Last Days in Panama!

Since our leaving Chepo, we have been touring many scenic places of Panama.  We started with the mountain resort of Santa Fe in the province of Veraguas.  There is lots of hiking in Santa Fe.  Since walking and swimming are the two activities permitted for Heather, this was a good place for us.

On the way to Santa Fe, we passed through the town of San Francisco, where there is a famous little church with baroque wood carvings.  From the outside it is simple enough, but the inside is impressive.

The wood is bitter cedar and ash

Our first hike in the area was to a lovely little waterfall.  Unfortunately most trails are not marked in Panama, but usually you can find your way with only a few wrong turns.  This was one of those days.  We eventually found the right place.

The big root points in the right direction to the falls!

Steve cools off after a long walk

The next day was Heather’s birthday.  We celebrated by hiking up Cerro Tute, which took us almost four hours, a new record for Heather.  It was pretty windy at the top, as you can see.

You can see Cerro Tute in the background here.  It took us about and hour and a half from here.

Later that afternoon Heather cooled off in a nearby river, followed by a massage at the hostel.   It was the perfect birthday.

The next stop on the tour was Boquete, home to ex-pats from the US and also all over Europe.  Boquete is in the province of Chiriqui, which borders on Costa Rica.  It is home to Volcán Barú, which at 11,700 feet is the highest mountain in Panama.  On a clear day you can see both oceans from the top.  We had planned on climbing the volcano in December, but Heather’s accident put those plans on hold.  She needs to recover a bit more before we can do such a strenuous hike.

On our first night we could see the sun set over Volcán Barú from our hotel window.

In Boquete we were fortunate enough to meet up with Ron and Loesje, parents of a friend of our son Dave.  Loesje is an avid hiker. We went on a hike with her and a group of six other ex-pats on one day, and with her alone a second day.  On the second hike we were out for five hours, a new record for Heather. 

We passed over this suspension bridge, which was a bit rusty, but still pretty strong.  The planks were pretty old, but solid.

On the hike we saw some interesting wildlife.  This armadillo was content to let us watch him for several minutes.

This big caterpillar had eaten the center out of a tree, which blew over in the wind.

Ron and Loesje have a wonderful house, which they built here  ten years ago.  They have five horses on eight acres of land.

Their driveway is lined with poma rosa (pink apple) trees, which provided shade and a windbreak to the strong summer winds.  The fruit is quite sweet, and some people like to eat it.

All too soon it was time to say goodbye to our new friends.  We hope to visit them again another year.

Not all houses in Boquete are as nice Ron and Loesje's.  This one is quite the fixer-upper!

After Boquete, it was time to hit the beach.  We drove to Santa Catalina, a haven for surfers on the Pacific coast.  Since Heather is not ready to brave big waves, we opted for a quiet hotel which was billed as having a very quiet beach.  When we got there, we found that the beach was indeed very quiet, as there was no water there at low tide!  At low tide, you have to walk out a kilometer to get to water, and even then it is very shallow.  At high tide, it is only a couple of feet deep, and the water is very warm!  Luckily a good beach was just a short drive away.

The beach was better suited to egrets than humans!

We also might have wondered why the beach was called Lagartero beach.  Lagarto means crocodile in Spanish, and a Lagartero would be a "Crocodiler", which we guess might be a crocodile hunter.  We found out that the river which flows by the hotel has been known to have crocodiles!  The manager, Simon, who has only been there for eight months, said that he saw a ten-foot croc a few months ago.  Even allowing for the "growth in retelling" factor, it was probably something we wanted to avoid!  Simon tells us that the local kids are fearless, and they swim in the river.  We decided not to try it.

This croc skull was not reassuring!

On top of this, one dark evening Simon's two dogs started barking furiously.  Simon said casually, "They always bark like this when there is a croc around."  There was no way we could see what they were barking at, but it did make us pause to think a bit. Simon is a bit of a joker, and you never know when to take him seriously.  Luckily we were sleeping on an upper floor of the hotel.  The three Canadians in a tent were a little more nervous.  The next morning, the Canadians packed up and left very early.  We were relieved to see that there were still three of them.  We asked Simon's wife if the dogs really bark at crocs, and she said that they do.

