Casita Rio Indio

After a few days in Portobelo we met a couple from Holland and we all really hit it off! They had a tip from some French friends of theirs about some cabins on the edge of the jungle so we decide to pack up and head that way. We hopped on a Diablo Rojo ( Which are painted and Zuped up old American School buses) and headed out. I have Pics of these busses somewhere too and will put them inn when I can sort through the vacation folder more closely.

 The bus ride was quick and un eventful.  Jessica, the owners neice meet us at the road and helped us carry our things back to the cabins. She speaks English, French and Spanish so if you can manage in any of those you'll be ok. She explained that we should be very careful and watch for snakes and other wild critters as the photo above shows this is literally the start of the Jungle...we did come across one snake on the path while we were there.

Pictured above are the cabins we stayed in, built by Jessicas uncle they are sturdy and cozy. Presently they are building a comunal kitchen and a few more rooms. During our stay we were the only guests, they prepared breakfast and dinner for us and french pressed coffee in the mornings. For our other meals we built a fire and made what we could put together from the Fruit/Fish truck in the morning and the sparse grocery store down the street. If I had this to do over I would have stalked up in Portobelo as the stores down here are not well stocked.

 
There is a shower and toilet, the water is not hot but it's not cold either. :-)

 Our men making fire!! LMFAO!

All in all this was a reall great experience! The food was tasty, the area peaceful. I love a place where I can relax in a hammock and listen to the wildlife. I am not much of a hiker but my companions were and brought back photos of some really colorful frogs that they found along the river. There are a few beaches a short bus trip away and of course Portobelo is there if you need anything you cant get here. When I head back to Panama,  I'm coming straight here!

Portobelo Panama

In our wanderings around Panama Greg and I came across the idea of taking a small ocean cruiser trip from Portobelo through the San Blass (or Kuna Yale as the natives there prefer) then into Cartagena, Colombia. We gathered all the info we could on ship selection, learned that Captain Jacks Hostel in Portobelo is the place to meet boat owners and that there is a cool old fort in the city that we might like to see....so we headed off on a Diablo Rojo from Panama City! We opted to book a night in Scuba Portobelo since hostel travel isn't always our thing. It was an ok hotel experience however it was a little far from the action and we don't dive so after the first night we moved to Jack's ( Which I'll detail in the next post.) Portobelo is an odd city...the fort can be toured in a couple of hours if you really stretch out the walk. There are several grocery stores in town but they all carry about the same items. One clothing shop and a few random vendors. The food I had was pretty great! Our first meal was a chicken sandwich at Cristo Negro which wasn't bad at all! I also recomend their Pollo Asado plate. There is a resturant connected to Cristo Negro that is open in the mornings for breakfast and lunch (As far as I could tell anyway...there were no hours or dates posted on any restaurants in town and they seemed to just be open when they were and closed when they weren't....I never did find a pattern :) At the base of the hill that Jacks is on there is a great breakfast spot and a few blocks down the road in a purple building a Panderia that makes great bread and killer pizza! I wont rate Jacks food here because he had just hired a new chef while I was there and they seemed to be working out some kinks so I didn't try the food. If you like fresh fruit and veggies there is a truck that drives through town in the mornings shouting from a loudspeaker, they sell produce and whole fish. Both are wonderful, we bought from these guys in almost every city we visited on the trip. There are a couple of other places to eat and rooms to rent but I didn't explore them all. The town is really laid back and very basic, we planned around 6 days here and that was far too much time. We ended up leaving and heading towards Nombre de Dios to stay in some jungle cabanas for a few nights to take a little break before heading out on the cruise.
 I seem to have lost my photos of Portobelo, I'll hunt for them and add them soon.
 

El Pueblo San Carlos y La Playa Palmar

Hey again! I've got to start by saying that I am really proud of myself....3 posts in the last week! I'm on fire!


