Moving day isn’t usually a cause for celebration, but we were really looking forward to getting to our Airbnb in Boquete Panama.
After one month of steamy slow beach life Pedasi, Panama, we were eager to head to a cooler climate with more to do and see. In hindsight, two weeks probably would have been more than enough to see all of the sights in Pedasi with the transportation limitations we had.
Live and learn.
In contrast, Boquete is a quaint mountain town with lots of outdoor activities, great local transportation, boutique shopping opportunities, fascinating local culture, and a vibrant expat community.
At first blush, it feels similar to Banos, Ecuador but with more expats.
Whether or not that is a good thing, only time will tell.
So now that we have made it to our Airbnb in Boquete Panama, how do we like it?
Boquete, Panama is a mountain town set at an elevation of 1,200 meters (~3,900 feet) with a population of around 19,000.
You can’t escape the mountain views here, which are absolutely gorgeous.
Admittedly, these mountains aren’t as starkly beautiful, or as dangerous, as the Andes of South America. But at least we don’t have to worry about getting altitude sickness since they are well under 3,500 meters!
The daytime temperatures range from 22 – 26 degrees C (72 – 79 degrees F), with significant rainfall during the rainy season.
Because of these things, the forests are lush and green. Many trails extend throughout the wilderness and are easily accessible by public transportation.
Art and culture festivals are common in Boquete. And the dense tourist/expat communities in the area have allowed for expat-centric shops and restaurants (catering to USA, Canadian, and European tastes) to successfully establish themselves in the area.
But believe it or not, the main economic driver of Boquete isn’t tourism or expats, although they are significant.
It is coffee!
Coffee plantations abound here, and Boquete grows one of the most expensive types of coffee in the world: Geisha coffee.
At up to $2,500 USD per pound at auction, it ain’t cheap! But we’ll see if we can try a brewed mug of Geisha (hopefully at around $10 USD each) before we leave town.
So to sum it all up, Boquete is a haven for art, nature, and coffee lovers, as well as retirees looking for a safe and comfortable place to live.
Not a bad combination of locational perks!
Getting from Pedasi to Our Airbnb in Boquete Panama
This was one of our more interesting migrations, even though we never left Panama.
On paper, our migration route from Pedasi to Boquete, Panama was fairly straightforward. But in practice, lots of things could have gone wrong if the Panamanian local transportation system failed to work properly.
What do I mean by this?
You have to understand that local public transportation in Latin America seems to operate by a loose set of guidelines, rather than hard and fast scheduling rules.
Meaning, buses are expected to come and go at certain times and frequencies, but this can be pretty loosey-goosey.
So to successfully use the local public transportation system you have to go into it with an open mind, a flexible schedule, have a tolerance for the unexpected, and just let things happen.
And usually, things work out just fine, and are more or less on schedule.
And this was our route. Included are the estimated durations of each leg, and the cost of each ticket (found out at the end of each leg):
Pedasi to Las Tablas: ~45-minute ride – $2.50 USD per person
Las Tablas to Chitre: ~45-minute ride – $1.50 USD per person
Chitre to Santago: ~1.5-hour ride – $3 USD per person
Santiago to David: ~3-hour ride – $9 USD per person
David to Boquete: ~ 45-minute ride – $2 USD per person
And theoretically, we wouldn’t have to wait more than 30 minutes to catch a bus as each route had frequent departures.
So how did it work out for us?
We left Pedasi early Friday morning at 6 am. And throughout the day we entered a travel blur of arrivals and new departures, not always sure if a bus would be waiting for us when we arrived at a station.
We didn’t know exactly how much each ticket would cost when we boarded a bus. But we made sure to have lots of small denomination cash on us.
So it worked out fine.
We didn’t always know where the next bus we needed was when we arrived at a bus station. But the drivers and station attendants were eager and proactive to help us find where we needed to go.
So it worked out fine.
The buses were of small size (held 20 – 30 people), so we were never sure if there would be room on a bus for us. But in Latin America, everyone just squeezes in until capacity is reached (and possibly exceeded).
So it worked out fine.
