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Published: April 27th 2010
Arboles Cuadrados
El Valle de AntonEl Valle
Feeling the heat of Panama City we decided that we needed a spell in the cool airs of a mountain town, and the closest one to us that looked appealing was El Valle de Anton, more often referred to simply as El Valle. It is situated within a huge crater of a volcano that blew itself apart 3 million years ago. It is quite spectacular to look up and around you when in the town and imagine it as a volcano all that time ago. After a brief unintentional detour to Anton, which luckily for us isn't too far out of the way of El Valle de Anton (two completely different towns, as we now know), we were in the refreshingly cool climes of 1000 metres altitude.
We stayed a little way out of town (it's more of a village really, and everything is very spread out) - about 30 minutes walk away at a place called Cabañas Potosí. We spent a little more than we would normally do, but had a huge cabin all to ourselves in large grounds surrounded by country and forest near a river, where many types of birds would come and visit
the trees. While here we visited the town's famous Arboles Cuadrados (square trees) which certainly did have four less than rounded edges, but the main appeal was the short jungle trek to get to them which started after passing through the grounds of an eeriely empty hotel reminiscent of the hotel from The Shining.
Here we also visited a place called El Nispero. El Valle is known for its golden frogs, and this is meant to be the place to see them, the work taken out of it for you as they are housed in an indoor setting. However the many different animals and reptiles in cages barely big enough for them to turn around in was just too horrible to witness, so we left pretty soon after entering. The golden frog enclosure closes on Tuesdays, so we didn't see them either. Our very out of date Lonely Planet guidebook raved about this place, but when we found a more recent one in a hostel a few days later, it warned against visiting due to the animals in cages... one of the many cons of having an out of date guidebook (the others including many hours of walking around
trying to find places that no longer exist!). Sarah asked for our money back but they weren't having any of it. Conveniently the guy didn't understand any of her Spanish, although he had done previously!
We hired bikes and cycled up to Chorro El Macho, which we had heard was a beautiful tall waterfall with a natural pool to swim in below. At the entrance we paid our fee, were given walking sticks, then proceeded to walk the entire boardwalked circuit in around 10 minutes (perhaps the sticks were a joke). The waterfall was pretty, but there was nowhere to swim. I asked the chap at the entrance, and he pointed to the board behind him and explained that this was a seperate attraction, with a separate entrance fee, 10 metres down the road. I imagine this confusion must happen a lot, or perhaps he took pity on us, but he very kindly let us go to this pool for free. It is a person-made pool in amidst the jungle, fed by the river, so constantly being replenished. It was chilly but really refreshing and wonderful to float around in gazing at the trees all around.
One particular
part of the volcanic rim looks a lot like a lady sleeping, and thus it is called 'La India Dormida' (as it supposedly looks like a sleeping indigenous girl - judge for yourself by the picture). It is apparently a beautiful hike up to this ridge, but each day that we were there we were advised against this as the wind was too strong.
Santa Fe
Next up was Santa Fe, sited at a similar altitude, drawing it's few tourists in for similar reasons - a refreshingly cool(er) climate, beautiful hikes through the surrounding countryside and a small less-touristed Panamanian town to mingle with the locals. (However the only local that we really got to know was an odd chap who would interrupt the conversation every few minutes by asking me every couple of minutes what my name was, and upon it being revealed as Benjamin he would be ecstatically happy. He had a habit of firmly keeping hold of Sarah's arm the whole time that we would stop to talk with him. We also met his mother. They were very friendly, just a little bit crazy.)
Here we stayed at a beautiful hostel called La Quia,
run by an Argentinian chap and a Swiss lady. It was all wooden, set up on a hill looking out onto their colourful and well kept garden and the surrounding hills and forest. We stayed here for three nights, but could have stayed a lot longer. We would start the day with a big breakfast of coffee, juice, yoghurt, fruit and pancakes, before setting out on one of the hikes that the owners have described in step by step summaries complete with hand drawn maps to guide you through the surrounding countryside.
The first we did took us up and down some incredibly steep hills, past a few very small villages of small wooden houses with children playing outside before passing through some semi-jungle semi-agricultural land and then down next to a strong river in a dark ravine. Here we negotiated our way over some incredibly slippery rocks and through thigh-deep fast flowing streams to a small but deep dark pool carved out of the rock that is fed by a corner of one waterfall. This for some reason has a tree trunk straddled across it that constantly shakes from the force of the waterfall. Here we jumped in
to the water and cooled off after the hike. The return leg took us through some more small villages, over another river and up some more incredibly steep hills before returning to Santa Fe. The next day we did a slightly shorter hike through similar terrain to another river and a small swimming spot with a small waterfall that was a beautiful place to while away the day. For a portion of this walk we were followed by a horse.
The Lost and Found
by Sarah We'd been panicking for a few days as this weekend was the Semana Santa holiday (Easter) where Latin Americans take advantage of their well earned break to head off on holiday, thus no accommodation to be found! Luckily we found out about a place called Lost and Found, a lodge in the cloud forest about an hour from David, Panamas second biggest city. Not many Panamanian holidaying families had discovered it yet, as it was well and truly geared to backpackers, which is what we are! The journey involved keeping an eye out for 3 yellow rocks by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, then making sure the bus
stopped, before a very steep climb up the hillside.
