Chorro de Macho

I had an early start today -- the usual - go to the supermarket across the street, buy a thing of yogurt, fruit loops, a can of tuna, and bread...head back to Hotel Don Pepe, sunscreen, eat the yogurt and fruit loops, then pack my bag for my morning hike.

I decided to go to Chorro de Macho (Man´s waterfalls?) today. My legs are sore from yesterday´s hike up Cerro la Cruz, so I briefly contemplated catching a cab. Luckily, I decided not to. The walk was just an ever so slight incline uphill, for a few miles. Nothing to difficult.

It seems like the Canopy tour here owns the land where Chorro de Macho is, so you have to pya $3.50 to get in to the trails for the waterfalls. Other people were doing the canopy tour - 6 ziplines for $52. I didn´t do that since it was way out of my budget (not to mention that lonely planet has the tour misstated for $40). But I´m glad I didn´t do the ziplines here, because they looked pretty drab and boring compared to the Boquete Tree Trek.

I went on to the Chorro de Macho and hung out there for a while, watching the frigid mountain waters cascade down the rocks. It was nice, peaceful, tranquil. A guy said Buenas to me, and it scared me because I didn´t expect that there would be someone right behind my back. He was a tour leader and had 6 tourists. They were checking out the falls. I watched the falls, and all of a sudden, noticed a flash to my side. When I looked, an insensitive curly haired blond lady of the tour had taken my picture. I was like..um..okay. haha. She must think I´m a local. So a few minutes later, she asked to take my picture (maybe she should have asked the first time!), so I said okay. I just played along with the game. I thought it was quite hilarious, actually. And she thanked me when she left, acting like I didn´t know English. And all she has is a picture of some American traveller by the falls. Funny. But now I know how the locals feel if someone tries to take your picture. It is an odd feeling, like I am part of the show or part of a zoo. In a way, it puts things in perspective.

I walked back to the hotel to take a rest and to have lunch. It is a windy day today, with a little bit of rain. I waited a while until the rain subsided to head back out for my second hike-walk of the day.

Using my crappy Lonely Planet Panama guidebook, I decided to find these ´square trunked trees´ that they say are 10 minutes behind Hotel Campestre. I walked, and never found these trees. Oh well, at least it was a good way to burn off my lunch!

I´m going to veg out for the rest of the day. Tomorrow, I think I am going to try to climb La India Dormida - one of the well known peaks around here. I forget the legend to the mountain at the moment (I´ll post the legend with the pictures, whenever I get around to it), but something about the hope of finding love. It´s a tougher hike around the area, and Lonely Planet says to consult for guides, but I´ve been fine so far. I´ll figure it out...

Ahh...much better days now...

I moved places and now amd staying at Hotel Don Pepe in El Valle. It is much, much, much nicer. I actually feel clean here. Well not right now, as I hiked some 6+ miles in the sun today...but the fact that I can get clean here is nice.

Yesterday and today were great. Yesterday, I walked over to the thermal pool. For a dollar, I got to use a mud treatment for my face, and soak in a nice warm, nutrient rich thermal pool. What a bargain! The grounds are pretty -- you are surrounded by lush vegetation. A great place to relax. Afterwards, I walked around the town for a long time, and ended up walking about 6.5 miles.

Today, I went hiking for about 3 hours straight with a 20 minute break for brunch. I hiked over to Chorro Mozas - Waterfalls of Women(?). Well, I don´t know if I actually found the real waterfalls or not -- hiking alone still creeps me out a bit, so I went so far as finding a set of waterfalls that was nice, then hiked back. No one on the pathway, a bit lush out there, so if something happened, no one would ever know.

I hiked back to the road and then at a junction, decided to hike up to Cerro de la Cruz (Hill of the Cross). It was a pretty good hike up a 4x4 road, all the way winding uphill. I finally got there and stood before a gorgeous view of El Valle. I brunched at the top, then headed down back to town. And on my way back, I finally saw a resplendant Quetzal. I saw it out of the corner of my eye, then watched in the trees. A very beautiful bird, it is...

