What are the traditions of Boquete, Chiriqui Province?
Giovy Rojas - Boquete Horseback Riding Eco Tour
As a "city girl", when I moved to Boquete 7 years ago I had the same question, but it seems that Boquete doesn't have a special tradition. Here we celebrate the national holidays as the rest of the country and the fairs (a big one in January and another one in March - Orchid Exposition).
Boquete is famous because of the specialty coffees grown here. It was founded by foreign people 100 years ago. Boquete is...
As a "city girl", when I moved to Boquete 7 years ago I had the same question, but it seems that Boquete doesn't have a special tradition. Here we celebrate the national holidays as the rest of the country and the fairs (a big one in January and another one in March - Orchid Exposition).
Boquete is famous because of the specialty coffees grown here. It was founded by foreign people 100 years ago. Boquete is growing and changing... Expats have been contributing to Boquete traditions since it was founded
Many years ago the people of Boquete used to celebrate San Juan in June with traditional festivities but one day a priest decided to stop that celebration because it was turning into an alcoholic party.
Posted July 10, 2013
Lissy Lezcano - Lissy Lezcano Attorney & Mediator
We have a couple of traditions in Boquete that are celebrated in almost all of the country of Panama. In November, we have parades to celebrate our independence from Colombia, and from Spain. January 9th is Martyr’s Day. You cannot drink or buy alcohol on Martyr’s Day. It is also prohibited by law to play loud music on this day because it is supposed to be solemn. It is a day of remembrance of the difficult days Panama had under the...
We have a couple of traditions in Boquete that are celebrated in almost all of the country of Panama. In November, we have parades to celebrate our independence from Colombia, and from Spain. January 9th is Martyr’s Day. You cannot drink or buy alcohol on Martyr’s Day. It is also prohibited by law to play loud music on this day because it is supposed to be solemn. It is a day of remembrance of the difficult days Panama had under the Americans relative to the Panama Canal. There is no resentment against Americans on this day. It is just a reminder of how we got our territory back.
November is what we call the “lazy month” because we have a lot of holidays in November. He holidays in November are the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 10th, and 28th. During these days, most people go out to see the kids in the parades playing drums and other instruments in the marching band. People tend not to work as hard in November as they usually do during the rest of the year.
Boquete does not celebrate Carnival but you can go to a Dolega, which is a city 15 to 20 minutes away from Boquete and there they do celebrate Carnival. Carnival is celebrated in Dolega with loud music and a lot of alcohol. You would see a lot of ladies wearing shorts. People get sprayed with water and there is a lot of partying and dancing.
The only holiday that is unique to Boquete is the celebration of the Foundation Day of the District of Boquete, which is celebrated every year. On this day, people go to the municipality to hear a few words, and the kids have a parade.
Boquete also celebrates the Flower Festival, where a lot of different entrepreneurs come to Boquete to sell their crafts or products. During the Flower Festival, they put up a discotheque or two and some locals complain about the noise because it could run from 4:30 PM until 6 AM the following morning. They complain about the noise since the festival lasts for several days. The Flower Festival itself is very famous because a lot of people from all over the world come to Boquete to celebrate.
We also have a Jazz Festival, which is basically organized by the foreigners. Both the Flower Festival and the Jazz Festival are celebrated during summer, around January.
(Pictured: flowers in Boquete.)
Posted June 21, 2015
Ricord (Ric) Winstead, MD - Retirement Services International
The traditions of Boquete revolve around coffee, flowers, and horses. Boquete is a Hispanic community and the uniqueness of it does come out of those things. As opposed to the rest of Panama, it doesn’t celebrate Carnival. Many Panamanians come up to Boquete to get away from the noise, partying, and the celebrations because that is a lot common in the rest of Panama during the Carnival season. There is an annual coffee festival in Boquete and there...
The traditions of Boquete revolve around coffee, flowers, and horses. Boquete is a Hispanic community and the uniqueness of it does come out of those things. As opposed to the rest of Panama, it doesn’t celebrate Carnival. Many Panamanians come up to Boquete to get away from the noise, partying, and the celebrations because that is a lot common in the rest of Panama during the Carnival season. There is an annual coffee festival in Boquete and there are a lot of big coffee farms where they grow really high end, mountain-grown coffee. There are tours of the big coffee farms in Boquete and they have annual coffee celebrations at the municipal park.
The flowers in Boquete are incredible, and so they have an annual flower festival, where people come from all over to see the displays.
Then there is a huge horse community. There is a day where everybody parades through town on their horses. On Saturdays, a lot of times, horse folks will do a little ride through town, so you could be having a cup of coffee and all of a sudden see two dozen people riding on horses through downtown. This is part of the tone and character of that area.
(Horses in the highlands above Boquete, Panama, pcitured.)
Posted July 27, 2015
Giselle Leignadier - Hacienda Los Molinos
Boquete is a town that produces some of the best kinds of coffee in the world, and Boquete also has great weather. The activities of Boquete revolve around the coffee and the weather. The weather helps us grow beautiful flowers and good coffee. The traditions of Boquete go around the coffee and the flowers.We have two local festivals. One is the festival of flowers, where you can enjoy the beauty of the flowers in Boquete. We also have local activities in November. We have...
Boquete is a town that produces some of the best kinds of coffee in the world, and Boquete also has great weather. The activities of Boquete revolve around the coffee and the weather. The weather helps us grow beautiful flowers and good coffee. The traditions of Boquete go around the coffee and the flowers.We have two local festivals. One is the festival of flowers, where you can enjoy the beauty of the flowers in Boquete. We also have local activities in November. We have November parades where the Panamanians celebrate Independence Day.
The expat community also developed additional activities that have now become part of Boquete. They are the Bid 4 Boquete Auction, Tuesday Market, and the Jazz Festival.
The Bid 4 Boquete Auction is a charitable organization that was founded and run by expats but there are some Panamanians who are part of it as well. They have an auction once a year where they generate a good amount of money that is given to poor people. That is the good thing about the expat community in Boquete. They give back to the community or to the town where they live since Panamanians have welcomed them into the country of Panama.
The Jazz Festival is another activity here in Boquete and it happens every February. During this time, you will see that all the people of Boquete celebrate the Jazz Festival. I am not so sure about the origin of the Jazz Festival but it is an activity mainly for expats but at the same time, they also show us a different kind of music ,because in Panama, we are not used to listen to Jazz music. Jazz musicians from other countries come to Boquete for the Jazz Festival.
Another activity here in Boquete is the Tuesday Market. By the name itself, it is a market and it happens every Tuesday. Not only do they sell stuff at the market but there are also seminars or speeches about different topics such as make up, clothes, buying a property, medicines, or all about the new laws that help investors to buy properties here in Boquete and in Panama in general. You can go to the Tuesday Market to sell your natural products, cooked products, etc. The origin of this activity was to have a market that targets expats but right now, it is aimed at everybody in. You can learn interesting things from the Tuesday Market.
(Musical activities at Hacienda Los Molinos Chiriqui Province , Panama, pictured.)
Posted October 20, 2015