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Published: October 20th 2017
Casa Mariposa - El Valle
We get to meet some Sloths ...., generally called
El Valle, or Anton's Valley in English, is a small town in the mountains of Panama with about 8000 residents and located in the central province of
Coclé.
Three million years ago a large volcano in the area erupted with such a massive force that it blew off its entire top - creating a crater, nearly four miles across - one of the largest in the Americas ... ...
Over the years the crater gradually filled with rainwater creating a massive lake and much later in time, through erosion a large breach opened and the entire lake drained out.
The resulting flood created an extensive network of rivers which attracted wildlife and indigenous people into to the region and the valley was born. So now, El Valle sits in a unique valley in the caldera of that extinct volcano, at an elevation of approximately 650 metres and is ringed by verdant forest and jagged peaks - a magical place indeed ... ...
With an extensive network of walking
trails that work their way into the base of the surrounding foothills of the old volcano it is now an excellent birding location so we just had to come and visit this diverse region whilst we were travelling around Panama. We decided against an hotel or B&B this time but to rent an apartment so that we could look after ourselves - we were getting a little fed up with just a bedroom/bathroom and expensive restaurant meals. Having travelled for so long on our Central American journey, it was now time to have some more space to ourselves but before then … ….
ANOTHER DISASTROUS JOURNEY It could only happen to us and happen it did, twice so far on our Central American adventure. We left Gamboa near the Panama Canal with our driver, Lorenzo heading further into the heart of Panama on what we thought would be an hour and half journey … …
We were actually only 20 km from our destination when we came across a blocked road which was the only main route into El Valle. Ahead of us were a few cars
Local Map
We hiked every day and covered most of the routes up into the foothills ... but we could see these massive thick electricity cables hanging right across the road. Police and various other emergency services were there and we realised pretty quickly that we would not be going any further on this road today …. …
Lorenzo, our driver who we could only communicate with in a little basic Spanish did a U-turn and made a telephone call. On hearing the Spanish conversation, taking place, we think to Canopy Lodge which is located in El Valle near our next accommodation and with whom he was employed by we realised it was not going to be that straightforward a journey ... ..... Lorenzo started to speed back along the main road which we had just come along - he obviously had a plan … … and we just had to go along with that .... ...
After about 15 minutes we turned off the main highway and headed along a straight road for a while but it was not long before we were navigating impossibly steep and winding roads into the hills. Déjà vu - came to mind, when you go through a moment in life and you
feel like you' ve done it before - more than once for us though!. Lorenzo kept trying to make phone calls but could not get a signal to find out the correct route we assumed. Luckily for us, unlike our last experience of getting lost in the mountains of Guanacaste in Costa Rica the area was more inhabited and he stopped several times to ask the way - he also had a 4WD vehicle which was really useful on these small mountain roads.
We continued on for a while and then came to a bridge over a fast flowering river. A large truck with an indigenous family group complete with a medley of vegetables they were obviously taking to market had broken down on the bridge. The large family aged from about 90 to 2 were stood in the river washing their goods to try and keep them cool I]we assumed in the heat - the veggies looked liked spring onions but not really sure what they were. They waved us on and we managed to just squeeze past their vehicle with us all breathing in of course! They also gave us hand signal directions
so we continued on and after another uphill climb we finally arrived at a better road. Which we assumed was the one we would have been on if the road had not been closed by the downed power lines - so we had reached the destination we should have been on a couple of hours ago … …
Lorenzo had to make a very very sharp right turn to get onto the road but he managed a 10 point turn and we felt as though we were getting somewhere at last. We drove along the ridge of what looked like the crater rim with rolling hills on both sides for a while before descending into the
Valley of Anton. Nestled on the valley floor, flanked by the steep walls of the caldera was our destination at last. After four bone shaking hours instead of one and half we had arrived - but hey that’s what travelling is all about,
or are we getting too old for this malarkey …. … ARRIVING IN EL VALLE Just a few minutes later and Lorenzo pulled into the
gates of
Casa Mariposa and we were met by the owners Ursula and Harry. Ursula was from Switzerland whilst her husband Harry was Columbian but they had settled in Panama ten years ago and were now the proud owners of this little retreat in the valley quite close to the centre of the town.
Ursula showed us around our apartment which had so much space with separate living and dining area, bedroom, bathroom and an an open courtyard terrace with hammocks and flowering plants. The courtyard had been painted with large murals and we just loved the one of a waterfall with a sloth hanging in a tree and another one with local exotic birds painted over a ‘fireplace’.
At the front of the apartment there was a metal spiral staircase leading up onto a roof terrace which had 360 degree views all around of the jagged emerald peaks of the lips of the volcano which were covered in lush vegetation, the setting was purely idyllic. This terrace was decked out with several ‘rooms’ with cosy chairs, tables and hammocks. Such wonderful views of the mountains with cool names like India Dormida,
Caraiguana and the Gaital all around us - we knew we were going to love it here.
