The Three Waterfalls, The Pipeline Trail, Coffee & Flowers Fair, Piedra del Musgo
I was quite enjoying my time in Boquete, and was not in a rush to leave it behind me. After doing some hiking in the area, I headed to a more popular activity and took a shuttle to The Three Waterfalls (which in English are more commonly known as The Lost Waterfalls). I got there early in the morning, and was pretty much the first person to get in. It was recommended to me to start with Waterfall 2, then Waterfall 3, and on the way back to take a detour to Waterfall 1, which was not along the main road.
However, I decided to start with Waterfall 1. It was just a viewpoint, which didn’t allow a close look, and unlike the other two waterfalls this one didn’t offer any areas for swimming. Some sources online mentioned the trail as “well maintained”, but after walking along, I found myself disagreeing with that. It wasn’t difficult, but maintenance was lacking. After about 15 minutes of walking along a path which was mostly a dirt trail with some stairs, I made it to the viewpoint. It was nice, although not impressive, and there was nothing else there.
I quickly turned around, made my way back to the main path, and carried on to Waterfall 2. The road didn’t change much in the section, and overall it was a pretty easy walk that took about twenty minutes or so. This waterfall was closer, bigger, and more impressive. There was a pool where one could swim (although the water was freezing), and a small cave (more like a nook) pretty much behind the waterfall.
Once more, I turned around and got back to the main trail rather quickly. I wanted to see all three waterfalls and then decide on a stop, not to mention it was a bit chilly and not the best weather for swimming. This last section was a bit more challenging, where some parts of the road called for the use of a rope. It wasn’t absolutely necessary, but it was most certainly helpful.
When I got to Waterfall 3, I found it less impressive than Waterfall 2. It was still nice to look at, and was the only one with a bench to serve as a proper sitting area, and I stayed there for a few minutes to rest and drink some water.
Several minutes later, I started to make my way out of the area. Along the way, between Waterfall 3 and 2, I encountered a few other travelers. When I got back to Waterfall 2, since I was curious and had the time, I wanted to check out the small nook behind the waterfall. The water wasn’t deep, so I could simply walk over there, but it was freezing, which reminded me of one hike I did in South Korea, and a pond I didn’t get to cross there. When I got to the nook it was a nice spot, but again, not very impressive. I quickly and painfully made my way back to the trail, and from there all the way back to where the shuttle dropped me off.
Instead of waiting for the shuttle to come in, and since there were more things in the area I wanted to see, I simply walked for about 20 minutes until I got to my next stop, The Pipeline Trail. After registering and paying the entry fee, I started the trail which was supposed to end in yet another waterfall.
However, something unexpected happened to me. Not even fifteen minutes passed by, and I started to feel like I didn’t really want to keep going all the way to the end. Physically I was fine, I still had energy, and the current trail was at a very small incline. Mentally, I felt myself draining quite rapidly. About five minutes later I found an improvised bench and sat down for a while, trying to figure out what’s wrong and whether or not I want to keep going.
Since I already paid, I decided to try and keep going anyway, although the thought of having it make it all the way back was discouraging. I had a couple more breaks along the way, and at the end I more or less forced myself to get to the end of the trail, which wasn’t really worth it. The waterfall was far in the distance, it was small, and less impressive than the other waterfalls I’ve seen earlier in the way. But it was added to the overall unusual feeling I had from the very beginning of this trail.
When I got back to the starting point and signed on my exit, the woman in charge rudely looked down on me, commenting quite negatively on how I wasted the experience by coming back too quickly. Even though I planned to visit Don Pepe’s Haunted Castle, which I couldn’t find any real information about, and the San Ramón waterfall, I simply didn’t feely up to anything else that day, so I just took the shuttle back to Boquete and spent the rest of the day resting.
In the next day I made my way back to the Coffee & Flowers Fair, which turned out to be an actual fair, attracting people from all over the country, and I found this thing quite confusing. It was quite a beautiful garden, with a lot of flowers and practically no coffee, so the name alone wasn’t clear to me. I also didn’t understand why this garden was open only ten days out of the year, and as beautiful as it was, I didn’t think it justified traveling across the country for it, more like a nice place to visit along the way, but not more than that.
Then the smartphones needed to be checked, and I didn’t feel confident going far without it. I also developed a bit of a cold, although very mild. I rested in the accommodation for a few days, not doing much of anything, until I got better and my smartphone (not fixed) was back in my hands.
Looking into some of the less familiar hikes in the area (at least for the English speaking crowd), I wanted to do Piedra del Musgo. The problem was I couldn’t find much information about it, and I wasn’t sure how accurate Maps.Me was for that. I spotted a tourist agency in town, who informed me that I will need to take a shuttle going to Jaramillo. That, however, proved too complicated. I couldn’t find the shuttle, and couldn’t even get a taxi, so I was left with no other option but to walk.
