outdoors

Also in this section:
Bocas gets botanical gardens

Beginning of dry season flowers

 
Bocas has a new botanical garden

Lin Gillingham has opened Finca Los Monos botanical garden on a hilltop on Isla Colon in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, just a short drive from Bocas Town. She's not a professional botanist, but an amateur collector who has been getting plants for her farm of just under 10 hectares for about nine years. 

The collection of flowers, palms, shrubs and fruiting trees attracts birds and other wildlife. It's a two-hour trek to see what's there.

Finca Los Monos is open for visitors on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons. Guided tours are $10, with discounts for Bocas residents. Tours outside the regular times, and rental of the gardens' bohio for weddings or other event, can be arranged by contacting the proprietor at (507) 757-9461 or by email at gillinghamdl@yahoo.com.

(To see the story as most originally, completely and beautifully presented, see the online newspaper from Bocas del Toro, the Bocas Breeze, which covers a different beat and has a different editorial policy than does this publication, but which is very good and is a valuable addition to Panama's developing English-language press scene.)

Also in this section:

Bocas gets botanical gardens

Beginning of dry season flowers