Posts from Panama

Today I’d like to introduce a “Guest Blogger” to tell you of some wonderful adventures half a world away from the snowy New England morning to which I awoke! (BTW, there are about 4 inches-and-still-counting of the most perfect snow covering the already-great-base we’ve been enjoying on the slopes and trails of Jackson. As I shoveled the walkway today, it is pure powder, and not too cold out, either … ‘looks like a perfect day to wax up those skis!).

But as I was saying … in another corner of this diverse world are three roving members of my family (and one good friend who’s as close to family as you can get), presently climbing 11,000’ terrain into remote mountain villages in the Cloud Forest with an Indian guide! Previously they descended into the depths of a (hopefully) extinct volcano; snorkeled in the Pacific waters, discovered live sand dollars on the beach, and have been having an otherwise awesome time meeting interesting and colorful folk from all walks of life the world over.

The Players are:
My husband Dana, whose previous exploits have given me thus far a lifetime of adventure and an award-winning journey … which is far from being over!
Our daughter Zia, who has a similar zest for adventure as her dad;
Our youngest son Joshua, whose winning personality would make him welcome anywhere in the world;
and our good friend Sam, Dana’s roommate from college days, who has hopes of one day retiring to a warmer (and more economical) climate.

The Playing field is PANAMA!
The Time Span is January 5-21, 2010.

The adventure is still in progress as I write. Communications have been sporadic, but extremely informative when they come. Cell phones are useless there. The first few days of their trip we had no communications whatsoever from them (“No news is good news” as my husband always reminds me). So taking him at his word, here in Jackson, Chris, Noah and I ran the Lodge and had a wonderful time together… We worked on our new website, while we relaxed and waited for news from the travelers. The first hints of their whereabouts came from Zia and Josh’s Facebook pages, which were being updated with all kinds of neat stuff. They were obviously alive and well!! Then came webchats, and a few days later we Skyped with them via laptop. They were staying in a primitive grass hut on the beach which looked amazng through the camera lenses. Since then, Dana has sent several informative and descriptive emails, portions of which I will share with you here:

“We are here at the "renovated" "City of Knowledge" Hotel overlooking the Panama Canal on old US special forces property. We just got a new connecting room & now have internet access. The Hotel is perfect; many very special things about it,
Took a taxi to Old Panama City, about 340 years old; saw the most beautiful stained glass windows in a very old Spanish cathedral; many of the buildings were still unrenovated masonry shells, waiting for renovation/ restoration......Only about 25% of this area is fixed up...

The Pirate Henry Morgan attacked the city in 1671 with 1200 men to steal the large amount of gold contained within. The city was rebuilt in 1674 as it is today.....
(except there was a big battle between the US Army & Noriega's soldiers here when he was captured, some 16 years ago & many buildings were destroyed in the battle, and have not been fixed.) We went to the InterOceanic Canal Museum that was very comprehensive. This was a project which was comparable to putting a man on the moon. It was the most important project in the world for its time. We saw a monument to the French workers on the canal, the French embassy, and a display of Molas indian weavings & fabrics. The native Indians have a unique style of painting, woven baskets, fabrics, & painting feathers. Bye for now.” e-mailed January 6, 2010


Josh is MUCH better, FINALLY.... after a 30-hour stomach bug (not sure, assume it was something he ate....) You asked about the title of my last email (“The Cat is still on the roof”). The title comes from a funny story by the Maine comedian about a traveling family who has some bad news to tell the rest of the family & how to break it to them easily... you can get the whole story from Josh & Zia. We're off to have breakfast in the cafe downstairs, this hotel is nearly as nice as the one in Baltimore! then we're off to a zoo in the rainforest to see monkeys etc., then locks & a tour of the Panama Canal. Josh would love to chat . Are you on-line now? e-mailed 1/7/10 am


“Josh is finally better after battling that stomach bug for 30 hours.... Sam & I were up and in the gym by 8am, Zia & Josh joined us for one of the nicest breakfast buffets (great omelet station) This Hotel has the nicest elevator I've ever ridden in. Service is great;
after the first night they gave us connecting rooms, etc.

