Ancient Cultures of Panama - Barriles

For those of you who like archeology and learning about ancient civilizations, you will love this post! We drove down to David and back up on the other side of the volcano Baru to a little town called Volcan. Near there was the site of an archeological discovery back in the 1906, with new information discovered as late as 2002 of a unique group who lived in this area of Panama around 600 BC. The biggest discovery came in 1947 when 18 human sized pieces were discovered while preparing the area for planting. These statues, now in a museum in Panama City, shows two different races of people, one with African features and one with oriental features.

 It appears Barriles was a ceremonial center whose influence reached both coasts of this mountainous area. There are three dimensional maps that marks the villages on both sides of the mountain, carved into stone. There are petroglyths that are visible only when wet, stone instruments that automatically grind grain without human might applied, and other amazing cultural discoveries. One cool thing about this site … the stream that crosses the property flows uphill one kilometer to the river. The explanation of this phenomenon had something to do with the coming together of two tectonic plates at this site … one of only three that have been discovered worldwide.

The granddaughter of a man from Holland that came to this area to start a coffee plantation still lives at the site and gives tours. She still have many of the relics that was discovered here, and is very knowledgeable about the pieces. The tour she gave us was amazing and the site was a beautiful place. She is a botanist and has brought in many plants from different countries. The gardens she has grown around the site is amazing as well. This was one of the highlights of our trip.

Panama with a Caribbean Flair – Boca Del Toro

Panama is a very narrow country, which makes it easy to get to either coast. Just across the mountains on the Atlantic side of Panama are some islands called Boca Del Toro… Mouth of the Bull. Originally populated from people sailing from the Caribbean, these are Panamanian islands with a Caribbean flair. From the port of Alemante, we took a water taxi to the main island of Colon. There is a little town there, and cars can come over on the ferry, if you choose. We just ate lunch there and headed over to the island of Bastemento, to the Red Frog Beach area. (For those of you that keep up with such things, it is suppose to be one of the top ten beaches internationally.) We stayed at a hostel there called Bocas Bound, and was a short 10 minute walk to the beach through a jungle path. The beach was very nice, and the water was REALLY WARM … not even a flinch when you first get in the water. We explored several beaches and took some jungle trails, as well as walking around a new housing development there. A large part of Bastemento Island is now a national park.

We took a water taxi over to the old town on the island. It looked just like what you would expect an old Panamanian island town to look like. As we were walking around, we saw a sign, in English, pointing the way to a Thai restaurant. Someone at the hostel had mentioned this great Thai restaurant, so we decided to eat lunch there. Little did we know that we would have a hike to get there. The restaurant was way on top of the hill separating the two sides of the island. When we got there, it was a small cabin with 4 tables and a view of ocean on the other side of the island. But was it worth the hike? Absolutely! It was amazing food, cooked by a woman from Thailand that had moved there several years ago. After our amazing lunch and fascinating conversation with both local expats and other travelers, we ventured further up the trail to a coffee shop in the middle of nowhere. Again, the coffee was great, and so was the conversation as we met people from many different places that had chosen to make Panama their home…. And we finally saw a red frog!

There was a large dock near where we stayed on Bastemento filled with sailboats and yachts. We met one couple that had been living on their boat for a number of years, and had been anchored around the Bocas Del Toro islands for 2 years. He was from Denmark, but they lived in California a long time before he retired. They were probably in their 80's. We got to see their boat and offered to help them sail it back to the states when they got ready to do that. Who knows? Maybe we will learn to sail!
When our weekend was over and we arrived back to Aliamante on the water taxi, we saw some of our new friends from Boquete on a water taxi heading over to Colon. They waved and said they would see us in two or three weeks. Running into people you know is a regular occurrence here. It took us 3 hours to drive over and 2.5 to drive back … overall a wonderful weekend on the water.

Hiking – to the Canopy, Hot Springs, Jungle, etc.

One of the benefits of getting connected with the expat community in Boquete is connecting with local activities here. We are now on three different email lists for hiking throughout the week. The hikes range from two hours for the Monday hike to 3.5-4 hrs for the Thursday hike. Bill goes on all the hikes … but because of my Spanish lesson schedule, I only go on the Thursday and Saturday hikes. Our first hike was one of the physically demanding Thursday hikes up to the canopy where people zipline across the jungle canopy.

The Saturday walk was on a gravel and dirt road, across fields with cows and across a rickety swinging bridge to the hot springs here in Caldera. Besides the scenery of the river, green fields, cows and chickens, we saw mango trees, petroglyphs, and, of all things, a water buffalo! There are two hot springs you can visit here in Caldera. Both are a hike to get to after you drive on the gravel road to the bridge. We hope to go to the other one soon.

Last Thursday I couldn't go, but Bill hiked with the group up into the jungle. Because of the rain, the trail was muddy and slick, as well as very steep. It was so dark because of the thick foliage, he said you couldn't really see much of anything. Around 20 people started the hike, but all but 5 turned back at some point. Bill hiked the whole thing, but was a bit over exerted and basically rested the rest of the day and into the next.

The mountains remind me of the Smoky mountains in Tennessee in early fall. You see clusters of color among the greens and blues in the mountains, like we have when the leaves start turning. However, the leaves aren't turning here … the bursts of color, reds, whites, oranges, purple … come from the flowering of the trees themselves. It is really a beautiful sight.

Overall, the hikes have been a lot of fun … with exercise, great scenery, plus interesting conversation.

