This is a very humid climate and mold can easily grow on many things, especially wood, leather, and clothes (anything with body oils). I bought plastic chairs and tables because they were inexpensive and easy to care for. But, we discovered that mold had been growing on the underside of some of our chairs. When given lemons, make lemonade and when given mold, make photos! These are just a few, heavily photo-shopped with contrast, color, and whatever else I felt like doing but I think they are sort of interesting. Who would have thought? Mold is beautiful 😀
Sometimes I don’t think I have anything to say, and other times I have folders of things backed up waiting for me to get to them! A few days ago one of my blog readers was in town as part of his trip to explore Panama. We had so much fun! He was curious about the beaches in the area, and you certainly don’t have to twist my arm to go to the beach. It was a lovely late afternoon that got more and more lovely as the sun started to set.
La Barqueta is an interesting beach. It’s really beautiful, and very quiet. There is a lovely resort there, Las Olas, a little local restaurant/snack bar, and some large homes that you can see in the background behind Joel and our friend, but otherwise it is very quiet and remote. Usually you only see a few other people there, and often you have the beach totally to yourself. It’s beautiful, but it can also be treacherous so if you swim there, be very very careful of the strong undertow and frequent rip currents.
Last Sunday, November 3rd was one of the many holidays at this time of year. This one celebrated Panama’s separation from Columbia, and there was a big parade in town. I’ve been hearing all the drumming and practicing for weeks, so Sunday I was very interested to see the results. There were many many schools and bands participating, and the majority of the parade consisted of beautiful young women dressed in their finest and very enthusiastic young men with drums. Of course I have tons of photos, so I’ll post them in groups in slide shows so you can flip through them as you wish.
Bands, School, and Groups
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Panamanian costumes and traditional dress
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Lovely Young Women
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I had a good time watching the many beautiful little children
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Vendors – it seems that anywhere people gather, there will be people offering food, drinks, toys, and anything else people may want to buy.
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Other photos of security people, parade set up and finish, etc.
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I also have a three minute video – clips of some of the bands and groups that participated.
The next day, November 4th (flag day) was celebrated with an even bigger parade which included many government officials and community leaders. We could hear it from our house going on well into the afternoon. We didn’t go to that one, but we will be going to another parade next weekend for the Uprising at Los Santos, and then another on November 28th to celebrate Panama’s independence from Spain. Then there is Mother’s Day on December 8th, Christmas, New Years… This is definitely the season for celebrations and parties in Panama!
Many of my neighbors are very afraid of snakes. They don’t want to walk in the grass, and they are especially afraid of mani (perennial peanut), a ground cover I love, because they think it attracts snakes. In the year I have been here though, I have only seen one snake, a dead coral snake in the road.
But, the other day I was trimming the yard with the weed whacker (the Panamanian way of mowing the lawn) and I disturbed a little snake. It was very small, not more than a couple feet long, and didn’t appear dangerous or aggressive. It only tried to get away from me and curled up farther down the wall.
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I think the markings on its head are especially beautiful. So far, I haven’t been able to figure out what kind of snake it is. I hope it doesn’t go visit the neighbors!
This is the last set of photos from our recent trip, taken on the drive home. They are the photos that I like best from my collection of that day, and I hope some will give you a feel for the area and the beauty we saw on our drive home.
I snapped this photo as we left the hotel because I love these wood pillars. There is a lot of wood everywhere – the ceiling, furniture, trim, cabinets, lamps, everything you can think of. Someone there must be a good woodworker who loves this type of beautiful wood.
As we drove away from the hotel we saw this man walking up the road with a heavy bag on his shoulders.
Every typical mode of transportation in one photo – car, bicycle, and horse. Of course we can’t leave out the dogs.
We head to the center of town, this intersection with the convenience store in the blue building.
Traffic jam! Cars and horses try to make their way though while the school kids practice their parade marching in the street, and the policeman keeps order and watches out for the kids.
Just a guy on his horse
This man was stopped in the middle of the road to check on his horse’s foot.
Another man with his machete and work tools.
A dog taking a nap in the street.
As we drive, we go through more hills and it seems to get more and more beautiful.
Even in this rural and remote area, the road is in very good condition.
We saw some very basic housing, like this place made of thatched roof and walls.
Here’s another. The door is just a plank leaned up against the opening.
The rice is so green that it makes a beautiful sight.
More hills, more green….
A little housing complex?
A guy with a gas can on his shoulder walks along with his little boy.
More beautiful hills
It’s so pretty here that there are endless photo ops
The ups and downs make driving interesting
Seeing how people live in this area makes me feel like I have so much
More driving through the hills
Panamanians are concerned about skin health, and they don’t want to get any darker so umbrellas for sun protection are very common.
It seems to get more and more beautiful, and more hilly as we get closer to the PanAmerican highway.
A man with his machete walks along the PanAmerican highway.
Later we saw what appears to be a dam under construction. Panama uses a lot of hydroelectric power since there is a lot of water here.
The PanAmerican highway also goes through beautiful scenery.
