Bambito, Volcan and Cerro Punta

To find the road up to Volcan, Bambito, Cerro Punta and Guadalupe, Chiriqui’s other mountain resort area, you head westward out of David on the Pan American Highway to the town of Concepción, still on the coastal plain, and turn right where a large billboard points the way to Hotel Bambito.  Onward and upward, the air grows cool and the drive is sometimes through banks of cloud. You have reached sweater and three-blanket country.

The road levels off on a high plateau where lies the town of Volcan on the western flank of the volcano close to the peak. It is a small town, but with amenities enough—several good little restaurants, the San Benito handicraft shop, two hotels and a number of groups of cabins. Finca Guardia offers rides on fine Arabian horses through the green highlands of Volcan. Their miniature horses will delight children.  Even more magical mountain country lies a little further on.  Bambito Hotel is a spectacular landmark amid manicured lawns, lakes and fountains in a cleft in the steep hills.  A first class  hotel, it is an establishment offering elegance and luxury which contrast deliciously with its rugged surroundings.

The town of Cerro Punta, another 10 minutes and maybe a thousand feet higher, is almost as far as you can penetrate into the cordillera without donning stout boots and hacking a trail with your machete. It is at the head of a broad and magnificently fertile valley; a land flowing not only with milk and honey but strawberries from the rich volcanic soil and cream from the fat black-and-white Holstein cattle grazing in lush pastures.  This, more than any other area of the mountain, was settled partly by Europeans to whom small-holding and husbandry was a cherished way of life. Their descendents     till the soil with the same fervor today.  Driving the loop road which passes the village of Guadalupe is delightful. You can visit the Dracula Orchid farm or you can go and see a Resplendant Quetzal.