Tourism - Feature Story

Established in 1976, the Volcan Baru National Park extends over 14,322.5 hectares. The main attraction of this park is the top of the Baru Volcano, which at 3,474 meters is the highest elevation within the country.

From the top of this extinct volcano adventurers can gaze at the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans and a large part of Panama’s eastern region.

This protected territory is also the birthplace of several rivers vital for a great deal of the country’s power production. In addition, about 250 species of birds and five of felines have been spotted from these fertile lands of thick forests.

Our intrepid reporter, Verushka, recently experienced the hike up herself. She is resting up, writing her story, but here are her amazing photos -

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Rock Climbing in Boquete

A relatively new sport for Boquete, climbing the "Gunko" offers everything from novice to challenging routes for expert climbers. There are more than 26 routes, including levels from 5.9 up to 5.12d. These basaltic rock formations originated by the last's volcano eruption 500 hundred years ago.

This natural climbing wall is open to the public, but as all the routes have been setup with the permission of authorities by Vertical Adventures, rock climbing is organized through them. Call César Meléndez, cexar01@yahoo.com, 6764-7918. All equipment included and guides -$40.00 p/p.

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(And, yes, our fearless reporter, Verushka, did her first climbing recently.)

Getting there:

Volcan Baru -

A taxi will take you up the road across the street from the church, to El Salto. From there it's about a 3km walk to a cottage on your left. This is ANAM (Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente), which is Panama's Protected Areas National Environmental Authority. Here you pay an "environmental" fee, currently $5 to enter the park.

Getting there:

Rock Climbing -

The "Gunko de Boquete" is located in the Bajo Mono area known as "Los Ladrillos" (Bricks). It is only 10 minutes by car from downtown Boquete. To get to "El Gunko" take a left at the Y intersection at the end of Central Avenue (main street in Boquete), continue until you reach "El cruce de los Naranjos" which is another Y intersection or fork, take a left again, pass Los Naranjos Gym, reach the next Y intersection and take a right towards Bajo Mono. Los Ladrillos will be ahead to your left and pretty obvious (a huge natural climbing wall).

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