Keith's Panamanian Travel Ramble

The wanderings of Andrea and Keith around Panama

Posts tagged ‘connection’

Impressions of Santa Fe

Howdy All,

Sadly, today we leave this beautiful place and head for our next destination which is at the beach in Gorgona and is about a three-hour drive without stops.  After another great breakfast, we packed up and hit the road.

Yesterday, I mentioned a blockade of the Pan-American, west of here closer to David.  It turns out that the local Indians (Ngobe-Bugle) had blocked westbound traffic on the highway for several days.  They were protesting the changing of some legislation around mining and the Cerro Colorado mine, which has one of the largest copper reserves in Latin America.  There have also been some short-term interruptions to traffic eastbound headed for Panama City.  The westbound blockade has held the second largest city in the country, David, hostage and there are reports of stores being short of food stuffs and fuel stations closing as they are out of fuel.  The police were directed to clear the road last night and the ensuing scuffle resulted in a number of injuries and one death.  Several police were hospitalized.  Further investigation into the death found that the bullet was of a caliber not used by the police.

President Ricardo Martinelli has blamed the opposition and “foreign elements” for inciting chaos.  I did a little Internet research and oddly found that an Indian band in Ecuador held a protest at the same time over a similar issue.  When you look at the pictures of the Panama protest, I cannot help but draw the conclusion that this was organized by someone or group other than the natives that knows the techniques of how to successfully protest today.

Now our friend Octav that left Santa Fé a couple of days ago, was headed to Boquete.  He took the bus from Santa Fé to Santiago where he found out busses were not running due to the blockade.  He had some quick scrambling to do but managed to secure a place back at the Bayview Hotel in Santa Clara, the other direction.  As it is on our way, we decided we will stop and see how he is doing.

We have only been in Santa Fé for a few days and most of that time was spent at the Casa Mariposa Boutique Hotel.  Our top 10 impressions of Santa Fé are:

1.  Book a few days here at the Casa Mariposa.  You won’t believe the experience.  See the link at the bottom of the right column under Businesses We Support;

2.  Don’t miss the “Lunch with the Toucans” at the Mariposa. You will love it;

3.  Be sure to top up your gas tank in Santiago before leaving for Santa Fé. There are no fuel stations in Santa Fé;

4.  Santa Fé is a hilly mountain frontier town, full of friendly locals, around 3,000 of them;

5.  This area is starting to develop, thanks to publications like International Living Magazine.  There is a growing expat community and people from all over the world are starting to settle here;

6.  There is lots of hiking and things to keep you busy in the area;

7.  Check out the Santa Fé National Park.  If you are a birder, your hotel can help you pick up an inexpensive guide to make sure you get to see what you want;

8.  Expect the place to be a bit remote.  There are only cell phones and a high-speed internet connection is still in the future;

9.  On the way to Santa Fé, don’t miss stopping to see the restored old church in San Francisco.  It dates back to 1621; and

10. Be open to all the rugged natural beauty and incredible variety of birds that you will find here.

The trip back to Santiago takes us through Santa Fé and the rolling hills as we proceed southbound back to the Pan-American. Along the way we met a herd of cattle being driven right up the road to us. The guys were friendly and waved as they forced the cattle off the road on the far side to allow us through. One of my favorite pictures so far is this one of the rider on his horse climbing the hill after crossing the bridge. It really kind of describes the character of this area; slow, casual and laid back.

Further down the road, we spotted a hawk flying beside us.  We went around a corner and Andrea said the hawk had landed and was standing beside a blue bag on the road behind us.  I grabbed my long lens and got out of the car as quietly as I could.  This is a Yellow-headed Caracara, a beautifully marked bird.  He was very cooperative.  He posed on the road for a bit then took off away from me and circled back.  I think the markings on this bird are magnificent!

After negotiating Santiago we were again eastbound on the Pan-American, headed for the Bayview.  Watermelon is now in season and it is starting to show up in markets and roadside fruit stands.  We stopped at this place to stock up on some fruit for our next week and bought one cantaloupe for $1.50, three pineapples for $1 and a good-sized watermelon for $3.

We found him on the deck of the Bayview, entertaining a couple of young women from the US!  Octav wasn’t expecting to see us but was glad we stopped by to visit with him on the way to Gorgona.  We made plans to get together over the next couple of days for dinner and a visit then were off to Gorgona to find our new home, Sueno Mar, which means sunny beach.

On the Road to Santa Fe

Hi Travellers,

We checked out of our little resort and went for breakfast around 9AM.  We were at the Artash Restaurant to get one last bacon wrap and an Internet connection to catch up my posts before we left El Valle.

