A Little Local Color

I continue to marvel at my experiences living up on the mountain in my yurt. I would not go back, yet there are interesting things I reminiscence about that experience.

One of these is living among the coffee plantations and the indigenous coffee workers. I became acquainted with a man around the corner from me who had recently planted his first coffee tree farm. His plantings are arranged horizontally across a hillside. If you squint at the photo, you might see the tiny rows he has planted. I took the photo from high up on the road. He told me he would have coffee to sell in three years. I would love to go back then, view his progress, and drink his coffee.

His English was better than my Spanish, but we did manage to communicate some. He will eventually end up with rows of mature trees, much like those across as well as up and down the road from me there. Generally, these rows are numbered and display the name of the coffee they will produce. Half of the rows all seem to be the Geisha (expensive) coffee that I referenced in the last blog posting. This coffee originated in Ethiopia, but now grows in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

Just down and up the road from my yurt is the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (offices in Panamá City) on one of the highest points in the area. It is a tough walk up and I made it only about 80% of the way but the view was worth it, as well as to see the rows of multiple kinds of coffee trees. This Institute has research centers scattered about Panamá where scientists come to study ecological issues, marine and terrestrial biology, animal behavior, coffee, and more scientific endeavors. The oldest of these centers was created at the time of the building of the Panamá Canal.

There seems to be no end to interesting finds in Panamá. I look forward to discovering more of them.

Fact: Dormant Barú Volcano (11,398’) up the mountain from Boquete is one of the few places in the world where you can see both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans at the same time