Drive to El Valle de Anton - March 12th

When we left Panama City on March 12, we drove to a place we hadn't been to before called El Valle de Anton.  We thought we would check the place out, and see what we thought of it in comparison to Boquete.  The road to El Valle was very narrow and had plenty of curves.  We thought El Valle was a very pretty place.

This picture is outside our hotel room in El Valle.

Relaxing on the hotel grounds

We walked a trail to a waterfall and there were a few suspension bridges along the way.

This was the view from one of the suspension bridges.

Overall, our impression of El Valle is that it is a very beautiful place.  We saw many beautiful flowers everywhere and many homes had beautiful gardens as well.  The town itself is kind of spread out although there are several businesses close together in the very center of town.  We had lunch at a hotel when we first got there and weren't impressed with the food at all.  That evening, we had pizza and that was quite good.  

Around Panama City - March 11th

Today is Mom's birthday!!!  Happy Birthday to you, Mom!

Nice breakfast this morning in our hotel.  The weather was warm and the birds were just singing away!

Angie and John

After breakfast, we drove out to the Panama Canal and had some luck.  After paying for out entrance tickets, we went out to the observation deck and a ship was just going through and we could see 2 more behind it that would be coming through soon.  So, we stood out in the sun and waited for at least one of those ships to get through the locks and as before, it was all very interesting.  It seems it doesn't matter how many times we visit these locks, it is always amazing and fascinating to watch the ships going through.  We didn't stay to watch the entire process (too hot), instead we went back inside and watched a short video about the building of the Panama Canal.

Ships approaching the locks

Entering the first lock

Being steadied from the edges by "mules", those little box cars along the sides.

Here the mules are getting in front of the ship to pull it the last few inches and then they're going to go back down and try to stop the ship completely with those wires.

The ship is inside the lock and the lock is filling with water.

The next lock the ship will go in...

Looking ahead to the next lock

The back of the ship, and the mule cars helping to slow it down.

The ship is about to be enclosed in the second lock.

We didn't watch too much after this since it is so slow going and the sun is pretty hot out on that observation deck.   So we went back inside the building and watched a short video about the building of the Panama Canal which helped us cool off a bit.  Then we got back in the car and drove to the Amador Causeway to have lunch.  We went to a place called Lenos y Carbon and had some delicious shish-kebabs at a restaurant along the water's edge with the skyline of Panama City in the distance.

The skyline up a little close.....

and basically how it looked from where we ate.

After visiting the causeway, we took a break at our hotel and then that evening went out (in a taxi this time because we'd have to drive through that rough area again - this time on purpose) to see Casco Viejo.  It is always so interesting there.

John and Guillermo looking over the wall in the Plaza de Francia

Plaza de Francia

Looking back towards a section of Panama City from Plaza de Francia

John and Angie

After walking around in Plaza de Francia and along the sea wall, we found the restaurant that Guillermo and I had eaten at in 2009.  When we arrived at the restaurant, there was maybe one other table with people, so at first we thought we had made a wrong choice since a lot of the other outdoor restaurants had way more people.  Well, I can't say the "food" was all that exciting - it was good enough - but we ended up having such a wonderful time.  We picked a good table, and a group of people came later to the table next to us.  Next thing we know, there's a guitar player on the bench by their table.  Just listening to him sing and play his guitar, and adding to it - the ladies at the table next to us singing their hearts out along with the guitar player.  It was wonderful.  Angie requested a song dear to her heart and the ladies also sang along to that one - as Angie sang along too, with tears in her eyes.  At one point, two of the ladies got up, sat next to the guitar player and sang along with him there.

We had so much fun this evening, lingering over dessert and drinks.  When we finally did leave, we walked to their table to tell them how much we enjoyed listening to them sing and ended up talking with their group for a little while.  Turns out they all were from Venezuela, now living in Panama.  Well, they really made our evening special.