We had agreed to pick up Octav from the Bayview Hotel on the beach in San Carlos at around 11AM to give him a ride to Santa Fé.  Its only a couple of kilometers out of our way just off the Pan-American Highway.  We have been here before.  It has a restaurant right on the beach with a magnificent view from the deck.

On our way to Santa Fé, we decided to check out a little restaurant in a place called La Pintada (pronounced La Pin Tada) that we really enjoyed the first time we were here.  When we were here the second time, we drove up to find it closed and out of business.  Now, I read that it is open again so we want to check it out for a potential day trip with our friends who are coming in mid February.  La Pintada is 13Km north of Penonome (pronounced Pen a no me), which is on the Pan-American.  La Pintada is a beautiful small town with really nothing much to draw people but the restaurant.  We arrived to find the beautiful little town was once again equipped with a great little restaurant.  Restaurant Casa Vieja La Pintada!  If you are in Panama, this place is well worth the little scenic detour you will take to get here.  There is a beautiful small recently painted white church on one side of the well-kept square with this restaurant on the other side facing the church.  The restaurant appears to have fresh paint and our server was a little Panamanian girl who was attentive, had a big smile and spoke enough English for us to get by.  We just had a cool drink, snapped a few shots and were on our way.

On our way back to the Pan-American, Andrea spotted a small fruit stand in front of a house at the side of the road with a supply of grapefruit stacked on the shelf.  We stopped and this little guy sold us six beautiful big grapefruit for $0.50, (total, not each) once he had his mother’s permission.

We continued back toward Penonome but in a few minutes our GPS wanted us to turn west.  We looked at the road and found it wide and paved but with no lines.  Now normally, Andrea won’t take advice from the GPS but this time, with two of us encouraging her, she agreed to follow it.  It turned out to be a nicely paved secondary road that our GPS called “Road”.  It basically, just cut off the need for us to go back through Penonome.  It brought us out on the Pan-American 20 or 30 minutes west of Penonome after taking us through beautiful rolling hills and past lots of fields of cattle and horses.  Out in the back country I might have thought we would find unkempt properties and homes but that was not the case.  Homes were neat, tidy, artfully landscaped and painted bright colors.  There was no junk lying around.  Then I remembered, we were in Panama not Mexico and this is the norm here!  There is a pride of ownership that shows everywhere.

Shortly after getting back on the Pan-American, a motorcycle carrying a police man passed us at a high speed.  In a few minutes we came around a bit of a gentle curve and saw a little white car of some kind on its side in the middle of the median.  The shot is a bit blurry but I think you can get the idea.  There was shattered plastic everywhere.  We wonder what actually happened because the road was flat and almost straight. In a few minutes we saw an ambulance approaching from the other direction.  It was not in a hurry and the emergency lights were not on.

We arrived in Santiago on the Pan-American which is where we turn north for Santa Fé.  We joined a line of mostly little yellow taxi cabs at a service station to load up our trusty Toyota with fuel before leaving Santiago which, we were warned, is the last place we can get gas.  Strange!  This busy little fuel stop was the first service station we have found that takes credit cards.  We left Santiago, heading north along a nicely paved two lane road with yellow center line and white lines at both edges of the road.  The hills are rolling and every now and again you get a chance to see the beautiful hilly vistas from the road.

We had planned to stop in a place called San Francisco which is 17 Km along the road from Santiago, to see a very important historical church that dates back to 1621.  Restoration work has been recently completed.  San Francisco is a tidy small village with narrow roads.  The whole place looks recently paved and again we find the homes all beautifully landscaped and well-kept.  Here are a few shots of the church.  The interior is amazing.  It is full of beautiful intricately carved pieces that show so well because of the fresh restoration work that has been done.

We continued north on the little hilly road for the remaining 35 Km to Santa Fé.  The GPS is not up to date with the roadway.  It looks like the road has been modernized somewhat and the map has not!  It showed us travelling in the general area of the road but not on it.  We eventually met one of the little Toyota Coaster busses that runs from Santiago to Santa Fé and followed it part of the way.  There is very little on this road.  No houses, no cows, no people, just tall grass, fields of nothing, lots of vegetation, beautiful distant hills and one small Toyota.

Our resort had provided us a map to get us from Santa Fé to their property, which is just a little over two kilometers.  We got to within a couple of hundred meters from the main gate and, following the map, turned off the paved road onto a dirt one with a hill on it.  Now a dirt road here means slippery red clay with no gravel and lots of deep ruts.  When you add an incline and water from a recent rain to this recipe, you need four-wheel drive, which our little Toyota doesn’t have.  Andrea managed to get us almost up the hill before we lost traction and could not go forward.  I hope no one from Budget is reading this!  We were probably 20 meters from the resort gate.  I got out and walked to the resort to get help and she backed the Toyota back down the hill.

