Boquete, Chiriqui, Republic of Panama

I'm in Boquete this month, preparing for my family's move here at the end of summer. I can report that the economy in Chiriquí is strong. While the global economic crisis is having some effect, its not as pronounced as in the USA or Mexico.

Why Boquete? The climate is wonderful here in the "Valley of Eternal Spring". The landscape is gorgeous. The town has everything you need, yet its a very livable small town. The people and the culture are warm and wonderful. The cost of living is reasonable and the economy is strong.

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Boquete is in the shadow of Volcán Barú, the highest peak in C. America. At two miles in altitude, you can see both the Caribbean & the Pacific from its peak, on a clear day. With only 50 miles between the two coasts bisected by the Talamanca mountains, there is a constant sea breeze passing through this the Valley of Boquete. People here wear sweaters and jackets in the mornings and evenings, but its perfectly warm 365 afternoons/year. Want heat? It's a short drive to the beaches of either coast.

The landscape is lush rainforest. Flowers are everywhere. Some of the best coffee in the world grows in and around Boquete, in the shade of fruit tree. Fresh produce is always available. If you drop a seed or stick a branch in the ground, it grows because the rich, volcanic soil is extremely fertile. Here you can find some of the cleanest air and water in the world.

The town has a refreshing diversity of culture, entertainment, fine cuisine, and shopping outlets for its size. There are eco-tours, river rafting opportunities, great hikes, a zip line rain forest canopy tour. People walk everywhere, but taxi rides to most areas are less than a dollar. You can find lattes made from beans that consistently place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in world cupping contests at one-third the price of Starbuck's over-roasted beans from unsustainable sources. (To order Boquete beans roasted and shipped to your door today, contact Seth and select "Casa Ruiz".)

Rumor has it that Hondurans are the friendliest people in Latin America but Panamanians are equally open, friendly, and good-natured. Panama has the highest literacy rate in Latin America and Boquete has excellent schools. The children safely roam about town and they are multilingual and multicultural. In addition to the beautiful culture of locals, there are many transplants in Boquete from around the world. Here Panamanians peacefully coexist with Europeans, N. & S. Americans, and other expats. You will hear French, English & German in the streets of Boquete on a daily basis. There is an excellent language school called Habla Ya where many pilgrims study Spanish, my family included.

Above is a photo of our new home, with Sr. Nicolas Guerra, an extraordinary coffee farmer. I am looking forward to driving from Seattle and pulling into the new driveway. We're located on the edge of National Park Volcán Barú, very near the Costa Rican border, where we plan to grow organic coffee, chocolate, fruits & vegetables. Come visit and hike with us into the International Park La Amistad (Costa Rica & Panama), an UNESCO World Heritage Site, and summit Volcán Barú.

Planning to Drive the Pan-American Highway

• Note: This blog will serve as Mango Steve's travel journal beginning with a drive from Seattle through C. America;


• Changes in Latitude's regular Latin America blog has moved to www.ChangesInLatitude.org/wordpress

Travelers investing the two weeks required to drive from the U.S./Mexico border through C. America tend to do their homework. When its your turn to drive the Pan-American Highway, check out Drive Me Loco, an online travel guide that is updated frequently. There is also an eBook with details on roadtripping through Mexico and C. America. I've driven all over Mexico and this guide is worthwhile.

Two weeks is the time required to drive (not enjoy) Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. It is a good idea to allow another two weeks so you can drive every other day, leaving time for exploring the countryside.

That's my plan and I'm sticking to it. Our destination is Parque Amistad, an international park in the Talamanca Mountains and an UNESCO World Heritage Site... my family's new home in the rain-forested shadow of Volcan Baru. (From it's peak, you can see the Pacific and the Caribbean - check out the photos in the last link.)

Boomers Retiring Outside the USA

A new online community and social network was launched today. Niche portal "Boomers Abroad" is focused on baby boomers retiring outside the USA, notably in Latin America.

