We took a short trip to the mountains this week. From our sea level viewpoint these past months, we’ve been gazing up at the mountains whenever the clouds clear enough to reveal the peaks. We wanted to visit these mountains before we leave Panama.
We took an hour-long trip on a packed water taxi to the town of Chiriquí Grande on the mainland. Then two and a half hours in an equally packed van up the mountains, across the Chiriqui Highlands, to the town of Boquete at the foothills of Volcan Baru, Panama’s highest peak.
The trip there and back took us through an amazing fairytale landscape of villages, indigenous Ngöbe thatched roof huts, alpine pastures, and stunning mountain vistas.
Boquete, at an elevation of 1,200 meters (3,900 feet), is the center of Panama’s coffee industry and home to some of the world’s best coffee farms. The climate is eternal spring, with daytime highs around 80f/26c and nighttime lows around 69f/21c. There is little variation throughout the year. Tropical plants thrive like we have seen nowhere else.
Elida Estate
The highlight of our trip was a visit to Elida Estate, one of Panama’s most prestigious coffee farms. Our tour guide, Eliseo, took us on a rugged 4×4 drive through the coffee fields all the way up to the highest fields at an elevation of more than 1,900 meters (6,200 feet). Last year a lot of geisha variety coffee from the highest section of the farm sold at auction for an astonishing $13,518 per kilogram.
Eliseo walked us through the processing facilities, explaining every aspect of the operation. We “cupped” several of the farm’s coffees, giving us a chance to compare varieties and processing methods. For a pair of coffee geeks, it was an unforgettable experience.
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