We have a beautiful river behind our house. I’ve posted a lot of photos in the past but it’s been a while, so I figured I could post some more. We also have a new way of getting to the river. There is a road behind our house but it has been so overgrown that it was useless until the teak guys came to the neighborhood (I posted a bit about harvesting teak in this post) They had to bring the logs up from down by the river so they cleared the road, and now we get to use it to visit the river.
I think the heavy rains have made the ruts on either side of the road a lot deeper but with care and good shoes, it’s a good way to get down there.
We got down below, made our way through some brush, and there was our river!
Everything is so green in the rainy season
There river isn’t deep here and there are a lot of rocks, so the sound of the water is loud enough to be easily heard up at our house
I set out behind Joel as we make our way through the woods
Of course I had to stop frequently because there was always another pretty scene
Instead of going back the way we came, we decided to make our way along the river to the stairs that lead back up to our neighborhood. It’s more of a scramble over rocks and fallen trees than a walk, but it’s fun and there are always interesting things to see as well as beautiful views.
It’s time to scramble over the rocks
Interesting things on a fallen tree
The tree on the left is huge, but the one on the right is massive!
We have strangler figs, trees that climb up and wrap themselves around other trees until they eventually kill the host tree. This one looks like it wrapped around two trees and made some really interesting shapes in the process.
More interesting things on a fallen tree
Getting closer. The rock wall on the other side is visible from our destination
We eventually made our way to the path that leads to the stairs. It’s hot and humid down there so by now we were really…. ahem…. glistening and I was a bit muddy from climbing over and under things, but we were rewarded by my favorite sight of the day.
Here the water is deep and quiet. I love the reflections and the calmness of this spot. It is rare that we see anyone else at the river, so usually the quiet is only broken by the birds that fly over the water or sing from the trees above.
I took the time to snap a few more photos before we left
I love the river
Quite a few of these interesting plants were blooming in the woods
We also saw some of these pretty blue flowers
At first the stairs rise so slowly they are more like a path, but later they get a lot steeper
Check out that huge vine climbing up the also huge tree
Before long, we are back in the neighborhood.
You would never find the stairs if you didn’t know where to look. Do you see that small mossy spot in the lower middle of the picture? They start right behind there.
A neighbor’s papaya tree is doing very well
We are so lucky to live where we do! Not only do we have a house that’s just perfect for us, in a nice quiet neighborhood with really nice neighbors, we are surrounded by woods with this beautiful river just beyond.
About Kris Cunningham
We live in David, Chiriqui Provence, Republic of Panama! This blog is about some of our experiences in our new country.
The Panama Adventure 
I miss living near that little river by the house I used to rent here in Boqueron. I could always tell the state of the river by the sound of the water flowing over the rocks.
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I remember, and when we don’t have water I think about how your neighbors always went there to wash up.
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I am so jealous! That is the exact type of area I’m looking for, but up in the highlands (My dog can’t stand any sort of heat and shines if the a/c isn’t on LOL) Im3 thinking about the Volcan, Altos del Maria. or Do Calls areas.
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Hi again, Somehow this comment got caught in the moderation cue. Maybe the site didn’t recognize you from this address. Don’t worry, you’ll find rivers in the highlands, maybe not that big but definitely as beautiful.
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I am so jealous! You are describing my perfect spot, but up in the highlands. (My spoiled dog whines if the a/c isn’t running to his satisfaction. LOL) I’m looking at places in the Volcán, El Valle and Altos del Maria areas.
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There are rivers and beautiful spots everywhere and the highlands are so beautiful. Maybe you can even find a place with a waterfall nearby.
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Lovely photos! We’d love to come and do that walk with you sometime.
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Do you swim in the river?
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We must do that! I’d love to walk along the river with you. Maybe we could do it some Sunday instead of biking. You can swim in the river. I have, but the bottom is mostly rocks so my tender feet need shoes.
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Hi Kris! Wow, so cool to find you thru futureexpats.com as well as livinginchiriqui.com! Small world, eh?! I so enjoyed this post, & hope I get to join you on the river one day soon! 🙂
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I can always be talked into going to the river, so if you are in the area look me up.
Yes indeed, sometimes it is a very small world 🙂
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Absolutely majestic, almost primordial in its magnificent solitude.
I’d bet it can be quite the mosquito breeder in the summer rainy season, though.
