I wrote most of this on Saturday afternoon from our hotel room in El Valle De Anton, up in the mountains of Panama, about 2 hours from Panama City.
Last Tuesday and Wednesday were spent at our fish camp, researching other regions of Panama, using both the Internet, and Frommer’s Panama Travel Guide, which is always a valuable tool. We decided to drive east toward Panama City, and down the Azuero Peninsula, through Chitre, Los Tablas, and Pedasi, ending up in Los Destiladeros. We left early Thursday morning, packed a cooler full of cold drinks, along with Maria cookies and apples, and headed out. I have a great map of Panama, which is actually pretty hard to find, and it led us in the right direction, past some pretty scenic vistas with mountains in the distance, until our long awaited right turn into the Azuero region. The scenery quickly changed to flatter farming towns with lots of cows, horses, and crops. Most towns were pretty and clean, and many people waved, which always makes me feel so good. Carnival started on Friday, so many towns were setting up getting ready for the fun. Festivities run the spectrum from family, folkloric traditions, to rowdy drunks and dancing girls, who like tips. Prostitution is legal in this country, usually called dancing, and the going rate is $20, as you see I’m not afraid to ask specific questions. Many of the dancing girls are young teenagers, which makes me sad. Their childhood sure is different than the one I remember.
Back to Carnival. Los Tablas is a beautiful old Panamanian town about halfway down the Western Azuero coastline. It’s situated on the Gulfo de Panama, across the Gulf from Panama City. Between the two cities is the Pearl Islands, where one of the Survivor season’s was filmed. Los Tablas is beautiful, the town was full of people getting ready for Carnival. Here are a few pics of the street scenery.
We instantly loved the town, and wanted to stay and explore, but we had “miles to go before we sleep” so we reluctantly continued on our trip South to Pedasi. We stopped at a great restaurant, which was a huge thatched ranchero, and had a great lunch of corbina seviche and chicken tacos, and of course just a few cold Balboa beers. They even had wi-fi, this is still so amazing to me here is a third world country. Then we continued on our way.
As much as I don’t like to be constantly comparing one town to another, Pedasi reminds me of Harbor Island in the Bahamas. It’s full of colorful houses, clean streets, and friendy people. There’s a lot to do there from diving to surfing to fishing, plus I bet a whole lot more. Just like before, we really wanted to stay and hang out, but our hotel, Villa Romana was another 10 km away, so we continued. The directions we were given read like this “continue through Pedasi for 2 km, that take a right on a dirt road and go another 7 km to the hotel. Randy asked “Is there a sign we can look for?” and of course the answer is no. We did take the right, went 7 km, and what do you know there was the hotel! It’s a converted private home high on a bluff in the planned development community of AZUERO. There are maybe 6 rooms, all private, although there is construction going on so that was kind of a bummer. They tried to put us in a room right next to the work going on, and we said “no bueno” so they moved us to a great room, although we later found out it had no hot water. There was a French guy running the place, names Stephan, and he cooked us a great meal of garlic shrimp, couscous and sautéed eggplant, plus some kind of brownie pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert. Here are some pics of the property and the views from the terrace outside our room. We met some nice people, some Europeans plus some Americans from Colorado. There was a great Panamanian couple there that we shared a few laughs with, although we didn’t actually speak much, she was a very elegant woman, and her husband was very nice but kind of stiff, I’m guessing he is a politician. Here are some pics of the hotel and the views.
View from the pool
The porch directly outside our room, we brought our cooler inside with us, which was good because we had no electricity for the first two hours.
Hey Jack, this is Randy talking to you on the phone on February 12th...
View from inside our room,; we were up with the sun.
The next morning we just had coffee and booked out of there pretty fast, so we could explore more of the town and check out a bakery that Frommer’s also listed. They served these great pound cakes that aren’t too sweet but very light and full of flavor, a great breakfast for a road trip. We drove around, found a few other hotels that we’ll try on our next visit, when we’ll stay for several days. Then it was back North for us, as fast as we could go, since Carnival was starting and we were warned that the roads would be crazy. That was no lie. I think we were stopped at either 6 or 7 roadblocks, where they made Randy show both his drivers license and passport, and once even made us pull over while they checked us out. Thank God they didn’t ask for our car registration, which we now have registered in Panama, although I don’t think we had the proper documentation with us. We’re supposed to keep some Panamanian book of driving rules in our car at all times, and we still can’t find one to buy. Another example of this crazy country. Crazy!
