House Hunting In El Valle

Yesterday we walked around the charming town of El Valle de Anton.

We are staying at the Anton Valley Inn, which is very comfortable and centrally located across from the Church and just a couple of blocks from the Millionaire Street where the estates are beautifully landscaped behind fancy gates. There is a bakery right next door to the hotel, an ice cream store across the street and the restaurant here serves delicious food so this last stop has put a few extra pounds on the three of us I'm afraid. Rainy season is starting now so on our walk about we found refuge under archways of private drives while we waited out the brief storms.






We made friends with this monkey named Monica in the city center after visiting the market.
How wonderful it would be to have access to this quality of fruits and vegetables year round!!
Last night during dinner Keith saw a real estate agent drive by and when he stopped to visit with another man, Keith ran up to the car and asked him if he had time today, Thursday, to show us some properties for sale. We are not really serious buyers at this point, but it's a good way to see the town and surrounds. Jaime showed us several houses and lots under $200,000. We are too late to find great value for our money , prices have doubled here in the last five years. This has always been a haven of second homes for people from Panama, but now the word is out internationally about the beauty of the area and super tax breaks., as well as other perks designed to lure retirees to Panama.
The last home we saw was a real beauty, we may even consider renting this home next year. Put your name in now for space.







Tomorrow we will head back to Panama City. Shana Jan flies out early on Saturday morning for SLC; Keith & I leave Sunday for Dallas where we will spend the night before flying on to SLC on Monday morning. We have totally loved this time with Shana and the whole adventure during these last six months, but there's no place like home!

Boca Brava, Santa Catalina and Santa Fe~ an island, a surfing beach and a small mountain village

Since our last posting, Shana, Keith and I have done some major bus traveling! From Boquete to Boca Brava was a full day of bus, bus, collectivo, water taxi. We stayed on a remote island complete with howler monkeys in the trees and bugs of all sizes, the most annoying being the tiniest little biters. The rain each evening kept us hostage even during the day within the hotel/restaurant. Luckily there was a terraced covered deck with hammocks, perfect for looking back at the main land, the islands around us and the Pacific Ocean beyond. We considered snorkeling here, but the water was cloudy because of rain.
From Isla Boca Brava our travel day included a water taxi, collectivo, FIVE buses, and an hour and half taxi ride to Santa Catalina, a world famous surfing site, one of the top in Central America.
There we stayed with Mike, owner of La Buena Vida (the good life) and what a great place he has built there!! He has three little casitas filled with creative tile work inside and out.

We enjoyed yummy breakfasts at the cafe on the premises, Keith especially had fun talking with Mike about his creations and future plans to expand on his hillside property.

Santa Catalina is very small, only 400 residents.
We walked around town where life is centered around the beach, surfing and fishing.
Sunsets were viewed with dinner each night right on the shore where we watched the local fishermen carry in the day's catch.

Santa Catalina was very hot so we spent the sunniest hours reading in hammocks on the shady porch of our casita. It was a good life indeed!

Then off we headed to Santa Fe, directly north of Santa Catalina, back in the western highlands. The breezes there were super in the beautiful Hostel La Qhia, again relished with a book in the hammocks. Here the covered deck on the 2nd floor overlooked the well-maintained gardens below and the surrounding lush mountainside.
Santa Fe is virtually undiscovered by tourists. We had a couple more days of living in small town Panama, here there were certainly more chickens than humans, but every species was out walking the streets, doing what they do. We were happy that the hostel had a complete outside kitchen because there isn't much to choose from as far as eating establishments are concerned and we are pretty tired of rice, beans, cabbage salad & a small piece of chicken!
We spent two nights in each of these places, I'm sorry that we got behind on the blog but internet access was very limited and extremely slow!
Today we again bussed it, this time to our final town before returning to Panama City to fly home. We are now in El Valle de Anton, a popular getaway for urbanites from Panama City which is only two hours away. It is located high in the mountains in an ancient volcano crater so we are surround by high mountains. It was raining when we arrived after five hours on the road. Our last bus started with each of us standing in the aisle until some people got off along the way.