Ursula & Harry had a delightful tropical garden full of trees, bushes and shrubs and exotic flowering plants, they even had a small stream meandering through their grounds. Their large black labrador called
Snoopy soon got to know us and would wait outside our room to welcome us each morning and when we came back from our hikes. It was nice to have a friendly dog after all the bad dog experiences we have had - they do love dogs in Central America but must learn how to control them and not let them run riot around the neighbourhoods. Sadly whilst we were there we found one dead in a ditch outside which had probably been run over - Harry & Ursula spent ages digging a hole and burying the animal. Ursula said that many of the female dogs had been spayed but their owners kept getting new puppies and not following up the procedures, perpetuating the on-going problem. Not the only place in the world that had these issues as we had documented in previous blogs on
our travels.
We soon settled in to our new apartment, athough our arrival coincided with a power cut and not being able to see clearly around the strange apartment, probably from the lines we had seen strewn across the road at the intersection with the main road. We managed to find a shop nearby for supplies and that evening we had a 'romantic dinner' with the glow of candle light on our first night in the valley. Luckily the power was reconnected sometime during the night as we awoke in the morning to the sound of the fridge starting up thank goodness - Harry said it could be out for hours or days you just never knew and you could not just phone up and find out when it was going to be reinstalled as as we could do in the UK - you just 'go with the flow' ... ...
A BEAUTIFUL SANCTUARY FOR SLOTHS What was really 'unique' about our hosts and the accommodation and what we had never experience before or would be likely to experience in the future was that Ursula and Harry also had
a family of
Sloths living with them in their house right next door to our apartment . … ……
Ursula explained how it all started, they loved animals and enjoyed assisting their rescue when necessary. Locals would bring them injured and ill animals to care for and although a gigantic responsibility it gave them great pleasure and satisfaction. That is how they finally ended up with
Samie (female) & Dahabie (male), a couple of
Three-toed orphaned Sloths which came to them when they were only a few weeks old. As indicated by its name, the three-toed sloth has claws on three of its toes on each of its four limbs. Whilst a Two-toed Sloth has only two toes on in front limbs but surprisingly enough does have three on its back - so it can be a little confusing.
Because they were so young, Samie & Dahabie were unable to fend for themselves or survive in the wild as they had not learned any skills from their parents so they ended up living with them in their home. The Sloths have now adapted to people so will not ever be able to
roam free but that being said they had ‘free reign’ of Ursula and Harry’s home and lived as part of the family with Snoopy their pet dog - I think the animals ruled the roost here…… The sloths have their own canopy ropes and giant branches that access all areas of their home and they can wander between all the rooms apart from the kitchen that is. Snoopy the dog lives contently with them at ground level and Samie even walks like a dog rather than a sloth having imitated him when she was younger with no other parent to copy.
In January this year Ursula noticed that
Samie was behaving strangely and realised that she was about to give birth. They raced around frantically and got towels which they held underneath her to catch the baby but in the end she just got on with it and gave birth hanging on to a branch they had placed in their home and quickly cleaned up her baby girl and herself - nature is amazing.
The baby Sloth which Harry named after his favourite Swiss cookie is called,
Leckerli and she is now
Dahabie - he was a great character
Most people do not like their long claws but they are ever so gentle with you. 8 months.
Leckerli or
Läckerli means ‘delicious’ in German and is a traditional hard spice biscuit originating from Switzerland made of honey, hazelnuts, almonds, candied peel and Kirsch (will have to try these).
Leckerli is now part of the family too and spends time with both her parents even though sloths are usually solitary animals they all seem to enjoy being together as well as with Ursula and Harry.
A mother sloth gives birth to one pup after about 4 months of pregnancy. The baby is born fully furred, eyes open, and generously clawed - basically a miniature adult. The pup clings to its mother’s belly most of the first few months of life and begins to munch on leaves at about 2 months old. A baby sloth usually leaves its mother after a year or so, sometimes just moving a tree or two away, but generally has no contact with her once independent.
Even though they kept the Sloths in their house it was spotless and I wondered how they achieved this but their family of sloths are actually house-trained as well. When they need the ‘loo’ they just move down
on to the ground as they would do in the wild and thus letting them know that they need to go outside. Luckily they do not have to do this very often as Sloths defecate and urinate only about once a week. Ursula was very careful with hygiene though and they probably did not like it but they had their bottom washed just like a baby before they were allowed back inside the house.
