Globetrotters

Parque Nacional G.D. Omar Torrijos Herrera
Known locally as Parque Omar, this park was named after the General de Division whose plane crashed in the jungle here in 1981. It’s a drive of about 1 ½ hours from Playa Blanca & we set out on a gorgeous day to explore the area. The park straddles The Continental Divide & on a clear day you can see both the Pacific & the Caribbean Oceans from the top! Encompassing 27,275 hectares the wildlife you may see includes many species of birds, sloths, monkeys & even the elusive jaguar stalks the forest here-WOW!
The park also houses a research station & I contacted them about a visit. I was told the road is strictly for 4 wheel drive vehicles & costs $20 for a ride to the top. Of course Hans decided that the intrepid Fortuner was up to the task of driving to the top & off we went!
We have an excellent ‘adventure map’ of Panama, BUT the roads give no indication of where you are on the map as they’re not marked, nor are there any road signs for turn-offs & such-LOL! Of course we got lost & ended up driving along a dirt road in some remote area with no people in sight. FINALLY we saw some folks hanging out in front of a tiny house & I jumped out to ask about the park’s location. They had no idea what I was talking about! Luckily I remembered the name of the last town before the park & this they recognized….they burst into hysterical laughter & slapped each other heartily while pointing at me! Always up for a good laugh, I joined in despite a feeling of foreboding about this drive.
They pointed back to where we had come from & said we needed to return & take a turn we’d missed way back there somewhere-OOPS! We finally got our bearings & arrived at the park ‘entrance’. No one around so we proceeded up the hill. The dirt road posed no problem & we rudely laughed at the weenies who thought this needed 4 wheel drive….be careful what you laugh at! Soon the road changed & became steeper & more & more rugged. It no longer even remotely resembled a real road but was simply a collection of ruts & rocks! I clung to the door-rest as the Fortuner clung to the road & steadily climbed higher & higher. Even Hans looked a bit freaked out at times as we fell down into holes & crawled back out again. Definitely glad for the high suspension of our vehicle at that point or we’d have bottomed out for sure!

Finally the road became impassable even for Hans & his formidable Fortuner & we were reduced to walking the last bit to the top. Scrambling over rocks, we wished we’d worn hiking boots-4 wheel drive for our feet-LOL! At last, huffing & puffing & soaked in sweat (me at least!) we arrived at the peak of the Continental Divide….only to find ourselves in the ‘cloud forest’! No view at this time of year-boohoo!

We walked back down to a trail around the visitor’s center. In the thick of the jungle, the trail takes you through the lush landscape of the forest as it existed before the loggers denuded the land here. Absolutely still except for the exuberant chirping of birds & frogs, surrounding us yet invisible in the trees. We sat on a bench to experience it fully. Hans pointed to a movement in the trees trying to show me a tiny red bird he’d spotted. I peered into the dark woods & suddenly, a few feet in front of my face, flashed a bright orange blob! I looked up to see a Orange Bellied Trogon bird fluffing itself on a branch right next to us!

A bird watcher’s delight, this bird hung out around us for quite some time, posing & puffing for our enjoyment! Lucky us!
Traditional communities can be found within the park, with no road access or electricity, eking out a subsistence lifestyle as their people have done for generations in the rainforest. You may visit these villages by pre-arrangement with park officials & the villagers will provide you with a meal & overnight lodgings. It’s a 7 hour hike down into the village & a 5 hour horse ride back up…we took a rain check! BUT we’ll definitely return in the rainy season when the view is spectacular-not to mention what the drive will be like in the mud!

Hans noticed El Toro Rastrojero on one of our first visits to ‘town’. Rio Hato is the closest town to where we live & was a hotspot for Noriega during his heydays. There’s a landing strip nearby built for his use & his beachside villa is a short walk away, totally bullet ridden & no one wants to buy it-bad juju. We like to shop in Rio Hato to support our local economy, even though it doesn’t offer much.