Update starting with March 10th

We got up early today, packed up a few clothes and then walked into town to catch a bus to the city of David.  We had a short wait for the bus and with all the construction on the road to David, the bus ride was a little slower than usual.  We got off the bus at the bus station and then immediately caught a taxi to take us to Budget Rental Car.
Once we got our car we were ready to drive to Panama City where we'll be meeting our friends Angie and John in the evening!  We had a good drive to Panama City and it seemed to go pretty fast.  We stopped for lunch at a pizza place in the town of Santiago and when we got to Coronado, we drove down to the beach to check it out. We soon found that most of the beach there is inaccessible since there are private homes along the beach.  So, we drove back out of there and continued on to Panama City.  Once we crossed the Bridge of the Americas, we were pretty close to where our hotel was and we hoped we could remember well enough how to get to the place.  We were SOOOOO close, but one missed turn (if we could have only been confident that we SHOULD have turned there) turned into a near nightmare.  The next thing we knew we were on a busy highway heading in the opposite direction and no easy way to get back.  Then, to make things worse, when we did find a place where we could get off the highway, it was to one of the worst sections ever of Panama City.  It was one of those things where it seemed like each consecutive move we made was worse than the last.  There we were,  in a section of Panama City which is dangerous and quite scary!!!  It's where Manuel Noriega was holed up and where the US bombed way back when.  So, all the buildings are in deplorable condition because of the bombings but people are living in those buildings anyway.  So, you can imagine......
So, after a little while of thinking "we'll turn here on this street and get back", only to find the street became one way, or every side street was tiny and filled with people and/or cars, and the like, somehow or another we came to a good sized highway again and got out of it.  But the despair we felt while in the middle of it, my goodness.
So, we found our hotel this time, and dared to go out again a few hours later, but this time armed with some good instructions from the hotel owner.  Still, we were leery after what we had gone through but fortunately the drive was pretty straightforward, we found the restaurant we were looking for and had a nice meal by the water with a view of the Panama City skyline in the background.
John and Angie came in an hour or so later and since they were a little hungry, we decided to walk to a nearby cafeteria to get a bite to eat.

Backtracking to Samara a bit.....

These pictures Guillermo took on one of his early morning walks to the wetlands in Samara.  The wetlands were close to the first place we lived at in Samara and he took these pictures about 3 days before we moved to the second place. We figured we probably wouldn't be coming back to the wetlands after we moved, since we'd be much further away from them.  These pictures are showing up on this date because we finally downloaded them from his camera.

Wood Stork

Great Egret, immature White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, and two Wood Storks

This picture shows really well the unique bill of the Roseate Spoonbill.  Looks kinda like a spoon, doesn't it?

Baltimore Oriole

Variegated Squirrel eating some kind of fruit.

Guillermo had to get up pretty early and leave the house by 5:45am to get to the wetlands and back before the sun got too harsh and hot.  I usually slept in........

More, but better, house pictures - except for one

First of all, this first picture is not one of the better pictures.  It is actually pretty bad, as we were so shocked to see gardeners outside this morning taking down the bananas.  The very banana plant that Guillermo had so carefully set up a station inside the living room from which to take pictures of the birds that came to those very bananas.  Grrrr......

Maybe there's a good reason, but WHY couldn't they have just let those bananas be???

Here are some bird pictures Guillermo was able to get in yesterday.

There were lots of other very beautiful, colorful birds, but Guillermo wasn't able to get a picture of them.  He thought he'd have a chance today, but on that particular plant, there's no chance anymore.

And these pictures of the house Guillermo took with his camera.  They came out way better than the ones on yesterday's post.  His pictures even include some of the outside of the house.

This is the front of the house, actually the other half of a duplex.  So this is where we are living now for the next month or so.

The view up the street from the driveway - we used to live in the duplex that is right there on the left of the picture.

Here I am watching Guillermo take a picture of me.  He didn't know it at that second, but there was a dog running up to him at that moment!  The dog didn't do anything.

A picture of the whole duplex.

And now for some much better pictures of the inside.  Our bedroom.

Looking towards the kitchen

Towards the living room - and you can see where Vicki spends a lot of the day!