First Impression: Boquete, Panama
Wow, there are a lot of rainbows around here! After a week here, I can almost tell time by the rainbows I see out our Airbnb window. Each evening I go into the kitchen and start working on dinner and each evening a rainbow or two greet me. I can look out over the neighbor's house at the misty clouds rolling off the mountains on the other side of the valley from our kitchen windows. The weather is certainly a bit cooler than I expected: highs only in the mid-70s and lows in the 60s. What most would describe a the perfect weather, but a little too cool for my liking!
The temps are perfect for hiking though and it’s easy to motivate myself to get out and run when it’s not so cold and not so hot. We are at an elevation of around 4,000ft which does make running a challenge! I'm hoping to get back into half-marathon shape by the end of the year. For now, I'll settle for 5k shape!
There are plenty of stands for fresh fruits and veggies, although groceries in general aren’t cheap. No more expensive than the US unless it’s something like Hershey cocoa powder ($9 😮). Three grocery stores later, I finally found some local cocoa powder for a few bucks. It's nice that you can use the US dollar here and they pin the exchange rate of the local pan to the US dollar. I like not having to do math in my head to figure out what something costs!
So far my favorite thing about Boquete is the availability of all the inexpensive alpaca fiber blankets, wraps, and scarves (other than the hiking, of course!). It’s probably a really good thing I only have so much space in my bag, otherwise I think every single person I know would be getting an alpaca fiber blanket! (Note to self: look into shipping costs from Panama.)
I managed to pick up my library card. They make it so easy here—they even have a category for “tourist” when you fill out your registration. And how about the slogan? 💗 Libraries have always been my home away from home from the time I was a kid. I think I spent every single day after school at the library when I was in 4th grade.
My new library card!
So far, we've met plenty of friendly dogs… and a few not so friendly! Our daily walks up our road through the farms is a nice workout and the kids are fun to wave at and exchange holas with. We have friends spending a month in Boquete, so there are plenty of group outings too.
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There are always adjustments to make when we get to a new place. We’ve mentioned more than once how every Airbnb host defines “fully stocked kitchen” a bit differently. Our kitchen here has plates: three of them. It has an oven (that doesn’t get hotter than 300 degrees), but not a single pan that is oven safe—not even a cookie sheet. Lucky for me (and our friends I've been making cookies for), our host had an air fryer we could use. So I'm really perfecting my airfryer baking! 🙄😂
Can’t wait to share all the beautiful hikes and adventures we are having here!
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