Back to El Toro! Hans pointed out a small stand with LOTS of wooden creations on the side of the road as we drove into town one day. Of course since he’s a woodsman we had to stop to check it out. That first time Arelis came out of the house to greet us & show us around the shop. She had a baby on her shoulder & proudly pointed out her husband’s beautiful works of art in wood. Various types of wood lent different swirls of color to tables, chairs, desks, signs, even portable bars & barstool sets! Anything you can imagine in wood Juventino can make it!

He was away that day so we simply browsed but decided right then that we’d buy some items to decorate our new home Panamanian style. We returned a few days later & Arelis remembered us & introduced us to Juventino.
What a jovial friendly guy! He took us around the shop, showing us his wares. When we shared that Hans had owned a sawmill too & created benches of wood, it was instant male bonding! Juventino invited us to visit his ‘fincas’-small farms in the country. The next day off we went! Happy to ride in our Fortuner, we bounced over rutted dirt roads as Juventino happily told us about his plans for his land.

How do we communicate? My rudimentary Spanish serves as a primitive foundation but it’s Juventino’s energy that converts our ignorance to understanding. He keeps talking away & if we fail to get it the first time around he speaks more simply & slowly. Next he resorts to acting it out-all amidst hilarious laughter as he cracks himself & us up totally with his antics. His vision is to build an eco-tourist camp on one of his farms, next to a small stream, & reforest both plots of land.

The land here suffered severe deforestation 300 years ago when the Spanish invaded. Now the soil is devoid of nutrients & basically dead & dry, with erosion causing problems with silting in rivers & the ocean.

A few days later we visited for Hans to take some photos of the wood creations & Juventino decided we all needed to go on a picnic to the finca by the stream, to celebrate the last day of school vacation for his kids. He & Arelis have 6 children ranging in age from 14 to 7 months (though Arelis appears no older than 25 herself!). She told me they’ve been married 15 years! Of course they cannot believe we never had kids after 30 years together…especially since I have such FUN with the kids. I told her I love OPC-other people’s children-LOL!

I relayed the invitation to Hans who looked at me & asked “How the hell will we talk all day with them?” Just as we wondered this 2 women drove up to the shop. They spoke perfect English & chatted with Juventino, who promptly invited them to the impromptu picnic. They politely began to decline & I burst out “NO! You have to come to translate for us! It’ll be FUN! Come on!” They decided to join the group & the next Sunday found us all in the shop by 10 AM.

Now what I haven’t told you is that the farm by the stream has a STEEP slope to hike down to the water. We wondered how we’d get all the picnic food & accoutrements down that hill…not to worry! Those kids pitched right in & BAGS of food & drinks, cooking pots, water containers, baby items (& Baby!) were hauled down that hill! We too hauled our share & soon we all gathered by the stream with our goodies.

They began to build a fire pit-Hans’ specialty! He helped set up the rocks to balance the pots on & went to get firewood. The lady serving as chef for the day was totally impressed with Hans’ fire making talents. As he poked & prodded the fire to life Arelis said “Hans buen trabajadoro si?” Translation: Hans is a good worker right? Oh yeah!

The cook set beans & rice to boil while we all jumped in the frigid water-BRRRR! What a feast! We brought pork chops, the women roasted weenies & we stuffed ourselves royally! Amazingly we passed the entire day together until 4 that afternoon! Even more astonishing is the fact that we never heard a harsh word spoken among the family & even the baby never cried once! Such a happy festive group! The kids learn English in school & though they’re shy about talking they love to help us learn Spanish! One of the boys really loved learning the English word for ‘chuleta’-pork chop. He ran up to us throughout the day shouting “PORK CHOP”! Too funny! We look forward to more festivities with such a delightful family & to improving our language skills!

Franklin details cars here in the parking lot at Playa Blanca. One day we drove in & saw him working on a car so I ran over to ask him to do our Fortuner. He opened the car door & removed the glove compartment! Next he reached in & yanked out a filter totally black & nasty-YUCK! If this weren’t disgusting enough he proceeds to sniff it, then crunch up his face, hold it away from him & state the obvious “stinky” (malodor) in Spanish!

