Keith's Panamanian Travel Ramble

The wanderings of Andrea and Keith around Panama

Posts tagged ‘friends’

The Hazy Campana National Park

Hi Travellers,

Today was warm and close with a noticeable lack of breezes so we lounged around the pool for most of the morning.  After lunch we decided to take a short trip to some higher ground in search of some cool breezes.

Altos de Campana National Park was the first park in the Republic of Panama and was established in 1966. It is an important park as it protects two hydrographic river basins, the Sajalices river that flows towards the Pacific Ocean and the Ciri and Trinidad rivers that join the Chagres river which is a major contributor to the canal and provides the drinking water for the City of Panama.  The park is just under 5,000 hectares in size and is a one and one half hour drive from Panama City.  It has elevations of up to 850 meters.

We loaded our friends Shirley and Dave up and headed to the park which is about a 15 minute drive from where we are staying.  There is a stretch of the Inter-American Highway that is quite curvy for about five kilometers as the roadway descends to the level of the beach communities.  The entrance to the park is part way through this section of the highway.  It is actually  six kilometers west of the town of Capira.

Once in the park, we drove up the steep well paved road in search of views.  There are supposed to be good views of the canal basin and the mangroves at the tip of the mouth of the Chame River at Chame Point from the lookouts in the park but today is quite misty and there is a lot of burning going on in the area to get rid of dead vegetation.  As we continue our climb there are some spectacular views of the coast available.  Unfortunately my filters were not able to remove all the haze from the pictures but I think you can get the idea.

At the top of the mountain we came to a small well-kept town, Campana, and stopped at a fruit stand to buy some produce before heading back down the hill.

A Little Luxury in Santa Clara

Howdy Travelers,

Today, we teamed up with our friends Shirley and Dave who are also wayward Canadians, for a trip west on the Inter American Highway to check out a resort in Santa Clara.  Santa Clara is a little over a 30 minute drive west of Coronado.  If you come to the new airport at Rio Hato where the Royal Decameron in Farallon is, you have come a bit too far.  Find a Returno (an authorized place to make a U-turn) and return back to the next town.

Santa Clara is the site of the opulent Sheraton Bijao Beach Resort which is just a couple of years old.  It’s another remote all-inclusive place with rates starting in the $250 per night range.  As we turned south off the highway towards the Pacific, we soon met some of the trappings that makes this place expensive.  We first came to a security gate.  Our friends, who had been here before, simply told the guard that we were going to the Hertz car rental desk which caused us to be immediately waved through.  Apparently you get quite a bit of hassle if you say that you just want to go look at the resort.  As we drove down the road, I noticed that the infrastructure is all complete.  Roads are paved, sidewalks and street lighting is in place, and every inch of the landscape is manicured just the way you would expect around a Sheraton Resort.   We drove past a number of three-story walk up apartment buildings that lined the perfectly groomed golf course until we came to the end of the road where the Sheraton was.

The building is a six-story open to the ocean drop dead gorgeous expression of luxury everywhere you look!  When you enter the lobby and pass the many ample soft couches you are immediately struck with the incredible vista that rolls out to the Pacific beginning directly in front of the hotel.  There are a series of pools that occupy the space between the hotel and the wide white hard sand beach.  Off in the distance a white double masted schooner is at anchor.  The view is further enhanced by a restaurant with a thatched roof which is off to the side as well as a water slide between an infinity pool and the pool below it.

We wandered the hotel and grounds, unchallenged.  There were lots of guests, unless the place was full of crashers like us, but the pools were being well used.   The grounds are beautifully kept, as expected and the beach looked recently groomed.  We thought we would stay for dinner and enquired at the front desk about the cost of a dinner pass.  We were told $25 would buy us into any of the restaurants on the site for dinner and give us our food and drinks.  Not too bad a price for such a high-end place.  After determining that none of the restaurants opened until at least 6:30PM, we elected to move on to somewhere where we wouldn’t have to wait so long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a tall customer service representative from the hotel roaming among the guests lounging in the lobby.  She was wearing a typical historic local costume that was to say the least, striking.  When I asked her to let me take a picture she agreed and posed.  I’m sure it is something she gets asked to do on a regular basis and it is probably also in her job description.  Very nice!

On the way off the property, Dave spotted a small hedge that interested him.  He is a bit of a gardener and had spotted a flowering hedge where the clusters of flowers were actually different colors within each cluster.  Unusual, don’t you think?

