More Paddling in Panama

We left Boquete and moved toward the Costa Rican border, in order to paddle the Chiriqui Viejo, without doubt the most interesting river. The first traject we paddled was the Palon-section, followed by the 'Sal si Pieda'-section. This complete section is a big volume grade 4+, with some real hard rapids in the beginning. We had medium high water and we paddled the entire 26 km in about 4 hours. The second half of the river is more easy, but is still big-volume paddling. The second day on the Viejo we paddled the Caisan-section, a 13 km long class 4-5 run, with 2 hard must-be-paddled-rapids in the beginning. To get to the river we needed once again a 4x4-truck. The scenery was amazing, the rapids long and demanding due to the high-water level.
We had no rain during the run, but after the paddling it started raining real hard. And real hard means real hard. It rained so much during 36 hours that the lower parts of the Chiriqui-province drowned. Due to the bad weather we moved to David and we paddled the lower part of the Rio Caldera again. This time the Caldera became a fun volume class 4, with several good play-spots. This time no mud at the take-out, the dam-lake was full and the water flew over the dam. All the rivers were high and full. Apparently another group had to stay overnight in the Rio Cochea.


We moved to Volcan, a sleeping town on the western slopes of the Volcan Baru. And after the rain there is...sunshine and less rain. A good oportunity to paddle the Rio Piedra. 10 Miles of pushy class 4 in cristal-clear water. Soon the Rio Piedra will be lost forever for paddling. The construction of 3 dams will make the river disappear forever.
Yesterday we tackled the upper part of the Chiriqui Viejo, a section called the Cerro Punto. It all started on a mellow pace, but soon the river gained force and became a steep ( 38 m/km) medium-volume river. We padled the 15 miles of class 4+ in less than 3 hours. The water was high and fast, but tricky. Anyway we had a good time on the river.
Today the boys are out on the beach for some surfing, I'm curious because I stayed in Volcan to write this article. Tomorrow we plan to paddle the 'Sereno'-section of the Chiriqui Viejo, another 20 miles run of continious 4 in steep gorges.



Happy Paddling

Steven Van den heuvel, Belgium
Photos: Bart Van Looveren