trust that one day she will see such benefits and work to towards positive changes at her lovely Hotel, which are large individual cabins or small houses, in a jungle liken forest setting with these beautiful manicured gardens.

My friend and I decided to hike the very popular ‘Pipeline Trail’ into the wilderness walking along side fast flowing rivers and crossing them, while photographing and videoing nature. We did see a 1000 year old approximately Ash tree, the base was very wide what appeared to be consisting of many large roots to form this tree. It took us about an hour and a half up and maybe an hour and twenty minutes down, but our pace was slow because stopping often to photograph and video the beauty we saw. As far as the hike, it was easy, not so steep or big rocks to climb, most of the path was somewhat smooth, with ease to maneuver over what rocks were on the path.

Overall, Boquete is really a beautiful nature place, being very peaceful and colourful, even in town where the shopping is with many more people around, it still is a quiet, friendly colourful place to be. I have been told by those that live here, that there is no crime waves, no burglaries or assaults, no one wanting to steal your camera or valuables, which is a good thing as many other places that I travel this is a big thing, I keep hearing from a friend that lives in Vilcabamba, Ecuador which is similar to Boquete in that many Americans and other so called foreigners who have taken over the small town as in outnumbering the locals, crime is happening their on a weekly basis with assaults and break ins, home invasions and such, during a recent crime wave, this is not a good thing at all, so here in Boquete having many Americans and other foreigners being a very large part of the populations here without the work of crime and theft is very good indeed. I suppose for the Americans this is a very good place for then to live and retire, simply because they do not need to exchange their money. For Canadians exchanging their money, it could be a costlier place to live, at least 30% more which may deter Canadians, such as me, and other so called foreigners.

I’m not sure why, I’ve yet to find out, but here in this small town fireworks explosions happen quite often, like nightly or weekly. I do remember living in Vilcabamba, Ecuador explosions of fireworks nightly and/or weekly was also very popular and in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico fireworks explosions happening daily from about 6 am until nearly midnight, why, I will never know.

I went for a walk with a friend one afternoon to a nature park within the town of Boquete, who knew there was such a thing. Anyways, this very large park is called ‘Boquete Park’, or in Spanish: Parque Central De Boquete, having paved walking pathways, open field for kicking a ball around or frisbee playing. The mountain side was full of many shades of greens some very vibrant green colours of thick growth of trees adding to the surrounding beauty of nature. There were three ponds running from one into another and another having short waterfalls to add to the beauty and fed with fresh water from the fast flowing river and after the river water flowing into all three ponds with a continuous flow of fresh clean water, it would flow back into the river to continue as part of the river flow. The ponds served home to ducks, large Koi fish and large turtles as well. The park seemed to be popular with many using the park for walking around, sitting at picnic tables or exercising by kicking a ball around. I highly recommend a visit to this park as there is much natural beauty to see within the town of Boquete.

Again with my friend living here that I first met in Vilcabamba, we went on an excursion to a nearby place on the other side of the mountain that is seen here in the town of Boquete, called Volcán. The drive into nature was beautiful, the mountain sides full of forest, colourful trees, patches of different colours of farming, cows, horses, many types of fences like many, many stone wall fencing perfectly constructed being perfectly level and no use of cement keeping the rocks held together tightly or wooden fencing covered in moss for a real natural look of nature and ‘living fences’ being tree trunks planted in a row to create a fence and within a few years start to grow branches and leaves creating a tight fence of something natural and in nature – a living fence.We crossed many rivers, saw many simple peaceful looking homes and small farms all over, life in these country side areas looked simple and peaceful, I was led to believe these people were living in Paradise with all the natural beauty around them. We passed through a couple of areas called ‘Cerro Punto’ and ‘Cordillera’ which at Cordillera there was a zipline for the adventurous thrill seekers.

The small town of Volcán, had restaurants, banks, grocery stores, with newly paved roads and sidewalks, as I was told the electrical and communication lines have been buried as not to see these unsightly lines exposed above the streets.The small town looked very clean, peaceful and friendly driving through. My friend knew of a store that sold ‘grass fed’ beef that she liked to go there to buy such, as eating grass fed beef is far superior and much healthier than the so called factory slaughter houses, which the animals are injected with anti-biotics, growth hormones and fed grains and whatnot, so if one is interested in some very healthy grass fed beef, the store is called; Rancho de Boor Smoke House: Paul Berard Swiss Butcher.  

The electrical power does go out here quite often, sometimes it seems like daily, may not be for a long period but still loose connection with power and that means no connection for to the internet. 

Again Darlene that I first met in Vilcabamba, Ecuador a few years back, asked me if she bought a ticket for me if I’d like to go with her on a Coffee Farm Tour, I said yes and we went on such a tour learning about how coffee is grown and tasting different samples of coffee’s for their many different flavours and roasting’s. We were apparently in the highlands were coffee is best grown, we learned from flower to red bean it takes about 10 months of growth, and it takes 2 yrs for a coffee tree to grow, before it can start producing beans and then the coffee tree has a life span of about 60 years of producing beans. I learned much on this Coffee Farm Tour, here in Boquete many tourist outfits are selling tickets for $35. each person for such an adventure, and depending which company one buys the ticket from, decides which farm one will be going to as there are many different farms. If one goes to the highlands as we did, I suggest a jacket and/or a raincoat, we bought a cheap $3. raincoat that were being sold on site, for the light rains. This was the last exciting journey for me before I left Boquete to Medellin, Colombia.

I averaged about 1.7 extra hours over the 12 weeks of volunteering at Isla Verde; being about 31.5 hrs each week, but I did get paid for these extra hours about 20 of them for a $50. bill, thus about a $2.50 per average hour wage, the going rate for Panamanians minimum work wage I believe.

Overall, Boquete is a very beautiful scenic small town, with so many colourful flowers everywhere, it appears Boquete does very well in sales of coffee, as the coffee is very fresh, thus why the locals boast of their fresh tasting and delicious coffee’s to drink and the bags to sell, because of so many coffee farms in the area, I guess. 

I like the individual unique shops selling chocolate and coffee, or fresh pastries and coffee, to vegan ice cream, and vegan food items. It is a quiet, peaceful town with everyone living in harmony keeping Boquete looking clean and presentable, the home owners seem to be happy and proud having their homes and yards looking great, as I have noticed many home owners painting fences, gates, mowing lawns, and constructing what needs to be done. Lots of constructing happening all around as in building 3 story high buildings for hotels or condos. 

The only bad thing especially for Canadians at this time is with the American dollar being stronger than the Canadian, as there is a 30% exchange rate loss, thus costing more to live here and with so many Americans living here, the costs have gone up again, with many of the local restaurants having the same food prices on their menus as in the United States, so no bargain or savings here in Boquete for those back pack travelers looking for affordable places to visit unfortunately. Perhaps a quick, short stay to have a look around at all the beauty and move on.