Well, I would say that if you like the Sheraton resorts, you would be very pleased with a stay at this one.  In the very near future, when the new International Airport opens down the road at Rio Hato, the taxi ride from the airport will decrease from a couple of hours and $150 to something less than 10 minutes.  Check it out.  It gets a thumbs up from all four of us!

The Safety and Risks of All Inclusivism at Royal Decameron

Hi Fellow Travellers,

Have you ever wondered about how to go to a new destination for the very first time?  People will make many choices.  On the one extreme, some will do extensive research and know exactly what they are getting into before they book their trip while at the other end of the spectrum there are those that look for something easy that they know will cover off their basic needs of travel, accommodation, and food.  These are the people who choose all-inclusive resorts.  While there are many reasons why people will make such a choice, there is both security and risk in that decision.

All inclusivism provides the necessities for your stay so if you are just trying to kick back and relax they are a great option.  On the risk side, you may be tempted not to leave the resort and experience the wonders of the country you chose to visit.  Sometimes these resorts are located in out-of-the-way places where it is more difficult to get into town or go anywhere.  I think that makes the risk higher because it is easier to just stay put at the resort.  Why go out and experience the local restaurants?  You already paid for your food at the resort!  I know places where the resort will actually tell guests asking about going somewhere that it is dangerous and that they should stay at the resort.  That recommendation makes resorts money and detracts from your stay.

Well, enough of my rant.  I guess you can tell we are not fans of all inclusivism.  Yes, they have there place, but not for us!

Today, we went to Farallon which is on the Pacific about a couple of hours west of Panama City.  Farallon is home to the best known all-inclusive in Panama, the Royal Decameron.  Farallon has  pretty much just this resort, which has grown exponentially over the years.  There are golf courses and a brand new international airport, Panama’s newest, which is nearing completion and will accommodate international charter flights.

On the history side, Farallon also is home to the now decrepit Noriega beach home where the Americans first came to get him.  If you ignore the no trespassing signs, you can see the shell of what was once an opulent multi story beach home that was one of the many Noriega properties in Panama.  This one still has the bullet holes in the walls that tell the story of the American invasion.  Local folklore spins the description of a highly secure compound with a small air strip, which is now being expanded into the new international.  There is a small island not too far off shore that has a large cross.  The story has it that Noriega had this built as a navigation aid to his Columbian drug friends who made deliveries to the small air strip here.  Be it true or not, this makes almost as good a story as the pirate stories associated with other parts of Panama.

So, back to the Decameron.  For years, this place has brought charters full of Canadians from eastern Canada.  It is also part time share but it is difficult to get into through RCI due to the location’s popularity.  We decided to have a look around so just walked in.  As I said, it is a huge resort and we met a number of people looking lost and scratching their heads.  There are three different lobbies.  There appears to be six or seven different restaurants.  We saw a couple and they were each the size of a gymnasium.  The grounds are very well-kept.  The pool was busy and looked to be in good condition.  The beach provides some nice views out to the Pacific.  I wondered what people who stayed there thought about it so checked it out on Trip Advisor.  I think I would summarize the ratings as about average.

Well, there you have it.  If you are looking for an all-inclusive in Panama, this one should know how to do it.  They have been here for years and with the new airport nearly finished, the travel time at the end of your flight to the resort will only be a few minutes.

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?

Speak Kind Words, Receive Kind Echoes

Hi Fellow Travellers,

“Speak kind words, receive kind echoes” the decorative plaque on the wall of our little room here at Cabanas Potosi says.  That phrase is descriptive of the attitude of the owners of this place.  Their helpfulness and concern for their guests manifests itself in many ways.  We have seldom experienced this kind of service and attention at any of the places we have stayed.  They make El Valle extra special for anyone visiting here.  I put a link to them under the Businesses We Support heading in the right column.  If you come here, we would highly recommend Cabanas Potosi and the rates are, to say the least, reasonable.  For $44.50 per night, with the 7th night free, you get an extra clean room with a fridge, fans a bathroom with hot water and louvered windows that let the breezes through.  There are two beds per room and the mattresses are firm and comfortable. There are only four rooms so you get to meet everyone else that is traveling through.  Also, the grounds are beautifully landscaped and impeccably maintained.  You also get an endless supply of cheerfully provided helpful information from the English speaking owners Mireya (pronounced Marayah) and Dennis.

