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How About a Cable Car from Boquete to Volcan Barú?


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Having heard rumblings (bochinche) several times in the past about "plans" to build a cable car from Boquete to Volcan Barú, we thought it would be nice to see and experience what a cable car tourist attraction was all about. Marcelyn and I had the pleasure of riding a cable car on the island of Madeira (part of an archipelago northwest of Africa). What an experience. And so now we wonder why we can't have the same in our home area of Boquete.

If any of you have a few million spare bucks that you want to put to work, we could easily envision a two or three year payback on an investment of about $10MM. Our ride in Madeira lasted about 20 minutes, and cost 15 Euros per person. (There was no jubilado discount.) The ride lasts about 20 minutes. Each car carries a maximum of six persons, and dispatches from the station approximately one every 90 seconds. Hours of operation are 9:00am to 5:30pm. Assuming a 70% loading factor and 300 operational days per year (allowing for bad weather and downtime for maintenance), you can easily do the math for the ROI -- two to three years max.

The views from a Barú Teleferique would likely (on a good day) include both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Could it get any better than that? And think about the business opportunities for restaurants, souvenir stands, coffee/chocolate shops, etc., at both the base and mountain top stations, not to mention the jobs.

We are just curious how people feel about this possibility. And so we are starting this topic and soliciting feedback, either positive or negative as the case may be.

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You knuckleheads are so yesterday. My team is developing a virtual transporter that will dis-corporate your being and instantly transmit your carcass to the summit of Baru. We're planning on setting it up in the parking lot at PriceMart. The only hitch right now is that from there, we gotta bounce you down to Rio Sereno. The whole trip takes about 19 seconds. From there, we've got some cattle trucks organized to get you back down to David.

Only $9.99 Balboas. Watch for the Grand Opening! One small step for science, one giant leap for Boquetenos!

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 6/3/2016 at 4:15 AM, Bud said:

...

Marcelyn and I had the pleasure of riding a cable car on the island of Madeira (part of an archipelago northwest of Africa). What an experience. And so now we wonder why we can't have the same in our home area of Boquete.

...

I thought for the sake of completeness, I might add the brochure for the Teleferico do Funcal, which is located in Madeira.

Funchal Teleferico brochure.pdf

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