Boquete in The News

Seattle Times, August 17, 2008

Excerpts of what major news organizations say about Boquete 

"Panama's western highlands remained beyond the edge of development last century, when the United States built and operated the 48-mile Panama Canal that splits the country at its core. In the nine years since the canal came under local control, skyscrapers have spiked in Panama City, and upscale resorts have awakened sleepy beach towns an hour west of the capital. Venezuelans, Germans, Canadians and Americans have bought in.
Tourism is an economic engine, with nearly $1.5 billion in annual revenue, more than is earned from tolls for the canal. The tourism ministry has launched a new campaign - "Panama - It will never leave you" -
Nowhere is the investment as intimate as in the lush foothills of the 11,397-foot Baru volcano, where Americans retire in mass to the town of Boquete."

New York Times, December 2007

In Panama, a Home in the Mountains

 “Fast-growing Panama is generally considered an easy place for foreigners to buy property, compared with other countries. English is commonly spoken, the United States dollar is the accepted currency, there are no restrictions on owning land in most areas and the government offers a long list of friendly discounts for pensionados, expatriates who have settled in Panama. For the Smiths, Panama had an extra appeal — no hurricanes. “We were sick and tired of running from hurricanes,” said Mrs. Smith, 52 … first showed the couple properties in beach resort areas, where a four-bedroom condo with 230 square meters (2,475 square feet) of living space sells for about $375,000. But then Mrs. Smith mentioned their love of birds. “That was it,” Ms. Farrell said. “I knew they wanted the mountains. Mountain property in Panama is much less expensive than the coast and offers lush tropical landscapes, albeit without the sandy beaches. A new three-bedroom house with 225 square meters (2,400 square feet) of living space in Boquete, an area in the north popular with expatriates, sells for around $265,000.”

 

The Witchita Eagle, November 2007

Panama City an uplifting experience

“The tourism of Panama is centered not simply in Panama City, but to a far greater extent in the picture-perfect, uncrowded beaches (with several large resorts) just outside Panama City, and in the renowned San Blas Islands, Pearl Islands and Bocas del Toro offshore islands, as well as on the Gulf of Chiriqui. It's found in the mountain stretches of Boquete, housing rain forests, coffee plantations and Embera and Kuna Indians -- a superb setting for tourism. Just as Americans began flocking to Costa Rica a decade ago, they're now going to what might become the new hot spot of Central America, Panama. You should consider a trip.”

Dallas Morning News, September 2007

Retirees seeking Shangri-la find Panama is close enough

“lush, birdsong-echoing mountains above the Pacific.”

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, September 2007

Panama Booms as retirement hot spot for Americans – South Floridians find haven from high prices and hurricanes

“More measured growth appeals to the bulk of Americans who are retiring or buying second homes outside the capital – by the many beaches or in the mountains approaching Costa Rica, especially in the coffee-growing highlands around the town of Boquete.

New York Times, August 2007

The Costa Rica Experience Moves Next Door

“At midday, when the air is warm but crisp, a casual pace falls over the town. Crocs-wearing tourists mingle with old-timers, making fishing and hiking plans for the following morning. What feels at times like a newly minted resort town in New England or perhaps Southern California is actually the latest stop on Panama's growing tourist route. Tucked in the highlands near the Barú volcano, in the western Chiriquí region of Panama, Boquete is emerging as one of Central America's latest eco-tourism destinations.  Surrounded by green mountains topped by misty, craggy peaks, Boquete offers plenty of outdoors adventure, like hiking, climbing, bird-watching and white-water rafting. And thanks to a 3,000-foot elevation, the area's microclimate deducts 10 crucial degrees from the incessant lowland heat.  Wispy clouds meander overhead in the morning, but release their grip by midday.

But unlike most eco-tourist hot spots, Boquete draws people not just to its natural beauty, however lush it may be, but also to its snowbird enclave. In the last two decades, a thriving community of North American baby boomers have built homes in and around town. Attracted …by the Napa-like weather and low cost of living...

