Weekly Photo Challenge: Fresh

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fresh

We are lucky to live in Chiriqui Province where they grow most of the produce for all of Panama. There is very fertile soil and cooler temperatures up in “the highlands”, or up in the mountains so they grow tons of vegetables. It is something to see the farms literally on the sides of the mountains! It’s a beautiful area and if you want to see some photos, check out a previous post on Cerro Punta.

Most Panamanians don’t have a lot of money so they have to shop carefully and get the best value for every penny. When my neighbor said she knew of the best produce market and offered to show me, of course I agreed! But, she said we have to go on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday after 3PM because that is when the trucks come in with new supplies.

Sure enough, we weren’t at the market very long before a truck showed up piled with fresh produce.
For anyone local wanting to find this market, look for Elektra on Obaldia a ways south of the Pan-American Highway. The market is around the corner on a side street.
Plantains, anyone?
Fresh potatoes, cabbage, carrots, celery, lettuce, and crates of many other things were unloaded from the trucks.
I went to buy lettuce but came home with all this including a great find, 5 pounds of strawberries for $6.25. The whole thing was about $12, and everything but the papaya was taken directly from the bins that came off the trucks.

We are lucky to live here where we can have inexpensive, delicious, and very fresh produce every day. I noticed that I started feeling better within a month of moving here and I really think the fresh food has a lot to do with it. One time we lost the can opener and didn’t notice for weeks! It’s great to have fresh fruits and vegetables for every meal. This is one more reason to love Panama.

 

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David/Boquete Rental information from Ed Horna

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

joeltc1's avatarFindingMySelfinPanama

I just received an email from Ed Horna, my friend and the guy who showed us the house we live in. I’m posting it here as a favour to Ed and the readers of the blog.
If you have any questions about the properties, address them to Ed, his contact info is at the bottom of the page since I am not going to act as a middleman! PLEASE CONTACT ED, NOT ME!!!!!!!!
Hi guys ,

Just so you know if any one ask you about rentals in the david

boquete area , this is what I have at this moment :

David , located near El Rey super market , a very nice 3 brm 2 bath fully furnished house fenced in fast internet available , 900. a month .

David , located in the down town area , 2 brm 1 bath apt Unfunished .

AC in each…

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Hiking in Bajo Mono, Boquete

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

Recently, I was invited to hike the Pipeline Trail, or the Lost Waterfall trail with some friends. It was a very interesting drive to find the trail, as I talked about in my last post with rock walls, waterfalls, and hidden castles. For directions and helpful photos to help you find this trail, check out this page from the Boquete Travel Guide.

It is the end of the summer dry season now, but the area is still very beautiful. We didn’t hike all the way to the end of the trail because other hikers said there is no water in the waterfall right now, but we hiked enough to see plenty of beautiful spots, and even a couple of the reclusive resplendent quetzals which was a surprise.

The trail starts here.
We hadn’t gone far along the trail when we stopped to see what another group was looking at. It was this glass wing butterfly! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_oto
There were some pretty flowers among all the green
The trail was very well maintained, and had these little bridges over the streams.
Do not pass, dangerous. If you look closely, you can see one of the beehives that is back in there. Since honey bees in Panama are Africanized, we stayed well away.
We came across a tour guide pointing out something to the man with him, so of course had to stop and ask what they were looking at. There in the tree was a spectacular resplendent quetzal!
Another view of this beautiful bird.
Farther on the trail became more narrow, but I think it was prettier up here in the forest.
And then, another tour guide pointing out another resplendent quetzal! This one was back in the trees a bit and I had to make full use of my zoom, but you can see the bright blue and red colors.
It is also worth looking down because there are some pretty and unusual flowers to be found.
The path continues through the greenery.
We startled a squirrel who dashed up a tree chattering loudly.
The little bug, about the size of a large ant, kept trying to hide under the leaves but I finally got a shot of it.
Colorful bromeliads in a tree
Another pretty butterfly
I imagine the trail got its name from this pipe that can be seen along the trail in quite a few parts.
Up in the highlands things are lush and green even in the dry season.
I saw a flash of bright yellow come across the path and followed it down.
No hike would be complete without some cool bugs!
This tree looks like it is covered in lace
This poor butterfly is beautiful, though quite tattered.
A peek at a mountain through the clouds.

I haven’t done much hiking in Panama, but I was glad I went on this one. I enjoyed spending time with good friends, and it was amazing to see a couple quetzals! Many have gone looking and haven’t found them at all. I’m sending out a big thank you to the tour guides who happened to be on the path, because without them I could easily have walked right on by and not realized what was in the trees.

Maybe I should go hiking more often.

 

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Boquete – Some New Spots

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

Sometimes I don’t go to Boquete for months and then sometimes, like last week, I’m up there twice in the same week. I was invited to hike the Pipeline Trail with some friends so I figured while I was up there a couple days before, I’d see if we could find it. This brought us to some really interesting places I hadn’t seen before.

Just before driving down into Boquete proper, there is a tourist center with a great view of the valley below and the mountains beyond.

Just before driving down into Boquete proper, there is a tourist center with a great view of the valley below and the mountains beyond.