El Valle is a nice place, up in the mountains. Not too far from Panama City. It is where an old volcano existed, and millions of years ago, the top blew off creating a crater. The crater filled with water creating a lake, but has thus drained since then, creating the waterfalls around here. Now, the previous volcano edge is lush and green, and the small town of El Valle sits at the bottom of the crater.

It is not so much a backpacker´s place given the cost of things. But I thought I would check it out anyways. Yep, breaking the budget, but oh well. It´s nice here, I could stay for much longer and just hike around all day. Two more nights here and then I will move on...

The tribulations of traveling solo...

So I had to cut my trip to Santa Catalina short because of the harassment from the men. Yup, I must say it is was the worst in all of my travels anywhere in the world. They are nonstop with the harassment. And even the old decrepit men will harass you.

I can´t remember where I left off about Santa Catalina. It is a cool place, don´t get me wrong. But don´t stay in the town. If you go there (and are a female), reserve accomodations on the beach, and don´t leave it. It´s pretty safe at the beach (Playa Estero), since it´s mostly tourists there. Relaxed, nice. But if you go to town, that´ll make you want to leave...

I walked from town to the Playa Estero every day. And sometimes to the beach down my road (but it´s not as nice). And every day, I got hassled by the men. I´m normally a friendly person when I travel, but I just quit being friendly. But you can´t avoid it. The men will be in your face and won´t leave you alone. Perhaps it´s because I can pass as Panamanian. However, my last day, when I was looking for a last chance to go to Isla Coiba, I met a few blonde haired 'gringas' who had the same problems. But they were staying at the beach, so they were better off. They had just that venture to town to borrow snorkelling gear. So I came to the conclusion that it was any man to harass any woman in Santa Catalina.

My last night there, I was eating my roasted chicken and fried plantains at a streetside vendor. Talking to these 2 Panamanian guys I ran into before (they were actually nice). Then this other dude, Felix, comes by and talks. But won´t really leave me alone. Then he leaves. After dinner, I went down the road to Coiba Dive Center to see if they had any trips for the next day (today). Felix, who was in a hammock at a fruit stand, threw a rock at me and asked me where I was going. That was it. The whistles, I can handle. But when someone throws stuff at you...it was my signal that it would be my last night in Santa Catalina. There were no trips to Coiba going anyways. As I walked past Felix again (it was the only route through town), he harassed me again. He said I was good for him (um..yuck). And what really worried me was that he and his friend had slingshots in their hands. I was worried that as I walked away, I would get pelted. But I told him that he better not hit me with anything. Luckily, he didn´t.

I left Santa Catalina this morning, headed for the mountain town of El Valle, hoping for a bit more solitude here. After the Santa Catalina experience, I became super annoyed at the flirting. Here again, whistling. Nothing more, not like Santa Catalina. I just have to get used to the whistling.

I managed to pick a real shithole to stay in tonight. For $15 (my budget is supposedly $30-day for everything), it is disgusting. Dirty everything. I don´t even want to describe the huge stain on the bedsheet. I´m breaking out my sleepsheet tonight, that´s for sure. First time on my trip. I´m moving in the morning to a place for $30-night. Screw the budget...

Santa Catalina, at last!

Yesterday, Sean and I parted ways. He was on his way up to San Jose, Costa Rica by bus to fly out today. I decided to hit the beach and do some more surfing. After a harrowing 13ish hour transportation mess yesterday, I finally made it to Santa Catalina.

It was interesting nevertheless. Boquete to David. David to Santiago. Santiago to Sona. Wait for 3.5 hours. Sona to Santa Catalina, but part of the way our bus broke down, and also came to a halt as the helper guy and a farmer guy ran out of the bus to chase a giant iguana. They leaped over a barbed wire fence to catch it, and they did. He brought it back on the bus. Then we stopped by one house, I´m assuming it´s the kids house. And he dropped the giant iguana off to an older guy in a hammock. I´m guessing that he caught the family´s dinner for the night.

I wanted to seek out a beachfront place, but little did I know that it was up a hill and quite a hike with all my gear to get there. I finally got there, but nothing was available. I was losing daylight hours, so I talked to a guy from Florida, whose kids were surfing into the sunset. I was going to beg/bribe him to take me back to town because ther was no way in hell that I was going to do the hike again. Luckily, the owner of Mar y Sol hotel came by to let his puppy play in the water. He took me back to town, and I stayed at his hotel for the night. Expensive, but not many options. Today, I moved to a very pink hotel for $25-night. Not bad, did laundry, and hiked back to the beach.