As I walked through the front gate of Casa Mariposa, I was immediately faced with terrain sloping off into the distance and an  amazing view of hills, mountains, and jungle that unfolded at my feet.  First impression?  I was mindful of Shangrala!  It was stunning!

I met one of the owners, Kevin, who said to take the car back to the intersection with the pavement, and that he would meet us there with his four-wheel drive to bring us and our luggage to the resort.

There are two new villas right inside the gate at the top of the hill.  Each is beautifully landscaped to maximize the privacy between them.  Our villa is called Toucan and the larger one is called Motmot, after the bird.  I will show you a couple of pictures of the Motmot in the next post.  We were warmly greeted and oriented to the ways of the Casa Mariposa by the owners Kevin and Erica, who are from Ontario.  The routine here in this brand new resort is like in a five-star resort.  We sat and visited with Octav on the large deck of the Motmot, where he is staying, trying desperately to take in all the amazing view.  Rachel came to explain the dinner specials and to take our order.  They have a menu of around a dozen items or so.  Graham, the chef will prepare the meals and he and Rachel will them serve them to us on the Motmot deck.  So far we have experienced friendly helpful owners, who are attentive and follow-up on every small detail as well as a wonderful gourmet dinner capably served in the most beautiful restaurant, the deck of the Motmot!

The dinner selection I chose was horseradish and parmesan encrusted red snapper filet with home-made rye garlic bread and braised green beans.  Andrea chose the homemade french onion soup featuring Erica’s homemade bread, then the stuffed chicken with mozzarella, shiitake mushrooms, olives and bacon served with a shiitake mushroom white wine sauce along with purple nayami (a local root vegetable something like potato)and braised green beans.  For dessert we chose the pineapple upside down cake with a ginger sauce.  Amazing!  Now tell me!  What other jungle can you think of that serves gourmet food like this with such a view from the dining room?

Fierce Mud Covered Natives of the Backwater Jungle

Hi All,

Today we awoke to a bright sunny perfect day here in El Valle.  There was quite a wind storm last night and one of the metal roof panels got pretty noisy during the night, rattling with the breezes but by morning we still had a roof and everything was back to normal; that being perfect!

We went to Artash for breakfast and an Internet connection again and got talking to Natasha.  She is a pretty Russian born Canadian girl who is now living in Panama and has an interest in Thai yoga!  She speaks several languages.  Sounds a little united nations like to me but she has a studio out back of the restaurant where she practices her yoga and even leads an occasional class or two.  She gave me a short tour and posed for a few shots of her in a couple of yoga positions.  She has striking big blue eyes and a huge smile!  Here in Panama you find people from all over the world.

Later in the morning we decided to check out the local hot springs.  It is located in a small public park down by the river and is a popular spot both for tourists and locals.  You park at the end of the road and run a gauntlet of small boys all offering to watch you car for you.  I think it is the only English they know and they all have huge friendly smiles.  It’s not really about security but more about trying to separate a few coins from the wallets of the patrons.  After paying the $2.50 entrance fee you walk across a small bridge that spans a lazy small river and leads to an area containing covered picnic tables, change rooms, a massage room, showers, and a number of concrete pools of varying sizes.  The place is well used but neat and well-kept.  There is no trash around.  The bathrooms were immaculate and cleaned after each use.  I was surprised at the number of people around wearing the official purple park golf shirt signifying they were staff.  They are there to direct the public in the use of the facility.  There is a mud bath that seemed to be pretty popular.  I got a couple of shots of people with mud covered faces looking a lot like the fierce natives of the backwater jungles in the past must have once looked except they wouldn’t have been wearing the designer bathing suits sported by todays users.  The sign said the temperature of the pools was 38C, which is not really hot but just kind of warm.   I didn’t do the mud facial, even thought somebody I am travelling with told me I needed it but I did try the pool which was a comfortable temperature for a warm day.  After being in the hot pool for about 30 minutes, the shower, when you get out of the pool was very cold!

I told you the other day that I would try to show you some of the elaborate estates around here so on the way back to the hotel we stopped a couple of times for some pictures.  Girls, if you are looking for sugar daddies, it seems that this might be a promising place to start.  What do you think?

When we got back to the hotel we met a new couple that had just arrived from California so we joined up with them and our friend Octav for dinner.  Tonight we chose Brochette’s Restaurant on the main drag right across the street from the library.  It is the restaurant that is part of the Anton Valley Hotel.   As their name implies, they specialize in brochette, five different kinds and they are all scrumptious and loaded with garlic.  We ordered main courses as well and enjoyed a leisurely meal of excellent food and good companionship.  Dinner for two, including drinks, appetizer, main courses and coffee $26.  We have eaten here before and they consistently produce good food to an often full house.  Don’t miss this place for at least one meal.

