Feb 19
We drove for maybe 6 hours? Adam drove the last bit, thank goodness, because it was some small, twisty, mountain roads, and then it started POURING. Adam kept his cool and drove is into El Valle in a pouring thunderstorm.
El Valle is a very cute small town built in the caldera of an extinct volcano. It also has lots of ex-pats, as well as weekend business from people escaping Panama City, and it has a pleasantly cool micro-climate. There is one main road through town that has a lovely wide bike and pedestrian path next to it.
We had booked a room in a guest house run by an ex-pat from California. We pulled in just as the rained slowed down, and got into our room right away and had a short rest. The room was really nice, big.
After our little rest, we went out on a walk in the neighborhood to see birds and explore. It was a lovely walk. Everything was cool and fresh and after the rain. The streets were quiet. The houses were beautiful to look at as we walked past. And we saw a bunch of cool birds!
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| Just a beautiful property in the neighborhood |
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| The only parrots I was able to see the whole trip!! |
Back to the room to get ready for dinner. We were meeting Simone, my internet/facebook/birding friend, who turned out to be a completely real Canadian person and not a scam.
Simone met us at an Italian place, and we had dinner together and chatted for a long time! It was nice to hear about all her adventures and travels, she has published a field guide to butterflies in Manitoba, and has been an artist-in-residence (photography) on a small island in Portugal, and other interesting things in her life. For February she was renting a house in El Valle, and her granddaughter had come down with her for about 2 weeks, and had just left a few days before, so she was looking for people to hang out with.
After dinner, we drove Simone home (she doesn't have a car) and then went home ourselves. Again we were exhausted.
Feb 20
In our original planning, we had hoped to have 2 nights in El Valle, but because I wanted us to be safe about getting into Boquete at night, we had to cut a night from somewhere, and El Valle was that cut. So today was our only day here, though we planned to stay until mid-afternoon before driving back to Panama City.
I wanted to sleep in a bit, but I started hearing amazing bird sounds at 6:30 so I got up and went out to look. We saw some great birds!
We asked our host about a breakfast spot and then checked out. Turns out, there was not much open for breakfast. We went to a little cafe adjacent to a museum and had a Panamanian breakfast- eggs and corn patties.
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| My camera has an 'add-me' feature where you take the same picture twice and can add people in. It was not working for this cool El Valle sign. So here is a picture of Adam. |
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| And here is a picture of me. Now, in your mind, combine them into one photo that we are both in. : ) |
Next we went on a hike! A popular hike in El Valle is called India Dormida, and we joined the crowds to hike it. It wasn't actually crowded, but there were quite a few people queuing up to hike when we were. A small entrance fee, and then we were off. It was only a mile to the summit, but bro, it was straight up. It was so steep. It was extremely lovely, with waterfalls, and a creek rushing alongside. About 3/4 of the way up a woman was standing on the trail selling water and Gatorade, and I committed to buying a Gatorade on the way back down.
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| Adam and the 'piedra pintada' - Pre-Columbian petroglyphs |
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| What a beautiful spot to take a break from hiking straight up a mountain! |
I gave up looking for birds about 1/3 of the way up. The binoculars were just making my hike harder, and there were no birds to be seen. We did pass a local person on the way up who gave us a suggestion of where in town to go look for birds, bless him forever, because it was amazing. More on that below.
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| We saw exactly one bird, this gorgeous Lesson's Motmot (very close relative of the Whooping Motmot, our bird of the trip). It's lucky I was going so slowly up the mountain that Adam had to stop and wait and he saw this guy hanging out, we never would have seen it if we'd just been hiking uphill the whole time. |
We made it to the top!! The top is the top of the crater of the extinct volcano, and you can see the whole town from up there.
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| The view from the top |
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| View from the top plus two people in very cool hats |
We headed back down, I purchased the second-best Gatorade of my life from the woman on the trail (see: Rainforest Discovery Center for best-ever Gatorade of my life).
We got back to the car, and found a place to eat with a patio, serving burgers and fries, which was exactly what I wanted after that challenging and hot and humid hike in shoes I don't really like that much. We texted to Simone and she decided to join us, so I ran over and picked her up.
After lunch, the three of us set out to see some cool birds. We tried a couple places that turned out to not be worthwhile, and then we went to the place the guy on the trail suggested, Los Duendes Eco Lodge. We found it on google maps, and when we got there, we saw a beautiful, nature-y property with a main house and several smaller buildings that must be guest rooms. We never saw a soul. We weren't sure about just walking into the property but while we were hemming and hawing, we saw a really cool bird! A Boat-billed Heron! And then we saw 2 more! And then 2 more! So in we went.
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| Boat-billed Heron! (Photo by Adam) |
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| Boat-billed Heron that doesn't do Mondays (Photo by Laura) |
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| A couple juvenile Boat-billed Herons gazing into the pond |
We spent a while there, probably an hour, looking at so many birds! Adam and Simone took pictures, I just wandered around with my binoculars. Again, we never saw another person, except off in the distance a groundskeeper person. So we didn't pay an entrance fee or anything, and we had a wonderful time. It rained gently for a bit, but then stopped.
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| A cool Green Heron |
Right as we decided that it was time for Adam and I to hit the road, an actual tour bus full of birders pulled up and came walking into the place. So we had definitely come to the right spot!
Adam and I dropped Simone off at her house and had a little tour of her rental place, went to the bathroom, filled up our water bottles, and then we left El Valle.
It was about a 3 hour drive into Panama City, and it was definitely some of the most stressful driving of the trip. We got into rush hour traffic in the city, which, though everyone was still pretty polite, was definitely a situation with less clear road rules than we are used to. But we made it safely to the hotel (a hotel nearish to the airport), and checked in. Took our stuff in and then went to return the rental car.
We had to get the rental car back by 8, and it was about 7 when we left the hotel to return it. Plenty of time, but Adam and I are risk-averse and like to be early to things. The drive was challenging, because now it was dark and we didn't know where we were going and we don't know how the roads work. All things I was nervous about, but ultimately, I think it was worth the short-term stress to be able to spend more time in El Valle that afternoon. And we did do a really good job of picking a hotel close to the rental car return place.
We returned the rental car! Nobody mentioned the $15 fee for locking the keys in the car! We had a very gas-efficient car, we only got gas twice, and pretty much drove across the country and back. We had a roughly 20-minute walk back to the hotel, which was interesting to see that part of Panama City and scary to cross any streets.
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| An interesting building we passed on our walk back to the hotel |
Showers, to bed.
Feb 21
We had an early-afternoon flight, so we had a little time in the morning to do something, so we went out to breakfast. We went to a restaurant about 15 minutes away and had a crazy breakfast. Well, I had a pretty normal breakfast, but Adam had this amazing breakfast called Breakfast Tacos that I will recreate someday. The shells are pancakes folded in half. The filling is scrambled eggs, bacon, tomatoes, avocado, perhaps some beans or potatoes or something. Wow.
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| A man, breakfast tacos, a canal, Panama |
After breakfast we just packed up, checked out, and took an Uber to the airport. Then a direct flight home to Denver, and back by dinner time!
Lessons learned:
- El Valle is perfect during the week. Weekends I think get crazy.
- I don't really like my hiking shoes. I think I'll get new ones this year that I like more.
- Panama is a great country to travel to.
For next time:
- Another day or two in El Valle would be nice
- Maybe next time we would return the car to the outskirts of the city and stay somewhere outskirt-y and then just take a long Uber to the airport.
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