Chiriquí: A World Apart in Panama

Panama West: Western Panama's Chiriquí province is home to the lush cloud forests of Barú Volcano National Park.

David Dudenhoefer | Tico Times

Panama's western Chiriquí province has a lot more going for it than its proximity to Costa Rica, although many first-time visitors do pop over the border to shop or renew their Costa Rican tourist visas. They don't have to travel very far, however, to figure out that Chiriquí has plenty of attractions, from its misty mountain forests flashing with the colors of birds on the wing to the pristine beaches of its Pacific islands.

Most travelers head straight for the mountain town of Boquete, the epicenter of Chiriquí tourism. It's a gorgeous, tranquil place with a restaurant and lodging selection to match its natural assets. But the valleys of Bambito and Cerro Punta, on the other side of Barú Volcano, hold even more impressive landscapes, whereas the Gulf of Chiriquí, to the south, offers world-class surfing, fishing and scuba diving.

The provincial capital of David – a hot and rambling town of 80,000 with an oversupply of stores and a dearth of charm – is the local transportation hub, with regular flights and buses connecting it to Panama City and San José. It's a good place to rent a car and head for the mountains or the tiny port of Boca Chica, from where boats depart to nearby islands. David can also serve as an inexpensive base for sportfishing, scuba diving or hiking the Los Quetzales trail, which winds though the cloud forest behind Barú Volcano.

Thoroughbred horses grazing on Cerro Punta's verdant pastures.

David Dudenhoefer | Tico Times

The mountains north of David have enough trails to keep a hiker busy for weeks, but there is also plenty to see on four wheels. My favorite drive is the two-hour trip to Cerro Punta, 75 kilometers northwest of David, which takes you past massive Barú Volcano and up a narrow valley on its northwest slope.

Towering 11,450 feet above sea level, the massive, extinct Barú Volcano is literally Chiriquí's biggest attraction. Its upper slopes and northern half are protected within Barú Volcano National Park, home to everything from cougars to resplendent quetzals. Its summit is a popular hiking destination – you can see both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans from it on a clear morning – and one of the two trails to the peak begins near the town of Volcán, on the road to Cerro Punta.

Just north of Volcán, the road enters a steep, serpentine valley that holds the farming community of Bambito. This valley is packed with lush scenery that seems to grow more spectacular with each hairpin turn – patches of colorful impatiens, the boulder-strewn Río Chiriquí Viejo, steep hillsides draped with dark green forests, sheer rock walls bejeweled with bromeliads, ferns and orchids. After about 15 minutes, or 50 swerves, the road bursts into the expansive valley of Cerro Punta, a giant green bowl perched at almost 6,000 feet above sea level and covered with a patchwork of vegetable farms, pastures and cloud forest along the ridges.

The spectacular scenery of the Río Chiriquí Viejo, bottom right.

David Dudenhoefer | Tico Times

The valley is surrounded by lush cloud forests where the tree trunks, branches, lianas and boulders are covered with thick carpets of moss, ferns, orchids and other flowering plants. A mobile mist, which the locals call bajareque, regularly engulfs the valley, resulting in fleeting rain showers and frequent rainbow sightings. The bajareque keeps the air cool – it can be chilly at night – and the pastures green year-round, which pleases the thoroughbred horses at the Haras Cerro Punta ranch.

Dirt roads wind into the surrounding mountains to the private reserve of Los Quetzales, an orchid farm called Finca Dracula, which has almost 2,700 orchid species on display, and the entrance to La Amistad National Park, a vast, binational park shared by Panama and Costa Rica. One such road heads to El Respingo, the trailhead for the Los Quetzales Trail, which descends through the forest of Barú Volcano National Park for nine kilometers to a farming enclave in the hills above Boquete. Most people who hike this popular trail have their luggage driven to a hotel in Boquete, where they spend the following nights.

Boquete sits at the bottom of a larger, more forested mountain valley, a mere 40-minute drive from David. The town of Boquete is an attractive community spread along the Río Caldera at an altitude of about 3,300 feet, which gives it a spring-like climate year-round. Paved roads loop through the coffee farms and forest patches that cover the mountains above town, past various hiking and bird-watching trails, while the road to the most popular route to the summit of Barú Volcano begins at the center of town.

Boquete is a bird-watcher's Valhalla, with between 300 and 400 avian species fluttering through its mountain forests, coffee farms and gardens. Its most famous birding area is Finca Lerida, a coffee farm above town with nearly 500 hectares of cloud forest. Cited in “A Guide to the Birds of Panama” as the best place in the country to see resplendent quetzals, Finca Lerida is also home to emerald toucanets, sulfur-winged parakeets, collared redstarts and hundreds of other feathered creatures.

For active travelers, Boquete has a canopy tour, mountain biking, horseback riding and several coffee tours. It's also the departure point for rafting trips down the Río Chiriquí Viejo, a class III-IV river that churns though narrow canyons and virgin rain forest, making it one of most spectacular white-water trips in Central America. But Boquete is also a great place to do as little as possible, as its best hotels and restaurants take advantage of the surrounding natural beauty to create environments conducive to relaxation, contemplation and, in the case of the restaurants, digestion.

But there is more to Chiriquí than its enchanting mountains. The rich waters of the Gulf of Chiriquí offer excellent sportfishing, scuba diving and surfing, as well as more than 20 uninhabited islands. Hotels in and around the tiny port of Boca Chica provide easy access to the islands of Gulf of Chiriquí National Park, which have idyllic white-sand beaches and reefs where skin divers may see moray eels, sea stars, parrotfish and other marine life.

Even more impressive are the more distant Islas Ladrones and Islas Secas, which boast some of the country's best scuba diving. The Islas Secas are home to Islas Secas Resort, one of Central America's best, and most expensive, ecolodges. Fishing lodges near Boca Chica provide access to world-class angling in the gulf, while the remote and rustic Morro Negrito Surf Camp, on a coastal island east of Boca Chica, lies near half a dozen surf spots with phenomenal waves, and very few surfers.

So the question facing travelers shouldn't be whether or not to visit Chiriquí, but whether to spend one week or two there. If you want to sample all of the province's varied attractions, you'll need two.