Ruta Sur, To Volcan and Beyond

Come fly with me in these drone videos that I took last weekend.  Click on the picture below to begin the journey.

And now onto Los Quetzales Lodge

Travel with us to a land of beauty that few people in Panama have ever been too.  It is a place where it is sunny and bright in the 60s and 70s in the day and then plunging to the 40s and 50s at night.  Our destination, Los Quetzlaes Lodge high up in the mountains in a town called Guadalupe.  So….

Here we are at our lodge with a cozy fire going in the fire place after leaving Boquete in the morning and a day of exploring the other side of Volcan Baru.

COZY FIRE IN THE FIREPLACE IN PANAMA, ARE YOUR CRAZY??

Yep, at over 6,000 feet you need a fire at night and you sleep like a baby here at Los Quetzales Lodge .  Tucked away in the highland cloud forest, Los Quetzales Lodge & Spa is ideal for those longing to retreat from the hustle and bustle of modern living.    Sometimes Boquete can get a little bit that way, what with 25,000 people now and growing!  At 7260 feet above sea level (2,200 meters), the reserve has the highest lodging facilities in the country, and lies inside the primary cloud forest of Volcan Baru National Park, which was established in 1976.  Volcan Baru is adjacent to the 407,000 acre Parque Internacional La Amistad, which straddles Costa Rica and Panama.   This  400 hectare reserve has been protected by the private efforts of its founders in 1970.  My friend and the owner of Los Quetzales Lodge, Carlos Alfaro is a dedicated hotelier and expert in the bio diversity here.

Before I go further into this story let me step back and show you where we live and where we traveled one weekend while looking at agricultural properties for some investors.  Ruta Sur was recently built as a  highway through the mountains to shorten the trip from Boquete to Volcan here in the western highlands of Panama.

The land use transitions from coffee and vegetables over to a huge citrus farm and then to dairy and green house operations.  It is truly a land that invites one to explore and at any minute I expected Julie Andrews to pop out of the meadow singing The Sounds of Music.

The valleys are verdant green and the cows are happy!!  This is where most of the Grade A Leche or milk comes from.  It is shipped out, pasteurized and processed into milk, butter, cheese, yogurt, etc and it  indeed produces good quality products.  With no subsidy by the government, milk is not cheap here and the dairy farmers that I have meet with often tell me of increasing profits and the best years that they have seen recently.  We have seen properties and operations that yield a solid 10% return on investment and amortize in less than 9 years.

There are added value opportunities with green house operations that can co exist with the dairy operations and boost returns into the teens.  Government programs are set up for loan rates in the 2-3% range with 10 year amortization schedules so do the math, leveraged returns can be very attractive. Plus this is a sustainable operation that will be very important with the  food supply problems in the future.

As we come down the Ruta Sur to the other side of the Volcan Baru the meadows stretch out for miles and the clouds blanket the summit of Volcan Baru that is over 11,000 feet high.

We drive up through Bambito which is very lush with flowers and trees and the valleys get greener and greener.  The Hotel Bambito is also very popular and picturesque.

As we travel through Volcan and up into the Volcan Baru Park, one can appreciate the beauty of this mountain and it’s majestic peaks.  In the morning the peaks are very visible.

As the day progresses, the clouds build and move into the high valleys.

We continue on through Cerro Punta and to the end of the paved road in Guadalupe where our lodge is located.  While we still had the day with us we headed up to one of the ranger stations that is the beginning of the trail where one can hike up around the summit and back to Boquete if you have an extra 6 hours and a lot of stamina.  The road we traveled takes you into verdant high valleys where the chalets look like ones I have seen in Davos and St, Moritz in Switzerland.

There are horse farms in the area and numerous things to see and do.

It was time to get back to our place and after a glass of wine in the lodge great room we moved on to dinner which by the way, is worth the trip over there as my friend Carlos has hired an excellent chef. A specialty is fresh trout from one of his ponds up in the cloud forest.  OK yes,  that is another fire place with a roaring fire going.

We were blessed with an earlier gift of a bottle of Veuve Clicquot from a neighbor so we returned to our suite where we had a roaring fire and toasted our love for life and each other.

We often head out early up the mountain to higher altitudes and venture into the rain forest where you can stay in one of the other private cabins at Los Quetzales .

And now for the star of our show and the namesake of the lodge and trail ……… the Resplendent Quetzal .

Another place is one that I have been to a half a dozen times and it still  amazes me.  Finca Dracula is an award winning botanical garden that boasts of more than 2200 different orchid species from Central and South America. This collection of rare orchids is the largest in Latin America and one of the largest in the world.

Well, if you are interested in visiting this area, we can suggest other things to do and see and of course invest, whether it is a green house operation, dairy farm or a chalet in the mountains, drop us a note at tbrymer@brymerpa.com