We're still not sure why this hotel was a "best pick" in Lonely Planet!

Happy to have survived two days on "Croc beach", we are headed to Panama City tomorrow, and to the States on Wednesday.  We are sad to leave Panama, but ready to see everyone back in the US!

This is our final blog entry, as our Panama days are over, at least for a year or two.  Thanks to all of you for following our time here!

Steve and Heather

Our last week in Chepo!

After leaving Dave in Panama City, we headed back to Chepo for an emotional final week.  Heather had only spent seven days in Chepo since returning to Panama, and we had some unfinished business.

First on the agenda was a trip to the hamlet of Los Ceibos.  We had to descend 1000 ft to get there, but Heather was getting stronger by the day and was well up to the task.  The picacho had been worked on by a bulldozer, and trucks could actually go down the steep hill for the first time in years.  Since it was the dry season, however, there was so much loose dirt and gravel that no one could go back up.  Luckily the road crews had carved out a different road leading from Los Ceibos back to civilization, so that trucks could go down one way and back up another.

El Picacho

Three boys from Chepo accompanied us, and we picked up one more in Los Ceibos.  Of course they wanted to go to the swimming hole, and we were happy to go with them.

Kevin, Dorian, Ollie and Eri

While we were there, a woman we know passed by carrying firewood, and Steve volunteered to carry it up to her house, using the traditional motete to carry the load.  She was pretty tired, and was glad to let him.

The boys entertained themselves during the entire day by catching cicadas.  The device they used was quite simple.  They cut a plastic bottle in half and pushed it up at the cicada.  Once the bug was caught in the narrow neck of the bottle, it couldn’t open its wings and it was trapped.  By the end of the day they had over a dozen of the critters in their backpacks.

Dorian shows off his catch

Kevin hunts for more cicadas

Unfortunately March is burning month.  The farmers here feel that the best way to prepare the soil for planting is to burn off all of the vegetation.  After three months with no rain, the fires spread rapidly, often going out of the desired areas.

On Sunday we went to the town of El Toro, the site of Heather’s accident back in November.  She broke one vertebra and her wrist getting out of a pickup truck.  We stopped at the house where Heather spent an agonized hour and a half lying on a wooden bench, waiting for the ambulance to come.  Here is a photo of the family who lives there.

Everyone in town was happy to see that not only had she recovered, but that she was in shape to hike again.

We had arranged with a number of students from the Chepo school who live near El Toro to meet us at the swimming hole there for one final outing with the Baileys.  They were excited to share their river spot with us, and almost twenty people were there. 

Heather and Jakelin

Triple jump!

One student came on horseback.  It was a very hot day, and the horse enjoyed the water even more than we did.

Francisco lets his horse cool off in the stream

That same evening we invited the neighborhood children to our house for a farewell party.  The early arrivals made bracelets from little rubber bands that Heather brought from the US.

When all of the children were there, we sat in a big circle and each person recounted their favorite memory of playing at the Bailey house.  Heather's favorite was reading books to children on the porch.  Steve's was "porch sliding", swinging back and forth on the rope with the porch floor wet.

Then it was time to give out games and books.  Each child put their name in a hat.  When their name came up, they chose a game or toy to take home.  We had two more rounds, giving out children’s books in Spanish.  

The kids show off their winnings:

Kevin, Ollie, Dorian and Meicol

Macyuris, Yohannys, Carolina and Didian

On Monday and Tuesday Heather and Teacher Omar gave talks on dental health to all of the primary grades (K-6).  Each child went home with a new toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss.  Heather had been planning this for some time, and took advantage of her final days in Chepo.

On Wednesday, our second to last day in Chepo, we made one final trip to the local swimming hole.  José (grade 2) and his friend Juan David (grade 3) made the trip on the family horse.  Note that the saddle is actually a mat of woven straw.