You could easily tell
Samie & Dahabie apart as although they are
very similar, you can identify the male by the broad black line and rounded yellow-orange marking on its back, which are absent in the female. The male sloth develops these patches as they reach sexual maturity at approximately 1 - 2 years old. They are always yellow or orange in colour and divided by a central black stripe with additional black markings in a pattern unique to each individual - like a finger print. The type of fur within the patch is completely different in texture to the rest of the sloth’s fur. Interestingly, the patch appears to be covered in an unknown oily secretion and if you touch it,
Dahabie (the male)
Dahabie reached out and put his arm around my neck to be held .... the yellow-orange pigment rubs off!
Sloths sleep a lot between 15 to 20 hours every day and even when awake they often remain motionless.
Samie & Dahabie usually choose the same place to sleep and one of them actually sleeps amongst the books in a tall bookcase - looking just like a bookend!
WE GET TO MEET & HOLD THE SLOTHS When the sloths were not sleeping (which was not often), Ursula would bring them outside or we could visit them in her home next door. They had a favourite tree in the garden and they would put them on this and we were able to feed them whilst they climbed and played around the tree. It was strange watching them reach out for a beautiful red
Hibiscus flower and start chewing - these were a special treat for them but they loved the buds just before they opened even more.
When they had enough of being outside on the trees they would start to walk (upside down of course) across a rope strung across the garden and Ursula knew they wanted to go
back ‘home’. She would gently stand under them and they would put their arms out and hang on to her instead of the tree. She would then carry them back inside where they went fast asleep once more … …
One day when we went inside to see them they were on a large wooden rocking chair one on the top and one at the bottom and it was like they were rocking each other - so cute … … They later climbed down on to the floor and crawled out into the inner courtyard. Dahabie the male headed straight for a crate of beer that was being stored on the floor - typical male heading for the bar first!
I must say that holding hands with a Sloth is the most surreal thing I have ever done, even though their three long, four inch claws look dangerous they are ever so gentle with them. They reach out to touch you and look you straight in the eye and it looks like they are smiling at you. To hold them in your arms was just magical, they would put one arm out around your neck and slowly move the other one and then one leg and then the other one … … They are very light to hold and their fur is actually quite soft although it looks tough and I think I am going to miss them. Ursula said she thinks I will not want to leave them now and I can understand where she is coming from … … I could hide one in my suitcase of course but there is no way a Sloth could live in our cold climes … …
Sloth fur is unusual in that the outer hairs grow in a direction opposite from that of other mammals. In most mammals the hairs grow toward the extremities but because sloths spend so much time with their limbs above their bodies, their hairs grow away from the extremities to provide protection from the elements while they hang upside down which they do most of the time.
RETURNED TO THE WILD Even though their family of three sloths cannot be returned to the wild, Ursula and Harry have released
a huge number of others over the years, nursing them when they are sick, although sadly some have been brought to them with terrible injuries and die like both
Samie and
Dahabie's mothers
. These are kept separate to their ‘sloth family’ so that they do not get used to humans and can be successfully released when they are well enough. They have been inspected and have full approval from the authorities and in fact have had a really good success rate on returning sloths to the rainforests around El Valle. They have no funding though so cannot monitor them when they are released but hear news from locals particularly those that have brought in the injured sloth in the first place. They let them know where they have released them, usually back in the same area where they have been found and they sometimes get reports if they have been seen and how they are doing.
Sloths eat leaves, shoots, and fruit from trees mainly the
Cecropia Tree and get almost
all of their water from juicy plants. This in itself is a real challenge for Ursula and Harry getting enough fresh food for the
Ursula, Dahabie's (dad) and Samie (mum)
Fortunately for sloths, they have extra vertebrae that gives them almost a 360-degree view of their environment, a powerful defense mechanism for one of nature's slowest moving creatures. family as well as the ones they release into the wild. To achieve this we saw Harry go out on his bicycle with a really long pole nearly every day to try and find the right leaves but always returned laden with them. He said sometimes he had to be out for up to three hours but he was happy with doing this - that’s real dedication and love for the animals. Ursula would walk snoopy their dog twice a day and come back with tasty leaves as well. They are really lucky sloths to have such dedicated people and had this chance when the odds were so stacked against them. They told us that many of the local people do not like sloths and are frightened of them and this goes for the children too who can be very cruel when they find them. Locals also chop down the Cecropia trees that the sloths like to eat which is a shame.
Harry & Ursula have been very successful in keeping these sloths alive and happy as its rare to have three-toed sloths in captivity because they have a very small, specific, diet but of course they
head out each and every day to find the right foods for them - that’s true dedication. They also have a local guy who comes in to help them with maintenance and the gardening and we saw him arrive with a bunch of leaves as well for the family of sloths.
