Weekly Photo Challenge: Ephemeral
Ephemeral – lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory:
The mountains of Chiriqui may have been here for thousands of years, but the clouds that cover them are ever changing. The view in this moment can be different from the one you saw just a few minutes ago. The beauty of the mountains is as ephemeral as it is lasting.
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Los Ladrillos, or Gunko, is a basalt volcanic formation in the Boquete area of Bajo Mono. We can thank Cesar Augusto Melendez Castillo for uncovering it. He used to go exploring with his father and uncover interesting rock formations, and he was drawn to climb on them. As an adult he met Gary Henning, a professional rock climber, and that was the beginning of his own journey to become Panama’s first professional rock climber.
When Cesar started, Panama didn’t know about rock climbing as a sport. Someone even called the police thinking he needed to be saved from a suicide attempt. Now he has developed many climbing routes, and has formed a club to teach others and give them experiences in rock climbing. His site in English is HERE.
I think this is a beautiful formation, and very interesting because of Cesar and the developing sport of rock climbing in Boquete, Panama. Check out the video below to see more.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Orange
Weekly Photo Challenge: Reward
If I keep at it, maybe my reward will be the satisfaction of being caught up with the photo challenges! 😀
Recently there have been some people looking for short term rentals, so I posted about a house sharing possibility #1, and the house sharing possibility #2, and here are a couple casitas for short term or long term rental.
Cuesta de Piedra is a small town between Concepción and Volcan. A Google Map will help you find it. It is at a higher elevation and cooler than David and the towns along the highway. The area is mostly farms and a lot of dairy cattle, and it’s really beautiful. The casitas are on Cedo’s property, and behind them is her farm. The farm has dairy cattle, pigs, chickens, and some plant crops for personal use. There is a caretaker and his family who live on the farm and do the daily work.
The bigger casita was a restaurant in the past. Now it has been turned back in to a casita but it is easy to imagine it full of tables of happy people eating Cedo’s good food. This casita has a large room in the front which is the living room on the left, and the kitchen on the right. Towards the back are two bedrooms and the bathroom.
The smaller casita has one bedroom and a loft. The living room is in front, the kitchen and bath are in the middle, and the bedroom is in the back.
There are buses that run north and south on the road in front of the casita. There is a small store, a small restaurant and a few other things within walking distance in Cuesta de Piedra. For supermarkets and other shopping, much more is available in both Volcan and Concepción, and of course in David.
The larger casita is $250/month, and the smaller is $200/mo. This includes water and trash. You pay for electricity and internet. If you have questions you can write me at info@thePanamaAdventure.com and I will do what I can to get answers and facilitate communication with Cedo.
This home is in Villa del Carmen, a quiet middle class Panamanian neighborhood on the north side of David, just within the city limits. The neighborhood is surrounded by woods and a beautiful river runs along the east side. There is only one way in and out so it is quiet and safe, and the neighbors are friendly and welcoming.
My good friend Cedo has an extra room in her charming little house. There is also a recently arrived expat lady from the US staying there, so you would get a mix of Spanish immersion (Cedo speaks no English), and a gringa friend having a similar experience.
Cedo is easy going and not fussy about little things, and will do anything she can to take care of you and make you comfortable. There is internet in the house, and use of a washing machine.
There is a neighborhood bus that comes around every hour or so which can take you to shopping or the downtown terminal, or if you prefer there are inexpensive taxi’s everywhere in town.
Both this and the previous house would be suitable for a well behaved, non smoking single person who would enjoy the experience of living in a nice, very Panamanian household.
For questions or more info email me at info@thePanamaadventure.com
Some people have popped up recently looking for short term rental possibilities in this area, so I am putting together a couple things that I know about. Here in David short term rentals are probably a bit difficult to find. Even long term furnished rentals are harder to find than unfurnished (and unfurnished means no stove or fridge or washing machine). But, I know of a couple house sharing possibilities and a couple casitas for rent in Cuesta de Piedra, so I’ll put together some photos and some information in case it is helpful to anyone.
This house is on Ave Tomas Herrera close to Colegio Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles. (A google map should bring it up – look for the school on the north side of David, north of the Pan-American highway) This is a very nice neighborhood with some beautiful homes. It is close to a bus route and if you like walking, probably a 15 minute walk to shopping.
