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.