Amazingly just 11 years ago a new species of Sloth was found on the small Isla Escudo de Veraguasan island which separated from Panama nearly 9000 years ago. There is not a large amount of information of this species which had been named
Pygmy Three-Toed Sloth as it is the smallest known sloth alive. In addition to being small, the area it inhabits is very small too, no more than two square miles. It is believed that this species of sloth is so much smaller than others due to its isolation from all other populations, which resulted in a divergent evolution. On average these small creatures are under 20 inches and weigh only about six pounds when fully grown - about the size of a human baby at birth!
AROUND THE TOWN On our
first day we set off to explore the town which was a five minute walk from our apartment. There were quite a few local shops, and hotels as well as a variety of restaurants although during the week we did not see many people using them. This all changed at the weekends though and the town became much more alive. El Valle is famous for its Sunday Market that takes place along the town's main Avenida Principal. It's not a grand bazaar but a colourful and lively event that draws vendors, many of whom are Ngobe-Buglé and Emberá Indians from around the area who come to hawk traditional clothing, handicrafts, baskets, ceramics, vegetables, orchids, food items, and much more.
There was a scaled-down version of the market open every day and it was a great place to find fresh local fruit and vegetables - the
pineapples were amongst the best we have ever tasted and so large one would last us for days. Of course there was also the stallholders who sold just hats - Panama hats of course.
PANAMA HAT A panama hat is a traditional
primed hat made from palm. Although originally form Ecuador, the hat became fashionable in Panama during the construction of the Canal when thousand were imported for use by the workers. After American president Theodore Roosevelt donned a panama hat during his historic visit to the canal their iconic status was sealed.
Unlike their Ecuadorian counterparts, which are woven from crown to brim in one piece, this kind is made by a braiding process, using a half inch braid of palm fibre. We were to see many locals wearing them and they are quite common in rural parts of the country however it is not uncommon for political contenders to ‘don’ hats to appear as ‘one of the people’!
LOCAL POPULATION As well as locals and indigenous people living in the town and surrounding areas up into the hillsides of the crater there was also a small community of ex-pats settled in the valley. Thanks to its altitude of approximately 2000 feet above sea level, the temperature usually hovers in the 70s(F), and at night it often dips down into the 60s which was quite refreshing and of course getting
us more acclimatised for our return to the UK. Although there was currently a heat wave in parts of the UK and dreadful storms in other areas due to the affect of Hurricane Ophelia.
As well as the population mentioned above because of it proximity to Panama City and the unique climate it has long been a popular weekend and holiday destination for Panama City's wealthier citizens, and El Valle’s streets are lined with comfortable vacation homes. In fact, one of the streets just off the main street is called Calle de los Millionarios (Millionaires' Row). Some of these houses are huge with massive grounds surrounding them with rivers, lakes and streams meandering through the garden as well.
We never did see many of the ‘residents’ though in these mini mansions but every time you passed by you would hear the loud noise of
large motor strimmers cutting the grass. It was very noisy and extremely hot conditions to work in and Ursula said they did not get paid much just $12. That being said it kept many locals in work though and we often saw them meandering around the town on
their bicycles with a large grass strimmer balanced over their shoulder. Bicycles being the main form of transport for locals and you often saw more than one on a very small cycle. One day when we were high up on one of the rainforest hikes and it was pouring with rain a young couple complete with umbrella were racing down the hillside - how they could see where they were going was beyond us … … Not many people owned cars in the town but used the local buses (small mini buses) that were extremely frequent that took them up into the hillside hamlets. Most of the drivers were careful but there were a couple of routes than you would avoid as these drivers were dreadful. Ursula said that some locals would not get on them and would wait an hour for another one rather than risk their lives with a careless driver. She said they could not say anything as the drivers were very temperamental … …
The ‘town’ bus itself was larger and very colourful but these buses apparently are getting old and being replaced with smaller mini-buses, a shame as they are so colourful
Geoffroy's Tamarin
known locally as Mono Titi and you could definitely see them coming. Brightly painted in multiple colours they had names on the front where the number plates usually go and also a name on the side, El Valle’s was painted in large letters,
Dona Lucy, dona in Spanish means Mrs so we assume it was Mrs Lucy!
