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Published: March 30th 2010
We left Belen Trailer Park on Wednesday, March 24th and headed south to Panama with just Rambo because we knew Furgie could not stand the heat with her thick fur coat. We plan to stay in air conditioned hotels for the next week or so.
John and Johnette traveled with us as far south as the Oso Peninsula. They too will be hoteling it for a few days. Costa Rica’s Oso Peninsula has been called the most biodiverse place in the world. I’m not sure what that means and I can’t wait to hear about their experiences.
The drive south on CA-2 was spectacular for at least the first half of the journey. We reached altitudes of about 11,000 feet and the temperature dropped to 54 degrees. I had dreaded the trip because we’d heard that the route was called “dead man’s road” or some such name and the map portrayed it as being extremely curvy. The road turned out to be adequately wide with few hair pin curves and no steep drop offs that I noticed. We had the inside/mountain side most of the way. There wasn’t much traffic and there were very few large trucks. We occasionally
had views of the valleys below but often those valleys were filled with clouds.
The mountains were covered with plants. The variety of foliage was amazing - big leaf plants, tree ferns, vines and plants like we see for sale in nurseries at home. It was interesting how the vegetation changed at different altitudes from tropical to almost alpine.
We wound up at the Panamanian border at 5:30 p.m. but did not want to cross at night. A filthy Rastafarian looking gringo adopted us and led us to a couple decent looking but sold out hotels before we reluctantly settled in at the Hotel Real Victoria in Paso Canoas which is listed in Lonely Planet as having clean cool rooms. Clean is subjective. The shower and tile floors were clean but the windowless walls were not. Our $30.00 room rate did not include towels, soap or even toilet paper. Thankfully, we had brought those supplies along. The room did have a small air conditioner and Cable TV if you can count CNN Live with its repetitive programming as cable. We had a pretty good pizza across the street.
We crossed into Panama about 7:30 a.m. Thursday, March
25th. The crossing took less than three hours. Furgie’s immigration took up almost two hours of that time but Furgie only cost us $16.00 total ($1.00 here, $5.00 here, $10.00 there). We were much relieved. We had been advised that we’d be required to pay $130.00 to self quarantine her. Though time consuming, the experience was not at all unpleasant. Furgie was examined by a Panamanian veterinarian. As usual, Furgie acted very ladylike and was a big hit. They were impressed when we told them that she is nearly dieciocho (18 in April). Everybody asked if she was an angora, and como se llama (what is your/her name?)
There was a one dollar charge to bring Rambo into the country and we were required to purchase Panamanian insurance for $15.00.
We filled out the usual customs forms but we were not required to obtain tourist cards so our immigration was free. (We had been recently told by the Panamanian embassy that we’d be charged a very steep entry fee plus the fee to self quarantine Furgie. None of this happened.)
Panama uses the American dollar. Diesel is selling for $2.75 a gallon. Shell and Texaco are the
most common stations. Everything seems to be a lot cheaper here than in Costa Rica.
The highway south from the border to David (pronounced Da veed) the first major city was divided and excellent. In fact, the road was so good we missed our exit to Boquete entirely and had to back track about twenty miles.
Panama is S-shaped. At the most southern point we dipped to nearly eight degrees north latitude. No wonder it is hot. For a while Rambo’s thermometer registered 102.
Along the roadway we passed several people selling green parrots. They held these little birds perched on sticks out to passing motorists. These poor little guys could have easily fallen off and been run over. Not sure who they hope to sell the birdies too. Many Latin American businesses do have at least one talking parrot but it is supposedly out of the question for an American to bring one home.
We also passed under a monkey crossing. Signs were posted prior to the crossing. The actual monkey crossing consisted of a narrow green mesh strip about twenty feet above the highway. We might not had known what we were seeing had
Johnette not told us about seeing them in Costa Rica.
Boquete, with its high altitude and cool temperatures, is a popular get-a-way destination for North American expatriates and retirees. The gringo invasion began in 2001 after an article appeared in AARP’s Modern Maturity magazine ranking the village as the fourth best place in the world to retire. Somebody told us that it is now number one.
In order to grow their economy and replace the revenue lost by America’s canal zone pull-out, Panama now offers amazing incentives to foreigners who buy property and settle in Panama. Locals carry cards that entitle them to twenty-five percent discounts off almost everything. Merchants are then reimbursed by the government.
We stayed at Hostel Boquete on Thursday night. It is a small friendly place overlooking he river. Ray was fascinated by the river rock removal taking place below our room.
Our landlord, David moved to Central America from Indiana six years ago. He told us that his father had worked all of his life and then died just two years after retirement. He wanted something else out of life. He first settled in San Jose, Costa Rica and bought a
bar. After two other bar owners were gunned down by drug crazed morons intending to rob them as they were locking up after closing time, David sold his bar and moved to Boquete where he took over the hostel four years ago. The guy who bought David’s bar was later stabbed and shot. The guy survived but sold the bar to somebody else.