I have told you about the beautiful birds here in Panama but there is so much more.  Today we went to see the Orchid Garden here in El Valle.  We were told that about 12 years ago, the Japanese government sent a high level agriculturist here to help Panama with their orchid cultivation.  They built an education center and rather than collecting local samples, they started all their plants from seeds.  Apparently there is a problem here with locals collecting orchids from the wild and selling them and they did not want the Orchid Garden to contribute to that problem.  Apparently the Orchid Garden will lose its Japanese funding this year in March and nobody knows what will happen to it.  Without the grant money, or another benefactor stepping up, the center is expected to close and much of the knowledge to be lost as the Japanese agriculturalist will return home.

Our guide for our walk through the Orchid Garden tells us that there are 1,500 native orchids to Panama.  Almost all orchids attach themselves and grow on existing trees.  There are very few that actually grow in the soil.  They attach to the bark of their host and grow.  Other than for some medicinal uses, orchids are simply decorative.  They do not harm the trees that they are attached to, with the exception of one species which kills the tree but continues to live on the dead host.  Orchids need a humid lightly breezy environment with not too much direct sunlight.  They draw their nourishment from the air as the breezes  pass them by.  Here are a few pictures of some of the vegetation at the Orchid Garden.  They have much more than just orchids.  I think it is as beautiful as the birds here.

We have been searching for a good massage since arriving here in Panama.  When we first arrived here in El Valle, we asked around and were told that there was only a few places that provided massage.  We checked the new spa in town run by some European doctor.  It is a splashy new building with lots of staff but at $100 per hour for a massage, we kept looking.  Next we checked the spa at Lourdes.  It looked adequate and their offering was $65 for an hour, the same as we pay at home.  We decided to try it but were really disappointed.  This is a case of somebody finding out the going rate for a proper massage in North America and applying that price to massages performed by staff who have no idea what they are doing.   We have had better $15 beach massages!  It was at best disappointing and I am not used to having the zits on my back popped during my massage, but that’s what you will get here.  If you need a massage, give this place a pass!

Eventually, we were told about Natasha, who performs a Thai massage that was supposed to be good.  We decided to give it a try.  Now my recollection of massages that we got while in Thailand was that there was lots of rubbing and slapping involved and you couldn’t go near a pool for about a week afterwards without leaving an oil slick.  For our Panamanian Thai massage, we were taken to an outside raised platform on a shaded covered deck with lots of gentle cool breezes.  The vegetation around the deck providing good privacy.  The atmosphere was perfect for a massage.  This experience was different from other Thai massages!  It involved assisted stretching, firm muscle presses along with limb manipulation and deep tissue massaging of problem areas.  There was no oil used.  I came away from the experience feeling like I had actually had a massage.  My sore neck was back to normal.   Natasha learned this skill while living in Thailand and she appears to have learned it well.  I would certainly recommend it to anyone looking for a massage that is effective and a little different.  A one hour massage will cost you $28 which is a very good value for what you get.  Just go to the Artash Restaurant and ask for Natasha.

For dinner tonight we decided to check out Casa de Lourdes, the most expensive place in town, but it has been worth it in the past.  By the most expensive place in town I mean a fine dining restaurant with prices that we would expect at home.  Generally speaking we are finding restaurant meals at about half of what we pay at home.  We have been here before for Sunday lunch and have needed reservations.  It is an opulent European style building with thick stone walls and a beautiful lobby full of gigantic cut flower arrangements.  The eating area is outside on a covered deck beside the pool.  We have friends coming to Panama in mid February and wanted to check if the place was still as good as it had been in the past.  We arrived just when they opened at seven PM and were the only customers for the evening.   I had the roast pork while Andrea had the chicken with goat cheese and a tomato sauce.  We shared a salad with apple and pecans and a desert of pear crumble with vanilla ice cream and a caramel sauce.  Along with two very tart lemonades and a coffee, the total ran us around $63 for two.  Our impression is that the place is slipping a bit.  The building is getting to the point where it needs a paint job and many of the magnificent flower arrangements in the lobby were well past their expiry dates.  The food was good however the lettuce in the salad was a bit wilted and the ice cream had been frozen and thawed and contained ice crystals.  Now I think most of the food deficiencies can be written off to this being a Monday night after their busy time on the weekend and that we may have got leftovers.  We will bring our friends here on a weekend during the day so they can see the wonderful setting, perfectly manicured gardens and impressive mountain views and hope that the flowers and food problems do not repeat.  Until then, you will just have to use your imagination to picture what this impressive place looks like because I won’t have and pictures of it until then.

