During our team’s 2021 expeditions in Panama, Romain captured some fantastic footage of the Pianista Trail. The videos put you in the shoes of the hiker, so you can see first-hand what the trail is like.
Romain starts at the head of the trail in Boquete, Panama, near the Il Pianista pizza restaurant. His pace is slower than average because he had to be aware of the camera direction and watch his footing as he hiked.
Also, all of Romain’s videos can be found on his YouTube channel.
Hiking El Pianista Trail To The Mirador
Video 1: El Pianista (Entrance – Mirador) Part 1/4
Video 2: El Pianista (Entrance – Mirador) Part 2/4
Video 3: El Pianista (Entrance – Mirador) Part 3/4
Video 4: El Pianista (Entrance – Mirador) Part 4/4
The above four videos show the hike on the El Pianista Trail leading up to the Mirador. The next sequence of videos shows the trail as it continues beyond the Mirador, towards the first Monkey Bridge.
Hiking The Trail Beyond The Mirador
When you watch the videos after the mirador, there’s a few suggested observations: the differences of the trail conditions before and after the mirador, the rivers found after the mirador, and the walls and ledges on each side of the trail.
Video 1: El Pianista, the path after the Mirador – Part 1
Video 2: El Pianista, the path after the Mirador – Part 2
Video 3: El Pianista, the path after the Mirador – Part 3
Video 4: El Pianista, the path after the Mirador – Part 4
For more information about our expedition, please feel free to visit the main expedition article.
Thank you for sharing it. It looks like a trail that hasn’t got many options to go a different way. I love forest walks and hiking and I must admit I have not seen many trails that are so easy to follow. If you don’t get of the main path there is hardly any other way to go.
Also I struggle to believe that the girls decided to go for a long hike.
1. Firstly, they were totally unprepared and it seemed they were more prepared for swimming than hiking.
2. Secondly, why would they chose to go for a very long hike if they had a proper hike with a guide booked for the following day?
3. Their hike with the guide was booked for 8am the following morning. 8am is an early start for young people. They wouldn’t chose a long hike to be followed by another long hike that would start early in the morning the following day. It would have been much more sensible to come relatively early and relax.
4. It seems that Feliciano was leading this investigation and everybody else relied on it but maybe it was just the easiest explanation that didn’t demand much effort or there were things that needed to be covered.
5. If the bodies were found in one piece, shorts not folded nicely on the river bank and the bag untouched with electronic working it still wouldn’t make much sense but could have been acceptable but with all of these things that do not add up it is quite difficult to believe the girls got lost.
6. Why did they go far beyond the Mirador turnaround point if they had a guided tour booked for the following day. Is there any possibility it actually was their guided tour and someone was with them on the 1st April but just stayed away from pictures?
Is there any chance that the investigation will be open again?
The Netherlands have stated they won’t continue an investigation. The girls wore that clothing because it was a warm day and wore hiking boots, but it’s obvious they weren’t planning on being out more than one day.
Fantastic work and a great starting point for uncovering more about the case.
Just some thoughts:
(1) What strikes me as super odd here is the time-frame: Why do the girls manage to get to the first river so quickly? (This is based on the belief that the first river is indeed the one in #507 and #508).
Calculation:
The girls make the last summit picture at 13:06. We don’t know what happens next.
Romain reaches the location of #505 and #506 at about 4:40 after the summit, so it’s a pretty safe guess that the girls took off from the summit about nine minutes after the last photo there, which would make departure time 13:15 or 13:16.
They reach the first river at 13:54, which gives us a travelling time of circa 38 minutes.
Romain, albeit he stops to chat, but also moves pretty quickly now and then needs about 75 minutes for the same route. How can that be possible?
Here’s hoping for more detailed analyses from your excursions!