Buses are never full here in Latin America!! Shana was again a very good sport about the adventurous traveling situations, she just goes with the flow!! She has had fighting chickens in boxes on the lap of the boy beside her, watched whole families (mom, dad, 3 kids) share one short school bus bench in front of her and stood hanging on for dear life as the bus careened around tight curves weaving up the narrow mountain road. Today she claimed she was so nervous that she couldn't remember the 'Act of Contrition' :)! She has been amazed to see how many services the buses perform, not only do they transport people but they deliver mail and food along the way as well as stopping for people to run in businesses to have papers signed or pick up fruit... Somehow we always seem to choose our travel times to correspond with school release when the buses fill with uniformed students of all ages.

Boquete~ Flowers, Coffee and Natural Beauty, Come One, Come All!!

Boquete, recently named one of the top five places to retire internationally, was our last spot to visit. We spend three nights at the elegant Boquete Garden Inn, a splurge for us and well worth it!
The gardens were lovingly tended and the each of the ten rooms tastefully decorated. Each evening a social hour was held for the guests to mingle and Shana and I met some interesting people, all from California. Breakfast was served each morning in the garden and we enjoyed watching the brightly colored birds flit about the flowers and the pieces of fruit left out on various Buddha statues and birdbaths.

Our first full day in Boquete was spent checking out the small town itself, visiting a real estate office to check out properties (just for fun!) and having lunch. A river runs through the town and there are many streams coming from the hills and mountains surrounding Boquete. The afternoon brought dark clouds and a short rainstorm. Keith had an allergy attack of some sort so after finding some Benadryl we headed back to the Inn for an afternoon of reading in the gardens.

The second day we rented a car and drove around three loops just outside of town.


The single lane road took us through many fields of coffee, many of which had huge trumpet vines growing on the tall fences. The flowers bloom year-round in this area and are varied and lush!

We did drive by a couple of properties that we had inquired about the day before, one was a great ¼ acre lot with an ancient rock fence around it, a protected nature reserve behind and a very nice new home in front. We feel Panama is too far away from family and friends for us to retire, even part of the year, although there are many perks for pensioners here including super tax incentives and good health care. Besides there are no deals here anymore, at least in the Boquete area; the prices seem on par with Utah.
Boquete is a gardener’s paradise; everything seems to grow here. There are many gardens to tour including Mi Jardin Es Tu Jardin, an immense private garden open to the public. This garden had many paths leading around fountains, fishponds and painted animals of gigantic sizes, very whimsical indeed.


This morning, Wednesday, we left the Garden Inn, returned the rental car and jumped on the first of three buses which brought us to the shore of the Pacific Ocean southeast of Boquete. In the small fishing village on the water’s edge, we caught a water taxi to the Boca Brava Island where we will spend two nights in this remote jungle resort.
A howler monkey welcomed us, as did more than a few bugs, but the geckos are busily at work now that the sun has set.

Shana still has a bad cough though she says she feels great. We will probably spend tomorrow just resting and reading on the beach rather than any strenuous water sports or even snorkeling.

Just a quick tale about Shana’s good attitude~ This afternoon Shana stayed behind in our room to use the restroom while Keith & I went up to the restaurant for our late lunch/dinner. I told her I had the key and to just lock the door behind her when she came up.
Keith and I were upstairs for what I was beginning to feel was a long time, maybe 15 minutes, but I didn’t want to rush her or give her the impression that I was hovering so we waited patiently to order. Finally up walked Shana with a big grin on her face. Evidentially she didn’t notice on our quick inspection of the room upon arrival that we had our own deck overlooking the waterfront. She had walked out and followed my directions perfectly, securing the door from the inside. She was locked out of the room on the deck above a steep jungle descent to the water. She said she waited a bit and when no one came by decided she would have to climb down, which LUCKILY she did without following down the hill into the ocean. She was a bit winded from the excitement, but we all shared a big laugh!