Carrie and I went to Caldera yesterday.
Caldera is a little town (like maybe 500 people) about 30 minutes (by car) away from Boquete.
We actually had talked about going to the Caldera hot springs before coming to Boquete, and both of us thought it really sounded like a fun thing to do.
But taking a taxi there would be expensive. There was also an option to go to the Caldera hot springs through a language school we were looking at, but that trip would have cost $35/person, which seemed a little pricey to go sit in some naturally hot water.
But every Tuesday, here in Boquete, there’s a meeting where the local gringos get together and learn about what’s going on, what’s available, and it’s kind of a swap meet as well (with books, crafts, and food for sale).
Caveat: On the way out the door yesterday I noticed that the carpenter ants were carrying pieces of something pink. (So far, they’ve been carrying only green – pieces of leaves.)
The night before, we had beautiful hibiscus flowers outside our door.
This morning, there is one sole survivor.

In less than 12 hours, the colony of ants made minced meat out of about 10 huge hibiscus flowers.


Anyway, back to the gringos meeting in Boquete…

At the meeting, we ran into Chris, who has been teaching a stained glass class at the place where the Casita is.

Chris actually lives in Caldera, and asked us if we had been to the hot springs yet.

We said we wanted to go, but hadn’t yet figured it out as far as getting to and from Caldera.

Chris then put together a plan to take us back to Caldera, where he let us borrow his car to go to the hot springs, grab lunch, and see the beautiful 20 hectare (50 acre) property he designed at Rancho de Caldera.

(I would have pictures of Rancho de Caldera for you (truly beautiful), but the pouring rain kept us from even exiting the vehicle that Chris graciously let us borrow for the afternoon.)

The hot springs were really neat, and VERY natural.

It cost us $2/person, and there were a 4-5 natural pools you could wade into… none of them more than about 2 ½ feet deep.

We wouldn’t have even known where to go really, except for the amazing maps Chris drew for us of where the hot springs are, the best way to get there, and the best pools to sit in.

If you decide to go to the hot springs in Caldera, you may want to either print out this page, or figure out some other way to take these instructions with you.

Boquete to Caldera

Our video of the natural hot springs *spas*

Where the hot springs are in Caldera

Chris’s maps for us:
(Click on them and you can get a larger view. Combine these with the Google maps and the video and you will have no trouble finding the hot springs.)

We’re guessing at the temperature, but the hottest pool we got in (the last one we got in) was about 108 degrees Fahrenheit. We only stayed in it for about 8 minutes before we were both ready to be done.

We drove the borrowed car back to Chris’s house, where one of Chris’s stained glass students (Vicki from Texas) drove us back to Boquete. Vicki lives here in Boquete, and we appreciated being able to hitch a ride with her.

One note on the Caldera hot springs:

We saw quite a few black gnats out there at the hot springs spas, but not a single mosquito.

That seemed like a good thing at the time (yesterday).

Today, it seems like it wasn’t such a good thing.

Carrie and I both woke up this morning to discover that we are back to being severely mosquito bitten. I started counting and gave up counting after getting to 20 bites.

To be fair to the mosquitoes (as if they deserve it), these could be gnat bites.

However, two of my bites have two little punctures each, which could suggest that they came from spider(s). We’ll be keeping an eye on those.

We’ve been in Boquete exactly 1 week (today), and had no bites in the last week until yesterday.

Our bites today are definitely not as bad as at La Tortuga Feliz (the volunteer turtle conservation project we worked at in Costa Rica), but we’re fairly certain that our itching this morning is a direct result of our time at the Caldera hot springs.

If you decide to visit the Caldera hot springs, maybe take some bug spray for the walk back? We were mostly clothed on the way there, but we are both fairly certain that most of these bites came as we were less dressed on the ¾ mile hike back to the car.

Would I ever live in Central America?

Central America is a nice place to visit, no question about that.

The pineapples, bananas, and all the produce seem a bit more fresh and tasty here. The views, and the monkeys, and the birds, and the people are all amazing, but living here permanently? My response at this point would be 3 words:

I hate bugs.