Finca Lerida trails

A wonderful day exploring the trails around the famous coffee plantation of Finca Lerida above Boquete: providing an opportunity to explore a slightly different area of the hinterland. I caught a local bus into the hills, complete with booming salsa and stetson-clad coffee pickers. A few steep hairpins, taken at breakneck pace, and I was deposited at the utterly contrasting tranquility of Finca Lerida. This is a fairly upmarket evolved coffee farm with accommodation and restaurant. But the thing that interested me was the renowned series of footpaths that stretch out across the cloud forest. I spent hours wandering round, eating coffee 'cherries' from the tree, then heading up a steep path to get stripe-tailed hummingbird and other birds. Above, a huge movement of raptors: mainly black vultures but with numerous other species. At least 200 birds. Lower down, I walked a level but raised trail looking out over the canopy. This was fantastic: black-faced solitaires a constant feature (remarkable mournful call), along with many other species. The trail eventually descends to a hidden, and almost dry, waterfall. A violet sabrewing buzzed around this dank habitat, another superb altitude specialist. After several hours, I retired to watch the hummingbirds and tanagers in the beautiful flower gardens, then had a cup of the predictably fine coffee in the upscale restaurant before heading back to Boquete.