Bajo Boquete and the area for 15 kilometres around it has lovely scenery and has many a nice place to walk when you get off the main thoroughfare. The biggest downer of Panama is that 90% of the cars and trucks that pass us here are poorly tuned or in need of overhauls or something because they smoke whenever they take off, climb or accelerate, often right in your face. NO BUENO POR NADA!
Peter of Pete's Mountain tours had made suggestions to us to check out a couple of footbridges and trails, and we explored some on our own as well.
El Cementario-
We had already done part of this walk and decided to go on up to the actual cemetery and then on further to the mirador (lookout) that a couple of different local women had told us aboutin spanish while we were resting and birding on the street between the Union electric office and the cemetary on our earlier walk. As best we could understand, they were encouraging us to go on up higher to the lookout and enjoy the view out over the valley.
The Boquete Cemetery reminds us a great deal of the ones you see in Galveston, New Orleans or Paris with plenty of above ground crypts. We had visited Pere La Chasse (sp) in Paris and this did remind Laura of that somewhat. There are mostly family vaults that are above ground and have various levels of decorations. From the cemetery we walked on up the hill. The road ends and there is a footpath which grows steeper as you go along. A local man was coming down and spoke to us, we did not understand ,but Robert asked him if it was pribado or private, and he said no. We used broken spanish and asked him could we walk up and he seemed to say yes but that there were nicer miradors in another location. He said you could walk up there no problem. We headed on up. There were a few dogs but they seemed content to just bark at us. There were a few houses (quite small) and a place carved out of the path that you could climb up on and see across to Boquete. It was a beautiful view with the mountains surrounding it. We also found out that you could continue on the path and get to Volcancito which is a small settlement near Boquete.
Puente Sarso or Swinging Bridge
This was one of the hikes that was recommended to us by Pete who is a local guide here in
Boquete. We walked along the river from Romero's (grocery store 24/7) past the police station and gymnasium to where the town and houses get scarcer and you are just walking along street near the the river on your left in direction of David.
Keep looking left until you see swinging bridge and the fun begins. Robert told me to go ahead so he could take a picture so off I went. Guess what! The bridge swings and sways as you walk on it. Once Robert got on he felt compelled to bounce a little and needless to say I was a little terrified. The good old vertigo or whatever kicking in. We made it across after stopping to enjoy the view from the middle. It is hard to believe from the view you are in Panama (or what I think of in Central America) You could be in Colorado or somewhere in the western mountains from what you say. Rushing water and pines and mountains. Of course if you look at the picture you will also see the palm tree that helps you clue in to where you are.
Pete had told us you would start to see birds immediately when you crossed the river and he was exactly correct. There was a stand of pine trees and we went and sat under them on some rocks. Our first sighting was the small indigo blue bird with red feet and beak. As we continued to look at him we could see varying shades of blue. There were several other warbler size birds working this same group of pine trees. Some of them I am pretty sure are ones we see in the spring migration in High Island. We may have to break down and buy the bird guide of Panama so we can properly identify them. At the moment my list is something like this: bright yellow/blue back/ black throat, black white warbler with yellow throat, yellow tail/chest/striped wings----not a really accurate way to record what we have seen.
We sat and enjoyed the birds for about an hour and then just about the time Robert said he wished they would move into the sun for better study of their colors, that is what they did! We figure a hawk or something must have scared them because all of a sudden they all flew into this bush which happened to be in the sun. At that time we noticed the indigo bird had a bright turquoise spot on the top of his head. It was nice to see all the little birds sitting in the bush together. We continued to enjoy them until they all decided the scare was over and returned to their foraging in the pines.
El Canon de Quetzales -
We had hiked part of this trail earlier but this time we went the entire way up to the end of the trail. We hired Pete to help us find the resplendent quetzals. Set off on the hike at 7:00 a.m. You could hear the call of the quetzal (Pete knew the sound, we learned it) and some other birds that we could not identify. Small story about area we hiked through
--Part of this land belongs to one of Pete's guides grandmother whose family was one of the oldest families in the area. It is next to Sendero de Quetzales and the National Park. The hike starts out as a road past a makeshift soccer field up into the forest. There are two areas you had to step on rocks to get through water over the road--one no problem, the other got our shoes a little wet but dried out by time we were heading back down. The trail then narrows to a footpath and the vegetation becomes more dense. There are bromeliads growing everywhere, on trees, posts, everywhere. There is a great diversity of plant life, vines hanging down, flowers in bloom, pollen drifting on the air (ah choo), and still a number of old growth trees and the sound and sight of water as you go along the stream leading up the mountain.
This area is also the sendero del aguaducto - water pipeline. There are pipes running along the trail and the creek. They are collecting water for the town of Boquete from here. Several places along the way there are small leaks sending a fine spray over the plants. At the end of the hike you come to a box canyon with waterfalls in several places. This area has quite a magical feel to it. As you enter this area, there is a field of yellow flowers, the waterfalls, the sheer rock walls and the trees at the top of the canyon.
On the way up the trail, we saw a female quetzal fly past, a male quetzal in a tree (could see the red on front) and when we got to the end of the trail, Robert actually got to see one flying so could see both colors and tail. I only caught a glimpse so did not get to experience the entire beauty of the resplendent quetzal. Curses, foiled again!!!
We spent about an hour at the end of the trail watching for quetzals, having part of our picnic lunch and sitting at the base of one of the waterfalls enjoying the soothing sound. On the way down we saw a cuckoo like bird, if not a cuckoo. We startled it and as it flew we could see spots on the end of each tail feather. Enjoyed watching it as it hopped around in the tree.
As we finished the walk, and as we passed a bumpy field with wooden goal posts, a local indigeonous family in modern dress came up the trail with three boys and a soccer ball. Robert did not get the camera put away in time and so two of the boys came over and said,repeatedly "Photo" which translates into pay me to take my picture. This is the first time this has happened, but was commented about in the guidebook. We declined.
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