Today is a beautiful day to hike, it’s not raining like it had on Thursday. The area we hiked today is what I call the “La Estancia Trail.” The road we walk is a loop we start hiking down and back up on the other side of this mountain back to where we began. Not many cars travel this road yet and so it makes for easy walking.
About La Estancia Hotel
We met this morning at eight and car pooled up the Volcancito Road in Boquete parked at the La Estancia Hotel and Restaurant. La Estancia is a hotel with 20 rooms, the restaurant serves “typico” meaning Panamanian food, although they serve a good pizza, still the main attraction is the swimming pool with a very long slide. The pool is not extremely deep coming up to the waist even so it is still a very popular place to be on the weekend. During the week, there is not much activity but one thing to know La Estancia does charge to use their pool if you have not reserved a room. However, on the weekends, families from David pack the place spending the whole day swimming. It is a very lively place, I get a kick watching the youngsters’ play, while listening to the music in the background, lounging, and sipping a drink.
The trail we are hiking on today is not long, one can finish it in one and a half to two hours depending on how fit you are. Last year the road was gravel and dirt but city hall (to my disappoint) decided to make a better connection from Palmira to Volcancito Road. Palmira is worth another story but on another blog, I will write an article when we hike in the area. Some of the La Estancia Loop Trail and road is asphalt while some is dirt. While the fauna and flora are quite limited on this road on this day we listened to the symphony of Cicadas singing while perched high up in the tall surrounding trees. The vistas on this road are grand, on a clear day one can see the Gulf of Chiriqui, which is quite gorgeous. Many of the indigenous Gnobe families live throughout this area, most of the Gnobe work on the large coffee plantations scattered throughout this area.
Our walk on the “La Estancia Loop” is steep and at a steady incline at least for awhile, though it eventually levels off about half way through the hike, then the road descends slightly ending our walk on asphalt until our return to the La Estancia Hotel. A great way to end your walk is to stop in for a beer, go for a swim, and then have lunch.
Remember our next hike is Thursday hope you can join us. Explore – Discover – Dream