El Valle is actively working on some things to improve their community.  One such thing is to try to get the large population of dogs under control.  There is now a local ordinance where owners of dogs not tied up are subject to fines.  Tomorrow about 50 veterinarians will arrive for the day to spay as many female dogs as owners will bring to the free clinic.  The population here is quite progressive in tidying up some of the annoying problems that seem to get ignored in many other places.  Impressive!

The Rincon Vallero Banditos’

Hi Travellers,

Today is our second full day here in El Valle de Anton, commonly known as just El Valle.  Just where is this place?  If you look at the small map below, you will see the route we took from Cerro Azul to El Valle (look for the red push pins at either end of the magenta route).

Here at Cabanas Potosi, the owners keep a few birds.  Today’s feature picture is of the one who actually runs the place.  He lives in a cage for the night but when he wants his breakfast, he just makes it so noisy that the owners bring him food.  He spends the day out of the cage, in a large tree and is somewhat temperamental.  He will visit the guests with the owners sometimes and will show a full range of behavior from being fun and chatty to being miserable and ornery.  He sometimes plays games with people with cameras and likes to hide from being photographed.  Andrea was patient enough to get these shots of him today.  When he deems it is dinner time, he calls for his dinner, which is promptly delivered to him and then retires to his cage for the night.  Quite a life!

El Valle is a place we have been before but we have never stayed here, just day tripped from other locations.  It is growing dramatically but still maintains it’s small town charm.  Weekdays are not very busy here but on the weekends it is a popular place for the Panama City folks to head to beat the heat.  You also get tour busses full of tourists stopping by on the weekends so the visitors can shop at the market.  On a holiday weekend it is common for all the hotel rooms in town to be full!  One of the popular draws here is the large public market where you can buy hand crafts from all over the country, plants, fresh fruit and vegetables.

The owner of our resort, is from an old Panamanian family that has been in El Valle for generations.  They are owners of large tracts of land here which has become very valuable over the last few years.   She tells us that people usually stay here for just three or four days because that is how long it takes to see everything here.

The town site is primarily on level land on the floor of the valley.  Mountains surround the town so it is really quite picturesque.  The weather is cooler than Panama City and this is one of the few places in Panama where you will find fire places in houses.  Both days we have been here it has rained for a short time late in the afternoon.  Today, I took some shots of the main drag here.  It really doesn’t do the town justice because there are some beautiful large “old money” homes here down some of the side streets.  I will see if I can get you some peeper shots tomorrow.

Today, I experienced some typical Panamanian bureaucracy.  I was looking for a WiFi connection, which is still not too common here.  We found a couple of restaurants that have it but the library advertises free WiFi service for everyone.  I went to the library, a nice airy one story building with wired computer workstations around the perimeter of the large single room.  Book stacks were neatly arranged into the center of the room and there were lots of tables and chairs for the use of the patrons.  I walked in, sat down, and started to fire up my computer.  I found the WiFi network and tried to connect to it but it failed.  After a few moments, one of the librarians came over with a scribbler, looking for the MAC address of my computer so they could authorize it’s use on their router.  I scratched my head and tried to figure out why they would bother with such a step as the service is free and available to everyone that wants it.  Why not just have an open public connection?  Oh well, I guess it must give someone a job!

For dinner tonight, we headed to a restaurant that we have been to on other trips.  This is also a favorite, we found out, of Antonio, our friend from Cerro Azul.  The hotel is a little too Panamanian for our taste (yes it’s possible) but the restaurant is awesome!  This restaurant is at the Rincon Vallero Hotel.  Outside the main entrance is spectacularly landscaped with some beautiful local species and the entrance has a mature vine sporting lots of large blue flowers covering the entrance trellis.  Once through the front door you will see a multi level restaurant divided in half by carp pools.  There are plants everywhere and the sound of a small waterfall off in one corner.  The set tables are dressed with bright red and white table coverings, glasses and place settings that just invite you to sit and have a meal.  Soft Spanish music plays from the sound system.  This place creates an impressive atmosphere!  We were the only patrons in the restaurant.

While looking at the menu, a duck and a goose waddled in from the hotel courtyard entrance.  It looked like they knew exactly what they were doing… heading for a table of pastries wrapped in plastic wrap.  The goose looked like the instigator as he could almost reach the basket of goodies by stretching his neck through the wrought iron railing.  He was just about to snatch his snack when the server came back and shooed the two would be banditos back into the hotel courtyard.  We saw one other thwarted attempt later in the evening.

