Pa-na-ma!

(In case it's not obvious, I was trying to channel Van Halen circa 1984 with the title of this post.)

Another border crossing, another country, another Spanish school. Today, the day after Thanksgiving, I find myself in the town of Boquete, a community of about 20,000 located in a mountainous region of eastern Panama. As far as I can gather, Boquete is most well-known for two primary reasons: its reputation for producing and exporting some of the world’s best coffee, and its more recent status as a mecca for retirees – or “jubilados” en espanol - from the United States.

I arrived in Boquete on Saturday after a long day of travel from Puerto Viejo. My last night in PV had consisted of a Caribbean feast at my hotel accompanied by some rather terrible live music provided by a local act; however, it was a very enjoyable last evening hanging out with my adopted posse. I had been feeling rather reluctant to leave the sun and sand of PV and was thus somewhat relieved to awake on Saturday morning to pouring rain and a chill in the air – definitely softened the blow of separation.

My journey consisted of a bus ride from PV to the border town of Sixaola, where I had my passport stamped in Costa Rica before walking across a bridge into Panama. The bridge, probably about 50 feet above water level, consisted of wooden planks laid across parallel tracks with gaping holes in the wood at various places. There was a cement walkway running alongside the planks, but the railing had collapsed into the walkway in several places, forcing pedestrians back onto the planks. And although this bridge featured a few cars crossing rather than trains, I couldn’t help but think of the bridge from the famous scene in ‘Stand By Me’, and was quite happy to step off onto the welcome pavement of Panama.

After a quick wait in line and payment of US $1 to a border official, I was in! I found out a bit later from a couple of Israeli tourists that I had completely bypassed the baggage search process but, since the official had been away from his post when I went through, they decided not to track me down and haul me back. Quite a nice gesture, I thought. 

From the border town (the name of which I can’t recall), I caught a microbus to the town of Changuinola where, after a brief spat with the driver, I jumped into another microbus for the 5-hour slog to David, Panama. Actually, the ride was quite comfortable and the scenery lovely, but 5 hours in a bus is 5 hours in a bus. In David, I was met by a guide from the school who whisked me to Boquete, where my host mom had, it turns out, been anxiously awaiting my arrival all afternoon. I felt pretty bad since she mentioned several times that she had been expecting me in the morning – apparently some mix-up in communication with the school – but we got acquainted over a light dinner and then I settled into my new digs.

The house here is quite different from my homestay in Nica. For one thing, it’s quite large – I counted 5 bedrooms – and my bedroom is larger than the two bedrooms combined in my last house. Also, this place has concrete floors, running water, a shower – conveniences that I had lacked (although not particularly missed) in Nica. My new host family consists of 64-year old Hilda and her 92-year old mother-in-law – both very friendly and chatty, although it’s quite a different vibe from my last house. Also, I know it’s clichéd, but I swear my closet is full of mothballs! Anyway, Hilda has been helping me to get acquainted with Boquete by taking me around to meet all of her neighbors, which has been a great exercise in practicing my Spanish.

On Monday, I started Spanish classes at a school in Boquete called Habla Ya. I opted to take private classes and have been pretty happy with the level of instruction from my teacher, Yaira, although I’m kind of wishing I’d opted for group classes since it’s been a bit harder to meet other students here – I think it’s a combination of the fact that classes are scheduled at all different times, there isn’t really a common meeting space and the activities (e.g. tours, hiking, rafting) are all quite expensive, meaning that I can’t be out doing some fabulous activity every day as a means of making new friends. Still, I’ve done a couple of activities including a Panamanian dinner and a charity quiz at a local bar last night and have met a few people in the process.

On Wednesday, I took a tour of one of the coffee fincas in the hills surrounding Boquete, which was very interesting. Even though I’ve encountered lots of coffee on this trip, this was the first time that I’d had the process explained from start to finish, and I even had the opportunity to roast some beans myself. Also, this area has a very interesting history with regard to coffee production – since over a century ago, foreigners have been coming from all over the world to try their hand at producing coffee here, and some of the major producers are owned by extranjeros. Of course, lots of these places reserve the majority of their premium crop for exportation and sell only the lower grade coffee, sometimes mixed with grains of corn and/or other substances, locally.

Regarding the jubilados – they are all over the place! Apparently, the Panamanian government has a program whereby retirees from most other countries who receive a pension of a certain amount (I think it’s about $1k per month) are granted a visa to come and live here. They have to spend a certain amount on a property and hire Panamanians if they decide to start a business, and if those conditions are met, they are welcome to enjoy 20 years of tax-free living. Not sure what happens after that but, as one American near-retiree I met last night expressed, 20 years is enough of a guarantee for him at this point in his life.

The mountains surrounding Boquete are covered in houses, many of them enormous, and I’m told that the majority belong to extranjeros. There are a number of gated communities around here, most notably Valle Escondido, a community started about 10 years ago by an American developer who bizarrely refers to himself as John Galt (the mysterious character from Atlas Shrugged) in his introductory letter to prospective inhabitants (http://www.valleescondido.biz/our-story-a-safe-haven.html). I walked around Valle Escondido the other night and it felt kind of surreal: deathly quiet at 7 p.m. with the exception of an older American man who, whizzing by in a golf cart, stopped to offer me a ride. The houses were huge and beautiful, there was a golf course and a country club and even a hotel on the property for visitors. I was in Panama but with few visible signs of being in Panama – the guards at the gate, I suppose.

So, that’s the news from here. This weekend will be marked by big celebrations across the country as Sunday is Panama’s Independence Day, when control of the country was officially relinquished by Spain. If the weather holds (it has been raining buckets here), it promises to be a great time.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. I was sad to miss turkey and fixings with my family but was treated to a very special dinner including sopa de frijoles and vegetarian stuffed peppers – not traditional, but delicious!