So this morning we got a taxi and went 1/3 of the way inland up the canal to the Summit Zoo. Started by Americans 60 years ago it had lots of monkeys, including some tamarins, small cats, large cats (jaguars), Harpy Eagles, crocodiles, strange birds, and some orchids. After 1 and 1/2 hours we were a little over heated and just then we came upon a special building designed by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institue (Airconditioned, Yes) and spent 1/2 hr learning all about Harpy Eagles, 1 baby every 3 years, though they can live 60-70 years in the wild. There favorite meal is the 3 toed sloth, which they pick right off trees or vines capturing them in mid-air. Then we were off to the Albrook Mall to get 2 local cell-phones. (security, convenience, etc. - in-case we're separated, etc.)
The last thing I ever thought I would write home about is a Mall. But the Albrook Mall is so much nicer than any US Mall I've ever been in. This mall is more artistic, more interesting, and has stores from around the world where decisions are stilled made by artists, artisans, architects & decorators; it creates an entirely more positive mood.
Rather than say bean-counters, who make most of the business decisions in the US.
In comparison US stores seem mundane & unimaginative....While sipping fruit blender drinks in the food area we were treated to a dance show that was fun & upbeat.
Escalators and Elevators have clear sides so you can see right through them. So cool.”
e-Mailed 1/7/10 pm


“We pick up our ToyotaRav4 today,and head west out of town for the Beaches.We have a reservation tonight for a cottage in El Valle, a tiny town in an ancient volcano west of Panama City by about 2 hours. Last night we explored Panama City by night.We went to a restaurant famous for traditional Panamanian dancing shows.It was old-fashioned Central American culture, very cute & nice. Even the food was old-fashioned recipes typical of "home", Spanish stews, soups, etc. a refreshing change & very good.Afterwards, we saw some of the sights of the city at night & came home to our hotel.Josh & Zia went swimming. A couple of interesting sights; We saw a huge truckload of banana's (or plantains) on the road. A couple places on our list to visit turned out to be dud's....1. Sam's International Living folks had closed their office(without telling Sam) so we spent a long time locating where it used to be...2. The new Gehry designed Biodiversity Museum at the Amador causeway which was supposed to be open 6 months ago was a strange 60' high pile of huge pickup sticks game.... but it looked like no-one was playing and the project was stopped before it really got off the ground. I imagine that's because Panama's cash flow stopped and they had to shut the project down. What a shame. This is a project that could use stimulus money.” E-Mailed 1/8/10


“I'd love to tell you about El Valle. The town is nestled directly in the middle of a very ancient volcano about 5 miles wide. It's amazing. A tiny little village like Jackson up on the continental divide. IT was so cute. Today was another big adventure, today was the first time we were traveling without having an advanced reservation.We traveled west through the interior & came out east of Divide... but when we called a couple hotels, hostels they were full.Luckily Zia & I had bought another brand new just published guide to P. that had a new listing of a new place on the beach.It's a 40' x70' grasss thatched beach building on the most beautiful beach. It's rough, like camping under white mosquito nets.... So we're sleeping on the 2nd floor tonight & tomorrow night.We swam in the Pacific this afternoon for about 1 and 1/2 hr. Zia found live sand dollars, and we went body surfing, everyone had a great time in the water.Panama City was rather expensive.... But we've reduced our expenditures a lot now... I can't believe I can't call you. I'm at a very very remote beach on the Pacific, No telephone, but via a satelite dish I have internet. (Amazing!!) I'm in this huge grass covered beach bar, with just a half dozen folks, Josh is juggling. Zia is talking to a Texas lady... Sam went to sleep, and I'm trying to write you a few letters.A warm Hawaiian type breeze is giving me a massage.It's definitely not of my normal world. We just got a tour of the town from a couple from Texas that wants to purchase in the future.It was just an opportunity that arose that was interesting & informative.This evening we were having a round-table with a marine biologist,and with a couple from Australia who are traveling around the world, raising money for cancer for kids, going green, etc. Their names are Chris & Elayne Clash.adventurebug@gmail.com www.myspace.com/adventurebug They are AMAZING.... AMAZING people. They are 2 years into their latest venture driving around the world.We spent 4 hours with them today hearing about driving into a land mine field in Afghanastan, Eating huge King crabs with legs 2" in diam., in Norway, the funniest border story between Norway & Russia, We had the best evening with them.Don't know what our next cheap Hotel will offer for WiFi, if you don't hear from us, don't fret. We'll find a way to send you a letter eventually.” E-Mailed 1-10/10


