VOLCAN
By Hans & Gail Frei. Filed in Uncategorized |
The unfortunate accident happened shortly after we left for my ‘chill pill’ trip to the mountains near Volcan. Barely 2 hours from home, Hans had just passed 2 slow pokes when we saw a HUGE flock of vultures on the side of the road. One monster bird sat in the middle of the highway, staring stupidly around. Hans hit the brakes & beeped the horn & it flew off BUT in the wrong direction! WHAM! It slammed into the side of our car with a crash. I yelled “Oh the poor bird! Do you think it’s dead?” Hans glared at me “Well I sure hope so! Look what the stupid fuck did to my side mirror!” I looked out & there dangled the mirror from the electric cord, swinging back & forth & smacking into the car as we drove-so not pretty!
We pulled into a gas station where the guy cut the wire & Hans put the amazingly intact mirror into a plastic bag. He sniffed suspiciously. “What is that disgusting smell?” I grinned up at him “L’odeur de la mort.” Hans was not amused, understandably, since his hands reeked of the stench of death-PHEW!
I reached into the car for my handy-dandy hand sanitizer & squirted it liberally on his stink hands. As he rubbed he cautiously sniffed again. “They smell fresh!” he yelled in amazement. I held up my bottle “Not just any hand-sani for your O/C clean freak wife!” I pointed out the label ‘fresh citrus scent’. We both cracked up & went on our way; none the worse for the nasty episode…after all the idiot bird could have hit the windshield. Now THAT would have been a problem!
Our friend Gustavo told us a story of being a passenger in a car that struck a vulture & the bird not only smashed the windshield, it ended up in the person’s lap-ARGH! Imagine this huge stinking black bird of death crashing into your car, then coming to, flapping & flailing madly about! He said feathers flew & the bird went wild until they could roll down the window & push it out-LOL!
My motto in such instances: Things could be better BUT they could also be a whole helluva lot worse!
We had rented a house in Las Nubes from Vacation Rentals By Owner
http://www.vrbo.com/287515, with this description:
“Our finca, “La Candelita”, is named for the delightful Collared Redstart which inhabits this cloud forest region. We are situated in a farming valley just a 5 minute walk from the entrance of Parque Internacional La Amistad, a magnificent park shared with Costa Rica. At an elevation of 2,000 m (6,500 ft.), the climate is spring-like year round. Trails take you along mountain streams and through giant oak forests where the magnificent Resplendent Quetzals commonly nest.”
We parked the car Tuesday afternoon & never drove it again until we left Friday morning-GREAT STAY!
Wed. & Thurs. we hiked the park trails & ate lunch at the wonderful park restaurant. Imagine a 4 course meal of hearty Panamanian food: soup, small side salad, rice & beans with meat, dessert & coffee or hot chocolate for just $5 each-WOW! Such a deal!
The first day we hiked the waterfall trail. Since we visited in the rainy season it poured every afternoon but mornings we were able to hike in the relative dry, just some misty drizzles. The waterfall trail ascends about 300 meters from the park entrance (nearly 1000 feet for you non-metric folks). Deluging rain the night before made the trail treacherously slippery & more like a mudslide in some places. We wore hiking boots (4WD for our feet!) but the steep slidey slope proved challenging-especially breathing at that altidute-2500 meters (8000 feet) at the top!
Hans the mountain goat sprang from rock to rock while I grunted my way up, clinging to branches & huffing & puffing away. At last we reached the peak-YIPPEE! It started to rain a bit so we sat under a lean-to while I gasped for air. Hans looked at me sympathetically “You know Gail we don’t have to hike down to the waterfall.” Indeed the trail down to view the actual waterfall looked precipitous…”NO WAY!” I yelled! “What do you think, I’m a wussy? I made it this far & I’m going to see the damn waterfall.” Macho me.
Just then we saw a young couple coming out of the forest from that trail. They looked stunned & frazzled. The woman flopped next to me on the bench, gasping for breath. I asked her fearfully “How was it?” She rolled her eyes “Grueling.” They were at least 30 years younger than we are! EEK!
I laughed & said “Well I’m guessing it’ll be even worse for us, at our age!”
We chatted a bit & then they left. We decided to defy geezerism & bravely began our descent. It proved every bit as ‘grueling’ as promised. It seemed so steep as to be a 90 degree slope straight down & then back up again. I’m not sure which is worse to hike, up or down, both felt agonizingly painful-LOL! Down you have the fear of losing your footing on slippery rocks & taking a tumble-how the hell would we ever hope for rescue in such a remote area? Not fun thoughts as I slid along, often slamming into Hans in front of me. Up the near vertical angle forced me to crawl & screech at Hans “Next time remind me I AM getting too old for this shit.”
