I started my journey south the day after the Thunder Road marathon, and was heading to the equatorial lands of Ecuador. Along the way, I planned to visit the lands that connect the Americas—the umbilical cord connecting North America to South America—the country of Panama. It took me another day to reach the province of Chiriqui (pronounced like Cherokee) where the highlands of this country are found, and where the continental divide mountain range splits the earth with one side bordering the Caribbean Sea (Atlantic Ocean), and the other the Pacific Ocean. Carrying only essentials with a minimalist strategy in mind, I planned to do a full traverse of the Volcan Baru, the highest peak in Panama. The temperature in the Pueblo or Volcan was significantly cooler than Panama City, and I wondered if I actually brought enough warmer cloths. The night before my journey to the top of Panama, I visited the Jenson Coffee plantation, a Finca that holds more than 800 hectares of high altitude jungle—perfect for growing the finest arabica coffee beans. Leif & Emily Jenson were my hosts and thought me everything there is to know about coffee, from planting it all the way to roasting it. It really is fascinating. The following morning I met up with Jose Santiago Gallardo Espinosa (Tito Menjs clone) at the Romero in the city of David. We made our way to Star Point, the western terminus of the trail, and started at 6am. We were in the jungle, and the moisture of the tall grass and dew instantly soaked my shoes wet. The jungle was thick and we ascended. Our plan was to climb roughly 2,000 meters up to the cumbre. As we climbed higher, the vegetation began to thin out, and after a few hours the trees disappeared all together, we now were hiking up scree and volcanic rock. The clouds moved higher and stole our visibility. Baru after all was not going to let me peak at both oceans at the same time. I was testing out a pair of Lululemon Surge shorts worked wonderfully. A bit long, but felt super comfortable even in the jungles and high mountains of Chiriqui, not to mention style points. The air thinned as we climbed higher, but the wind and rain decided to be forgiving, and for the mother part the weather was fantastic. I was carrying roughly twice as much as Jose, cloths and food for three days, and most importantly Jose said that no one in their right mind would carry a pineapple to the top, and so there the decision for me was an easy one—Im hiking up with a pineapple along with everything else. We finally reached the summit, littered with graffiti, cell/t.v. towers, and with a cross planted exactly on the true summit. Jose explained that the local people of Chiriqui believed that by planting this cross, the the mountain will stop growing. I took in the views that presented themselves to me, snapped a few photos, sliced up and shared my pineapple and then began our descent down to the village of Boquete. The descent was not as steep, but roughly twice the distance. I convinced Jose to take on a slow jog downhill, tranquillo was how I kept describing the pace we should take. Having consumed most of my water and the pineapple, my pack felt much lighter. I strapped the pack on tight, and began my light run down the face of Volcan Baru. At first Jose was hesitant to job down, the trail was littered with rocks and was fairly technical at the higher elevations. His competitive spirit began to shine however when he passed me, and that was it. We both dropped the hammer hard and pounded down the mountain at faster speeds than I would have cared for. My legs still tight from the marathon still were moving, we jumped rocks simultaneously like mountain goats. I hoped he wouldnt twist an ankle or break a leg and kept telling him tranquillo, tranquillo, he didnt seem to care. We pushed on passing a bewildered Australian moving up the mountain. We finally made it to Boquete in roughly 8 hours round trip and feasted on some seafood in town. Thank you Jose and Maritza for pointing me in the right direction. Later that night I made my way to another coffee farm, Finca Lerida. This one much smaller, but more of a boutique place. The tour the next morning and cupping of coffee was a great way to let the legs rest. There I found the legendary Venezuelan climber Victoria Ormond, also sampling the variety of coffees. Now off to see the great engineering feat of carving out these lands, the Panama Canal, which turned 100 years old this year.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 17:46:57 +0000
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