EXPLORING THE VALLEY Of course because of its unique situation all routes out of the town lead up towards the forest canopy and the foothills of the crater walls. One day as we headed up towards the Le Mesa we noticed a
Three-toed Sloth snoozing in a Cecropia tree. We were so pleased to have spotted one in the wild so quickly and a few minutes later we heard some large noises in the trees. Right in front of us were a group of
Geoffroy's Tamarins, also known as the Panamanian, red-crested or rufous-naped tamarin, a type of small monkey, found in Panama and Colombia. It is predominantly black and white, with a reddish nape and is the smallest monkey found here, with a weight of a little more than a half kilogram and a body length averaging around 24
Maroony - released July 17 by Harry & Ursula
and spotted by us back in the wild, October 17 ... ... cm - they were cute but also strange looking. When we first spotted this little troop we thought they were squirrels but once we got a glimpse of the tail we realised that they were not. We had so wanted to see these in Gamboa so were delighted that we had found them without a guide as well … …
SAFE IN THE WILD We enjoyed watching the tamarins but they did not like us and one of them was making a lot of noise to scare us off so we moved on and left them to their forest. Back at
Casa Mariposa we chatted to Ursula and told her what we had seen. She was utterly surprised and delighted as we explained our day. Firstly she said that the tamarins are known locally as
Mono Titi which we thought was a very good name. She also said that in all the years they had been here they had only seen them a handful of times and she said we were so very lucky to spot them on our first adventure into the forests.
She was even more delighted
about the sloth we had seen as it was in an area where they had released one they had nursed back to health. They had named him
Maroony (french for brown as he was very brown in colour) in July this year. Maroony had been with them for 8 months after his mother had been killed but they thought he had a good chance of survival back in the wild. However he had not been seen in a while so they were unsure whether he had survived. On showing her the photographs I took she knew straight away it was him and was over the moon. Harry came around later to look at the photographs and he agreed that it was defiantly him so they were both happy and we were so pleased for them too.
Most days Ursula and Harry would get visitors arrive at their gate who wanted to see the sloths but they explained to them that they were
NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. This has recently become a bit of a problem with more people arriving because someone had shown a cute picture on Trip Adviser of the sloths.
So if you .... strimming such a large field!
The sister asking him to move on as they were trying to hold a service in the church and could not hear .... do read this blog and see the photos, please note that you cannot just call in and see them as they will probably be getting their ‘beauty sleep’. If you happen to stay a few days at Casa Mariposa you may be lucky but you may not as they sleep for most of the time so do not ‘bank’ on it.
GREAT HIKES AROUND EL VALLE Most days we had lovely high 20 degrees sunny days in the valley and most afternoons it rained so we usually planned our main walk in the early morning and this worked out well for us. Although once you started to climb in the foothills it got very hot and sticky and you needed to carry plenty of water with you. We got lost quite a few times as the map we had been given by the small local tourist office was very limited and did not contain half the roads and none of the hikes that we did.
There were not many tourist in town and most days it was just us wandering around with most of the locals going
off to work and the children heading off to school. Others workers were queuing at the bus stops heading out of town to unknown destinations. At the weekends though it was much busier and of course the busy market attracted people living on the hillsides into town to shop or sell their own goods - many of the stallholders would be wearing their brightly coloured national costumes and selling some wonderful handmade materials.
BIRDS IN EL VALLE Whilst hiking we saw many
birds including; Keel-billed Toucans on most days, Fiery-billed Acari, Squirrel Cuckoo, Lineated Woodpecker, Bananaquit, Blue-gray Tanager, Summer Tanger (a stunning red male), Hummingbirds, Rufous Motmot, Ringed Kingfisher, We even saw a juvenile Yellow-headed Caracara picking flies off the back of a Horse - it looked like he was bare-back riding . ……
We saw a few birds we had not seen before, a Bay-headed Tanager, Tawny-crested Tanager, Grey-headed Tanager, Rufous-capped Warbler, Bay Wren and a Lesser Goldfinch and several others we had not seen but could not identify.
HIKING LA INDIA DORMIDA On this hike we were
going to try and get to the top of the ‘
Sleeping Indian Girl’ mountain, also known as
'La India Dormida'. You could see this unique hilltop from Casa Mariposa as well as many places around the town centre. The mountain got its name from its resemblance to a girl lying on her back when looked at from a distance, the ‘face’ and ‘neck’ of the mountain have been carefully grazed, while the ‘hair’ remained forested. It did look exactly like a sleeping Indian girl and of course it also had a legend attached to it with a similar love story to Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliette … :
The Legend of The Sleeping Indian Girl Flor del Aire (Air Flower) was the daughter of Urraca, the most successful Chief in Panama fighting against the Conquistadores. It was her misfortune to fall in love with one of the Spanish soldiers. Yavari, one of the strongest fighters of her tribe, vied for her affection. When she did not return his love, in despair, he jumped to his death from a mountain top before the Princess' eyes. In sorrow, Princess Flor del Aire left her home and never saw the Spaniard again.
