Las Turistas de Boquete

The Panama countryside is beautiful. We went for a hike into the high country with our friends and neighbors, Roger and Margaret. It's a rain forest so there is lots of water and waterfalls. I later learned that the tall trees you see us walking through harbor a community of howler monkeys. They were laying low, apparently, when we were there.

We visited a coffee farm, or finca de cafe. Connor and I stayed another day to pick beans ("recogemos los granos de cafe"). For a day's work we earned $5 (that's $2.50 each and I'm sure we were being generously tipped!) Between us we picked 2 latas or tins. The record in a day on this farm was 14 latas by a native man and his son. This particular farm is organic, which matters a lot otherwise we'd be rubbing against pesticided plants.


We also rented scooters one afternoon and rode around the narrow mountain roads above Boquete. The views of the surrounding countryside are pretty incredible, but the roads wash out occasionally, and there are usually pedestrians so drivers have to stay aware (but as you can see I did it with my eyes closed!) Some of the roads are so steep our little scooter couldn't make it and we had to push!

Just the other day we all went horseback riding. It's funny because we usually have a lot of trouble communicating to any depth with the locals and when we told them we were from Texas they immediately concluded we were all vacqueros and took us right to the pampas. In truth, Connor had never been on a horse before and Janet and I had not ridden since childhood. (Alexis is the most experienced.) But we didn't hurt ourselves, though there was a close one when I let my horse ride up too close behind Janet's and her horse kicked almost throwing Janet off. I think by the end they figured out we were a bunch of fakers.