Sun and beach with direct access to the Pacific Ocean
When you arrive in a new place, you have to adapt to the light, familiarize yourself with its new colors and also get used to its rhythm and sounds. Here, the wind picks up, clouding our reconnaissance work.
In that uncomfortable buzz we distinguish the songs of the egrets, macaws and swifts that fly over us. And, suddenly, a guttural, cavernous sound, which seems to come from the depths of the Earth, resounds enveloping everything, being able to against the wind. Are howler monkeys that warn from l to Boca Brava Island that they are the ones that mark the passage of the hours of the day in Small mouth.
Islets from the top of Bocas del Mar
From our elevated position we see small islands and islets as far as the eye can see. On the right, a pristine pool surrounded by flowers and, to the left, the restaurant. In the background, the descent towards the small pier of the ** Bocas del Mar hotel .** On the farthest horizon, the ocean appears with its imposing blue, only interrupted by the formations of volcanic origin that will become our particular Robinson Crusoe experience.
Boca Chica is a fishing town located one hour from the city of David (capital of the province of Chiriquí). Here nothing happens and everything happens. Few people can boast have whales in your garden, which is exactly what happens in the Gulf of Chiriquí National Marine Park from June to October, when the great humpback whales appear in the area demonstrating all its beauty and making it clear that yes, that this is a natural paradise.
From here we can navigate to the archipelago of the Paridas Islands , to the mangroves that surround onion island or, even, move away to the marine reserve (and very exclusive eco-lodge) of the Dry Islands archipelago. Let's go?
"You have to take the essentials," warns us Fabián, our captain on this tour. With what we were wearing and a waterproof bag for Flaminia's camera, we got into the canoe in order to sailing chocolate-colored waters from the nearby mangrove. impact how it is possible to admire clearly when the Pacific begins, as if the limit between the chocolate-colored waters and the blue ones were marked with a square and bevel. They want to touch it. We do. Nothing happens. What will happen down there? Are the species of the mangroves fighting with the great ones of the ocean?
Colorful crab in Isla Bolaños
Along the way we see luxurious mansions. Some of these islands are private, despite being inside the protected national park –one of those great Panamanian ironies–, but all the coastal sandbanks are public. There are so many beaches here that many have no name. Let's name them.
The capricious waves of the Pacific can force us to swim ashore. And this happens when we try to get hold of the shore of Bolaños Island. Stroke by stroke we appear in that movie that we have all seen at some point (The blue lake? The beach? The robinsons of the South Seas? Castaway?), an island just for us (and for its giant iguanas, hermit crabs, hummingbirds...) .
After a short walk from end to end of the island between coconut palms, We return to the canoe. We realize that we are no longer alone; some Americans open a watermelon and say good morning to us with the complicity of someone who knows they are privileged and the smile of someone who is aware of a lying reality: there are no more desert islands in the 21st century. We have taken it upon ourselves to break the spell.
We take the opportunity to look for the sunset in the mangrove. Another landscape, cruder and less paradisiacal (goodbye to transparent waters) but full of wildlife. We set course for Isla Cebolla with the book The Birds of Panama: A Field Guide as compass.
Sunset in the mangrove of Isla Cebolla
Our guide, with his eyes accustomed to seeing wings where we only see branches, exclaims excitedly: “There goes a frigatebird! And a vulture! Do you not hear the song of the egret? Beware, a 'shovel duck'!" The queen of this area, called by the locals 'spoon duck' because of the shape of its beak it is, in truth, a heron and one of Panama's endangered species.
We finished off the day with another swim. this time in one of the i_nfinity pools_ of the Bocas del Mar hotel. The sunlight slowly dies on the horizon, the howler monkeys calm down and it begins the owl show. This is life.
That was what he thought nine years ago the Dutch marriage formed by Joyce and Diego Lagache. They were able to see in this window to the Pacific the ideal destination to rest and connect with the rhythm of the brutal nature of Panama.
They started building their house and ended up creating more rooms turning the land into a hotel seven years ago. His, more than a hotel life, is a hotel life: “Here you are alone, with the sea and nature, nothing more; It is not a 'marble hotel', here everything is simple and relaxed", Diego comments.
Bocas del Mar hotel pool
It is true that everything flows in this part of the world and even It seems that the hands of the clock are useless . Isn't that the real luxury? The time is calculated in early sunrises that arrive with the songs of the birds, and in spectacular sunsets over the sea.
Calm waters, black volcanic sand beaches and specialty coffee (geisha, caturra and catuai) grown on the Lagache farm in Boquete. Is more needed? Joyce replies: “Yes, the whales; from June you can see them there”, he smiles pointing towards the horizon of his garden.
With the taste of that coffee in our mouths and our eyes on the sea in case a clueless whale came out to say goodbye, we set off towards the interior of the province in the direction of Highlands. George Tovar, President of the Chiriquí Chamber of Tourism, will be our guide through the interior.