And while Boquete's real estate market was once dominated by porch-swinging retirees, the latest wave of arrivals tend to be younger couples in their 40s and 50s. Many are opening so-called hobby businesses — restaurants, touring companies, bed-and-breakfasts and wellness spas — geared for tourists. Boquete is capitalizing on its forests, rivers and abundant wildlife.  Panama also offers magnificent bird-watching. The forests in and around Boquete are home to a dazzling array of quetzals, toucans and parrots….Then it's back to the hotel for a hot stone massage. And maybe a nice bottle of red wine with dinner. But you'll want to turn in early and sink into the crisp white sheets as a gentle mountain breeze lulls you to sleep. There's plenty to do in the morning.”

San Francisco Chronicle, May 2006

Making fantasy real in Panama

HIGHLANDS: Coffee tasting is prime perk of misty region

“Boquete, a green jewel of a town nestled at the edge of a cloud forest in the western Panamanian highlands…After a mile or so, we found ourselves walking through climax cloud forest, lusher than anything we had experienced in our temperate-zone world, the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest included.”

Reuters, May 2006

“…while the gleaming skyscrapers of the cosmopolitan capital Panama City are only a short flight from Miami, the city is too hot for most newcomers. Retirees are instead flocking to the area around Boquete, a cool mountain town famous for growing coffee and oranges, where small wooden houses are decked with tropical fruit and flowers year-round and old men play dominoes in the shade.

MSN Money, 2006

Panama is paradise for retirees

“Boquete sits in Panama’s mountainous Chiriqui region at an elevation of about 3,500 feet.  It’s quiet, unspoiled, uncrowded. Mountains, rivers, waterfalls. Lush green hills and great masses of red and purple flowers. This is coffee country, and in harvest season the Indians come down from the hills to find work. The men call and sing to each other as they pick. Their children run through the fields and play in the streams.

The climate in Boquete is ideal, spring like year-round with reasonable daytime temperatures, cool breezes, and chilly nights. Beachfront living is nice, but the mountains of Boquete are hard to beat. If you like Colorado, you'll love Boquete.”

Fortune Magazine 2005 Retirement Guide

Names Boquete as one of the top 5 places in the world to retire

Paradise Found: Where to Retire Abroad

“Paradise Found: With temperatures between 72 and 78 degrees Fahrenheit year round, homes don’t need heat or air conditioning.  Boquete has a large English-speaking community.”

LA Times, February 2005

Retirees Find More for Less in Panama

About Boquete  “Tax breaks, lower prices and laid-back lifestyle draw a growing community of Americans to one of the nation’s small towns…the latest hot spot in Central America”

LA Times, November 2002

A Budding Affection for Boquete

“a Panamanian Shangri-La in the cool highlands of Chiriquí where there were rushing trout-filled streams, a lush mountain rain forest, abundant orange groves and coffee plantations, and a picture-postcard town chockablock with flower gardens….Initial excursions took us to flowers, flowers and more flowers…. Impatiens, in every shade of the impatiens rainbow, interspersed with frothy flings of blue forget-me-nots, blanketed hillsides. Aerial gardens of orchids, aroids and bromeliads nestled in the high branches of trees. Lacy tree ferns towered man-high; mosses muffled almost every available surface…. At dawn on our last day in Boquete, while the valley's surrounding mountains were still etched black against the departing night, we wandered out on our cottage deck, coffee cups in hand. Gradually a stain of pink appeared in the sky, turning golden as the sun made its way over the mountains, spotlighting first just one section of craggy peak, then another, until all of Boquete was bathed in gentle light. The call of one bird -- more than seven dozen species have been spotted to date on the property -- grew into a whistling, chirping, chiming morning chorus. Like Jane and Barry, we too had become smitten with the place.

Modern Maturity, American Association of Retired People, 2001

AARP’s magazine named Boquete one of the four best locations in the world to live outside of the United States.