Exploring Boca Chica

At the Tuesday meeting in Boquete, a woman was selling tickets to a local theatre production. As we talked to her, we found out that she was going to Boca Chica that weekend, and was looking for another couple to share the costs of going out on a boat … so we jumped in! Back down the mountain to the Panamerican Highway and an hour south is a peninsula that juts out into the bay. Off of this peninsula is an archipelago of islands known as Boca Chica. We drove down on Friday and had lunch on the cliffs overlooking the islands. Afterwards, we took a water taxi to one of the islands nearby to look around. We spent the night at our boat captain's little Panamanian house he was renovating, and cooked steaks on a barbeque. The next morning we walked down to the dock to embark on our seafaring adventure.

We decided to do some fishing, but needed some bait, so our first stop was to fish using what Murrell called Cuban yoyo's … fishing lines on a hand-held wheel that we dropped in the water and slowly pulled up. We also used some casting rods. I was the first to catch a fish! We caught two small fish and a couple of Bonitas … larger fish, but not good for eating. Then we went out around the Secas, some islands of the archipelago, and trolled around for a while to catch some lunch. We caught a good sized Skip-Jack, a type of Tuna, and and some type of smaller moon fish. We used the two live fish and cut up parts of the Bonitas to bottom fish, but didn't catch anything. At one point, I thought I had caught a shark. It really pulled hard … and we took turns trying to reel him in … only to find out that we had hooked a crevice on the bottom of the ocean!

It was a great day to be out on the ocean. The water was calm, the sun was shining, and we had a pleasant ocean breeze to cool us. The many islands were diverse and beautiful, as were the birds we saw.
After fishing, we went to a small beach area with a coral reef and did some snorkeling. The water was amazing clear and there was a large variety of fish to see. When we got back to the boat from snorkeling, our captain, Murrell, had cooked our fish on the grill for us. It was fabulous!

We came back to dock late in the afternoon, and arrived back in Caldera in time for the superbowl. An awesome weekend with our new friends.

At Home in Boquete Panama

Although it has grown a lot over the last couple of years, Boquete is still a quaint little town of around 20,000. There is quite a few gringos here … Americans, Canadians, and Europeans. It's easy to live in Boquete as an English only speaker because there are so many others here. There is a Tuesday morning meeting for residents, with tables set up for people to sell produce, food, trinkets, and things that can't be bought anywhere else. There is a talk given each week on a subject of interest to the English speaking community. Last week was about the laws around hiring and firing Panamanians … and how to keep from being sued. It was a hot topic. This week it was on 2010 tax laws for expats. Both were well attended.
Last week, a woman was selling tickets to a theatre production later this month. We bought tickets and was asking her about Boquete. She mentioned that she was going to Boca Chica the next weekend, but needed to find another couple to go with them to share the cost of the boat they were taking out. We told her we would like to go and …. We did. (You'll hear the details of this in a future blog.) We asked about hikes and we are now on the email list for 3 different hikes with residents every week. Everyone is so friendly and helpful … that small town family atmosphere … it's great!
Boquete is a little higher altitude than Caldera, so it's a little cooler, and they get a mist/light rain a couple of times a week from the low clouds that could get annoying … and they get more wind than we do in Caldera … but overall I like the place. There are a number of restaurants, but some are expensive. The grocery store is a little expensive for what we expected, so we go to David to shop when we can. Otherwise, you can find most things you need in Boquete, and what you can't, you can probably get in David.
We were in the ferriterrera (hardware store) getting some rope to hang a hammock and a woman walked in selling pastries in from a basket on her arm. Before I even had a chance to say I was gluten intolerant, she said, "and I have some gluten-free pastries as well." I thought she was an angel! It turns out she was just Swedish … but I got some gluten-free pastries for $0.30 each. That is Boquette!

Life at the Rio Encantado in Caldera Panama

Our Panama home for two months

Wow! Two weeks have gone by so quickly. However, I am determined to tell you about our experiences here in Panama … so here we go. We are staying in a small cabin by the river … well, really a creek during the dry season. There are rapids and a couple of swimming holes. The one outside our front door has a small water fall into it, warmed from the hot springs nearby. Our modest cabin is one big room, with half wall dividers separating the bedroom from the kitchen / den area… oh, and yes there is a separate bathroom. Although rustic, you can drink the water from the tap and put toilet paper in the toilet. (For those of you who travel to third world countries, that is unique.) Every wall has huge windows to see the amazing scenery around the place. It is definitely jungle here, and gets really dark at night when there is no moon. Even during the day, it is best to stay on the trails unless you wear boots, as there are poisonous snakes around. The weather has been really nice… in the low to mid 80's in the day, and low 70's at night … and mostly low humidity since it's the dry season, although we have had rain a couple of days. The Rio Encantado covers 100 acres on both sides of the river, and there are several trails to explore, in addition to walking along the river, on the rocks. There is also a pool for those times when you don't want to swim in the river. Wireless internet is available in some of the cabins, but doesn't reach out cabin, so we have to go to the pool area to get on the internet … which is part of the reason I am so remiss in blogging.
I am taking Spanish lessons here at the Rio Encantado from the Panamanian son of the owner. He is 24 and still learning English. However, he is well educated and patient and has turned out to be a great teacher for me. I take lessons for 3 hrs, 3 times per week. Beyond this, I study from my Spanish textbook and Rosetta Stone. We have only local TV reception, so sometimes I listen to Spanish on TV. When we go out, I try to use my Spanish, but it has been slow going there, as my confidence and memory are a hindrance there. However, I am determined to learn, so I know I will get better.
Included with this post are pictures of our home away from home, the river, and some of the wildlife around us that we have been able to catch on camera. Until my next post … hasta luego!



The swimming hole and waterfalls outside our cabin



A banana tree with ripening bananas a few feet from our door

The pool area

Bill, relaxing outside our Panama home



One of two parrotts we saw outside our cabin while
Studying Spanish ...




A black squirrel outside our cabin