She crossed mountains and valleys bitterly weeping over her fate. Above the beaches of the Caribbean, she fell dead, looking back at the beloved mountains where she had been born. The mountains were so touched by this sad love story they decided to form the shape of the Princess, and that is how the India Dormida arose. The hills and the valleys, in a melancholic embrace perpetuated her figure and sculpted it into a majestic mountain to remember her always … … HIKING THE SLEEPING INDIAN GIRL We headed off under grey skies and really hoping the weather would improve - it usually did. It was a popular hike for Panamanians who we were told had to do this hike once in their lifetime. For the indigenous people however, the trails that criss-cross the mountain are vital routes between homes and jobs, the market, school and of course the church.
So it was quite busy especially as it was the weekend and there were a number of day trippers arriving from Panama City. At the gates there was a queue
of teenagers wanting to prove their fitness but they had to negotiate many locals setting up small stalls, selling jewellery and other souvenirs. So to get to the entrance gate you had to negotiate your way around them all packed tightly together. The youngsters were having a field day and stopping to buy things so we were able to pass by them and get to the gate. It reminded us of going into the temples in Egypt but on a much smaller scale … …
At the gate we were approached by a young lady and she asked us to fill in a form with our names and took a fee and then handed us a small print of a hand drawn map of the trail. Being ‘Extranjeros’ (foreigners) and not eligible for a discount for being neither local jubilados (retirees) nor ninos (children), we paid the highest possible fee of $3 each!!!
We headed into the forest along a sealed pavement and thought, oh this is good . …… We soon lost the solid path though and came to a bridge crossing a river besides which was a enormous boulder covered
in etched
petroglyphs. Known as
La Piedra Pentad these markings were remnants of El Valle's pre-Columbian culture. We did not have a guide but a group of locals arrived with one and although she was speaking in Spanish we stopped and listened as she pointed out several of the etchings. Although there are no official archaeological explanations of these petroglyphs as no one has been able to undeciphered them. Looking up the petroglyphs up google later there are many theories that they are maps of caves, water sources and other landmarks of the area. Perhaps someone will be able to understand their meaning one day - after all they did with the Egyptian hieroglyphs in the end!
We continued on trekking through the undergrowth which soon became very slippery with all the recent rains but we carried on and arrived at a small waterfall which was not much to look but we stopped and watched a few people scramble over the rocks to try and get a good photograph some of them taking a risk on the slippery surfaces. The vegetation and rocky ground was not easy to negotiate even with our strong walking boots. Many youngsters
we passed were trying to struggle on with flip-flops but a few of them had decided to turn back … ….
When it started to rain heavy so we decided it just was not worth the effort to go any further so headed back down. We did not want to be ‘carried off’ the mountain and were not really enjoying the hike as you could not see anything having to watch every step you took. It is not often we do not get to the end of a hike so perhaps we will have to come back in the right season to tackle this one again.
WE LOVED EL VALLE & PANAMA We loved our time in El Valle particularly being able to easily cater for ourselves and Harry & Ursula were such great hosts always being around and helpful. Their home Casa (home) Mariposa (butterfly) was truly a special place.
It did have a few downsides though as we were accosted with a few ‘beasties’ in the kitchen - you could not leave any foodstuff around as the sugar ants or lizards would find them.
We left some celery leaves out for just a few minutes and a large lizard was happily munching away appearing from out of the kitchen wall somehow and disappearing back when we approached …. … The little sugar ants were also another problem but we devised a plan and luckily had some large click seal plastic bags with us (IKEA) and these were really useful. We would put any food stuff in them, seal and then put this inside a carrier bag and hang it over a coat hanger in the wardrobe - this deterred the little b….s….
Chatting to Harry one day in the garden he showed us a strange looking
Caterpillar which had caused him to come out in a bad rash. They had called it a
Brazilian Flag caterpillar because of its square shape and appropriate colours on its back and they wondered what sort of butterfly it would turn out to be! Google research later and we found it was the larva of a species of
Moth and not a pretty one at that … … The caterpillar was quite striking, primarily green with brown at either end and a prominent white-ringed brown
dot in the centre which resembles a ‘saddle’ hence it proper name was
Saddleback. The moth apparently was just dull black …. It has a pair of fleshy horns at either end and most of the rest of the body had urticating hairs that secrete an irritating venom. Contact with the hairs causes a painful, swollen rash and sometimes nausea in humans. The hairs should be removed from the skin immediately to prevent more venom spread so Harry was lucky he got off lightly . … The caterpillars like the palm trees in their garden so we avoided contact with those at all costs during our stay with them …
But mostly it was all good - Harry and Ursula’s dog Snoopy would come to see us every day and was always wagging his tail in welcome, accepting us into his home as did Harry & Ursula and of course we were lucky to see their extended family of sloths on many days too.