  When we decided it was time to leave El Valle we spoke to Javier who advised us against Santa Clara and instead recommended San Carlos....so after hopping on a bus ($2.75 each) and taking the 1 hour ride out of the valley we arrived at El Centro de San Carlos. As usual we had no idea about hotels or transportation around the city so we just started walking in the direction of the ocean assuming we would find a hotel.....oddly enough we saw none. There were no ' se alquilar' or room for rent signs anywhere....very strange for a tourist city.  We walked down the central street for about 5 minutes and just to make sure we were on the right track I asked a woman at a fruit stand if the beach was the way we were headed (in my slow Spanish....her non existent English and a spirit always in search of adventure) in the right direction. She said we were going the right way, keep straight and we'd get to the beach. A few minutes later she flagged us down again, as we were all headed the same way. She asked if we had a hotel, we said no and asked if there were any close to the beach in San Carlos. Thats when we learned that no...there are no hotels in San Carlos! We quickly checked trip advisor and saw one hotel listed NEAR the city! She said she would take us to a place that might have rooms or could call a taxi, so we followed her as she stopped at a few more stands collecting the ingredients for her dinner. We stopped at her house and handed the items over to her husband and kept walking. A few minutes later she instructed us to roll up our pant legs and take off our shoes, we'd come to the end of the road and were at the beach. There was a hotel in sight! We had to cross a small stream to get there (it was low tide, during high tide it's another story so we discovered on our way back from a long walk on the beach.) We thanked the woman and booked a room, right on the water! The hotel is the Bay View Resort, the one listed on trip advisor. (There are two other beach side clubs we found on our walk, one looked pretty lame & very family oriented. The other was a private golf resort and they told us we had to walk back the way we came as the entire gounds were private and accessible to guests and owners only.) The room is basic, clean and very average for Latin American hotels. I'd put it in the Econo Lodge class, which is fine with me when the ocean is just outside the door. I think never really understood the term tourist trap though until coming here. Though the city seems so close....the river separates you from it twice a day. When tide is low you still have to be willing to get your feet wet before you walk about a mile through the residential section and into the central part of the city. The only other way into San Carlos is a 1-2 mile hike down the road, which at night is completely dark or calling a taxi. It wouldn't be so bad to stay at the resort all day if the food were better & less expensive or if the items in the gift shop weren't excessively over priced.
  In Bay Views favor is their amazing outdoor patio on the edge of the water. The WiFi is great and the coffee is good. I spent a lot of my time out there reading and writing. The staff are all very attentive and quick to meet your needs.
  There are TV's in the rooms and a good AC...but no hot water, which I am growing accustomed to. 
A taxi into town the morning after we arrived cost $1 and on the way back $2, I didn't get a chance to see what the locals were paying.
  We found two spots in San Carlos that we like for food, the Panderia San Carlos for sweets and the Restaurante El Parque. Both are located on the Via Principal, on the right hand side if you are walking towards the beach (See Photos.) All the other shops are pretty typical, everyone we met was kind and helpful...and patient with our slow and limited Spanish. :-) We are leaving though after only 2 nights as the Pacific seems more geared towards families and surfers. 
  Oh yeah I almost forgot down the road from our hotel there is another hotel called Hotel El Palmar which seems to cater very well to the 20 something surfer community, had I known it was there I likely would have stayed there :-) & though I saw no signs it seems that there may be rooms for rent near there too, or just a lot of forigners who own property.

  Look for another post in the next few days, we are headed to Portobelo and plan to grab a sail boat ride into Cartagena, Colombia from there!

El Valle de Antone,Panama

(Again, please forgive the lack of photos. I'm still running on a slow Internet connection and can't post photos until I can get to a better one. Likely in the next couple of days.)