How to call the traveler to cross to the other side of Panama and opt for the Pacific? Can we forget the eternal Bocas del Toro and the Caribbean? “Chiriquí is the home of growing fruits, flowers... even thoroughbred horses of those who are interested from Kentucky; Y then there is your coffee.” This may be the province that creates delicacies. Let's check it out.
Coffee fruits from the 50 hectares of Finca Lérida
we do it around to the Baru volcano (at 3,475 meters above sea level) , cornerstone of the interior of Panama, which continues to cause the occasional earthquake. The Barú gives shelter to pumas, quetzals, jaguars, ocelots... a natural laboratory that also provides the peculiar conditions under which one of the best coffees in the world is produced.
Panama has about 22,000 hectares for cultivation. But it is on the slopes of the dormant volcano where temperature, humidity and height generate the perfect home for the growth and development of the coffee tree.
We enter ** Finca Lérida , a coffee plantation ** born at the beginning of the 20th century in the shadow of the Barú. This blessed gloom is partly to blame for grain quality which is extracted here. He explains it to us Caesar Knight , naturalist and lover of the farm's recognized coffee, when we begin to notice a light drizzle that wets our faces: "It's the Bajareque", he tells us, a natural irrigation that is present all year round.
Finca Lerida was born in 1911 from the hands of a Norwegian couple, Tollef Bache Mönniche and his wife, Julia. He, a mechanical engineer for the Panama Canal locks, was looking for a place to retire. He arrived here on the back of a mule and, as a good lover of ornithology and flowers, he was captivated by the surroundings of him.
Centennial room in Finca Lérida
So, he bought a group of farms where there were coffee trees and decided to experiment. His love for nature led him to call taxonomists, naturalists and ornithologists to study in depth the biodiversity of these lands. But it was his curiosity that caused him to patent a type of siphon that classified coffee fruits through a system of water and tubes.
In 1958, the couple left Panama and the farm passed into the hands of another Norwegian family to end up becoming a hotel with 21 rooms and cabins to which is added, in addition, the centennial house that the Mönniche built with their own hands, as well as the dovecote in which his homing pigeons rested.
Listen to the creaking of the wood, review those books full of dust and observe the vertiginous flutter of hummingbirds and the colors of orchids through its flirty windows, makes us understand Mr. Tollef's infatuation with Panama.
Around the centenary house, 50 hectares for coffee production. And a little higher, 100 hectares of protected forest (belonging to the Volcán Barú National Park), marked by nine kilometers of trails dedicated to those walks in which you simply have to r breathe out, contemplate, ponder, be, be... yes, in the purest Thoreau style. All this is Finca Lérida.
Coffee shop to have an espresso with some of the varieties of coffee that are grown here
Suddenly, a machine sounds and a rich aroma of coffee reaches our nose. “There is a lot of caffeine in the environment” Cesar says.
Each growing area has its own microclimate, a different shade, a different height. In total, Finca Lérida takes care some 185,000 coffee trees of catuai and geisha varieties. The latter, “an unprofitable variety; a very sickly tree, producing little. It has perfumed, citrus, sweet smells, almost like tea. It is an Ethiopian variety, but here it reached the best score” . César is referring to when, in 2018, a batch of unroasted geisha coffee grown in the vicinity of Barú (Elida Geisha Green Tip Natural, from the Lamastus Family Estates), reached a price of 803 dollars per pound (less than half a kilo), making it the most expensive coffee in the world.
Since then, the geisha is a claim. A complicated claim to cultivate, unfriendly to the environment... and, despite everything, it is in these lands where it reaches its maximum potential. The geisha is, after all, the wayward son of the Barú. And another of those ironies that make up the essence of Panama.
But there is more than coffee here. In Finca Lérida there is also La Brulerie restaurant, where the chef william make homemade ice cream (from dulce de leche, mint, strawberry, chocolate, green tea...) and with a zero kilometer philosophy.
La Brulerie stuffed trout
We warn: come here and not try their tree tomato cheesecake (also known as tamarillo), is a sin. It is also getting lost his lost bread, made up of a caramelized slice with butter, cocoa ice cream, chocolate sauce and cookie crumble. These desserts (and the rest of the menu) were designed by Andres Madrigal , chef from Madrid whom you can now find in Madrigal Laboratory (in the Casco Viejo of Panama City). The charms of Finca Lérida do not escape anyone.
We take a look through the large windows of La Brulerie and sense that Bajareque falling almost magically, slowly, as if the raindrops were suspended. All this, with the mixture of the acid flavor of the tree tomato and the blessed bitterness of the natural catuai coffee in the mouth. And in the background, as far as the eye can see, that intense jungle green, speckled with red tones and the daring pinks of the bromeliads.
Dear Norwegians, we understand you.
***** _This report was published in **number 131 of Condé Nast Traveler Magazine (September)**. Subscribe to the printed edition (11 printed issues and a digital version for €24.75, by calling 902 53 55 57 or from our website). The September issue of Condé Nast Traveler is available in its digital version to enjoy on your preferred device. _
With prints like this, how easy will it be to catch the plane back?