The first leg of their journey was a 10-hour flight to Houston, where they waited in the airport for 4 hours before boarding a 4-hour flight to San Jose in Costa Rica. Their families took photos and waved the excited pair off to start their Panamanian adventure, with no way of knowing what was to come. On the morning of the 15th March 2014, Kris and Lisanne and their families travelled to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. The girls moved in together in Amersfoort and were soon planning a 6-week trip of a lifetime to Central America. She is described as intelligent and quiet. Lisanne was sporty and athletic and regularly played volleyball. Kremers had just completed a degree in Cultural Social Education at the University of Utrecht and Froon was a recent graduate of Applied Science from Saxion University in Deventer.
They were both from Amersfoort in the Netherlands and met whilst working at a café ‘In Den Kleinen Hap’ in the town. Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon were, by all accounts, intelligent, responsible, and popular. At the top of the trail lies a memorial to two young women and a warning, ‘Fin del Sendero…Retornar – End of the Trail…Return’, evidence of an adventure gone horribly wrong. It is here, at the summit, where hikers are reminded of the dangers that can await those who stray from the path. The final part of the hike rises through a small ravine before emerging at the summit, El Mirador, near the Continental Divide with beautiful views of the Chiquiri Province on a clear day.
Named for its resemblance to the keys of a piano, the trail starts in open fields and elevates slowly into the cloud forest peppered with quetzals, sloths, monkeys and snakes and lush green vegetation intersected by gentle streams. The trail is only 4km from Boquete and is easily found behind Il Pianista restaurant. One such trail, The Pianista, is described as an easy hike, taking only 2 hours to reach the summit.
Whether visiting the Volcán Barú National Park in hopes of seeing both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea from the same peak or hiking the scenic trails through the cloud forests of the Chiquiri Province, there is spectacular scenery all around. In recent years, Boquete has become extremely popular with Dutch tourists hoping to learn Spanish whilst volunteering with local children, sampling the Panamanian cuisine, and visiting some of the most beautiful national parks in the Americas. 14% of the town’s population are foreign nationals, mostly North American. With a population of only 20,000, a pleasantly cool climate, and a wide variety of exotic wildlife, it has become a haven for artists, ex-pats, and tourists. Boquete, Panama: a tropical Central American paradise lying 40 miles from the border with Costa Rica.
0 kommentar(er)