I didn’t order duck or goose for dinner but the corvina (sea bass) special along with a sumptuous papaya fruit shake.  Here is a picture for a certain person in the audience!  The service was excellent as was the food.  Dinner for two, including tip $33.  Once again, this place gets a double thumbs up for landscaping, atmosphere, service, food and pricing.  Don’t miss it if you come to El Valle.

Cerro Azul Final Impressions

Hi Fellow Travellers,

Today, we leave the beauty of Cerro Azul and the perfect climate we have experienced for the last couple of weeks.  We have decided to move a little further west to El Valle, a beautiful small mountain town that is a popular day trip destination for locals and tourists.  It tends to be cooler than the city, at 800M elevation, and there is always a pleasant breeze.  There is a popular farmers and craft market here that bustles with activity on the weekends.  During the week, this sleepy little mountain town is slow-moving and enjoyable.  There are lots of walkers on the street and bicycles are a popular method of transpiration.

We have one last stop to make so I can get a couple of shots of, what I think is a spectacular property here.  It’s an old property that l think was built in 1985 and is supposed to have won an architectural award.  It is beautifully sited on six almost totally level lots and provides an unobstructed 180 degree view from the wrap around deck that includes the City.  There are two apartments in a separate building and one other out building.  It has been well maintained and includes beautiful heavy wood furnishings.  Apparently it has been on the market for a long time and we think the price is at about $235K.  Amazing value if its true!

As we pack up our little Toyota and say good-bye to our now quite large group of friends, I would like to leave you with a few of our impressions of this area.

1.  It is an area that many, unjustly, consider to be quite remote, even though it is only about 45 minutes drive from Tocumen airport.  It will take you longer to driver across the city than to drive here;

2.  If you are going to visit here, you need to have a car and be comfortable driving mountain roads;

3.  Remember that you are in a National Park and conduct yourself accordingly;

4.  Accommodation here is difficult to find before coming to Panama.  There are no hotels except a hostel that we found in our Moon travel guide but it is outside the park and it looked closed when we drove by it.  Try the Canada Panama Realty website, as they have rentals available (See the Business we Support list at the bottom of the right column of this blog for a link).  You can also contact Antonio, who has a couple of suites available in his home with Internet (See the post called “Another Place to Stay in Cerro Azul” in this blog for information);

5.  Be ready to cook most of your meals while in Cerro Azul.  The only restaurant (of sorts) is at the Club, but it closes at four PM daily and is not open on Monday.  You can pick up lots of supplies at the Super 99 or Super Extra markets at the bottom of the hill before you come up.  Of course, you could drive the road into town for dinner but the road is not good to drive in the dark.  It is narrow, hilly and curvy and there are very few street lights.  Locals walk on the side of the road and they don’t seem to be aware of the need for light-colored clothes to be able to be seen at night.  Drivers here tend to drive in the center of the narrow road and are slow to move back into their own lane when they approach traffic going in the other direction.  Be careful;

6.  Don’t come here if you are looking for a partying infrastructure.  There are no clubs.  If you want to party, bring it with you.  This place will appeal mostly to people who love the outdoors and those that enjoy nature and hiking;

7.  Take a few moments and get to know some locals.  We found them to be extremely friendly and helpful in providing information about the area and suggestions of things to do.  There are lots of Expat Canadian and Americans here so English-speaking people are relatively easy to find;

8.  If you need an Internet connection, there is one available at the restaurant in the Club.  It works great when it is working but has been subject to a bit of down time;

9.  Do take advantage of the beautiful big pool in the Club area.  It is quite cool, as Panamanian pools go, due to the elevation here; and

10. We have seen many places in Panama and this one is our favorite!  Partly because it is a well-kept secret and is not busy and partly for the perfect climate.  Be sure not to miss it when you come to Panama.

Our trip to El Valle takes us down the mountain and across Panama City to the Pan American Highway. This is the highway that runs from here all the way to Canada! We met some people here that drove down from Quebec… 9,700K. We cross the canal on the newest and only other bridge, the beautiful Centennial Bridge and head west on the recently improved modern four lane divided highway. Be careful of semis hauling containers. We passed two along the way where the container tipped off the chassis on a curve. Its 175K to our destination but it takes us about three hours due to traffic and a lunch break in Coronado at one of our favorite restaurants. We left the Pan American Highway and headed up the newly paved two lane road for 25K to El Valle.

