Panama 2013, July 8-14th

David met us at the airport and drove us to Coronado and Sarah's place where we have the Tortuga casita. It's brand new with a door to a kitchen. Private bathroom, air conditioning (quiet, effective, and necessary), a ceiling fan, flat screen TV with cable, and a comfy queen size bed. 

I'll simply tile the pictures in a mostly chronological order and caption them with a brief explanation at the top of each post, making it easier to view this blog. At least that is my hope.

We are staying one week at Sarah's Casitas (she has three small rooms with private bath and a house on the same property). The pool is perfect and the gardens lovely. I'm sitting at the outdoor covered patio where seven people can comfortably sit around a table and look out at the pool and garden.

Street along Sarah's Casitas

Looking along the road the other direction

Our front door

Tortuga Casita, our room

Kitchen from outside

Kitchen—refrigerator to my right

Day 1, the Wifi works

Alleyway to Pacific Ocean, Coronado beach

Coronado condos

Marie at Coronado beach house

Rick checking out the temperature. Yep, tepid!

Lorraine and Albert from Victoria, B.C.

Taken from covered outdoor patio

Fire station about a mile from the casitas

Lab greeted us last night

Trish from Graham, Washington met us at Sarah's on Day 1

We purchased a cell phone at Digicel in this mall. Oh look, there's a familiar site!

Super 99 Mall (named for the anchor grocery store)

Machetazo has 3 floors and they have it all

Find Marie in the sea of motorcycles at Machetazo's

For $199.00, it's all mine! Perhaps I'll purchase a motorcycle instead. 

We spent today, our fourth, just hanging around. We walked through Machetazo's, checking out everything. 

Purchased a few groceries so we could have a salad for lunch and a much needed toilet brush and then wandered over to Digicel at the Super 99 Mall across the street and purchased a cell phone we could use while on the road just in case we have car trouble.

The phone and 1.5 hours of in-country talking time cost all of $28.00.

More stuff at Machetazo's

Cooling off, July 10th

Techno dude, figuring out cell phone and blogging

Yep, Rick has wheels!

Growing in Sarah's backyard

Growing in Sarah's backyard

Luis doing a bit of yardwork

Vilma raking the other side of the yard

Vilma and Luis are caretakers for the property

Just up the road from Sarah's

Guess who?

Our server, a great guy

Sarah's parrots taking a break from their cage

Speaks for itself

Today is Friday, July 12th and we drove up to El Valle with Trish (see earlier pic) where we visited the market, El Nispero Zoo (see pics from 2011 as well), hiked to some falls, and took a swim in what is billed as a natural pool adjacent to the canopy zip line adventure in the rainforest. I did the zip line in 2011 and found it lacking in adrenaline as advertised, so we skipped the canopy zip line adventure and enjoyed a cool swim surrounded by the rainforest canopy.

El Valle is nestled in the world's second largest extinct volcanic crater, and the road up to it is built on a ridge of what's left of the volcano. You rise about 2,500 feet during the drive where we looked down over the Pacific Ocean. I took a few pictures of the view. Note the white towers. These are modern condos on the beach is where expats live and wealthy Panamanians have second homes.

When you reach the crest of the road to El Valle, the drive down is fairly steep, snaking its way down into the valley where we visited the outdoor market (I included pic of the tiled plaque at the entrance), El Nispero Zoo with its beautiful gardens and exotic animals, and took a hike along a river to a waterfall.

A word about the zoo: it wasn't planned as a zoo. The owner is an agronomist who runs a small nursery on the 7 acre grounds, but when people started donating abandoned and sick animals (or exotic pets), he took them, and viola, a zoo is born.

Market at El Valle

Marie and Trish at El Valle Market

Hat or bike anyone?

The walk to Chorro Las Moza falls was a bit slippery but I made it.

Taken from a precarious position

Movie of ants on path in El Nispero Zoo

Botanical gardens at El Nispero Zoo

Fungus among us

Colorful macaws

Great wise face

Ocelot taking it easy

Pot belly pigs

Tapir rescued Noriego's home after his downfall

Check out the color of that beak

Bridge to natural pools

Rick and Trish cooling off under rainforest canopy

View from ridge to El Valle; condos on Pacific

We arrived at Las Lajas Resort yesterday (July 14th) after a 4.5 hour drive from Coronado. The PanAmerican Highway is four lanes until just after Santiago where it turns into a two lane road. Except for getting caught behind a semi-truck we made good time.

The Lajas Resort is lovely and reminds us of Samui in Thailand. The Pacific is warm and the beach is vast and empty for the most part. Yesterday I counted all of 10 people on the beach at one time.

This morning we enjoyed breakfast looking out at the ocean and watched the pelicans skim over breaking waves. I was eventually able to catch a surfer on video. So between the pelicans and the surfer, I fulfilled my National Geographic and Wide World of Sports assignments.

Next stop—Boquete about 45 minutes away.

Beach in front of resort. Where is everyone?

Oh, there they are

View from...

It's not easy being Marie

Las Lajas Resort from beach

If the Pacific doesn't satisfy you, try...

Greeted by swan towels and three beds

Pelicans with breakfast

More morning entertainment