We arrived in El Valle on the 19th of Feb 2012. We came by bus from Panama City for $3.75 per person. The bus was cozy and air conditioned also it wasn't overly full. The ride took around 2 hours and was a great time to take a nap. :-)As we entered the town we passed a resturant called Santa Labrada that smelled of roasting meat, and we noticed it from inside the moving bus. When we arrived in EVDA the driver dropped us off in the city center, we immediately turned around and walked back in search of the meal we had spotted from the bus. Santa Labrada is fantastic! We ate there 3-4 times before leaving the city on the 24th and would make it an almost daily stop if we lived here!
After we filled our bellies it was time to hunt down a hotel....we very rarely have one chosen before getting to a city as we really enjoy looking around and picking the one that feels right. I was feeling a bit travel weary and in need of coffee so Greg dropped me off at a little resturant called Dona Nella that served Duran coffee and went out on the hotel hunt on his own. (We did end up eating here a couple of days later and the food was pretty great!)
While I was sitting at Dona Nella a man (Javier phone# 64824644 if you can't reach him there look for him at the market...he's young, long curly blond ish hair and either on his bike or at the market selling his home made jewelry.) came up and asked if I spoke Spanish and if I was looking for a room to rent. We talked for a minute and he left to find Greg, who ended up going to take a look at the room and decided to take it! Javier lent us his bike to help get our stuff back to the house, which is just a short walk from city center towards the Panderia and the sleeping Indian mountain. Make a right after the Panderia (Wich is also wonderful) and walk a couple of blocks down the road, on the right u will come to a white gate with a sign for a pizzeria and you will find the room to rent right across the street. While I'm thinking about it you should also eat at the pizza place, it's an Italian family cooking from their kitchen and delivering. You should order a day in advance if you can, but they accomodated us on the spur of e moment for pizza.
The room "Hospedaje Neyen Nimai" is an addition at the back of the home that Javier and his wife Ali share. There is a hammock in the yard under a tree and seating on tree stumps to gather and eat. The room itself is simple, clean, comfortable and has HOT WATER! When we arrived there was an incense burning and light coming in the windows. The decor is Hindu/Native American spiritual.....but not overdone in any way. The energy here is great and I felt at peace instantly. Javier and Romina offer a menu of home made vegetarian delights and fresh juices. Everything I tried was delicious (Have you ever read 'The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake'? If not please do!) You cold taste the care, love and compassion in every bite from their kitchen. The organic hot coco warmes your heart with every sip! The grilled cheese was out of this world and the hummus(aburguines) plate with their home made gluten free olive loaf.......sorry I had a moment with my memory of that tasty meal. They were so kind to us, patient wi our poor Spanish and excited to teach and learn from us. On our first night they called us from our room into the street where the neighbors had all gathered to see a large sloth making its way along the power lines into the trees. On our last night Javier came out to where we relaxed in our hammock and shared with us a bit of the birthday cake they had made for his mother in law that day. I would stay here a month if time permited!
We spent our time in the city trying all the restaurants we found on trip advisor(just passed the road we stayed on on the right there is a resturant called bruschetta, this is another must do in town. They keep strange hours though so be prepared to find the, closed from time to time), walking to all the sights to see in the area and relaxing in the hammock with a book or a note pad. If I had to use one word to describe our stay in El Valle....it would be tranquility. If I think of anything else I'll post it later and I'll get the photos up soon too!

Winter in Panama 2012

(I'll upload some photos later as I am currently posting from my iPhone and am unable to upload from this device.)
We decided to spend the month of February in Panama this year! Every February since we met has been spent out of the country, this is our tradition for Valentine's Day as a couple. We started our journey in Albuquerque New Mexico flew to Houston with and after short layover then made our way to Panama City! We spent two days in Panama City, we stayed in a hostel call my home in Panama located in the El Dorado District. It was a great little place very clean, & a small breakfast was included i.e. cereal and banana with coffee or toast and eggs. (they only have warm water so be prepared) Directly across the street there is a supermarket 99 which is great for restocking your supplies. A block or so after street towards the Alamo rental car place there is a restaurant called El Mision de Pardo which was still vicious I would eat there again with out a doubt! We visited the typical tourist attractions: Panama Canal, Cosco Viejo & Carnavales, which were worth doing once :-) The malls and the city are enough Norments I did not make it to the metro mall, however Allbrook is pretty good. ( & is also aware you pick up the cheap buses to take you around the country) Taxis are pretty cheap in the city but you have to negotiate. If you have the time and money for a really nice meal I recommend Restaurant Jimmy...get the beef tenderloin or the Greek salad! (We also had the Sanchoco and Snapper which were great too! I've got to run for now but keep your eyes out for the next post "the road to Bocas del Torro"