While walking to do the beginning of the trail didn’t look like much of an effort when I looked at the map, I was worried about the trail itself, thinking that if it’s long, or at high altitude, I will need as much energy as possible. The road was pretty okay, with a couple of views of Boquete, but nothing was particularly special.
It took me a bit more than half an hour to get to the starting point of Piedra del Musgo, which was a small bridge going over the river. Then I walked for a couple of minutes across a dirt road which was fairly leveled, until I faced another river crossing. This one was a bit more tricky, since there was no actual bridge, and I had to carefully make my way over a few large stones, not wanting to get my shoes and socks wet.
Shortly after that, the road got steeper. The dirt gave way to some stones for the most part, on a road that seemed to be rarely used by vehicles, although clearly made for them. The path had a few turns, and at a few places I could see some nice views from there, mainly of the forest around me. Not just around me, but around a few families that lived there as well. There were a couple of houses along the path, which looked more like sheds, and I was a bit surprised by that.
At the top of the road, at the final house, one of the locals told me that the rest of the road, all the way to the top of the trail, could take me about fifteen minutes for those who are quick. Not only I wasn’t quick, in the map it was supposed to take a lot longer. Somewhat confused, and not really sure what to expect, I moved on to the second part of the trail.
This part had no paved sections, it was another dirt road, going into the forest. It was pretty narrow for the most part, steep and slippery at other parts, and at times it wasn’t very clear where to go. I had to focus on looking for anything that looked like it could be a trail, which was clearly not maintained by anyone, and especially where there was a split in the road, I was quick to look at the map in order to make sure I’m heading in the right direction.
While in the forest, I spent quite a bit of time in the shade, without much to look at. However, I was happy to find myself quite a few times out of the shade, exposed to increasingly better views every time. I was happy and hopeful, for what I’ve seen and what I have yet to see. I looked at the map a few more times, and it seemed like I was going to get to the end of the trail earlier than I originally thought, but not as quickly as the man I met earlier said.
It took me about forty minutes to get from the house to the end of the trail, and the view from that spot was absolutely amazing. Piedra de Lino had great views, but Piedra del Musgo had amazing views. Boquete was in front of me, and on that sunny day I could see more or less all of it, until it disappeared in the horizon. I could see where the green mountains stopped and started to give way for the city, and I thoroughly enjoyed the sights.
I stayed at the top for a little while, not because I was tired but rather because I wanted to savor the views before going back down. And when I finally did so, when I was about to reach the last house from the first section of the trail, I saw a small group of locals making their way up. Other than them, I saw no one else along a trail which I feel deserves a lot more credit. It wasn’t really challenging, it took about an hour and a half from the center of Boquete, and the views were more than rewarding.
Another hike that I couldn’t find much information about was India Vieja. The only thing I did find is that I will need a taxi to get there, preferably one that can go off-road. After spending the best part of an hour looking for one, at a reasonable price, the one I found didn’t get me to the starting point, but rather to the point where the asphalt road ends and the off-road part begins.
According to the maps on my smartphone, it was about an hour walking to the starting point, although it seemed unclear where the official starting point is located. Without much choice, I started walking. The road turned out to be quite nice, especially in the second part of it, where I had beautiful views of the surrounding area.
Eventually I passed what Maps.Me designated as “viewpoint”, and into a split in the road which I took to be the starting point. The navigation app showed one trail going south as “India Vieja Abajo” and one trail going north as “India Vieja Arriba”. Naturally, I chose the latter, although both trails seemed to end at a dead end on the map, far from the point that was marked as the end of the trail. This is something I looked at in advance, and it seemed that hikers tend to make their own path, and while the idea had some appeal to me at first, on the day I wasn’t so keen on it.
Instead, I thought I’ll just walk for as long as I can find a trail, and hope that it will take me to where I wanted to end up. Taking the path north, I seemed to be drifting away from the viewpoint at the end of the trail. It was a dirt road for most of the way, with some steep parts, and it was clear that some vehicles passed by at some point.
Eventually the road curved, and I started to go in what looked like a giant U-turn from the starting point to the end of the trail. It was somewhat encouraging, but I wasn’t even sure I’m heading in the right direction, and it had been quite a while since the road ended on the map, so it was now useless.
I continued going up at a steady pace, until I got to the end of the road. Right there, in the middle of the forest, was a house, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence. I heard voices there, and tried to catch their attention, but they were too far away. Not wanting to set foot in their private property, I decided to call it quits, turned around, and made my way back down. I was a bit upset that I didn’t get to see what was rumored to be one of the best views in the area, but the views from the road were quite good in their own right.