Ursula and Harry also had their own free range chickens and although the rooster would wake one up in the mornings it was a great sound to wake up to
Beautiful Gospel
helping her father take their homegrown products to the local market. - much more natural than a motorway nearby. The added benefit too was that Ursula brought us eggs which supplemented our food supplies - they just said that we were feeding the chickens with all our scraps so they were laying more eggs for us in turn . …… It was quite funny to take our scraps and throw them into the chicken coups - the chickens would hear you coming and be delighted of course with any offerings … They had a large area to roam free and of course their eggs were really tasty we had so many omelettes all golden orange in colour … …
One day we walked up to the local shops early in the morning passing the local primary school on the way and a few children were already heading home which we thought was strange. Apparently Panama had just won a football game, so they had all been given the day off as had other workers in the town and big celebrations lasted for the rest of the day.
FRIENDLY LOCALS On one hike we were heading out towards Altos de Maria
Gospel and her family
Little sister well enough to head home from the hospital when we met a local farmer with his 5 year old daughter with the lovely name of Gospel. He was heading to the market carrying a heavy bag full of vegetables to sell but was also going to the hospital as his younger daughter was sick and was there with his wife - they have such a hard life and we felt really sorry for them but Gospel was really happy walking along the road with her dad. We chatted to him and he said he had a small plantation nearby but was worried about leaving it as a few youths had been hanging around lately stealing his vegetables but he had no other choice than to leave it empty.
We said we were hiking to see birds but also looking for some ‘square trees’ we had been told were growing nearby. He said that there were but the entrance too them was now over private land but you could also get to them via a nearby hotel.
So we walked back with him and his daughter along the lane and his English was really good so we chatted about all sorts of things
putting the world to rights really. He asked us how much it would cost for him to visit the UK and when we told him he just smiled more than he would ever earn in his lifetime. Gospel was really cute and smiled as we waved goodbye to them at the junction back into El Valle.
We walked up through the ground of the hotel and called in at the reception and the receptionist told us the hike would be $6 and a lady explained where the entrance was across a large grassed area. However when we got there the metal gate was bolted with a padlock. So Paul had to walk all the way back to the reception and the lady came out with a key to open the iron gate, she then locked it behind us so we asked her how we were going to get out and she said don’t worry we would come out at another gate and it would be open … …
SQUARE TREES - we are still sober
Unique in the entire world to this Panamanian crater, apparently a group of
Cottonwood trees have grown with square trunks. With hard right angles, rarely seen in nature, the trees have baffled visitors and experts. Even the ‘rings’, of the tree grow in a square shape and not the typical circle.
Researchers at the University of Florida attempted to grow the trees to see if they would retain their square shapes. From their research, it became evident that the trees are shaped by some local conditions, and can exist only in the Valley of Square Trees.
There were only about four ‘square’ trees, a couple of large ones and young saplings and they were quite strange to see but the hike was nothing special and defiantly not worth the entrance fee.
When we got to the end of the hike you would not believe it but the gate out was also padlocked and of course there was no-one around so we had to squeeze between some barbed wire fencing to get out otherwise we would still be there now… …
Apparently in this forest there were also some of the critical endangered
Panamanian Gold Frogs. This gold frog with black
Painting & Sketch on Electricity Meter
Many homes had these concrete meters in their garden - this one was quite nicely adorned spots lives only in this region but we did not get to see any but saw many in the market stalls - ceramic of course…..
As we walked back through the hotel grounds we watched some locals playing
Soft Ball enjoyed by a large crowd of followers before heading back to Casa Mariposa. A few hours later we headed into the market and were surprised to run into the farmer we had met earlier. He was walking home with his wife and younger daughter who had been released with medicine, a much happier man but again had a long walk in the heat carrying her home. We chatted again for a while and Gospel gave me a giant hug before they headed home, she so reminded me of Phoebe, my sister Frances’s granddaughter she had such a lovely smile.
LAST HIKE On our last day in El Valle we headed back up towards Le Mesa where we had gone on our first hike and seen Maroony, the sloth returned to the wild. However we did not see him that day even though we searched in the right trees he
had obviously moved on to pastures new … … and it was finally time for us to do so too and say goodbye to our Panama adventure.
PANAMA CITY We were transported back to Panama City by Sven, a German guy known by Harry & Ursula so we had no worries that we would not make it back to Panama City for our flight. He arrived within one minute of the time he said he would and was a great guy to chat to on our way to the city.
This time it only took us just two hours with no hold ups or problems which was great. Sven had lived in Panama for 25 years and said he was one of the first Europeans to settle here. He was an interesting character to talk to and had seen many changes in the country since he arrived particularly in Panama city. He had lived in El Valle for a while and asked us whether we had seen the petroglyphs at La Pintada - his theory for them was that they were a
map of caves used by past peoples
passing through Panama (like a trade route) - and that some of the signs indicated where the cave entrances were. The large main boulder covered in the petroglyphs he thought covered the main entrance to the cave system but no excavation had ever taken place - indeed most of Panama had not really been explored he said. Years ago he had spent six months on these mountains on horseback and had come across many caves, one he found was literally full of old bones gradually turning to dust … ….
