A bus trip
We decided to take a break from the heat of Panama City so we’ve been spending a few days in El Valle, a town up in the hills a few hours away. Up in the hills the weather is cooler, a positive change of climate for us.
We caught a bus at the terminal, a mall and transportation hub with a confusion of buses. $4.50 for a ticket. That’s less than the cab ride to the terminal.
When the bus was full we left, first across the Panama Canal bridge, then along the coast and finally, up into the mountains and down into a crater.
Along the way, we saw many “bedroom communities” of Panama City, small concrete houses with red roofs on small lots with flowers and gardens. The places are trim and colourful and well-kept and one gets the impression that Panama has a substantial emerging middle class. The living conditions out here are not grim, not like the grimy apartment buildings you see in downtown Panama City.
One also sees a lot of marketing targeting foreigners. We passed numerous complexes advertised as retirement communities, some of them billed as “oceanside” but actually located right beside the freeway, with no ocean in view. If we can have “island lakes” in St Vital, why not oceanside communities by the freeway in Panama. Not far from these oceanside neighbourhoods are highrise condos and large malls with American style outlet stores. Northern retirees are big business in Panama.
When the bus leaves the coastal road to go up into the hills, the air gets cooler and the trip gets exciting. The bus keeps adding passengers, whole families who stand in the aisle. The driver appears to enjoy this part of the trip the most of all, speeding up to careen through the winding curves and braking heavily when approaching stops.
Down in El Valle
El Valle is a well-kept sleepy little town that, Angie says, reminds her of Yarrow BC. The town is situated in the crater of an extinct volcano, and is surrounded by green forested hills. The air is warm, but mornings and evenings are cool and breezy. Wealthy panamanians have weekend estates here.
We’re staying in the Villa Sarahlouna in a sweet little bungalow. The place is run by a Frenchman who also spends evenings making pizzas across the road “because times are hard right now.”
So here are some highlights of our time in El Valle.
La India Dormida
Yesterday morning we got up at six to climb la India Dormida (the sleeping Indian, you can see her in the photo above). It started with a climb up an eroded streambed that was steeper than we had anticipated. Despite our appearance, we were actually happy to do it, especially in the cool morning air.
There were many trails to follow and the way was often not very clear, but we met others on the trail, gardeners and people carrying cargo with tumplines, and they always assured us we were on the right path. Up near the top we passed through lush vegetable and flower gardens, then suddenly we rose out of the trees and the wind blasted and swirled about us.
The wind was so strong that at one point a gust lifted the sunglasses off the top of my head and carried them about 4 metres before dropping them on a rock at the edge of a cliff. I was lucky to retrieve them. The descent was much rapider than the climb but it was also tiring. We headed back to our bungalow for breakfast.
Walter and Angie go to the spa
In the afternoon we went to the local “thermal springs” for a little “selfcare”. We started by smearing a little “mineral mud” on our faces, black for sensitive skin and white for the other kind.
Then, after washing off the mud, we took the thermal waters. They weren’t overly “thermal”, but definitely high in mineral content and very relaxing.
Butterfly prison
Another interesting item was a visit to a butterfly “reserve”. It’s a facility owned by an American lepidopterist, who has built a sort of ventilated greenhouse with plants to form a butterfly habitat and then has twenty two species of butterflies native to Panama living there, in a benign captivity.
The lepidopterist himself gave us a short tour and introduced to each one of the species in the reserve. Then we were handed off to an enthusiastic but not very knowledgeable employee for instruction. We looked at some displays and watched a video. Here are some pictures I took. I’ve forgotten species names and details so I won’t try to label them.
Other Highlights
wind (no photo)