“We are way up high next to the Continental Divide, in the middle of another old volcano crater now a town called Boquete. The soil is so rich & the climate so humid that everything is lush green.I was expecting the birds to be amazing, and they are.And I knew the flowers would be wonderful,But its the many diverse groups of cultures that is astounding.The way they live side by side. Ancient cultures, old cultures,modern cultures, alongside a diverse mix of North American & European artists & retirees (Gringo's). It's truly a sight & inspiration how they all respect their differences & get along.(International signals are uses often to communicate :) The Panamaian people are an old culture(only some of which have been driving cars for the last 20-30 years,and only a small percent have been to college). The many AmerIndians have an ancient culture, are over 1 million strong,and most live in the high rainforest. They work part-time on the coffee farms to earn a little money.The ways these peoples are accepting of crazy artists & Gringo's with laptops & cell phones is a topic for future study.The farms here are fascinating. The coffee is grown in the rainforest on very steep slopes.the less steep slopes & few flat-areas are covered with fields of every other vegetable under the sun.It's a vegetarian's paradise. The citrus are great! We've been eating grapefruits from the side of the road.And all of this has rainforest here & there.(apparently >60% of Panama land is in protected parks) The temperature in Boquete is 65-75 all year long.Perpetual spring, they say. The altitude is 1200-1300 meters (about 4,000 feet). Friday we drive around "Baru Mtn." (height about 11,000 feet) to the other side to spend time in Cerro Palo Alto (altitude about 5,000 feet) we expect it to be wetter & cooler.Sorry about not sending out more frequent status reports, Internet is getting sketchy.We are all doing great.” E-Mailed 1/15/10


“Here is a letter I thought went out 3 days ago.... (sometimes they get stuck) It took some doing but it looks like I can send email again this morning. We found a nice little restaurant that makes vegetarian pizza's. (I think they are cooked on a stone covered with cornmeal.)So we make a salad and its a great dinner.I woke this morning and Zia had used the pizza boxes to draw & Paint on. She is painting her way through Panama, although at one point she was collecting shells and making beautiful patterns with the shells. She picked up a skirt & a couple local accessories & she blends in better than we do. She also reads a lot. Much more than I knew she did. (That's a great thing) When we were getting to know Elaine & Chris Clash,who are traveling around the world,(see www.adventurebug.com ) she was having no trouble holding up her end of the conversation. Quite wonderful to listen to. I think when we get home she is going to reduce her schedule a little in order to have a little more personal time.We had 2 days of really wet weather. from a weird northeaster from up north coming down. They say its part of the same system that gave Florida its frigid cold a few days ago.Anyway, its gone now, but the locals thought it was strange. (so we did a lot of reading & rested up)Josh has been working very hard on his French homework.He works on French with Sam every other night. He also brought a few books & is reading a lot.He brought Fire by Kristin Cashore (a companion book to Graceling.... ?)He also has The Door in the Dragons Throat by Frank Peretti. And he has been keeping a little journal. A couple times we put on a tv, but not often. Usually we just talk about the day & play cards.Josh has a very upbeat & positive attitude on the trip. I think he sees it as a great opportunity.I'm very happy that he & Zia are learning how to travel, how to go to a very unique part of the world & learn about it first hand. How to have a conversation with a stranger & learn from them. Often its "locals" or friends we make along the way that give us the best lessons for the day.Chris & Elaine are on their 2nd trip around the world. They found Iran to be the safest country in the world (????).And the country where they were welcomed & treated with the utmost respect.The stories they told us about some of the countries they traveled through was worth the price of this whole trip. I sure hope we get a chance to meet up with them again sometime.He is an Australian engineer. He built their "jeep" from scratch for the trip.And designed it to cross very rural areas of foreign countries where bridges often don't exist,and stream crossings are necessary. A couple times the water has been 1/2 way up the door and he's crossed a stream.with the car was almost submerged. In Afghanastan they were staying in a village & quickly found out it was the Taliban they were dining with ..... Their stories are incredible, sometimes very scarry but their attitudes are so positive. So on our "vacation" its been people like that who have been Josh and Zia's teachers for the day. Looks like I lost my Wifi connection, so this won't go out for awhile .....” e-Mailed 1/16/10