Although Boquete's population is over 5000, everybody seems to know everybody else. We met and chatted with Frank when he stopped by to visit with David.
We later we ran into Frank and his lovely wife Joyce. We had dinner together at a French restaurant. Frank and Joyce live in Florida most of the year but several years ago they purchased and renovated one of the former officer homes in the Balboa district that the military left behind when the canal was turned over to the Panamanians.
We also visited with Scott and Clair. They are a retired navy couple and have lived all over the world. Scott and Clair came here five years ago for a visit. She fell in love with the place and declared that this is where she was going
Once in a life time appetizer.
My foie gras only cost $12.00 at the French bistro in Poquete. Actually it was pretty good but nothing special. I’d never pay even $12.00 for the stuff again.to live out her life. Apparently Scott agreed.
We decided to spend another night but needed to move from our digs at Hostel Boquete to the Oasis Bed and Breakfast because David had a tour group coming in.
At the Oasis, we met Don an expatriate living in David where he volunteers with the U.S Embassy. Don tracks down Americans who have not been in contact with their families and blogs for this province at www.chiriquichatter.net/blog. He and his lady friend were in Boquete for the grand reopening of a renovated hotel.
Like many of the folks we’ve met, Don was interested in our travels and asked me to send him our blog address. He says that there are not many people who drive to Central America but quite a few people do ask about it. He hopes our blog will help others who’d like to make this trip.
There are at least a dozen real estate developments in work - gated and otherwise - in Poquete and in the surrounding area. We met two brand new proud happy owners at dinner Thursday night. One couple was from Littleton, Colorado and the other couple had homes
in Florida and Maine. Both couple will live here permanently.
The temperature here is moderate - daytime highs average about 75 and nighttime lows about 55.
We said goodbye to all the friendly folks and headed south east to El Valle. The drive from Poquete to El Valle took about six hours. The road was pretty good. The terrain ranged between sugar cane and pineapple crops to semi-arid land that doesn’t seem to have much value.
The village of El Valle is nestled in the crater of an extinct volcano that last blew its top about three million years ago. The now inhabited volcanic crater is huge and lush with vegetation. There are many luxury homes on large lots. The volcanic rim is visible from every direction but one of the most striking views is that of the sleeping Indian maiden visible from Hotel Campestre.
There is a thicket of square trees growing in a tropical forest about a mile behind Hotel Campestre. This is supposedly the only place in the world where these trees grow. Clearly, they are square and their branches are not round either. I’m not sure our photos will do justice to
this phenomenon. More info can be found at http://www.trivia-library.com/a/square-trees-near-the-panama-canal.htm.
We were glad to be in El Valle for its Sunday market. Produce wise, it was not of much interest to us because we will be moteling it for at least another week but we enjoyed seeing the local crafts many of which had an emphasis on the golden frogs for which this place is famous. However, it seems that the only place these cute little fellows can be seen is at the local zoo because they are becoming extinct.
Frank and Joyce had recommended Los Capitanes as a nice place to stay. We could not have been happier with their recommendation. Our landlord, Manfred Koch at Los Capitanes is a retired German Merchant Marine Capitan. He recounted sea stories including being iced-in for six months in the Antarctic. In addition to his beautiful property here he is building an ecolodge nearby which sounds like lots of fun. You may visit his web site www.los-capitanes.com.
Sunday, we left the cool mountain climate and headed to the Pacific coast. We are settled in at XS Memories RV Park and Motel at Playa Santa Clara. We are staying in the
motel. Our hosts are Dennis and Sheila. They moved here from Las Vegas fifteen years ago. The RV park has the usual amenities. All of the caravans stay here.
Our air conditioned room is comfortable. moderately priced and we have wi-fi. The park has a nice bar, restaurant and pool. The food is well prepared and prices are reasonable. Dennis and Sheila have two Dobermans, four cats and at least a dozen parrots. Their website is www.xsmemories.com. The RV park is on the left hand side of the Panamerican Highway heading south about a mile from Playa Santa Clara. GPS coordinates are near N8:23.253 W80:6.600. Day time temperatures have been in the nineties.
Playa Santa Clara has a beautiful white sand beach. It is considered to be one of the best beaches in Panama. They were doing a photo shoot with three pretty girls and one pretty but wimpy looking guy while we were there.
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Cindy & Giorgio
non-member comment
Glad you made it Panama
Hi guys! It is nice to see that you are in Panama! Hope you are having fun and find it worth the trip. Can't wait to see your pictures when you get to the end of the road. Right now we are in El Salvador, heading north back to Mexico. Take care!