Boquete, in the highlands of the Chiriqui province of Panama, is called (perhaps by tourism campaigns?) the "Napa Valley" of coffee. Yesterday, we put this to the test! Our day started with a (really excellent) tour of a coffee farm, factory, and roasting center, followed by a tasting of three different roasts. Note, I didn't drink coffee at all before coming to Central America, but I was pretty excited about the tour. :) We learned that Panama doesn't produce a large amount of coffee, but growing conditions are excellent, and several brands have won international awards. Of the roasts we tasted, I liked the Latin Roast the best. I also found out that this company (Cafe Ruiz) makes a "natural" coffee, which is dried with the fruit still around the coffee bean, resulting in sweeter coffee. It wasn't quite ready to try as of today, but I'm going to look for that type of coffee at home! Mmm...
I finished off the tour by having an iced mocha ("not real coffee", but that's fine with me :) ), then we had sandwiches at a lovely cafe, and then went on a guided hike in Volcan Baru national park. We were in search of the elusive Quetzal bird (at least I was!), which we didn't find, but we did hike to a nice waterfall.
Heading to Santa Catalina today, where there is no internet...more in a few days!
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