Skip to Content

La Artilleria Hike In Boquete, Panama

La Artilleria Hike In Boquete, Panama

La Artilleria hike is a beautiful trail up to one of the most epic viewpoints in all of Boquete. However, it is a strange one. The hike is suggested as a hiking trail on a poster in my hostel but apparently on private property, which the owner wants no hikers coming onto. We were rejected by the owner of the property but managed to wrangle our way to the top of the viewpoint.

My philosophy is always if you are doing anyone or anything harm, there should be no harm in it. If I have to bend the rules a little as long as no one is negatively impacted in the process. Having said that, you can decide where your morals lay with trespassing!

la artilleria hike boquete

HOW TO GET TO LA ARTILLERIA HIKE

La Artilleria hike is not common at all. In fact, the lady at the front desk of the hostel told me I couldn’t do it without a guide. However, she was helpful and pointed out on the map where it was. That was all I needed and did the rest with some research and Google Earth. A lot of these hikes I review and share with you guys are not documented at all, not even the trailhead. I will often ask a local how to get to a hike and they will say they’ve never heard of it. It takes a bit of persistence and then some exploration to find and stay on the trail. La Artilleria was no different.

Luckily our taxi-drive, Gonzalo, had heard of the trail and took us to the trailhead. He didn’t tell us much else. He just said it’s not hard to find the way.  The trailhead is just past the turnoff for La Piedra De La India Vieja, another lesser-known trail of Boquete.

Below is an image of where the trailhead is. As you can see it is the entrance to someone’s property although you only ever use the driveway you don’t have to go onto the actual land of their house. As I said, it is trespassing.

la artilleria hike boquete

We caught a taxi from town for $7 without haggling. I’m sure you can get lower but that’s up to you. It is a decent little drive up the hills for more than 20 minutes so it’s a bit further than the drop-off to Bajo Mono. Because the trailhead is kind of in the middle of nowhere we asked Gonzalo to come to pick us up 3.5 hours later. This was about the perfect time in my opinion. It ended up taking us just under 1.5 hours to reach the top ( got lost staying on the trail) and we came back down in 45 minutes. This gave us just under an hour to enjoy the views from the top.

If you don’t organize a drive it is a really long walk back or you can call a taxi from there if you have a service. You could also walk to a nearby cafe about 1km away and call a taxi from there.

la artilleria hike boquete

BEST INSURANCE FOR TRAVELERS

Philippines backpacking, backpacker philippines, backpacking philippines, travel backpack philippines, backpacking route philippines, philippines backpacking itinerary, philippines backpacking budget, backpack in philippines, backpack the philippines, backpacking in the philippines, philippines backpacking route, backpacking in philippines, backpacking philippines alone, backpacking philippines itinerary, backpacking philippines blog, backpacking around the philippines, philippines backpacking guide, backpacking bohol philippines, backpacking trip philippines, backpacking philippines cost, backpacking in the philippines cost, cheap travel destinations philippines, cheap travel in philippines, cheap travel to philippines, cheap travel destinations in the philippines

Don’t wait for an accident to happen… get insured! My travel insurance is HeyMondo which offers low-cost travel & medical insurance. That’s me on the left with three teeth knocked out after a motorbike crash in Bali!

You can click to read my Full Review of the Best Travel Insurance.

I’ve made several successful claims with HeyMondo and find their customer service very quick and helpful. Click the button below to get a 5% DISCOUNT

LA ARTILLERIA HIKE

As we made our way up the driveway, all of a sudden a man came running toward us. He was quite friendly and shook our hands but that is where the greeting finished. I believe he was indigenous as he couldn’t speak English and hardly understood much Spanish at all. He spoke in a language that I couldn’t make out. After about 5 minutes and a few phone calls from the man, we gathered that he didn’t want us on private property. I wanted to speak to the person on the phone who could speak Spanish just to ask them when it would be open. He didn’t let me.

We turned around out the driveway and he went with us. At first, we thought he was escorting us out but then he just walked off. Out the driveway and up the hill. Josh and I looked at each other and decided it was worth a shot to just head on up the hike hoping the man wouldn’t return.

We quickly scurried up the trail and had to pass through a gate but didn’t need to jump it. We made our way up the very steep driveway toward the house. There were two men but I’m not sure they saw us and we continued on up the trail.

la artilleria hike boquete

The problem from this point on is that we had no map and no idea where the trail went and we just had to make a decision at several different junctions. I ended up finding on Google Earth, what I thought were the big rocks of the viewpoint. So we tried to head in that direction. The first main junction we came to was the one pictured below. I suggest screenshotting this or taking a mental note of this junction. If you go right you will follow a trail the entire way and the hike will be relatively easy. I hope you enjoy that. We went left. It was a flip-of-the-coin decision and we got it wrong.

la artilleria hike boquete

We ended up following a trail for about ten minutes until it got so thick we decided it wasn’t the best idea to continue. We backtracked and then jumped a fence and continued up the hill eventually joining back up with the trail we would have been on had we turned right. If you do make the same mistake just follow the fence pictured below back to the main trail.

la artilleria hike boquete
la artilleria hike boquete

We were stoked to be back on some kind of trail and felt determined to find our way to the top. At this stage, we were fine and headed in the right direction but we didn’t know that. The path began to look amazing with vines growing on the trees and plants spread on either side of the trail.