Some men ride their hoses along the highway.
Clothes for sale – the type of dresses worn by the indigenous people of this area.
As we get closer to home, we see the huge waterfall in the distance.
We asked about a beach with sand, and were sent to Playa Estero, not far from our hotel. This is one of the beaches suitable for beginning surfers. Most of the beaches in the area had warnings that they were for experienced surfers only and booties were required because of all the rocks. This one was calmer and though there were rocks, it was mostly sand. It was very pretty and I enjoyed taking photos there.
oops, this is actually the beach in front of the hotel.
The sand makes some interesting patterns.
Another tree clinging to the side of the earth.
A boy came down the beach on his horse and the dogs all went nuts. When he came ashore on our side though, they kept their distance probably seeing the horse was quite a bit bigger than they were.
While we were at this beach I had a conversation with a couple guys who were collecting big pieces of bamboo and hauling them up the hill. They told me that they were building another room on a house. Many of the people in this area seem to have very little money and get by on whatever they can produce or scavenge. These men also seemed to talk a bit differently, perhaps a different accent? I had a hard time understanding them. But, they were very nice to us and seemed happy that we took the time to talk with them.
Little by little I’m getting caught up with the photos from our trip between getting distracted by things going on here that I also find interesting.
I didn’t want to write a single post with a hundred photos, so I broke up my collection a bit. Earlier was a post with some photos of the hotel and grounds. These are some photos of the town and a few beach photos.
Down the road from the hotel was a collection of signs for various other hotels and restaurants.
At the next corner were more signs.
Someone has a pretty nice house and probably a fantastic view.
This is the center of town, basically an intersection with a convenience store. This little barefoot girl had just handed off a large baby to another girl before she headed down the road.
A cool looking little bar down the road.
There were quite a few of these interesting trees with the big balls. Someone told me what they are in the past, but I don’t remember now.
Surf shop!
I really like the covers for the trash can area.
We gave you the room over the outhouse. Is that OK with you?
It seems like most of the locals live in tiny little houses like these.
I don’t think the gas station gets used much, by the looks of the grass.
Since it was just before the holidays parades, the school kids here were also practicing their drumming. I was a bit surprised that there was a school big enough, and that there was a parade for them to be in. This town is so remote that the nearest town with a store is an hour away. But, these festivities are very important to the Panamanians so I’m sure these kids were taken to wherever they needed to be.
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I will finish up with a few photos of the beach in front of the hotel.
The beach here is very beautiful, but also so rocky that it wouldn’t be good for swimming.
The trees hanging on to the side of the earth are very interesting.
Here’s another tree barely clinging on.
These two horses were roaming the beach. I learned later that they live at the hotel next door.
This fantastic moth was hanging out in our laundry room today. It’s so big I was a bit startled when I first saw it, and thought it might be a bird at first glance until I quickly saw that it flew like a moth or butterfly.
First it landed on something on a high storage shelf. Joel got close with a tape measure so you can see how big it was.
Later it landed on Joel’s tools.
It also landed on a pink shirt I had hung up to dry which was very good for taking photos.
After some hunting around on the net we finally figured out that this is a male Black Witch Moth. In some cultures it is supposed to be bad luck or a harbinger of death. They are nocturnal and sure enough, when I went back to look for it at dusk, it had flown away.
There always seems to be something new and interesting around here, and usually something really beautiful! It was also interesting trying to identify it because I came across many other photos of fantastic moths that can be found in this area. I will continue to keep my eyes open and a camera close at hand.
After our visit to Pedasi and the Azuero Peninsula, we headed to Santa Catalina for a couple nights. After a beautiful drive down and an evening in the most total darkness I’d ever experienced (power outage, thank goodness for the borrowed flashlight!) we woke up in a really beautiful area.
We stayed at the Hotel Santa Catalina, one of a number of hotels in the area. This is a famous surfing spot, location of some world surfing events. This is evident when you walk around the little town which consists of mainly hotels, restaurants, and surfing shops.
Our room was just to the left of the path.
Some of the other rooms as seen from the tiki bar area.
The microwave in the room was all in Spanish.
The tiki bar and restaurant, and internet location, and just a lovely, relaxing place to hang out.
We had a great Caribbean lunch! It was a tasty as it was beautiful.
Fish with vegetables, rice, salad, and an amazing salsa. We were told it’s Indian curry, coconut milk, and some fish powder product. I need the recipe!
The manager thought we needed a picture together.
Chickens and cats were common underfoot, but the cats were better at begging.
The underside of the thatched roof.
We noticed this workman was always barefoot.
I think they had thrown out some scraps for the birds (turkey vultures)
These noisy grackles were common in the area.
We were lucky to spot this beautiful black hawk in a tree.
A coconut palm with a huge bromiliad growing on the trunk.
As in our area, every tree and available growing surface has something else growing on it.
Another huge bromiliad in a tree.
Pretty hills across the street from our hotel.
Up the road from the hotel you could see some of the ocean.
That’s a start. Now let me go see what other photos I have that might be interesting.
