The flight to Panama City was only four hours direct from Houston. We stayed in a posh hotel and ate at a fancy seafood restaurant. The sheer diversity of the people there
was astonishing. And there's always a nice seabreeze. The water is potable. We walked from the hotel to the Pacific ocean and watched boats line up for passage through the
canal.
Here is a picture of the city we did not take.
We took buses up into the mountains to a little town called Barrigon in the Cocle province. We lived with a family that keeps boarders. They also fed us and gave us tours of the
rain forest.
Here's a picture of Magreen and our guide, Santiago, as we hiked up to a point where you can see both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
We saw at least five varieties of toucans, countless varieties of hummingbirds, an orange bellied tragon which is a cousin of the quetzal, a white ruffed
manakin, a bay headed tanager,a bright blue frog with black spots, a bright green frog with black stripes, a salamander, a huge chameleon that changed colors before our eyes,
parasitic trees that eventually swallow up and kill the host tree, ants that carry leaves on their backs, central american squirrel
monkeys, and a sloth hanging from a tree with a baby on its belly.
Check out these frogs that our guide, Santiago, caught (and released)!
On the way back to the house, we picked fruit off the
trees. We even got to pick a cacao fruit. Chocolate is
made from the seeds. But we ate the sweet fruit part
around the seeds.
In the afternoons, the children took us to different swimming spots in the mountain river.
Most of the food was locally grown and organic. The coffee we drank there was toasted and ground by our hosts, the Navas family. We grew attached to their large extended
family. Many of the women spend all but three days of the month working in Panama City as nanies and custodians. The men, like Santiago, make there living through a mix of
giving tours, working for the national park, and other odd jobs. Many of the kids want to go to university.
Here is picture Magreen took from the bus leaving. Santo, who is the eldest in the Navas family, came with us part of the way and is the sitting furthest up front.
After riding four different buses and a taxi, we reached the mountain town of Bouquete. We chose a cushy resort that had stand-alone, two-story lofts at the edge of stream.
There were so many American expatriates in the town -- retired couples in their fifties -- that most of the menus were in English with high prices to match. Here's a picture of
a sign that greets you at the entrance of town. It says, "Lots, Homes, Rentals, Farms". Buy now!
The next morning we woke up very early and went whitewater rafting. It was a small group: one other tourist and two guides. The river we ran is called the Chiriqui Viejo and
it runs along the border with Costa Rica. Plenty of class 3 rapids even though it was the dry season. We stopped for lunch at the base of a
beautiful waterfall.
We went to another mountain town called Cerro Punto hoping to see the Quetzal bird. And we did! It was a female Quetzal. Here's an extremely blurry picture of it next to a
picture we did not take.
Then we rented a car so that we could go beach-hopping along the Pacific on the way back to Panama city.
Just to round out our experience, we drove through Panama City to the Caribbean side. We were just outside a little town called Portobelo. Just as
the name describes, it is a beautiful port. A little one with the ruins of a fort and that clear aqua-colored water typical of the Caribbean.
Back in Panama City. We drove around enough to realize that many of the people live in desperate conditions. In terms of politics, we left quite confused. The long American
occupation has left a very complicated legacy.
To be sure, Panama is a place of astonishing beauty and the people were always welcoming. Magreen and I will always cherish our time there.
Here's a blurry picture taken from the Bridge of the Americas of little boats waiting in line for passage through the canal.