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?

Romeo and Juliette – Not the Play!

Howdy Travellers,

Today we were up early to fully enjoy our last whole day here in Cerro Azul.  We started the day with a visit to our next door neighbor, Jim, to investigate his Big Green Egg.  Now I have never seen anything like this but apparently, they are the latest craze in outdoor cookers.  We sampled the results of this thing yesterday at the expat party because Jim brought a 25 lb turkey cooked in this thing.  It runs on charcoal and I mean wooden charcoal, not briquettes.  He showed us that this cooker runs so tight that there was still a good supply of charcoal left in the cooker after cooking the turkey.    He said he ran this thing for 6 hours at about 325 degrees to do the most juicy, sumptuous, perfect turkey you have ever eaten.  The juicy white meat melted in your mouth.  Now for those that know me they know that turkey is the only thing that rates above bacon and this one rated very highly against bacon!  The thing is called a Komato Cooker and it is a ceramic egg that does an amazing job on cooking meat.  Apparently it has  a cult following so if you want the latest and greatest, just Google Komato Cooker and dig out your wallet!  If you want consistent perfect results from your grill, you have to get one of these suckers!

After investigating the best thing in outdoor grills, we headed down the road to pick up our friends Connie and Dave, who are from Vancouver Island.  Our goal was a hike in the jungle to the Romeo and Juliette falls, a pair of waterfalls in the area.  We drove a short distance to the trail head and started out for the falls.  Now I have told you that we are in pretty hilly terrain but this was a 1.5K hike all down hill.  After 45 minutes or so, we reached the falls which are spectacular and very restful to sit and watch and refreshing to stick your feet in.  Don’t do it the way I did by missing the rock on my journey across the river.  It’s better to take your shoes and socks off first.   My experiences with rivers that look like this is that they are fed by mountain streams and the water will numb any limb that is placed in it for even a few minutes.  Here the water is not cold but warm enough to be very pleasant.  We sat on a huge boulder in the center of the river for a while simply enjoying the sounds of the water rushing past and the birds in the forest around us.  There are some bugs here that rub their back legs together, like a cricket, to attract a mate.  It makes quite a noise and the forest was alive with the sounds of these guys all looking for dates. There were some spectacular gigantic fluorescent blue butterflies in the area that moved too quickly for me to get you a picture, so you will just have to take my word for it that they were something extra special to see.  After a rest and visit with our friends, we started back up the hill to where we had left the car.  Now this hill is steep!  There are no flat parts!  It took around two hours of steady climbing to get back to the car.

Because birds are in such abundance here, I thought a few more shots from around Connie and Dave’s feeder might be of interest.  These birds are spectacular and a constant reminder of the beauty of the nature that surrounds us.   Sadly, tomorrow, we leave Cerro Azul.  We are headed for an eight-day visit to El Valle de Anton (pronounced L Val-yay).  This is a place 175 Km west of where we are and it is also in the hills although a bit less elevation at only around 800M above sea level.

The Hillbillies Visit The Trump Tower

Hi Travellers,

Well, its 7:45PM and I just got back from my nefarious attempt to steal an Internet feed to load yesterday’s blog but everyone in the house was out and the Internet was turned off.  I guess you will just have to wait!  I will try again tomorrow morning.  I’ll just pour myself another glass of this excellent 2009 Chilean Carmen Valley Central Cabernet Sauvignon and tell you what happened today.

Now, it seems that my descriptions of us being up in the hills and in a somewhat remote location has earned us the new title of Hillbillies from some of our friends.  Perhaps my descriptions were a bit too graphic but I can assure you this is not Hillbilly country.  Its much too upscale and almost all of the residents we have met still have all their teeth and don’t hold their pants up with a piece of worn rope.  We also haven’t seen a shotgun anywhere.  The house next door has a driveway containing a very new H3 Hummer with very expensive looking custom wheels and a chrome winch and cow catcher affair on the front that looks like it could stop a train.  Today we decide to get away from the crowds and head downtown.

