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More tales from Panama...

Xulonn

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Boquete, Chiriqui, Panama
Yet another random expat ramble prompted by a post elsewhere at ASR.

As you can see from my location (below my avatar), I live in Boquete, Panama, which is named for the "gap" (hole) in the mountain range (Cordillera de Talamanca) that is the "continental divide" here. When I was active on local media prior to my move here in early 2012, I was active on a local expat forum. As a single American man with a decent pension, I got PMs from an attractive middle-aged Colombiana named Maria, who was doing what I later learned was called "trolling for gringos". In February, 2012, I arrived in Boquete for my initial exploratory visit and posted that fact. Soon thereafter, Maria messaged me "Oh, I see you are in Gap", which immediately told me that she did not speak English and was using Google Translate which rendered "Boquete" as "Gap"!

Over the past couple of centuries, as this area slowly developed into an agricultural and ranching region, occasional travelers came up from the south to visit, or passed through on their way from the Caribbean to the Pacific, and a few decided to stay. Some of the prospectors who were headed to the 1849 California Gold Rush used the boquete route over the gap in the mountains (Cordillera de Talamanca) to avoid the long sailing voyage around the treacherous seas of Cape Horn at the tip of South America. Another option in the days before the transcontinental railroad was completed was to cross the United States via horseback or stagecoach, braving the long journey across the plains, deserts, mountains, and sometimes dangerous Indian lands.

But among those travelers who made it to Boquete, a few, including some Scandinavians, fell in love with the climate and beauty of this upland region and settled here. The influence of these and other Scandinavian expats who arrived later can be seen in local architecture - houses with steep, peaked metal roofs in a country where even the highest mountains do not get snow.
 
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