The Pipeline Trail, or the Hidden Waterfall is in the Bajo Mono area. For directions and helpful pictures, check the Boquete Travel Guide HERE. When you get to the sign that says “The Lost 3 Waterfalls” you are at the beginning of the Pipeline Trail. (an aside, the last thing on this page is a video made by my friend Ryan when he hiked to the 3 waterfalls, and his companion was Gary who has been playing music with my husband! It’s a small world sometimes).

The drive to this area is more beautiful with every passing mile. We passed the rock wall I posted about recently, and then the San Ramon Waterfall. It’s the end of dry season but it still seems to have enough water to make a very pretty waterfall.

San Ramon Waterfall

San Ramon Waterfall

Past the waterfall is the “Lost Castle” which is definitely worth a visit because it is an absolutely gorgeous spot! Joel did some research on the castle and found stories that either the owner died, the owner’s wife died, or she decided she didn’t want to live there and construction stopped. Now it is possibly for sale though he wasn’t able to find any details. Can you imagine getting this property and finishing the castle? I was so taken with the area that I took quite a few photos.

Your castle in the forest!
There are huge beautiful trees in front of the castle
Looking up
The inside is unfinished with graffiti, broken glass, and this pretty bougainvillea growing through the upstairs window.
The river in front is so pretty.
We had to stop and enjoy the river for a while.
This tree covered with flowers caught my eye.
There were a lot of angle trumpet flowers all along the drive up.
One of many bromeliads in the trees.
what a place

Eventually we found our way to the beginning of the hiking trail. News and photos of the hike will be in the next post.

After returning to town and having a nice lunch with my friends, we decided to check out the orchid festival that was going on in Boquete. There were some very pretty orchids, fairgrounds full of colorful flowers, and lots of interesting vendors to visit.

One of many unusual and interesting orchids.
Another pretty specimen
More orchids with prize ribbons.
There was a section of bromeliads too.
The fairgrounds were full of beautiful flowers

By the time we finished looking around it was almost time for my teacher from Habla Ya to get off work. She spent a lot of hours on line with me before I arrived in Panama trying to pound some Spanish into my thick head, and we have been good friends ever since. We hadn’t seen each other in too long so I was happy to catch up with her as we rode down the hill and a bonus, her guy and little boy were waiting below so I got to see them too!

I’ve been having a lot of good times lately 🙂

Panama is a beautiful country

Panama is a beautiful country

 

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Ephemeral

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

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.

xx

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Wall

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

Weekly Photo Challenge: Wall

There are many cliffs and walls of rock in Panama
Los Ladrillos Wall is in the Boquete area
Panama was formed by volcanic activity, so it is no surprise o find evidence of this.
How nice that this wall has been cleared so we can all see it.

xx

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.

xx

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Orange

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

Weekly Photo Challenge: Orange

A grasshopper looks at me from an orange heliconia
A black bee visits an orange lantana
An orange drop of sap glows in the sun
A beautiful orange hibiscus
It may be more gold than orange, but it’s still a cool moth.
Rose, orange, yellow, white… a pretty heliconia of many colors
A tree ablaze with orange flowers
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Reward

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reward

The lizard gets daring and climbs up the desk lamp, knowing his reward will be all the bugs he can eat as long as the light is on.
After it rains, sometimes we are rewarded with beautiful water droplets on plants.
If you know where to look, you can be rewarded with mora berries.
A real reward for being in the right place at the right time, is seeing one of these beautiful motmots. I think he was checking out this outdoor kitchen looking for a reward of his own.

If I keep at it, maybe my reward will be the satisfaction of being caught up with the photo challenges! 😀

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Casitas for Rent in Cuesta de Piedra

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

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.

These are the two casitas
They are on this road to Volcan. It is easy to catch a bus going either north or south in front of the casitas.
This is a view from the farm behind the casitas.

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 kitchen
the living room, which is bigger than it looks in this photo
One of the bedrooms
The other bedroom
The bathroom
Your landlady

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.

The front door and living room
The living room
The kitchen
The bathroom is opposite the kitchen
The bedroom
The stairs to the loft are beside the front door
The loft could be fun!

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.

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House Sharing in David #2

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

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.

This is the front of the house (and my bike – I live just down the street)
The back yard, with a comfortable shading sitting area (we had run off with the chairs to sit by the chicken house). The dog is Brownie, a sweet and friendly dog. Things look a bit brown because it’s the end of the dry season but when the rains return the grass will be green again. Not shown – the most recent arrivals, some baby chicks in an enclosure at the back of the yard. In a few months they should start providing eggs.
The living room
The front terrace
The dining room. There is also a small sitting room to the right in front of the dining room.
The kitchen. Cedo used to have a restaurant so she has all the pots and pans, and can teach you how to make all sorts of yummy Panamanian food if you are interested.
The bedroom – it used to be occupied by the grandson who is a serious baseball player. If you want to change the decor I’m sure this can be negotiated.
There is a built in closet and drawer storage area in the bedroom.
The bathroom is across the hall. There is hot water by “suicide shower”, a typical Panamanian on demand water heater so named because it runs by electricity.

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

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