Experience Panama’s Coffee Farming Tradition in the Chiriquí Highlands | Travel

The top of Volcán Barú in western Panama is one of the few places in the world where it is possible to see both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans at the same time. But the spot, with regular rainfall and cloud cover, and nutrient-rich volcanic soil that is naturally good for drainage, is prized for another reason: coffee production. The area’s geisha variety, maintained and handpicked by the Indigenous Ngäbe and Buglé communities, is one of the priciest coffees in the world at more than $1,000 per pound unroasted.

“They [the Ngäbe and Buglé] are the ones most in contact with coffee over the last hundred years,” Diwigdi Valiente, a climate and Indigenous activist, told Travel + Leisure in 2021. “The reason the coffee is so expensive is because these farmers are doing all these things right. They’re listening to nature, they are listening to science, and they are also listening to people.”

Coffee first came to Panama in the early 1800s thanks to an English sea captain who brought plants with him when he married a Panamanian woman. At first, the coffee was planted along the coast, but locals soon learned that the microclimate of the Chiriquí Highlands at the base of Volcán Barú was perfect for the coffee to thrive. Coffee farms flourished from that point.

Though the country grows a comparatively small amount—13 million pounds annually compared to Brazil’s five billion pounds—Panamanian coffee lovers consume more coffee per capita today than most coffee-producing countries. Still, much of the coffee is exported, and the farming of it has spawned a tourist activity. Established by the Tourism Authority of Panama and the Center for Competitiveness of the Western Region in 2019, the ever-expanding Coffee Circuit connects 15 farms that offer tastings and tours of their fields and production facilities.

“All types of travelers, from families to nature lovers and adventurers, are welcomed to explore the coffee farms that are located in three main regions of the Chiriquí Highlands: Tierras Altas, which includes Volcan, Bambito and Cerro Punta; as well as Renacimiento and Boquete,” Promtur Panama, the…