The number of Americans and Canadians living abroad is approximately 7 million, twice the population of Chicago and greater than that of 33 U.S. States, according to the Washington Post. This number is expected to more than double within ten years. In the next 20 years, 100 million N. American baby boomers are going to retire. "Five million baby boomers turn age 60 each year, 10,000 per day, eight per minute, and scores of them are purchasing property abroad as vacation homes or investment homes", according to the company’s press release dated today.

Founder Luis Miranda shares the Boomers Abroad vision, “Using the online community model, our goal is to provide the necessary information, education, guidance, resources, tools and alternatives to start boomers down the path of discovering and understanding all that living, retiring and investing abroad has to offer. Everybody learns from everybody. We understand the proven power of collaboration. It is collective wisdom.”

Explore this new community at http://www.boomersabroad.com/ Photo courtesy of Cristina Berg.

Costa Rica's best hotel near San Jose

Many visitors head straight to beaches or rainforests when arriving in Costa Rica. The Central Valley has much to offer, however. Linger here on your next visit.

The home of Glenn & Teri Jampol is many things. It is a gourmet bistro bar. It is a boutique hotel, the best near San Jose. It is a coffee plantation. It is tropical gardens with foot paths and fruit orchards. It is a luxurious spa. It is Finca Rosa Blanca, the first hotel in Costa Rica to win a 100% sustainability rating.

To learn more about this spectacular hideaway in Santa Bárbara, Heredia, visit http://www.fincarosablanca.com/ Plan on staying awhile. You will not want to leave. Check out the inn's list of activites before you go. Make sure you plan dinner outside at sunset. The views overlooking the valley are breathtaking.

Guanajuato's Cervantino Festival: Oct. 2009

Guanajuato is Mexico’s most charming small city. It is European in its layout and architecture, with dozens of plazas connected by pedestrian walkways. Cafés spill out into vibrant streets and plazas. There is always music in the air. At night, student choir groups wander with guitars and serenade people of all ages, who are dining, sharing a park bench, or strolling while holding hands. Guanajuato is a very romantic city.

Everywhere there are staircases leading to colorful residences. The children are laughing, genuinely happy. Near the plazas, produce stands offer fresh fuits and artisans show their crafts. The climate is, like the city, enchanting. You’ll find art galleries and boutiques along hundreds of alleyways. Guanajuato has something for everyone. It's the perfect place to take a Spanish Immersion Course.

The best time to visit Guanajuato is during the Cervantino Festival, named in honor of Cervantes, author of 'Don Quixote'. 2009’s celebration of music and the arts will be Oct 14. – Nov. 2. Ask us to plan your journey now; every room will be booked by summer. People travel from all over the world to Guanajuato every October. One visit and you'll know why!

Legend of Tequila & The Finest Blue Agave Nectar

In the village of Magdalena, Jalisco, Mexico, “El Caudillo” is produced by Cooperativa Tequilera la Magdalena S.C. de R.L.

“El Caudillo” translates from Spanish as “the chief”. Not just any chief; a revolutionary chief. El Caudillo is an ultra premium tequila double distilled then carefully aged in white oak barrels previously used for maturing bourbon, imparting a complex golden color and oak flavor, before being bottled. Hail to the chief!

Other brands produced and bottled by this cooperative include Sangre Azteca and Pueblo Mágico. The town of Tequila is a "Pueblo Mágico", meaning "Magical Village", a place with symbolism, legends, and history according to Mexico’s tourism agency. There are three other Pueblos Mágicos in Jalisco. Visit them all. Book a flight into Guadalajara; board the tequila train; go to Magdalena. This village's amazing tequilia cooperative does not export its spirits to the USA or Canada … yet. Look for this to change in 2009.

If you research Magdalena on http://www.tequila.net/, you may be misled that “the name Magdalena is Xochitepec, which means the place next to the hill of flowers.” This is not true. Magdalena is a Spanish version of the Hebrew name “Magdalene” found in many languages. “Xochitepec” comes from the Nahuatl language and means “on the hill of flowers”. The town of Xochitepec is 300 miles away, near Cuernavaca, and has little to do with Magdalena, except they both have hills with flowers.

