Sendero Los Quetzales & The Finca Dracula

Wednesday morning we went to visit George the Greek down in Volcan. He has several houses he rents out and I asked if I could peek at them for future reference if we come back this way again and decide to stay for awhile! In the afternoon we thought it would be nice to check out the Sendero los Quetzales, the Quetzal Trail, up past Cerro Punta. I had already decided after a bite of research that hiking the actual trail was out of our league: it's several miles straight up to the trailhead at the ranger station, then an all day treacherous walk across the mountain to Boquete side, and then several more miles down the other side where you've got to flag down a passing vehicle to take you to Boquete town. Neither one of us feel like bashing our way up the mountain so we thought the walk to the ranger station would be adequate!

Where the paved road ends and becomes "gravel" we left the car; they say a 4x4 can make it up the road but it would be a hell of a ride! It was more like hiking in a riverbed up a very steep slope - I'm sure the water just rushes down it when it's raining. So we hiked and rested, hiked and rested until we came to a bunch of cows in the road. We asked politely and they let us pass; soon we saw a signpost for Sendero Viejo, the Old Trail. I didn't know that there was an older or newer trail, but since this is the only sign we saw we figured it must be The One.


The trail left the road and wound up the hillside. Now, being from Montana, I figured we know all about hiking trails... Hah! This little path was only recognizable in places because of the footprint in the mud by a previous hiker. The ranger station was supposed to be 600 meters up this trail, but after a while I called it quits. It was too steep and too primitive for me to keep having fun with, and I think Dad probably agreed.
So we rested under the canopy for a bit and then headed back down to our car. Officially we were not on the Quetzal Trail, but in my opinion it sure qualified!

Since we were in the neighborhood we visited Finca Dracula, a world class orchid farm housing 2500 different species. A little guy who works there gave us a tour in broken English; and for you orchid fanatics I've got lots of photos to share when I get back! The size of the operation was truly amazing. My understanding is that the farmed is named for the Dracula species of orchid who's flowers open up at night.

After a little siesta we drove to Volcan and tried a restaurant called Cerro Brujo (the wizard hill). It's a cute little gourmet restaurant run by a woman named Patricia. It's also the local hang-out for a colorful bunch of people who live nearby, both American and Panamanian. The company and conversation was once again the highlight of our night. A boisterous fellow named Jose entertained us with his views and opinions of just about everything in the world, and gave us a little more insight into Panamanian attitudes toward all the foreigners moving in. Jose's wife Isabella and their other friends were all friendly and we shared a few glasses of wine together. As we were leaving Jose offered to give us a private tour of Volcan the next morning. He said he was treated very well when he spent time in the States and wanted to be able to share that in return.


So we said goodnight to everyone, returned to our B&B and hot-tubbed for a while (we thought of you, Karen!).