On our way to Santiago. Notice the towering pile of unsecured suitcases in front of us. Thankfully, Jesus was our copilot, as is usually the case in Latin America buses.
It was clear that the buses only loosely adhered to their schedules, although they did their best to meet their stated departure frequencies. I don’t think we ever had to wait more than 20 minutes for any of our buses, and most of the time the wait was less than that.
So it worked out fine.
And we weren’t sure how good the system of roads would be on our route. But they were actually quite modern and fast! Aside from a 30-minute delay during our trip from Santiago to David (due to a tree falling across the road), the buses got us where we needed to go without issue.
So it worked out fine.
And in the end, our journey went off without a hitch.
We embraced the chaos, went with the flow, flexed our Spanish language muscles when needed, and trusted the system.
Everything worked out fine.
We moved into our new Airbnb in Boquete Panama at 2:30 pm, after an 8.5-hour total journey.
It was actually kind of a fun trip! As you can imagine, it wasn’t boring.
We marveled at how well the controlled chaos of the local bus system worked. From an outsider’s perspective, it should be a complete logistics disaster.
But somehow it all comes together.
And at $18 USD per person to get to Boquete from Pedasi, I would happily embrace such a system in the USA.
This Airbnb will be a wonderful change from our last one in Pedasi. We didn’t appreciate how mentally exhausting sharing space with environmental NGO would be!
We always felt like we were getting in their way, although I am sure they never minded.
That said, we really missed having complete privacy.
And in our new location, we will have blissful privacy once again!
Our Airbnb host picked us up at Plaza San Francisco in the town of Alto Boquete (just south of Boquete center), where our final bus dropped us off.
And even though it wasn’t far to our Airbnb, we were glad she picked us up. Because the heavens opened up when we met her!
It was the first rain we felt in nearly 5 weeks!
Our Airbnb is on a gated campus of sorts. The owners rent out our Airbnb and several apartments for longer-term stays. Their own house is here as well.
There is also a common yard area, with lush gardens, trees, and a gazebo with hammocks.
She checked us into our new bungalow, which has an enclosed bedroom and bathroom area, as well as a sheltered outdoor kitchen area.
Our bungalow is on the left.
When you enter the front door, you see a bedroom with queen sized bed, nightstand, and many storage areas.
The sliding door leads to the outdoor kitchen.
And we have a smart TV on the wall we can stream to.
The back corner of the room leads to a bathroom area with a sink and mirror niche…
At the back corner of our bedroom.
An area for getting ready in the morning.
With a separate shower and toilet area.
I need a lens with a wider angle!
Going through the sliding glass door of our bedroom (or entering it from the outside), we have a well-appointed kitchen and dining room area, with almost all of the modern amenities.
A nice sized refrigerator. Hopefully nobody will steal our food!
Plenty of counter space.
It is actually a good space to work in, even when our rainy season afternoon downpour happens!
I am writing this post during a downpour!
It is an interesting bungalow arrangement, but quite comfortable. The intimacy with the outdoors and the sounds of wildlife and weather make us feel like we are glamping!
And as an extra bonus, we have easy access to reliable public transportation which will take us all over the area for cheap. The bus only takes about 5 minutes to get to Boquete center from our bus station.
And when we want to stretch our legs to get into the hustle and bustle of Boquete center, we take a 50-minute walk through the beautiful countryside to get there.
So for all of this, including utilities, laundry, blazing-fast internet, and weekly house cleaning service, we are paying $23.23 USD per night (with the 65% long-stay discount).
We are saving $1131.00 USD by staying 29 nights!
A little more expensive than normal for us, but for Boquete (and Panama in general), is a complete bargain.
We are very pleased.
Until next time…
Thanks for reading!
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As usual, you give a wonderful pictorial review of your bungalow and all of its amenities and surrounding. It gives us a very good look at your living conditions.
4 thoughts on “Moving Day – Our Airbnb in Boquete Panama”
Love enjoying your journey as we sit here in Southwest Ohio.
Where are you at nowadays? My in-laws live near Dayton.
As usual, you give a wonderful pictorial review of your bungalow and all of its amenities and surrounding. It gives us a very good look at your living conditions.
Our pleasure!