There is a bit more to tell, but the last post was getting pretty long so I decided to follow up  with another. The road to Macho de Monte is the beginning of a new road that winds its way through the highlands all the way to Potrerillos Abajos and the Boquete – David road.

What an interesting ride! There are areas full of curves, steep hills, and gorgeous scenery. I’m not sure exactly where we were, but I remember seeing the town of Santa Rita, among others. Who would have thought that this area is miles and miles of orange groves! I know there are bags of oranges for sale everywhere, but I guess I never gave much thought to where they come from.

A very windy road. The photo doesn’t give you the sense of how very steep it was too!

Crested Oropendola nests!

We came across this old suspension bridge.

Little Panamanian house

Orange groves, for miles!

This reminds me of Florida, big trucks full of oranges.

I was very interested to see the crested oropendola nests. I have seen these birds in our neighborhood but never the nests. I wrote a blog post about them in the past, which can be seen HERE.

The orange groves were very interesting. You don’t think so much about where your food comes from until you pass orange groves with Indians hard at work, filling large bags with fruit to be piled onto trucks. Everything we eat has to be planted, tended, harvested, packaged, and delivered to the people who sell it. That’s a lot of effort, and when you can buy a bag of 100 oranges for $4 you know they aren’t getting paid much. There are a lot of people who work very hard for not very much to take care of the rest of us.

I am having a very good time exploring the country, and I know we have barely started to see everything. Tomorrow we are heading to the beach!