As we approached the main gate leaving the park, we saw something on the road.  It was brown and furry and moving at the speed of a turtle!  We pulled over and, sure enough, it was a sloth making his way painfully slowly across the road.  Traffic is pretty busy here today so he was lucky he didn’t get run over.  They move so deliberately, as if in slow motion, dragging their body across the terrain one slow step at time.  I grabbed the camera and got out of the car, thinking that I probably had a victim that I could get some close up shots of because he couldn’t move fast enough to get away from me.  I didn’t even have to rush.  Now I can imagine what was going through his slothful mind… what is this idiot tourist going to do to me with that camera?  Now, if I could just go a little faster…  Well, other than a couple of glances my direction, I got complete ambivalence.  It kind of reminded me of trying to ask girls out when I was in high school!  He finally got up the bank and up the closest tree, where he promptly went to sleep after all the exertion.

On the way down the hill, outside the park, we pass a beautiful lake that was busy today.  I snuck through the fence and got a couple of shots for you.

Because this is Sunday and Cerro Azul seemed pretty busy, we decided to take advantage of the lack of traffic and head to the downtown core, which would be really busy if we tried to do this on a weekday.  We guessed right!  Traffic was light.  From our driveway to the downtown core takes about an hour, using the new toll road Corredor Sur (Corridor South).  Traffic was light and most of the way it is a speedy 110K.  There are two tolls to pay of $1.40 and $1.25, at different locations.  We guess that using the toll road shortens the trip by about an hour due to traffic, lights, jambs, and just the general insanity of going the old route and driving in Panama.

 

 

 

 

Us being Hillbillies and all, we decided to head for the high rent district to spend some of Grannies money (Andrea wanted to be called Ellie Mae but you and I both know the real truth here!) in Punta Paitilla which is a little peninsula into the Bay of Panama right off the downtown core.  There are several very, and I mean very nice residential towers.  The new Trump Tower is just one.   We picked a tower and approached it, thinking I would get some nice shots in the lobby, but the sharp-eyed security dude headed us off before we could even start up the front stairs and politely stymied our access attempt.  We turned around and thought we would have a look at the Trump Tower.  First stop was the gift shop, thinking I would pick up a Trump something golf shirt or such.  The young guy in the shop was the owner (from Pittsburg).  We got talking and found out that his shop had only been open for about three months and it was going well.  He pays $40 per Sq.M for rent.  I asked about the Trump shirts and he said they are trying to bring them in from the US but any merchandising with the Trump name is heavily protected legally and he was still going through the legal hurdles.  He said the hotel was averaging only about 25% occupancy and then told us something that surprised us.  Trump apparently has nothing to do with the building, except lending it his name for a price.  There is your useless factoid for the day!

We prowled the mall in the Trump building and found only a couple of stores actually read to open.  There was a very cool wine tasting bar that we have to go back to and a gelato bar that we couldn’t get by.  Gelato for two was $9.35.  Remember we are in the Trump tower!

We wandered the obviously high-end neighborhood and found a beautiful little park, right on the ocean.  It was shaded by huge canopy trees and there were a few locals sitting or playing with their kids on the well manicured grass.  It made for a beautiful sight with the ocean in the background!  We found a Super 99 store in the area and stopped in to pick up a couple of things.  Just like Co-op at home, they adjust their stores to the neighborhoods they are in.   This store was much different from the Super 99 we bought supplies at before going up to Cerro Azul.  Marble floors, wide aisles, neat shelves and staff who spoke some English were all noticeable differences.  Just like at home for stores like this, you pay a small premium.

We thought we would grab a late lunch before heading back and selected a little restaurant in the mall with the Super 99 called Marina Marina.  This is a combination restaurant serving bistro/fusion type food.  Attentive English-speaking servers, good service and tasty food made this a great experience.  Lunch for two $27, including fresh juice, sandwiches, and cappuccino.

We had planned to leave downtown with enough time to get back up the hill in daylight.  With so much local traffic up in the Cerro Azul area we knew that there would be lots of traffic coming back to town on the road and didn’t want to deal with the unpredictable Panamanian drivers in the dark on a narrow winding badly lit road.  We managed to get home in tact but wonder how many of these drivers survive driving here.  They drive with headlights off in the dark, they don’t stay on their own side of the road even when oncoming traffic is obvious.  If they have to stop for some reason, they just stop in the driving lane and get out of their vehicle forcing everyone else to go into the other lane to go around them.  They pull out right in front of you without warning.  We find driving here in Cerro Azul during the week just fine with only the few permanent residents around but need to be on guard all the rest of the time.

Our activities for tomorrow remain undetermined.  Let it be a surprise!