Panama… Una Escapada de la Ciudad (Span.) | An Escape from the City…
After so much hustle and bustle in the city, exciting as it is, it was time to get out of town for a spell, para un cambio de paisaje (literally: for a change of landscape, English expression: for a change of scenery, Italian: per cambiare aria), so we hopped in el carro (It. la macchina) the car and headed about an hour and a half southwest of Panama City to explore the Valle de Anton.
Lush, slightly cooler, quiet and slow-paced, it was just what we needed.What struck me most about this place was the greenery and the water–so much in evidence everywhere – animals roaming freely, and more pedestrians and bicycles on the roads than cars. Hemos alquilado bicis para explorar el pueblo! (We rented bikes to explore the town!) Let’s take a spin through the Valle de Anton…
Tiny tamarin monkeys sound like birds. This little guy, posing on the bike tire of his human, a local guide, is about a year old.
Una balanza al Mercado Publico. En vista tambien hay el platano ubicuo, zanahorias, ajo, cebollas, y repollo. / A scale at the Public Market. Also in view: the ubiquitous plantain, carrots, garlic, onions and cabbage.
Mamones chinos, similar to lychee fruit. The market vendor sold me “cuatro por cuara”, four for a quarter, (cuara is Panamaniam slang for 25 cents, from the English word quarter).
Un gallo (a rooster) — they seem to be everywhere! — in front yards and along the roads.
Una mamà lleva s su hija a la escuela (a mom takes her daughter to school). Look closely, both are smiling. People here seem peaceful and content.
Sacred meets profane meets utility: a Madonna graces an electricity meter.
Un caballo (It. Un cavallo) A horse grazes by the roadside.
What a cutie, she definitely looks like she’s in on the joke!
Front yard of a villa on Calle Los Millionarios (Millionaires Road), where Noriega and his gang used to have country homes. The gangsters are gone, but las casas bellas quedan (the beautiful houses remain).
The main event: La Piedra Pintada (the Painted Rock), a remnant of El Valle’s pre-Columbian culture, is a 15-ft boulder featuring a collection of ancient petroglyphs.
Closeup of la PIedra Pintada, the Painted Rock. It makes me thimk of an ox (It. un bue, Sp. Un buey).
On the sendero (path) de la Piedra Pintada. Climbing that rock fearlessly!
Una cascada tropical (It. una cascata tropicale) a tropical waterfall along the path.
All along the upward path there are small trails leading to people’s homes. This mom travels on foot with her small daughter… 40 minutes round trip — 60 with groceries, she tells us.
A park worker carries plantas jovenes (young plants) out of the pelting rain to shelter.
While hiking on the path, we got stuck in a sudden heavy downpour and found ourselves huddling under the leafiest tree we could find, with just one small umbrella and one thin rain poncho between two people.
After about 10 minutes and getting pretty soggy, it
It takes more than a lil’ ol rainstorm to stop folks here!
looked like it would be more than just a flash storm, so we screwed up our courage and carefully descended the slippery path, avoiding gullies of water gushing around us. The rainstorm lasted the better part of an hour, giving us time to take in some interesting scenes along the way…
A very churned up Rio Guayabo after an hour-long tropical downpour.
Bikes everywhere! Often with two people aboard. Una pareja feliz (a happy couple) poses in the rain.
Next, we rode our bicicletas (bicycles) to los Pozos Termales (the hot springs).
$2.25 adult entrance fee — deal of the century!
Relaxing in the hot springs. Looking funny with a barro (It. fango) mud mask, but feeling great!
Finally we headed back to main part of town, passing a few more interesting and typical sights in this lovely mountain valley of Valle de Anton…
Uno de los autobuses publicos pintados. / One of the painted public buses.
Still-functioning cabinas telefonicas (phone booths), standing like dinosaurs, even though every other person here seems to have a cell phone to their ear.
The mini mart/convenience store M/S (short for Mini Supermercacdo) Fuente del Valle, an important town hub on the Avenida Principal (Main Street).
But the most emblematic shot of the Valle de Anton is this one:
A mom walking her child to school, a bicyclist, and a dog resting right in the middle… all sharing the road… just another peaceful day in Valle de Anton, Panama.
Have you been to Valle de Anton or anywhere like it? Which of these pics is your favorite shot? Love reading your comments!
I love all your pics, lets go to argentina, I love those mamones leche fruit, they had them in costa rica. cheaper than a quarter. thanks for sharing
Si chica! Vamonos a Argentina! Gracias por tu comentario 🙂 Hasta pronto, Viktoria, J.
Great pictures. They gave me a sense of your experience. Crazy rain and it’s very cool there are so many bikes. My favorite picture is the one with the lychee like fruit on the white plate. You look great in the hiking picture.
Lindas fotos todas (tutti belle foti??), Jodinita. You can join us with Viktoria in Salta, NW Argentina in mid-November. Great scenery, vino, empanadas, Colonial architecture, and folklore. And with the dollar paralelo due to the devaluations, everything is half price if you use cash
Ci vediamo in il cuara d’inverno. ep
Grazie Diana! Glad you enjoyed my “bike tour” of Valle de Anton… not as azzardato (daring) as your rides 😉 but fun!
Ciao Ermanno e grazie! Si dice “tutte belle foto” or “belle foto tutte”. Viktoria and I would love to join you in Argentina… pero, mid Nov might be difficil with my academic schedule… dobbiamo parlare… we have to talk 🙂
Those are great pictures!!! Especially, those of you. Is that you in the mud bath???
Grazie John/Giovanni! Si`, that’s me in the fango (mud)!