Heather poses with her swimming buddies.

On Thursday, it was our final day in Chepo.  They had another going away party for us, this time in the center of town.  Various people spoke, and then our host mother Odilia played the accordion.

Steve sang his décima, the traditional Panamanian song, for a second time, while his friend Emigdio played the guitar.

  

Then came the sale of the Bailey household possessions.  They were priced to move.  Tables were marked for $1.00, 50 cents, a quarter, and a free table.  Anyone who bought an item got one thing for free.  We gave out numbers and made people go in order in an attempt to avoid chaos, but we were only partially successful.  In the end, all items went and everyone had a memento of our time there. 

Finally the food was ready and everyone was fed.  Teachers and community members pitched in to serve the food.

It was an emotionally draining day as we said goodbye to our friends from Chepo, and we were exhausted as we drove out of town after the party.  These two years have been a very rewarding time for us in Chepo, and we were sad to leave.

We are now tourists in Panama until April 16th, when we return to the US!

Vacation with Dave and Melissa

After our goodbye party in the school, we headed to Panama City for the night in preparation for our trip to Isla Contadora the next morning.  Isla Contadora is one of the Pearl Islands, about 35 miles from Panama City in the Pacific Ocean.  It is a tiny island, only a mile or so long, but very peaceful and beautiful, just perfect for a few relaxing days.

Dave enjoys the boat ride out in calm seas

There are no docks to land on, so our catamaran was met by a small fishing boat to unload the guests and their luggage.

We had a delighful little villa which was perfect for the four of us.

A golf cart came with the villa so that we could make our way around the island in comfort during the hot days.  Here we are enjoying a glass of wine and watching the sunset.

A paddle board came with the house, and three of us tried it out.

There are only a few beaches on the island, but they are beautiful.

The last beach, Playa Larga, looks great.  It was once home to Hotel Contadora, a resort of hundreds of rooms.  The owner died, and the heirs couldn’t decide what to do with the resort.  There were also problems with insufficient water, so they just closed it.  It didn’t take long for everything of value to be carried off by the locals.  Now it is just one ruined building after another.

There is even a ruined ferry boat in front of the ruined resort.  In its day, this was a state of the art boat.  It could crawl up onto the beach to let off its passengers, and crawl back in the water to sail away.  It was beached and left there because it would have been too expensive to repair.

Not much was left behind by the locals

Everything on the island is very expensive because it all comes in by boat.  Here is a “store boat”, which lands at high tide and stays until the next high tide.  It comes every week.

All too soon it was time to go back to the mainland so that Melissa could fly home.  Shortly after this photo was taken, we took the catamaran back to the mainland.  This time the waves were quite high, as the afternoon wind had come up.  It was an exciting ride home!

Dave had three more days to spend with us.  We headed for the resort town of El Valle, in the mountains not too far from Panama City.  Our first stop was the town of Las Margaritas, where our Peace Corps friend Catherine lives.  It was a hot day, so a trip to the swimming hole was in order.  

Heather relaxes with fellow Peace Corps volunteers Catherine and Graycie

Dave and Steve did a double jump off the rocks.

Later that day we went a little further downstream where the water trickled over a very high falls.  In the wet season this is a huge torrent, but it hasn’t rained here since December.

The next day it was time for a hike up the Sleeping Indian.  Heather has been walking and hiking almost every day since her arrival here, and she has made great progress.

We later took a trip to the local zoo.  They have lots of tropical birds, a jaguar, ostriches, and lots of frogs from the rain forest.

This pheasant caught our eye

The “square trees” (arbol cuadrado) weren’t perfectly square, but it was interesting to see them.  I think Dave liked the hole in the big tree better.

On our last day in El Valle we climbed up to a viewpoint on Cerro Gaital where we could see the whole town of El Valle, which actually sits in an old volcano crater.

The next day Dave flew back to the US and we headed back to Chepo for one more week with our people there, ending with another going away party on April 3rd.  More on that in our next blog entry!

We fly back to the US on April 16th.  In the meantime we are tourists!