January - February 2012

Photo by Dan Heinrichs

(Photo and film stories are at the end).

We are definitely doing the CLOD life. CLOD standing for Cruisers Living On Dirt.We are all settled in and busy with all kind of projects, whether for boat, our casita or with Binnie. It keeps our mind off not being on the boat, which we really miss. But this is a good setup and we feel really lucky to have fallen into this wonderful situation of being able to live in this cute little house. We enjoy our daily cocktail on Binnie’s patio with incredible view over the whole bay then have dinner in either house, where ever I choose to cook that evening. Cooking is my passion but I have never had so much fun at it as here. Both Sid and Binnie are wonderful to cook for and I sure love her kitchen it has all kinds of gadgets a kitchen just could have. Imagine an ice-cream machine! We are a happy family. 

Mid January Binnie left for a cruise around the Horn and so we were alone on this huge property and busy getting a few projects done for Binnie before she returned. Sid had started with boat projects but we still had to watch the weather and time it right to get out to the boat. The weather had settled in and was blowing mainly from the East and kept the nasty waves from coming in here, a huge relieve for us.

Panama has a lot of history and never expected to get thrown into some Scottish history. Jim and Heather on Charmer, we had met 11 years ago when we were in Pedro Miguel. They were just taking over the management of the Club when we left and here they still are. Jim and Heather organize “Burns Night” or “Burns Supper” every January 25^th at Binnie’s and we are sure glad we could join this year. What an incredible fun event.

An amazing amount of preparation went in to this deal. Jim, Heather and Cindy worked all week on this, we helped getting the tables set up and with other odds and ends; it sure was fun.

Burns Supper is a Scottish celebration and has been of the Scottish culture for about 200 years. It’s a night to celebrate the life and works of the national Robert Burns or also known as Rabbie Burns. When Burns immortalized haggis in a poem, his close friends a few years after his death in 1796 started this ritual as a tribute to his memory. Suppers can range from an informal gathering of friends to a huge, formal dinner full of pomp and circumstance which is celebrated worldwide by Scotsmen. Ours was very formal, every boat bum was dressed up with their best cloth and even the wrinkles were ironed out.

Usually a big-time Burns Night calls for a piper to welcome guests, but since we’re in Panama it’s a little hard to find a piper, instead Jim and Heather had some traditional Burns music running in the background as we enjoyed cocktail and appetizers made by the guests. The variety was incredible and everybody outdid themselves with elegant dishes from lox to pate and Pat even smoked her own fish and cheese, yummy.

When all guests had arrived we were asked to take our seats at the nicely decorated and set up tables. Again in Scotland a piper plays until the high table is ready to be seated, at which point a round of applause is due. At a more egalitarian gathering - with no high table - the chair can simply bang on the table to draw attention to the start of the evening's proceedings.

Jim then warmly welcomed us and introduced some of the assembled guests plus the newbie’s, us. Then the event is started with the Selkirk Grace which is a short but important prayer to usher in the meal. The Selkirk Grace is also known as Burns’ Grace at Kirkcudbrightough:

Some hae meat and canna eat,

And some wad eat that want it,

But we hae meat and we can eat,

And sae the Lord be thankit.

Guests then are asked to stand to receive the haggis. Again in Scotland a piper leads the chef, carrying the haggis to the top table, while the guests accompany them with a slow handclap until the Haggis reaches its destination the head table. The music stops and everyone is seated in anticipation to the address to a Haggis. Since none of us were Scots of course we didn’t know the rules and anticipated the haggis drooling. The haggis should be served in a silver platter; we were all fooled by a stainless steel dish Jim was carrying.

Then Jim seized the moment of glory by offering a fluent and entertaining rendition of Burns' famous poem “To a Haggis”, with great enthusiasm. Jim had his knife poised at the ready. On cue (An’ cut you up wi’), he cuts the casing along its length, making sure to spill out some of the tasty gore within.

The recital ended by Jim raising the haggis in triumph during the final line “Gie her a haggis”!, which the guests cheered with rapturous applause.

Heather, the whisky-bearer, made the round and filled up all our shot glasses to the rim with whisky to ensure the toasts are well lubricated, then we toasted the Haggis and Jim served each individual guest.

By the way Haggis is made of the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep or lamb, combined with oats, suet (raw beef or mutton fat, especially the hard fat around the loins and kidneys) and other herbs and spices, then cooked in a casing traditionally made of the animal's stomach. Kind of like a huge round sausage. To most the ingredients don’t sound appealing but it really has a very pleasant flavor.

Each table had a selected wench that helped bring the wonderful platters of food to the table and everybody dove into the food.

After dinner an invited guest, for us Dan, is asked to give a light-hearted speech.  Originally this was a thank you to the ladies for preparing the food and a time to toast the ‘lasses’ in Burns’ life. The humorous highlight of any Burns Night comes in this toast, which is designed to praise the role of women in the world today. The toast concludes: To the Lassies!

Then it’s the turn of the lasses to detail men's foibles. This toast was done by Jennifer, Dan’s wife, oh man was she funny.