Let’s get back to tequila. The region surrounding the village of Tequila in Jalisco, Mexico is the only place where tequila is produced, as champagne comes only from the province of Champagne, France. Magdalena is just minutes from the magical village of Tequila. This is the place where the finest blue agave is harvested for El Caudillo. Magdalena's volcanic soil has produced the finest agave in Jalisco since this succulent plant was commercialized around 1600, when the first tequila distillery was established. In 1621 the oldest recorded description of tequila was insightful: "wine clearer than water, but strong as liquor" (from Nueva Galicia's Domingo Lázaro).

This early description refers to blanco, silver tequila, tequila that was not aged in wood. Purists insist blue agave suffers from wood flavor. Others argue the opposite, that reposado, gold tequila, is the finest. This argument will never be settled. Why should it be? With a cigar, reposado añejo is sublime. With food, a fine blanco is divine. Why argue?

The favorite tequilas according to a poll of 3,402 aficionados in the USA: 1) Patron; 2) Don Juilo; and, 3) Don Valente. El Caudillo is better than all three according to aficionados in Mexico, where they know tequila better than the average gringo. El Caudillo was not included in the poll, because it is not yet available in the U.S. The history of tequila in Mexico is rich and fascinating. The origin of the blue agave begins with Aztecs deities. Aztecs fermented agave long before the Spanish arrived.

The goddess of agave is Mayahuel, the young and beautiful Aztec woman who gave birth to the first blue agave. She left home to marry Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god of redemption. Both of them turned into two branches of a leafy tree so they would not be found by their terrible grandmother, who according to legend, ordered their execution. Quetzalcoatl lived, but Mayahuel died. In the place where she was buried, the first agave plant grew. It was struck by a lightning bolt from a great storm sent by the enraged gods. A fire started.

From beneath the thorny leafs emerged a seductive nectar from the heart of first agave. This is why fine tequila provides a mystical experience. To drink "Sangre Azteca" is to drink from the plant nourished by "Aztec blood". To taste "El Caudillo" is to taste the nectar of the Aztec goddess Mayahuel, bride of the god of redemption. Her revolutionary spirit inspired blue agave and rebels such as Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, and others.

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Today, the spirit of the Aztec goddess continues to grow in the hills of Magdalena, the Pueblo Mágico of Tequila in the highlands of Jalisco.

Plan Columbia

Of all the good and bad deeds the USA performs in Latin America, spraying herbicide on coca plants is, perhaps, the worst. Indigenous peoples chew coca leaves as part of their culture. Food is also grown in these fields and in adjacent fields, and herbicides are subject to over spray. The chemicals are carried by the wind into rural villages. Rains carry the poison downhill and downriver, tainting the soil and the water supply.

It is unethical and immoral to continue this practice. People live in these fields, as you can see in this photo from the highlands of Columbia, recently fumigated by crop dusters. For more on Columbia's resistance to coca fumigation, listen to this NPR report and check out related NPR stories.

The "war on drugs" has spent billions of dollars in the past decade with significant investment in the spraying of chemicals on rural food crops, women, children, and nearby villages. This practice is funded by the USA and is carried out by its agents, and agents trained by the USA. Between Plan Columbia and the Merida Initiative (Plan Mexico), the USA is now spending billions annually and accomplishing little outside of increasing violence in Latin America, moving coca production into national parks where aerial fumigation is banned, and filling courts and jails with peace-loving marijuana smokers.

The street price and quality of cocaine and marijuana remain unchanged. The current drug strategy amounts to prohibition. History is clear on how this strategy worked with alcohol - it failed. It is also unethical and immoral to continue wasting limited funds on a failed military strategy to continue this war indefinitely. The concept of legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana is gaining traction with many law enforcement policy makers given the failure of the war on drugs. The advantage of legalization is that it would provide a tax windfall for social programs and education.

In the meantime, it would be beneficial for the 111th Congress to make it illegal to spray herbicides on rural fields, regardless of what is grown there. Such a ban would logically extend to the USA funding fumigation. We have one planet and it came with marijuana and coca plants. It did not come with herbicides. Write your representatives in Congress. Chemicals sprayed on innocents and their countryside and crops should not be a strategy in the war on drugs. America is better than this.