Andrea booked our accommodation over the Internet.  It’s a place called Cabanas Potosi and the rate was $44.50 per night.  Oh, and you also get the seventh night free when you book a week.  Now I don’t know about you but that rate made me nervous until we read the client reviews and found that almost all of them raved about the place.  After finally locating it and turning through the main gate, you could tell the place would be fine.  The gardens are elaborately planted and manicured perfectly.  There are four units arranged in two buildings.  The grounds are massive and there are little round concrete tables and benches scattered around the property, each set in a perfect place such as sheltered in the shade under a tree, nestled in the center of ring of tropical plantings, out in the open or secluded.  There is a covered patio with a ping-pong table and hammocks are stretched between trees in groups or singly.  The place is neatly painted and the rooms, although not elaborate, are neat and clean and contain a fridge.  The place is casual and everything you see suggests relaxation!  I love it all ready.  What do you think?

The Great Balboa Beer Truck Incident

Hi Folks,

Just half way through the cooking of breakfast, the propane tank quit!  It was empty!  Now we know that both our tank for the kitchen stove and the barbecue tanks were taken away to fill yesterday but on checking today, they are both empty.  Turns out that the supply of propane is somewhat sporadic here.  There are two suppliers, one at the main gate and the second another 20 minutes down the road.  There are green tanks and blue tanks, which signify which supplier you must deal with as the tanks are not filled up here, just swapped out.  Apparently it is not uncommon for one or both suppliers to be out following a weekend.

After paying some bills on the Internet this morning and trying to find accommodation for our last eight days before we go up to Santa Fé in the interior, I wanted to head downtown to get a couple of bus pictures for a piece that I want to write about the modernization of the city transit system here in Panama City.

We headed down the hill but about the half way point there was an accident.  It didn’t look particularly serious, I mean there were no bodies lying around or such.  A Balboa beer truck on the way down the hill had managed to take out one of the telephone poles on the right hand side which carries power up the hill and to our little community.   Part of the fiberglass truck fender is broken and on the road.  The truck was right across the road and very close to another telephone pole, which remained in tact.  Maybe the popularity of this accident had something to do with it being a Balboa beer truck.  I bet there was lots of speculation about how the accident happened.  Maybe the driver was consuming some of his cargo.  Maybe the driver was traveling in the middle of the road, as they tend to do here, and an oncoming car caused him to swerve and lose control.  Maybe he lost his brakes.  The never-ending possibilities seemed to be fuel for all the dialog amongst the growing crowd.  Judging from how the truck was across the road, it wouldn’t have taken much for it to roll over and then everyone in the quickly growing crowd would be salvaging all those beers rolling down the hill on the pavement.  Now that would draw a crowd!  Traffic started to back up in both directions as everyone came out of their houses to see what was going on.  The police were there but nobody seemed to be doing anything but standing around, pointing, and talking among themselves.  After waiting some time, we decided nothing was going to happen very quickly so we turned around and started back home.  It seemed to start something because a number of other vehicles did the same.

So we never got to town but plan B, going to the pool, was a great option.

When we got home, the power was still off so we went to the restaurant for a late lunch and a visit to the pool.  I asked at the restaurant about the broken Internet connection and was cheerfully told that it was fixed but the power was out so you couldn’t use it!  They did manage to produce a couple of good sandwiches for us so we ate and went to the pool.

This pool here is large, well-kept, and full of cool water.  We have been in pools down here that are too warm to be refreshing but this is not one of them.  It is a great place to spend some time, particularly during the week when the population up here is low.  There were four other people there today!

We will try for another trip down the hill tomorrow but you never know what will happen here!

Another Place to Stay in Cerro Azul

Hi Travellers,

We awoke during the night to the sounds of rain beating down on our big stone deck.  It didn’t last long and when the morning came, the deck was dry.  After breakfast, we discovered that we have new neighbors in the next house.  More Canadians!  This guy and his son were down for a couple of weeks.  He has owned the house for about five years and comes down two or three times per year.  Take a look at the view he gets from his living room.  It’s the top-level with wall to wall glass.  Spectacular!

I visited with Antonio while updating the blog this morning.  He is a warm, hospitable, interesting character who is helpful by nature.  He has two suites in his house that he rents out.  Accommodation here in Cerro Azul is pretty hard to come by.  I mean, there seems to be lots of for rent signs around but I would bet that you would never find them on the Internet.  I know the effort it took me to find the place we are staying.  There is supposed to be a Hostel in the area but that is outside the main gate and part way down the hill.  If you want to stay here and experience this place, you need to rent a house or a suite in a house.  You will also need to rent a car to get here and around.