OK, I know I’m getting redundant here, but once we left the Azuero and headed to El Valle de Anton, it was time for lunch, and Frommers lead us to another great spot, and it was even another Ranchero, on the Panamerican Highway. The US Ambassador to Panama eats there a lot, but I don’t think he was there that day. Someone did actually leave their cat in their car, and it was like 90+ degrees, so that really made me mad, although the windows were cracked. Meow! For lunch we both had fried whole pargo, which was just delicious, and here’s what it looked like.
We also tried their seviche, this side trip is quickly becoming 2010-tour-de-muy-bueno-seviche. And on we went.
Finally, at like 3:00, it was time to take a left and get off the crazy Panamerican highway, thank God. The road to El Valle is 18 km of twists and turns, and with those 18 kms I watched the outside temp go from 94 to 80, in less than an hour. El Valle is just beautiful. It’s filled with many flowers, gorgeous second homes belonging to the rich and famous of Panama City, a great outdoor market, and friendly people. Our hotel, Los Madarinos is way too fancy, and we have a dud room with no view, but I booked it really late and it is Carnival, so I guess that’s what I get.
This morning after breakfast we went down into the town and explored. The artisanal market has some indigenious Embera Indians, and they make molas, jewelry and baskets, and also a lot of embroidered shirts. We bought a huge basket from this guy for $6, and another one the next day for $4, to put our vegetables in, avoiding a dozen plastic bags.
You’re supposed to talk these vendors down to a better price, but sometimes I don’t, especially in a situation like this, since I’m already getting such a great value. These folks are trying to make a living, and keeping more money in my fat pocket while I walk away from someone who doesn’t have indoor plumbing is not a good feeling. He was so nice, and so proud of his work, which was beautiful.
They also sell lots of plants, flowers, and vegetables at this market, so tomorrow morning before we head back to Boca Chica, we’re going back to the market to buy some flowering plants to put at the fish camp, and some fresh vegetables.
After we left the market we drove around the town with the windows down, breathing in the smells of the area. As we drove by kids, we'd have to quickly roll up the windows, because it's a Carnival tradition for kids to hose down your car as you pass, check it out...
There’s a famous restaurant here at our hotel called La Casa De Lourdes, run by a woman named Lourdes Ward who studied under both Paul Prudhomme and Martha Stewart, and the food is great. We ate there on Friday night. The food was off the scale delicious. I had a vegetable-manchego tart for an app, which tasted a lot (well kind of...) like my tomato pie, and salmon with a savory sauce for my entrée. Randy had perfectly seared scallops and a special pork chop, and everything was awesome. We were so spellbound by this place we kept tasting each others food. The tables are all outside in the open, and it continued to get colder as we ate, so by the time we finished our meal we were freezing. I really wanted to try the crème brulee bread pudding, so we actually asked for it to go and ate it in our room, which was way warmer and also less breezy. It was so hard to decide what to order, so many choices, so tonight (Saturday) we’re eating there again, I know that is really lame, but our car lights are still on the blink and only beam brights, plus downtown is supposed to get pretty crazy after dark, so we’re playing it safe and staying here. Right now we’re trying to figure out how to dress warmer with a duffle full of hot weather clothes, although I do have a pair of jeans, and several peeps had jeans on last night.
Sunday morning we woke at dawn, checked out before 7, and headed back to the city market to buy a huge basket of fruits and vegetables, and a lot of plants to take back to Boca Chica and plant. Randy bought me a gardenia for Valentines Day, I can’t wait for it to blossom, the smell of a freshly cut gardenia makes me smile. We wanted to hit the road early to avoid a lot more roadblocks and it worked, we only hit 3 in our 6 hour trip. We were back in the pool at the fish camp by 2:00 pm, and it felt strange, but felt like home.
The rest of the week will be spent with me working remotely, when not doing laundry, making lunch, or swimming. I’ve processed several orders in the last two days, and have more big ones to do after I post this entry. I’ll be ready to get back to SC by next week, I miss my friends, my cat, and my feather bed, in order of importance!
Adios amigos!