I stopped by today to chat with the owner of the house. She was just finishing lunch and her housekeeper was there, so they weren’t expecting company. But, in typical Panamanian style, she welcomed me warmly and gave me the house tour so I could take a few photos. She is 92 and very proud that she can pretty much take care of herself with a bit of help with the heavier work. She has a son living next door and a granddaughter on the other side if she needs anything. She is charming and delightful, and the few times I have stopped to talk with her have been a real pleasure.
Panamanian homes typically have small bedrooms and may be lacking some comforts we are accustomed to in the US (like hot water), but I think this is offset by the beautiful plants and the lovely homeowner. I think she would be a pleasure, and it would be Spanish immersion as well (she speaks no English). As far as I know there isn’t internet in the home but if you have an iPad, iPhone or similar device you can get a data plan for $11-12/month which will do for basics, but not if you work on line or need a lot of internet.
Another possibility is coming in the next post, and I am visiting Cuesta de Piedra tomorrow so I will have photos of the casitas there soon.
Oh, and for questions or more info email me at info@thePanamaadventure.com
La Feria Internacional de David (the International Fair of David) is a yearly event in March. People come from a number of other countries to participate, and the fairgrounds come alive with activity. There are things for sale, things to look at, businesses sharing information, plenty of food, and fun things for children and adults.
We went on a Wednesday afternoon hoping to avoid the crowds that can descend in the night and on the weekend.
There were multiple buildings full of vendors selling all sorts of things, mainly clothes, shoes, purses, backpacks, and other personal / decorative items. I didn’t need anything and was very good about just window shopping until I saw an observation bee hive where I ended up talking and then buying a bottle of honey. (I was a backyard beekeeper in the US so this interests me) I was too busy chatting though and didn’t even think to snap a photo.
I believe the vast majority of the merchandise for sale is hand made. There were a lot of really beautiful things and I admire the skills of the people who make them. Haydeé was looking for some patio furniture so we spent quite a bit of time looking at the various furniture vendors from Nicaragua. This is all hand made and so gorgeous!
I talked with a few of the furniture folks, and they said they travel a lot selling their furniture. Next they are going to Los Santos area, then to Panama City. It must take a lot to haul all the merchandise around so I hope they are able to make a decent living at it.
There were many businesses represented who sell real estate, appliances and other things for homes, various services and equipment… I don’t have much info on this since none of us were looking for this sort of thing, so we just breezed through these buildings to enjoy a bit of air conditioning and then were on our way.
There were a lot of animals! There was a very large barn full of cattle, mostly bulls, and some of them very large. There was also a sort of zoo area with other animals and birds in cages but somehow we missed that this year.
I was looking forward to the plants area. There were also plants for sale and I was very good and only looked. There were a lot of gorgeous ornamental plants and flowers, and some orchids that I looked at more than once though. I am most interested in plants that produce food and I didn’t see any of them to tempt me, so that helped.
By now the sun was getting low in the sky and the roads were starting to fill up with more people. On our way out we bumped into a musician friend of Haydeé who was setting up, so we hung around a while to see if they would start playing. We watched some kids doing traditional dances on that stage but eventually decided that we had all the excitement we needed for one day and headed home.
The lighting was very bad with bright advertising signs behind and no light on the dancers so apologizes for the poor photo. It was a lot of fun to see them dance though, and they had obviously worked hard to learn their routines because they performed flawlessly.
The feria is a much anticipated event every year so if you are in the area it’s definitely worth a few hours to check it out. It’s $3 to park, $2 entrance, but only $1 if you are retired. That’s not much when you consider how much time and work go into putting this together.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Rule of Thirds
The Rule of Thirds is a photography concept that puts the subject of the photograph off-center, which usually results in blank space in the rest of the image. If you focus closely on your subject and use a wide aperture, your photograph’s background will also be beautifully blurred in that blank space. The blurred area behind your focal point is referred to as bokeh, and when executed well, it adds depth and artistry to an otherwise simplistic photograph.
There are more bugs….
Weekly Photo Challenge: Symmetry
I am also way behind on photo challenges. I have been sorting through a couple years worth of photos and backing them up in case this old laptop bites the dust. In the process, I have come across some I want to use in these photo challenges. Warning – there are bugs!
For symmetry, I find some of the many representations we find in nature more interesting than a symmetrical composition of a photograph.
The Panama Adventure 