Tomorrow, I´ll surf all day and that´s about it. One of these days I´m here, I´ll try to make it out to Isla Coiba. We´ll see...

Internet is slow and expensive here, so you won´t here from me for a few more days...

Panama Canal pics - Jan 30, 2008

I'm slowly but surely uploading some pictures on my flickr account. The internet speed here is decent, but not excellent, so uploading is pretty slow.

I just wanted to share some pictures from my visit to the Panama Canal on Jan 30th. It was a pretty adventurous way of getting there, but I did make it on the public buses and by foot. Needless to say, I was the only tourist going to the canal this way. Everyone else whizzed by me on their mega tour buses as I walked my way to the canal. But I like it that way. I met a really nice security guard who showed me the way to go.

Click on the pictures to see the bigger picture.


Railroad tracks on the way to the Panama Canal


Panama Canal


Miraflores Locks


The obligatory "I've been to the Panama Canal" shot -- apparently on a windy day!

Updates

Once again, I have been out of touch. Internet has either been unavailable or really expensive...

On Feb 9th, I went down to Quepos, found a place to stay, then went to the airport to meet Sean. We met up with Teresa and her boyfriend, Chris. Took it easy for the vening, did happy hour and hung out.

The next day, Sean and I checked into our pimpin' pad at the Costa Verde II with more than 180 degree view of the coast and Manuel Antonio National Park. Ahhh...such a nice place! Then we met up with Teresa and Chris at Manuel Antonio National Park. We hiked a bit, hung out, watched the monkeys, watched one monkey steal a bag of chips from someone, watched an iguana feast on a giant grasshopper that Sean flipped over, and beached it.

On the 11th, we met up with Daisy as well. We left for Sara's wedding around 4:30pm. It was held on the beach, with the sun in the background. The officiant was a character -- she came down from San Jose to do the wedding. She was a bigger lady, whose boobs looked like lethal missiles. And she complained about her hair all the time. Oh yeah, and she wouldn't stop talking. A character, nevertheless. Sara's wedding was cute -- vows on the beach. Both Sara and Daryl started crying - so sweet. The ocean crashing on the rocks behind them as the sun started to set. Family and friends gathered around. A nice way to start their life together.

The reception was held at Mono Azul, where Sara's dad dressed in an Elvis outfit and then did karaoke -- good entertainment. An after-party was held at a really nice villa that Sara's father and brothers rented out. We hung out, poolside, chitchatted, then left around 1am or so.

We all parted ways since everyone was on to something else the next day -- me and Sean off to Dominical, Daisy off to Nicaragua, and Teresa and Chris back to the states.

Dominical was nice -- surf lessons, surfing, and damn it, I got stung by a stingray 3 times on my foot. It hurt like a bitch for a few hours, but then the pain was gone, so all was good. The surfing was fun, good times, but both Sean and I got really sunburnt.

So then we headed for the mountains. I took Sean back to Lost and Found Ecolodge in Panama to escape the sun and the heat. A nice place to veg, read a book, do crosswords. We did some hiking as well as a horseback ride.

We've met some cool people along the way, and now are in Boquete, Panama, staying with a guy named Greg who is going to open a hostel soon. We're actually the first customers. It's more like we're just staying at his house. But that's the feel he wants. He bought the place about 1 month ago, and is in the process of fixing it up -- possibly to open up in a week or so...cute place, lots of potential. I'll pass the word on for him.

Yes, I´m still alive :p

I haven´t had a chance to update in a while. Have been travelling quite a bit, pretty constantly, and in places where internet doesn´t exist...

So I went to Bocas, but was kind of tired of being in the sun and in the heat, so I only spent one night there. Explored Isla Bastimentos, and adventure it was...more stories later.

From there, I hooked up with 9 other travellers from Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, and Israel. We all went up to a new Ecolodge called Lost and Found near Boquete. It is a gorgeous location. And stories there, too...to come later. We hung out there for 3 nights since it was buy 2 nights get one free.