He took us into the city via the
Bridge of the Americas built in 1959 which was at one time the only bridge that crossed the Panama Canal and of course before this was built the only way across was by ferry. Now though with the completion of the
Centennial Bridge, opened in 2004 and which we crossed on our way to Gamboa the traffic has eased a little.
Sven said the views of the city from the Bridge of the Americas were much more scenic and indeed they were as we entered the city we could see modern skyscrapers,
Dahabie and Samie
Enjoying a rock in a rocking chair ... ... like a mini version of Dubai, most of which had only been built within the last decade, whilst on the other side we could see hundreds of large ships lining up to enter the canal on their way to Colón.
Panama City was founded in 1519 and was the first city to be built by the Spaniards on the Pacific Coast. As we headed towards the skyscrapers Sven pointed out the ruins of this
ancient city which was called
Panamá La Viejo. The city was evacuated and raised to the ground to avoid Welsh pirate, Henry Morgan plundering its riches in 1671. All that’s left today is the
Cathedral Tower which stood out proudly on the shoreline.
The city was rebuilt in 1673 on a nearby site, known as
Casco Viejo, Spanish for ‘Old Quarter’ and we could see many grand colonial buildings alongside the water’s edge. Today the Skyscrapers dominate the skyline but the beautiful buildings of the Old Quarter were quite majestic along side them. A new museum has just opened this year in the Panama Viejo Historical Monument Complex and we wish we had more time as would have liked to
have visited this.
Sven told us many interesting stories of the history of the country but one thing stood out and which we had forgotten from our school history lessons was that
Sir Frances Drake had actually died in Panama in 1596 near Portobello, Colón - now ironically where one enters the Panama Canal from the Caribbean side.
Drake fell ill a few weeks after failing to conquer the port of Las Palmas and died from dysentery aged 56. He died while anchored off the coast of Portobelo and his two badly damaged British ships, the
Elizabeth and the
Delight, were scuttled to avoid them, or their contents, falling into Spanish hands.
He was then buried at sea in full armour and in a lead-lined casket, near Portobelo designed to ensure that no one would find his body. It is supposed that the great seafarer's watery grave was near the wrecks of the two ships and more than 400 years after his death treasure hunters continue to search for his coffin and its supposed treasure … …
So we said goodbye to Sven and Panama, we
had enjoyed our time here but had only seen a little part of the country so maybe we will return one day for some more. An hour’s flight later and we landed in San Jose, returning to Costa Rica where we had started our journey back in August.
BACK IN COSTA RICA We are now going to spend the last three days of our Central American journey just chilling. We had spent many days in the San Jose back in 2012 and it is not the most scenic of places. The country has a population of over 4 million and the capital city of San Jose has about half that number residing within the city itself. A very hectic place with total traffic chaos all day and every day. The roads have not been upgraded since we were here last and now have twice as much volume on them . …… It took us as long getting to our San Jose hotel a few miles across the city as it did to fly in from Panama … …
Although Costa Rica has its own currency (the Colon), many stores
Leckerli (baby) - oh so cute
We will miss this little fellow a lot list prices now in US$. We have experienced several different currencies on this journey but money changing has not been a problem and we have had no problems getting money ‘out of the wall’. In Nicaragua the currency was the
Nicaraguan Córdoba and the
Colon in Costa Rica, whilst in
Panama it was the easiest currency to convert as the
Panamanian Balboa was
equal to the
American Dollar.
On a final note, whilst back in Costa Rica we received an email from Frederico the owner of Cerro Lodge saying how sorry he was that we had such a dreadful experience with the transport company that they had recommended. If you read that blog you will know that we got totally lost in the mountains of Guanacaste using their recommended driver. Federico said that if we ever come back to Costa Rica he would be our own
personal transport driver - so who know maybe we will be back one day … ….
GOODBYE FOR NOW … … Anyway for now this is our last Blog from Central America and hope the you have enjoyed our journey as much as we have. We are now looking forward to going home and celebrating a couple of birthdays (Andrew & Maisie), a new home for Geoff, Sharon & Maisie and of course our homecoming. We will also be home alone now, which will be a first for us since our retirement in 2010 now that Kerry and GS&M have all moved out …. … So plenty of time to plan our next journey, we do not know where we will be heading, but of course knowing us it will be somewhere in this beautiful world - so see you there -
Pura Vida until then.
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Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro
"To hold them in your arms was just magical, they would put one arm out around your neck and slowly move the other one and then one leg and then the other one" - I would so like to try that one day. I am glad for you that you got the chance. /Ake