There is a one bedroom suite on the lowest level that has a full kitchen, a bathroom and a nice living room.  It comes with a WiFi connection and a flat screen TV.  It is nicely finished and immaculately clean. The view from the deck is to die for!  Nothing but trees and birds and hills for as far as you can see.  This little gem rents for $US75 per night with a minimum of two nights or $US450 per week or $US900 per month!  Along with this you get an onsite owner that speaks fluent English and Spanish and has lived there for 15 plus years.  There won’t be many questions about Panama or the area that he won’t be able to answer for you.

On the level above there is another unit that can be rented as a one or two bedroom suite and has a private bathroom.  Each bedroom has its own access to the large deck with a spectacular view.  There is no TV (which is not uncommon here) but there is a WiFi connection so you can stream to your heart’s content.  Rates are $US50 per night for the one bedroom or $US75 per night for the two bedrooms.  Weekly for the two bedroom you pay $US450 and for the one bedroom, $US300.  No monthly rates for this accommodation.  For some pictures of the accomodation check out www.cerroazulsuite.blogspot.com/

If you are interested in renting either of these suites, just email Antonio at smaharba7@hotmail.com.

As the weather wasn’t all that great, we decided to head down the hill and do some comparison shopping.  Today’s feature image is of the local Do It Center.  These modern big box chain stores are kind of 75% Canadian Tire and 25% Home Depot.  We prowled the store and found prices are much the same as at home for things like appliances, ceramic tile, lighting fixtures, and plumbing stuff like faucets etc.  You will find both unfamiliar brands and those that we know.  We went next door and checked out a furniture store with similar results.  This store really didn’t have anything much different from what we have at home.  We need to find a furniture store that has furniture more Panamanian!

We next headed to a mall!  We stopped at the Metromall, a modern gigantic super mall with three or four levels and all the stores we have at home plus a few.  If you didn’t know better, you would think you were in a shopping center in Canada or the US.  We ate at one of the many restaurants before returning up the hill at the end of the day.

We will be getting company in our little house tomorrow.  Some friends of the owner will be moving in to the upper part of the house so we will have to tone our noisy partying down a bit.  If the weather is good tomorrow we will be off for another hike in the jungle.  See you later.

Shopping Again!

Just in case you are interested, there have been 1,450 viewings of our little blog since it went up.  I’m impressed!

Everyone we talk to here encourages us to give the little restaurant in the recreation complex another try so today we decided to try breakfast there.  After all, how badly can you screw up bacon and eggs?  When we arrived we were the only customers there.  We managed to order without too much difficulty and then they went away to make our meals.  It seemed to take about 20 minutes for the food to be ready and the fresh coffee to be brewed.  When it came, it was perfect.  The eggs were done right, the bacon was done extra crispy just as requested and the toast was right.  We lingered over breakfast enjoying the beautiful scenery as the building it has windows all around and the views are, to say the least, spectacular.  Breakfast for two $11 with tip.

We asked about the Internet and were advised that someone was to come today some time to fix it and that it should be working tomorrow.  I headed back to Antonio’s house who had so graciously offered us the use of his Internet yesterday but he was not home so I went down the 20 or so tile stairs to his back yard and sure enough, I was close enough to get a signal.  Now I don’t know how many of you have tried to balance a notebook on your knees while running the mouse down the side of your leg in the bright sunlight but it really takes time to get anything done.  The simple fact that you can’t see the screen or where your mouse is due to the sunlight really sucks.  To make matters worse, it started to sprinkle lightly.  I’m really looking forward to having the connection back in service at the restaurant!

Yesterday, I showed you the inside of the monster house that the commodities market claimed from the well to do Panamanian Jeweler.  Today I have a few shots of the outside of this magnificent home.  Here they are.

 

 

 

Nice shack eh?  Well we were about taking house pictures, I thought you might like to see some of the other houses here in Cerro Azul.  Here is a small selection that should give you a flavor for the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have decided to stay here for another week so we headed back down the hill to get some more supplies.  This time we tried the Super Extra store, which turned out to be about three times larger than the Super 99.  It has a pharmacy and bakery (yum yum) and reminds me a bit of Superstore or Wal-Mart.  You can buy tires, clothes, fresh fruit, meat, and anything drinkable.  As we wander the aisles of this gigantic store, I can’t help but notice how much processed garbage is on the shelves here.  When we first came to Panama, you were hard pressed to find much of that but today it is the norm.  A simple example was we wanted a small amount of butter.  The diary case probably had five or six feet of every conceivable kind of margarine o the face of the earth.  We finally found butter in one little corner and got the last package.  Super Extra has a better selection of wine than the Super 99.  We found three bottles of Argentinian red at respectable prices.  A Malbec for $5.50, a Malbec for $4.20 and a Cab Sav for $3.06.  Again, these are all in the $20 to $30 dollar range at home.  Oh, and did I mention the bakery?  We got four sweet buns for $1.60.

