Inland Trip Across Panama...Al's Wild Ride

Before we left for the states back in June we rented a car to drive across much of Panama ending up in the Chiriqui region. We visited the expat favorite retirement town of Boquete, along with Guadalupe, Volcan and Cerro Punta. These are the highlands where there are cattle farms and agriculture and with that comes the oh so welcomed cool weather….it was pure heaven. One of the places we stayed at is Los Quetzales Lodge; it’s basic but much nicer than what the guide book reported. We even spent the day with Laura, a real estate agent whose nice office Baru Realty in Volcan proved to be the perfect place to make our inquiries. Laura is great; she showed us beautiful lots that we are still fantasizing about and even introduced us to some of her friends that live in Volcan. We did some hiking around the area taking in all the beauty and visited Finca Dracula; despite the spooky name, this finca (farm) is revered as one of the most important orchid farms in Central America with more than 600 species on display that are cloned to produce 250,000 plants yearly. The fincas name refers to the Dracula orchid, a purple flower that droops and hides itself during daylight and comes to life at night…hence the name.