"Apparently, as of Nov 2022 there is a ranger posted at the start of the hike at 4am. He wants you to have sent an email to [email protected] 24 hours previous to confirm access. I guess if you arrive before 4am he isn’t there and it is hike at your own risk (which it should be anyways). I arrived at 4:10 and he really hassled me for about 20 minutes since I didn’t know about the email. I tried to send the email which i think appeased him a bit although it never sent with zero tmobile service. Then a truck came and he hassled the truck for 20 minutes and I kinda just kept walking up the mountain. He did get my passport number so i think i was legit at that point. Go early, it’s your best bet at a view of the pacific and Caribbean on either side of the isthmus. Obviously bring adequate water, food and warm gear. I was told they rescued 8 people of the mountain last week due to hypothermia, which might be why things got stricter. " — bend • Nov 12, 2022

"After passing through the canals on a sailboat, I caught the 10pm bus out of Panama City to David. I then caught the 5am bus from David to Boquete. With not much to do at such an early hour, and it being a clear and sunny morning, I ambitiously decided to grab some groceries and caught a cab to trailhead for $6. I had to pay $5 to enter the park. Having slept on a bus (poorly -my lips were blue all night from the intense air conditioning), I did poorly on this hike. I started around 7:15am and finished almost 12 hours later*. I had to take a few naps in the dirt on the way up. I spent under an hour around 2pm at the top, just after the clouds had taken over all the scenery. I only saw 3 other people doing the hike that day (and 3 more that finished the hike that day having started at 10pm the night before. The more common approach is to hike through the night so that you can see the summit at sunrise. And it makes sense. Boquete's micro-climate lends itself to often sunny/clear mornings and often cloudy/rainy afternoons). Two of the people that started the hike around the same time as me managed to see the pacific ocean when they summit'd before me during one of my ..." — timusername • Jun 6, 2017

"I went up with a group of people I worked with in a wildlife reserve close to Boquete and a friend of them. We started at nine in the evening and went slowly, took some breaks and wanted to be at the peak for sunrise. And it worked out. I was so tired...but so happy ;o)" — jennyzaremba • May 30, 2011