Welcome to life in the jungle
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The folks in the image above are my wife and I at the Río Boquerón, one of our favorite "trails" in our country. We walk this river about once or twice every year. This trail takes three days to complete and it takes us from, roughly, the middle of Panamá north to the Atlantic coast. We follow the Boquerón up until it becomes a little stream. We then leave the Boquerón behind and cross over a ridge into a different watershed to follow another river, the río Nombre de Dios into the Atlantic Ocean.
This trip follows a historic route, the Camino Real. The Camino Real ("true trail") was the route followed by the Spaniards to carry their gold from the old city of Panamá to the town of Nombre de Dios, where the gold was kept until the Spanish Armada came to transport it back to Spain. This route was only used in our dry season, when the Río Chagres was to low to be navigable. Sir Francis Drake used this trail in his failed attempt to capture the old city of Panamá during his last voyage. The man himself did not lead his troops on this expedition, his lieutenant, Baskerville, did.
This trail is located in what is now a national park: Parque Nacional Chagres. After the half a day of walking we enter a beautiful rainforest. It takes two days of leisurely walking and frolicking in the river to get out of this forest. We sleep in hammocks hung from the trees to keep ourselves removed from the jungle's floor, which can be filled with all sorts of creepy crawlers. It is common to see toucans, howler monkeys, wild turkeys and other interesting animals.
The Boquerón itself is a beautiful river. It's water is crystaline. There are many deep pools of water along the way. We make these pools our regular stops. We take our breaks in the pools to swim and enjoy nature, the view, and to refresh our selves in the cool water. One of our favorite pools has a waterfall that comes down in stages. One of the levels has a smaller pool filled by part of the waterfall. This little pool even has a rock in the middle where you can sit and let the water give you a relaxing massage. Just life in the tropics.
These are some images of the Boquerón:
Follow this link to my undersea page
Follow this link to my spearfishing photo album
Follow this link to my page at my server.
this link goes to my wiki, PanaWiki, about outdoor activities in Panamá.
© 1999 Irving Bennett
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