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.