Next we needed to refuel our little Toyota.  The traffic was so insane that it took us almost 30 minutes to drive half a block, u-turn at a traffic light (yes it’s legal here), and return half a block to the Texaco Station.  Fuel was at about a quarter of a tank and it took $30 to fill it.

The find of the day was a fresh fruit store, or more like hole in the wall.  Andrea scored a nice ripe watermelon, a pineapple, and a couple of oranges for $2.70.

Well, as you can see we never made it to the jungle today but its on the list for tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

The Hills of Cerro Azul in the Chagres National Park

Hi All,

Today is move day and there are almost no pictures.  I must apologize but it took much of the day to make the move and when I finally pulled out the camera, the light was gone.  We moved from sea level up to an elevation of about 950M.  Now that doesn’t sound like that much but it will lower the temperature by around 10 degrees during the day.  We rented a little apartment from Panama Canada Realty and it is in an area called Cerro Azul.  Panama City money used to build homes here to escape the heat of the city on weekends and during the summer.   It is close to the city and is about a 40 minute drive from the airport.  Property here is within the Chagres (pronounced Shaw-gress) National Park and is the only place in the country where you can actually buy property with full title in a National Park.  Today’s featured image is shot from our big deck and is of the lights of the city.

We knew we would be somewhat isolated so we stopped at the Super 99 grocery store (the chain is owned by the President of Panama), to lay in some supplies before we left town.  We dragged eight bags of groceries out of that store for a total of $55.35.  Now I don’t know about you but when I go we go to a grocery store in Calgary, I don’t get anything like eight bags for 50 bucks.  Some of the better buys were a dozen eggs for $1.05, Balboa beer for $0.49 each, and three bottles of imported wine for $6.15, $4.09, and $3.60.  Now the wine is no two buck chuck!  We would be paying $20 to $30 each at home for these Chilean imports.  Panama has a very kind taxation structure on alcohol.

From the bottom of the hill, we travel about 25K to our destination.   At first the paved two lane road has a steady gentle uphill grade but that eventually gives out to a paved two lane road that either is going straight up or straight down.  It is not very windy but there is a lot of up and down.  Nothing is level.  The vegetation changes to forest with mostly pine trees.  Every once and awhile, you come upon a place with an elaborate iron gate and fence enclosing a sprawling well manicured property with a large elaborate stone and brick home nestled among the trees.  Most of the property has to be leveled before it can be built on.  It is an interesting community as pretty much all the well kept structures are tucked into the forest.

Getting to our destination was not without some challenges.  I had a street address, but my GPS could not find it.  The owners sent us a hand drawn map that would take us to the security gate and then a two page narrative to get us to the house.  I could use the GPS to get us to the intersection where we left the main road so we ended up using all the tools we had to actually get to our destination.  The directions were pretty good and we finally got to where we were going.

We are in a house with the main floor occupied by the owner, who is away.  There are two suites on the lower level, one of which is ours.  It is pretty typically Panamanian but it is clean and has almost everything we need.  There is a full length deck across the back of the house that is about 20 feet deep.  It overlooks nothing but forest and hills.  When we look one direction, off in the distance you can see the skyline of Panama City through the haze.  The other direction has a view of the canal.  Other than that, trees, hills, clouds, and blue sky.  You cant even see any of your neighbors.  You could run around naked here and you wouldn’t scare anything but the birds!  There is a pleasant breeze and the temperature, I would estimate to be in the low 20sC.

Our directions said that the door would be unlocked and the key would be on the table.  Just as we determined that there was only one towel, there was a knock at the door and a young woman handed us towels.  There is supposed to be a complex containing a restaurant, tennis courts, and a pool so we thought we would check it out.  When we arrived the security gate was down so we walked in.  We found a sign directing us to a restaurant so followed it to a neatly pained building that was locked up.  You could see all the tables properly set for a meal but there was nobody around.  The front door contained no sign indicating the hours of operation.  We headed back towards the car when we came upon a man walking toward us with a laptop under his arm.  We spoke to him and found out he was married to a Panamanian woman and living there part of the year and in Colorado for the rest.  Interesting character!  He is a lawyer with a practice in Colorado but was one of the authors of the document that described the US turnover of the canal to Panama.  He left Panama with the other Americans on 31 December 1999, when the canal became Panamanian.

He was headed to the restaurant to use their WiFi signal to check his email.  We pumped him for local information and determined that the restaurant was closed today because of the holiday yesterday.  Rather than driving back to town, we elected to get by on our recently purchased groceries and go back for breakfast.

Our house has no Internet, or TV so I will have to use the restaurant WiFi to update the blog.  I can write the content offline and upload it once I have a connection.