“We spent the last couple hours resting at our Lodge up in the rainforestwatching hummingbirds. The Lodge is beautifully built & hand-crafted.but its very remote, no electricity, It took a Big 4x4 1/2 an hour up very steep rubble to get us there.We are deep in the forest at one end of the world.This morning we hiked 1/2 way up volcano baru (which is 11,000 ft) We followed a very small steep path up thru the rainforest.It was still rainforest at 5500 ft., , we turned back at a waterfall,the pools of water had trout!! This village & resort is staffed by indians.Our indian guide told us that they were very happy when the Gringo's introduced trout some 30 years ago, because before that there were No fish in the mtn streams..... He found a rare tiny orchid on a moss covered branch on the way up.The 6 flowers were just a little bigger than the head of a pin... We filled up 3 humming bird feeders yesterday,and they were emptied overnight?? But by whom is a mystery,as we had watched them yesterday & only 1 was lowered by 25% by nightfall.We were having hummingbird wars. Some were acting very aggressive & territorial.Breakfast at Las Quetzales was amazing.Homemade butter, sour cream, & homemade yogurt. It was market day in the village & families were walking off the hills in drovesvery colorfully dressed.Today we drove off the mountain to the Pacific Ocean. We tried to get to a national preserve out on an island, to snorklebut we would have had to leave our car & some belongings behind;and it just didn't look safe enough.... So that plan got scrapped.We bounced along the coast visiting a few local beach areas, then east on the PanAmerican Highway back to the Playa Las Lahas beach,where we had stayed with a German couple a week ago. Sam, Josh & I went body surfing, Zia went facebooking.It's amazing how pleasant it is at the beach, the temp. is about 80-90 but the constant sea breeze makes it nice. We are at a brand new little B&B called Buena Vista owned by Berit & Owe a few miles off the beach, a 1/2 mile east of Las Lahas village. (they don't have internet.... )Everyone is very well. Only health issue currently is thatI caught my pinky finger tip in the car door 2 days ago. It's doing well now & should be mostly healed by the time i get home. Bye for now, Dana” e-Mailed 1/17/10

"On our last day we had Las Lajas Beach all to ourselves, and a couple dolphins. Sam, Joshua, & I rented 1/2 boards (belly boards) and we surfed for 3 hours. We caught waves and rode them 500-600 feet, once when we're just a few feet apart we were able to touch our hands, a "high-five"! It was a pretty amazing day learning a new sport. There are still a LOT of cowboys in Panama. (though its very old-fashioned & patriarchal so there's no cowgirls....) We see them all over, doing all the things western cowboys do.
Checking fencelines, herding cattle. We even saw a cowboy leave his horse at a bus-stop and take the bus. About 1/2 way back to Panama City, traffic was stopped on the Pan-American Highway, a herd of cattle had gotten away from the cowboys during a crossing and came running straight towards us. It was a crazy sight on an International Highway.
We watched traffic on the Panama canal for a couple hours yesterday. A big box ship that had 4,000 cars going from Norway to Japan, an oil tanker, a cruise ship, and a container ship. Seeing "the cut" up close I understand why it was called the 8th wonder of the world. And you know what's amazing; Now they're planning on building it over again for wider 150'wide superships. Today was Zia's museum day so we visited art museums and the very old part of Panama City with the Indians crafts. "Uncle" Sam has been a great traveling companion, taught the kids a lot, and really made the trip safer & more educational. Zia & Joshua say the trip was awesome, we all look forward to seeing you all soon." e-mailed 1/18/2010


So, that’s it to date. I’m sure there will be more to come before their return on Friday, and pictures to upload after their return … but in the meantime, this is the Lodge Lady signing off for now, and wishing YOU Happy Travels wherever your journey through life today takes you!