Duly impressed by his ability to ferret out the nasties in our car we asked him when he could work on it.

“Manana” he told us.

At 10am he arrived. I watched him ‘work’ from our window….hose in hand he’d scrub some, and then chat on his cell phone for awhile. He removed the floor mats, and then a buddy came by for a ‘visit’-more chatting! This was my kinda guy! No sense killing yourself working in this hot tropical sun!

By 1:00 I thought we ought to go down & give a gentle prod so he’d finish by nightfall. Franklin looked happy to see us & proudly gave us a tour of what he’d cleaned so far-gleaming in the sun, the car looked wonderful. I asked if he was finished & he looked shocked. Pointing to the engine & various other cubby holes he indicated he was far from done.

Then he pointed to himself, looked me straight in the eye & announced “I am a man.” I resorted to my usual tactic when confused by the ‘lingo thingo” & made a friendly face, smiled encouragingly at him, nodded my head & said “Si, si.” Hans asked what Franklin had said & I told him “He said he’s a man.” Hans looked confused & said “Was there some doubt?” I jabbed him in the gut-“DO NOT make me laugh!”

Franklin carefully watched this exchange, hoping for some response. Not getting any he decided to approach us with a different strategy. Using the old standby when in a communication glitch, he shouted out the same words, only this time LOUD & CLEAR! Pointing vigorously at himself he shouted “I AM A MAN.”

I stepped back, not sure where he was headed with this. I decided it was best to placate him so I shouted back at him enthusiastically in Spanish “SI MUY HOMBRE, MUCHO HOMBRE!” Giving him a vigorous thumbs up sign, I felt I had done my best to assure him of his virility.

Now it was Franklin’s turn to look confused & a tad terrified. He stepped back & stared at me. Then he opened his mouth WIDE! He pointed into that toothless cavern & yelled at me “TENGO HAMBRE.”

Suddenly the confusion cleared & it dawned on my menopausal mind what this poor guy was saying….”I am hungry.” In Spanish hombre (man) sounds a lot like hambre (hungry), especially if you have geezer ears & menopausal mind fog-LOL! I burst out laughing, to the consternation of both Hans & Franklin. I explained to Hans the confusion & he asked “Is lunch included in his job?” Guess so!

Off we went to scrounge up a bite to eat for Franklin…now if you’ve known me long at all you know I’m a food freak & follow Rose’s Rule of Food: You must be able to feed at least 10 people at a moment’s notice. This comes from living in a LARGE overextended Italian family where hordes of cousins might descend upon you at any time, demanding to be fed. If you failed in this family duty, the aunties talked bad about you. Heaven forbid!

It took us 3-4 months to ‘eat down’ all the food I had stored in our pantry, freezer & frig before we left Florida. BUT those days are gone forever! Our condo is too small to indulge in stockpiling for the Apocalypse. Plus the months of purging 30 years of accumulated STUFF transformed us into minimalists. Thus we found ourselves scrounging around the kitchen for food for Franklin!

I held up a jar of peanut butter & yelled out “How about a PBJ sandwich?” Hans held aloft his prize “With a banana?” Together we shouted “The Elvis special!” & cracked up. I wasn’t sure how this foreign treat would go over with a Panamanian but Hans had faith that Franklin would share his love for the Elvis special.

I decided to let Hans handle the lunch offering to practice his Spanish. I watched from the 9^th floor window as Hans approached Franklin & held out his treat. Even from my eyrie I could clearly see Franklin recoil with a look of horror on his face! Hans smiled, rubbed his stomach & proffered the plate again. This time Franklin held up his hand & shook his head! I imagined Hans encouragingly saying “MMMM-bueno!” Finally hunger overcame distaste & Franklin took a tiny nibble…his face lit up! A new convert to the Elvis special-too funny!