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I was surprised to see that there aren’t many mosquitoes here. Even in the rainy season I spend most evenings outside. Maybe we have enough things that eat mosquitoes
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Oh Kris – what a beautiful river – and how lovely that you can hear it from the house! Beautiful photographs too. Are there any fish in the river?
If I make it that way on my planned visit, I’ll be begging to be taken along to visit that river.
(About mosquitos – I doubt they breed in flowing water – hence their absence there.)
– Wendy
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Yes, there are fish in the river, not very big ones as far as I know, but enough that we see guys occasionally headed that way with their fishing poles. You never have to twist my arm to go to the river so we will definitely go.
I don’t think mosquitoes breed in flowing water and the fish control them too, but you would think we would still have them. Anywhere I lived in the US you were driven indoors at dusk, but here there are very few. We have bats though, and birds and lizards. I think the bats are really good for mosquito control even though they seem to love bananas 😀 https://blog.thepanamaadventure.com/2015/09/10/murcielagos-bats/
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Oh, I’ll take a fishing pole too! Speaking of mosquitoes (yes fish eat the larvae too) – in the summer here it’s impossible to go outdoors in my neighborhood without being immediately attacked by swarms of tiny mosquitoes. I believe this species originally came from Thailand as hitchhikers on a ship of timber – they’re referred to as tiger mosquitoes (not here of course, but that’s what I’d learned about them). They’re stealth attackers – make no sound, and can’t be felt until they’ve already finished their attack. Quite a bother when I have to go out to refill my collection of bird baths (I’ve taken to clipping a little mosquitoe repellant fan to my shirt – it seams to work – for the most part – otherwise, by the time I get back in the house, I’m scratching my arms furiously, cursing and swearing at the little buggers, and North Carolina in general.
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I know, they are everywhere! In the Florida keys the truck came around twice a week to spray, but you still couldn’t go out at dusk without being attacked like crazy. Same in Sarasota where we lived. Sometimes I’d open an outdoor cupboard in the daytime, dry area, no water, and a swarm of them would fly out! Of course you couldn’t go out at dusk. Same in Arkansas, Kansas… I built a house in Kansas and never finished the deck because there’s no way you’d want to be out there in the evening. Even in high school I spent my final year in Northern Michigan. Those devils would leave welts the size of silver dollars. Here though, cloudy cool day, rained early in the morning… I came to my table on the terrace when it started to get dark and I have been here since then and now it is fully dark. I zapped one with my fly swatter in all that time. ONE. Thank you Panama.
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Ah bats! Yes I’d read your post about bats. I have a deep fondness for bats, ever since I was a child (a small one that is; now I’m just a larger child). Occasionally one would get into the sitting room in Grandpa and Granny’s house and fly up and down the length of the room – someone would calmly get up and open the front door and the bat would find its way out soon enough. Until it did, this child watched it fly back and forth with much delight.
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I love bats too
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I also love bats – especially since they can eat from 6,000 to 8,000 mosquitoes a night (as per Mother Earth News)!! Can’t think of anything I despise much worse than mosquitoes, and they are a plague here… :(. Excellent news to hear that there are almost none in David… probably means there are NONE in the mountains??. Yay!
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One type, the Aedes aegypti, also carries some rather nasty diseases here – dengue, chikungunya, and zika so that is more of a concern than mosquito bites. I have never been bothered in the Chiriqui mountains but I’m not sure about other areas. We have all heard about yellow fever, another mosquito born illness that killed so many people during the early stages of the canal construction. I haven’t heard about that disease in Panama now though, nor have I seen mosquitoes in Panama City. We don’t have malaria either, except in the Darien where we shouldn’t be anyway.
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Excellent feedback, Kris – thanks.
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Great ! it’s very sensational new to hear that they can eat mosquitoes in large scale.
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Yes, they are really good at that!
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Hi Kris… regarding mosquito predators, if you have any birds there that are in the swallow or swift family (similar to purple martins here in TN), they tend to eat a lot of those blood sucking varmints! 😀
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We do have them. I haven’t seen them in our neighborhood but I know they are in the area. Good for them, eat the varmints!
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That river. Are there any gators in it you know of?? I would be careful, first thing I thought of when I saw it was, to just jump in,
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There are big crocodiles in Panama but mostly in the canal area, lake Gatun. We saw a small caiman here once who was far more interested in getting away from us than bothering us. The neighbors were very surprised, said they had never heard of such a thing in this river. People swim quite a bit especially in the summer when the water isn’t as muddy from rains. I think it’s safe but coming from Florida, I understand your concerns.
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