la artilleria hike boquete
la artilleria hike boquete

We continued in the direction we thought was leading us to the rock viewpoint but it wasn’t until the trail opened up next to a field of cows that we knew we were on the right track. Here the trail looks right up towards the rocks. It is a little intimidating because you can see exactly how far you have left. It may look like a long way up but you only have 10-15 minutes left till you reach the top from this point. We were stoked we had made it and were on the right track. In the picture below you can see the rocks right at the top of that mountain, which is where you are heading.

la artilleria hike boquete

The path headed deep into the jungle for the next ten minutes and then finally spat us out at a gate that said no trespassing in Spanish. We had come this far and it was literally an empty grass field. We didn’t even bother to discuss going on or not and up we went to the viewpoint. Remember this hike is listed as one of the seven official hikes of Boquete. I didn’t set out at the start of the day to trespass but it really is just a normal hike and you never go near anyone’s house or mess with their areas.

la artilleria hike boquete

What are my favorite pieces of hiking gear?

There are four pieces of gear that I simply never forget when I go on a hike. These are four items that I using right now and this list gets updated every year! Here are my hiking essentials.

  • Arcteryx BETA AR Rain Jacket: This is my go-to rain jacket. It’s super light, folds down into a tiny ball, and protects brilliantly in a storm. This one never leaves my backpack.
  • Salomon X Ultra 3 Mid GTX Hiking Boots: For the best ankle support, waterproofing, and durable exterior I’m a fan of tough but light hiking boots like these Salomons for my adventures.
  • Black Diamond Head Torch: I can’t tell you how many times, I’ve arrived back from a hike unexpectedly late. I always keep this lightweight but strong headtorch in my bag for the unexpected.
  • Darn Tough Socks: These are the most comfortable hiking socks I’ve ever worn and last for years. They also have a lifetime warranty and you just send them in with a hole and they replace it no questions asked.

It was five more minutes from this gate and we made it to the top of the La Artilleria hike. We scrambled up the rocks and watched the clouds part to show us an amazing view of Boquete! It was definitely the best view we had during our hiking in Boquete and something I will never forget. In the opposite direction, we had rolling mountains with several layers and even a rainbow appeared. It was a day when everything seemed to turn out perfectly!

la artilleria hike boquete
la artilleria hike boquete
la artilleria hike boquete
la artilleria hike boquete
la artilleria hike boquete
la artilleria hike boquete
la artilleria hike boquete
la artilleria hike boquete
la artilleria hike boquete

3 MOST POPULAR TOURS IN PANAMA

These are the three most popular activities for tourists in Panama. Personally, I love the San Blas Islands boat trip!

  • San Blas Islands Boat Trip: Explore the tropical paradise of the San Blas Islands, the most beautiful region in Panama. Easily the most amazing activity I did in Panama.
  • Taboga Island Catamaran Cruise: Admire Panama from the water on a sightseeing catamaran cruise to Taboga Island. Admire the city skyline, dive from the boat for a swim, relax on a beach in Taboga, and enjoy snacks and an open bar.
  • Half-Day City Tour & Panama Canal: Connect with the beautiful and modern Panama City on this shared or private city tour. Stroll the narrow streets of the Old Town and watch ships sail through the Panama Canal

We stayed up at the top for just under an hour before heading back down in 40 minutes. The man who had spoken to us at the start of the hike was in the house on our way down and came out to the balcony on his phone. He didn’t come to speak to us and we just continued on our way down. Gonzalo arrived just as we reached the front gate and we caught our taxi home for $7 to end a great day in Boquete! 

HAVE YOU CHECKED OUT MY OTHER PANAMA GUIDES

I hope you enjoy my guides and have a great time exploring Panama!

cerro picacho ola panama

Mathias

Tuesday 20th of December 2022

Hey Jackson, thanks for your guiding, I just did the hike today and it was amazing :) The land-owner allows to hike up, but charges 5 dollars. I think that's fair as you have to pay for the most trails here - and they were really nice people ... they had to scratch all their money together, as I had only big bills and I even got a free water refill :) It's definitely wirth a visit, but I recommend getting there with a txi as you said - I walked from boquete and back, wich was a 20km roundtrip ...

Monday 26th of August 2019

Thank you so much Jackson for this post, i did the hike today and it was really nice especially having the pictures and directions Couldn't have done it without this Cheers!

Dawson

Tuesday 26th of February 2019

Hey Jackson! Big fan! Can you update the map to the starting location for this hike? I'm currently in Boquete and hoping to hit this peak in the next coupe hours. Thanks!

Andi

Tuesday 30th of April 2019

Same here :) the map is not working so an update of the trailhead location would be amazing. Coordinates would also be a good alternative if there are problems with the website plugin for Google maps. Cheers

70 AWESOME THINGS TO DO IN PANAMA: THE BUCKET LIST - Travel Guides Info

Tuesday 25th of December 2018

[…] View full blog post: LA ARTILLERIA HIKE […]

37 AMAZING HIKES IN PANAMA - Travel Guides Info

Friday 21st of December 2018

[…] View full blog post: LA ARTILLERIA HIKE […]