After Lost and Found, we all headed to David then parted ways. Me, Anabelle, Richard, and Glen stayed in David overnight. Anabelle made her way over to Panama City today. Richard, Glen, Taylor (a girl we met in the hostel from the Dallas area) and I headed on towards San Jose. Richard, Glen, and I got off at San Isidro to hop catch a connecting bus to Dominical. Taylor went on to San Jose, and tomorrow she will go back to the organic chocolate farm she is working on.

Long story short, the Dominical bus actually says Quepos on in, no one at the bus stop knew that, and so we got stuck in San Isidro. We found a hotel for 5000 colones each ($10) so we´ll bed here for the night, then will head on the 7am bus headed for Quepos. I´ll go to Quepos and the boys will go to Dominical.

Sean is flying into Quepos tomorrow..yay! Where I´ll meet him at the airport. Lodging..nothing booked, so will have to figure that one out tomorrow. Yay, now Sean can fend off all the guys from me. I´ve only been here for a week and have had one marriage offer and a few boyfriend offers, too. haha.

Allright, I think we´re going to get showers (it is damn hot here!!!) and then go for a beer or something.

Hasta luego for now.

Paradise Found

Part of me wants to keep this place a total secret. Part of me wants to tell people...

I came back from San Blas today. It was, like the guy in my hostel told me, one of those places that you hear about and see in pictures, but do not believe it exists...until you find it.

I will keep this short and sweet for now, maybe do a full write up much later.

The tour ended up being just what I wanted. I went by jeep to the San Blas area. It was one crazy bumpy ride over. We got to the river, then I went by boat down the river and into the sea.

The island I stayed on held a Kuna community of about 400-600 people. Back to nature. All the house materials made of earth products -- walls of wood that resembled bamboo, roofs made of palm tree leaves. The toilets...now this will sound strange...right over the water. Yeah, that is right, we pooed and peed in the ocean. But funny thing was that the most colorful fish we saw were right under the toilet, the water was clear, and it did not stink. But I would not swim there. There are no real beaches on the island anyways.

Instead, you take a boat out to an island further out, a deserted or almost deserted island, and swim, snorkel, relax. Paradise found.

Besides the island I stayed on, I visited 2 other islands. We were the only people on the island other than 1 small family. The first island was truely paradise. I believe it was the only island with flushing toilets and running water. Great for swimming. The second was surrounded by coral, so not so good for swimming.

Each day, we would get breakfast, then our boat driver would take us to our island of the day. They would leave us there in peace, then would come and bring lunch, leave again, then pick us up later.

The simple life...not much to do. Peace, tranquility. Some people get bored because they want something to do. Not me. We ended up making fun for ourselves. Underwater handstand and front or backflip from water at your knees contests, coconut throwing contests, playing hot potato with a local medicinal fruit with a local boy, island arts and crafts, etc etc etc.

And the people. Wow. The most friendly, likeable people on earth. Keeping their culture. Sharing it. And damn, they are smart business people -- making a killing off of it.

Some people think that $25 is too expensive to pay for an island stay (sleeping in a hammock -- okay, fun to rest, but not so comfy to sleep in) - but it includes all meals, transport to other islands, snorkel gear, and heck, PARADISE. Damn, I thought I was cheap. Seriously, I think it is a hell of a bargain for finding paradise.

I have found a new #1 favorite spot in the world. It is the San Blas Archipelago. Life is simple. Everyone works. It is a great community feel. The people always have fun every day. I believe that they are rich (from tourism), but you would not be able to tell because their life is simple. It is perfect in paradise.

I am part speechless of the experience because it was so incredible and unique. I wish I could have stayed for longer (but my big backpack was in Panama City and my money was running out and I have a flight out). But I am okay with it. I got a taste of paradise, and I know I will be back. Back to the Kuna Yala.

Aaaahhhh. That is how I feel. That is all I will say about paradise for now...

Tonight, I am in blah Panama City. But tomorrow I will be in Bocas del Toro. No place to stay. Negative response from the place I emailed. And Panamanian public phones suck - I have not been able to make a call out yet (and have tried and tried and tried). People are telling me that everything is booked. I may have to sleep on the beach for a night. I fly out in the morning. I guess I will see what happens. It is all part of the adventure...