The lodge is in an amazing setting, with a view over the cloud forest to Volcan Baru, Panama's highest peak. There were frequent visits by green, blue and vivid purple hummingbirds, squirrels, kinkajous and loads of bugs (including gold beetles and glowing beetles!), butterflies and huge moths. One of the animal highlights was Rocky the kinkajou who had been rescued from a life in a box when he was a little'un. As attempts to reintroduce him to the wild failed, he is now a permanent resident at the lodge. When he woke up at night we visited him in his enclosure and played with him as he tried to nibble at our noses (with a particular fascination for combing my hair and attempting to steal my glasses!). He is quite possibly one of the cutest things I've seen!
As the lodge is so remote you can buy all the food you need there, or pay for dinner cooked by the volunteers. As we were staying over Easter, an Easter dinner was made on Sunday with roast turkey, gravy, and all the trimmings (with a slight Panamanian twist). It was
so good and will keep my cravings for roast dinner ticking over for a little while! Every night there was a table football tournament. The first night both mine and Ben's teams lost so we had to buy the winners beer. Needless to say we didn't participate again - we couldn't afford the beers! The first night we had a poker game that continued well into the night and involved me having to drink 2 or possibly 3 big shots of rum, which for me at the moment is enough to send me somewhat doolally. It worked however, and I came second and Ben came third, so I bought home the vegetarian style bacon ($10 anyway😊).
Our first full day we joined up with a couple from the Isle of Man and another couple from Scotland (although funnily enough the guy was born in the Isle of Man) and attempted the Lost and Found treasure hunt. This involved solving riddles and searching for clues hidden in the forest in black plastic tubes, and was a fun way to do a trek. We got to swim in the river, hunt for caves, and climb through massive trees, with a bottle
The View
From The Lost and Found of wine as a prize at the end. Although between 6 the wine didn't go far!
The next day we visited a farm owned by Don Cune, an experimental farmer who, amid much mocking and ridicule from his neighbours, decided to change his farming methods and go organic. He grew coffee, fruit, sugarcane, and every useful herb and vegetable you could imagine. We tried some fruit wine and coffee and had a tour around the property, helped out by a volunteer from Lost and Found who did the translating for us. We've turned very lazy with our Spanish! We helped make some fresh lemonade by crushing sugarcane and mixing it with water and fresh lemons, and then had some lunch at the farmhouse. It was very interesting (particularly for us) and really inspiring to see someone doing really well by farming organically. It was especially eye opening to hear Don Cune talk about his neighbours, who although they call him crazy, won't eat any of the food that they grow themselves!
Bocas del Toro
After a week and a half in the comfortable climates of 1000 metres altitude, mas o menos, it was time to revisit
Don Cune's Organic Farm
Near The Lost and Found the sweaty humid lowlands. Bocas del Toro (which translates as 'mouths of the bull', a name given in honour of the great number of rivers that enter the sea here) is an archipelago of six islands, some of which are inhabited to a much greater extent than others (particularly by Americans), and numerous other islets.
We spent one night at Bocas town on the main island, Isla Colón, at a nice place situated right on the water called Casa Verde. It's main problem though is the very thin wooden walls, which are especially problematic when you have a group of young North Americans going a bit nuts in the next room.
The next day we caught a boat over to the small town of Old Bank on Isla Bastimentos. It was absolutely pouring with rain and we got completely soaked. The town is a lot less touristy, with massively less expats living there compared to Bocas town. It is quite run down and dilapidated but it has a lot of character. It has no roads, solely a concrete path that runs along the town in front of the water. Here we stayed two nights at a great place
called Beverley's Hill, run by an English guy from Brighton and his Colombian wife. The garden was full of poison arrow frogs, and their daughter Naomi was an expert in locating them for us to photograph. They also had a huge but very mild mannered dog. Here we met and chatted with a nice guy who lives in Costa Rica, originally from the USA, who writes occasionally for High Times magazine and spent a short while in a British Carribbean prison for smuggling marijuana.
On one of our days here we hiked across the very very muddy cross-island path to Wizard Beach, a big beautiful semi-wild beach. Then we followed the trail round the coast to another beach, through some jungle (spotting many more poison dart frogs, including one that was yellow. Apparently they have enough venom to kill three people.) and out to the island's main draw, Red Frog Beach. There were perhaps 20 people here, and a small bar. We treated ourselves to a green coconut each and a shared packet of crisps and had a bit of a swim in the choppy waters. We then took a boat taxi back to Old Bank, passing through a
The View
From The Lost and Found huge lagoon and past lots of mangroves.
We had wanted to volunteer with a sea turtle conservation project on the island, but as the volunteering schedule started on a Thursday, and it was a Thursday, we had to wait another week to begin. Therefore we decided to nip back across to the Pacific side of the country once again to visit the highland coffee producing town of Boquete.
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Ali mccabe
non-member comment
Sh*tting heck that river looks stunning. I hope you guys are having a great time. I think I've just got over my fear of flying so I kinda have a travelling bug too. Have fun you crazy cats......and get a proper job too xx