I wish I could say it was worth the ordeal but sadly the waterfall was nothing spectacular & we’ve seen better. BUT I will admit that once we returned safely to the lean-to the satisfaction of having completed the climb made us feel like Sir Hillary atop Everest! Now all we had to do was hike back down the 1000 feet to the park entrance & walk home-LOL!
That night my leg muscles twitched in protest & I walked wobbly kneed around the house-too funny! Hans made a fire-quite a treat for us-& the flames & food restored us for the next day’s hikes. These were 2 loop trails, relatively flat walking, with loads of flora & fauna to see-signs in the forest reminded us to ‘observa y escucha’-look & listen. Lovely sights & sounds of birdsongs.
The house we stayed at was hummingbird heaven with feeders all around & tiny birds in an array of colors whizzing all over! I have a beautiful sweater a dear friend of mine made, decorated with sparkling flamboyant flamingos. One morning I stood by a feeder & suddenly I felt a whirring just under my chin! I stood still & rolled my eyes down to see this tiny speck of green trying to drink from my colorful flamingo sweater! I froze & just watched in amazement-too cool! Suddenly the little guy looked up & realized I was not a flower but a large human & he made the most hilariously outraged squeak & darted off, a flash of green!
Friday dawned clear & sunny-YIPPEE! The first sun we’d seen for 3 days. The living room & kitchen of the house had huge windows so you felt like you were outside while in the cozy warmth of the house. The sun rose over the hill & hit my sparkly sweater as I stood in the kitchen doing KP duty-LOL! Like a prism, I threw glittery jewels of color all over the walls & cabinets-a real ‘Edward’ moment! (If you’re not familiar with the Twilight books just skip this part). How fitting since that day we’d visit Finca Dracula-‘I vant to dhlink your bhlood.’ No not a vampire farm! It’s an orchid farm/botanical garden where they developed the Dracula orchid, which only opens at night & has long pointy fang-like petals.
Over 100 species of this orchid in particular & more than 2000 orchids in general made this quite an amazing visit.
The blue sky day gave Hans some great photo ops of the volcano too.
Rich soil from past volcanic eruptions make the Volcan area producer of 80% of the cool weather vegetables for all of Panama-no wonder it’s called the country’s breadbasket! Volan Baru park is a 14,300-hectare national park & home to Volcán Barú, which is Panama’s only volcano as well as the dominant geographical feature of Chiriquí province. Although Volcán Barú is no longer active (there is in fact no record of its most recent eruption), it has not one but seven craters. Its summit, which tops out at 3478m, is the highest point in Panama, and on a clear day it affords views of both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts. Of course since we visited in the rainy season we missed that sight!
We spent the next 3 nights at a delightful B&B called Cielito Sur. www.cielitosur.com. Close to both the town of Volcan & hiking trails, we could do some sightseeing along with more hikes. This gem of a B&B reminded us so much of our favorite B&B in the US-The Heron Cove Guesthouse, on Lake Lanier in Gainesville Georgia, just north of Atlanta. www.heroncoveguesthouse.com
Both have chickens & gardens & offer fresh eggs with home grown goodies for delicious breakfast extravaganzas-YUMMMMM!
The homes are nature retreats in themselves, so you can just hang out, walk around the grounds, & watch the birds & critters. Cielito Sur’s hummingbirds made us dizzy with their busy buzzing about all day-great fun to observe. The owners of both places give you such a warm welcome you feel right at home with them!
From there we visited Lagunas de Volcán, at 1240m, the highest lake system in Panama. We drove across the airstrip to get there & Hans took this photo:
He also had great fun ZOOMING up & down, hoping to sprout wings & take off-LOL! Or at least have to yield to a plane landing!
Next we went to Sitio Barriles to see a museum in the owners’ backyard! One of Panama’s most important archaeological sites, and its most visitor-friendly by far, Sitio Barriles (Barrels Site) is a collection of abandoned digs and pre-Columbian artifacts on a private farm 6 km (3½ mi) south of Volcán.
The site was discovered in 1947 by the farm’s owner, who found cylindrical stone carvings that resembled barrels. Subsequent digs unearthed hundreds of artifacts, the most important of which have been taken to other museums, but many are displayed in the small museum on-site. Sitio Barriles was the main town of an agricultural society that farmed the surrounding plains from AD 300 to 600, though archaeologists know very little about their culture.
They left behind an interesting collection of volcanic-stone carvings, ceramic wares, tools, jewelry, and other artifacts.
The farm’s current owners, José Luis and Edna Landau, manage it under an agreement with the National Culture Institute. Aside from the ‘digs’ the farm itself was a fascinating tour filled with luscious horticultural treats!
Our last trip was to a wonderful woodworker, Jose de la Cruz Gonzales.
We watched him carve our names into a piece of wood, using his tools like a pen, flowing smoothly over the wood’s surface as he ‘wrote.’ Check out his gallery at www.artecruzgallery.com. Best of all he custom-made us a fine shelf for our microwave, something we’d searched futilely for months! WHOOHOO!
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