Then another guest read a Burns poem, followed by Michele a French reading a French poem, of course none of us understood anything he said. Sid read an American Poem then dessert was served, ice cream and homemade mango sorbet.

The party took its peak by Jim and Heather teaching us the traditional Scottish line dancing, which was a bit confusing at the start but everybody learned fast and we had a blast. This was such an unforgettable evening we talked about it for days and still are, we can’t wait to join the next years Burns Supper, which is just around the corner.

Kathy’s Visit February 9^th:

Two giant screams at the airport made every ones head turn towards us as Kathy and I leaped into a giant hug.  A quick shopping trip and a short hour and a half drive later another major scream and Sid was wrapped in Kathy’s arms and legs. We haven’t seen Kathy in about 4 years when she visited us in Venezuela and here she was for a full week. She had barely arrived when we dragged her up to Binnie’s. Binnie had a full house with 4 of her friends visiting and we all had a wonderful time enjoying the beautiful view over the bay with cocktails and appetizer’s then Abby cooked us a yummy dinner with fish her husband had caught in Lake Gatun.

Early the next morning Kathy jumped on my bed and urged me to get up and go for a walk, the times of sleeping in until 7:30 were over for me! Every morning we went for an hour walk then she drilled me with Pilates, made us a healthy fruit smoothie which then was followed by my breakfasts of hearty omelets filled with vegetables. Sounds like a healthy life until the BM’s or Mimosa’s came out! No dull moment with Kathy.

 I had told her that Jennifer was organizing a trip to the Embera Native Rainforest Village and that she needed to be here for that and so she was. The trip was incredible.

We all met Jen at the Chagras River near La Cabima. From there a long dugout canoe with a 30 horse power engine took us up the Chagras River. The water was amazingly clear and now and then a small rapid needed to be passed while the native on the bow would push us up with a long poll. We followed the river snaking its way through the jungle and headed up a narrow river that joins the Chagras River. After the canoes were banked we took a short hike up the river to a waterfall where we jumped into the icy water and sat on rocks under the fall getting pelted with water. Along the hike we saw a pretty good size yucky spider (the size of Sid’s hand).

After all were cooled off the river trip continued another 30 minutes up the Chagras to the banks where the Embera Drua village is home. Along the river bank the leader of the village among children awaited us playing native instruments: bamboo flutes, maraccas, drums, one made out of a turtle shell.

The village lies on top of a 75 foot hill and the females were all assembled along the path greeting and shaking our hands. We were all led into the main building which they use for ceremonies and gatherings, there the leader greeted us and taught us about his people.

Originally Embera Indians are from the remote rainforest tribes of the Darien jungle. Many families migrated to the Chagres River which is situated an hour and half from Panama City. The Chagres River is the main water source of the Panama Canal and therefore was turned into a National Park in 1984. With that the Indians were forbidden to hunt and work in the mountains of this area and are now entertainment for worldwide tourists. I had asked one Embera how this has affected them; he was frank about it and said they all are happy that the hard and dangerous life in the mountains was over, besides he said with a grin that the money they make is pretty good.

The name “Embera” means “people”. They live in small villages of about 5 to 20 houses along river banks. The houses are raised off the ground about eight feet, with no walls and topped with tall thatched roofs made of palm fronds. Like Kuna Indians, Embera’s also sleep in hammocks. Hanging from the supporting posts and beams are hammocks, baskets, pots, bows and arrows.

In the Darien area around the villages the jungle is partly cleared and replaced by banana plantations, Embera then sell to get cash for their outboard motors, mosquito nets and the likes. Embera people are matrilineal descent, practice polygamy and live in family units. Each village chooses a male and female leader which are not married to each other. The current leaders are very well liked and it is said that they will be elected again. Each village has a Shaman, which in today’s modern time only the elder still seek the Shaman, the younger Indians now use modern doctors in Panama.

The men still wear noting but a minimal loin cloth and some wear a belt like skirt used to be made out of seeds, now they use colorful beads. The women wear brightly colored cloth wrapped at the waist as a skirt and used to be topless now they cover up with a bib type wrap made out of colorful beads and silver coins which used to be ancient coins passed down from mother to daughter and wear matching silver earrings. All women wear long, straight black beautiful hair. The kids usually are naked until puberty but in this village are dressed like the adults. No one wears shoes. 

They paint their bodies with a dye made from tree berries. The black dye is said to repel insects. They print intricate geometric patterns all over their bodies, using wood blocks carved from balsa wood. They offered us tattoos and when I was told they wash right off I had one done around my wrist. Jen had chosen one like the Embera women wear on their faces. (After a refreshing swim in the water the tattoo already had almost disappeared I was almost disappointed, but the next morning it was right back if not darker and lasted for over a week, we saw Jen 10 days later and she still had her tattoo on her face).

The leader also introduced us to the Embera Handicraft:

La Chunga (Baskets), which are made out of the chunga palm or “jiwa” in Embera dialect. This palm grows very tall and has lot of spines. The trunks are used as posts in their traditional houses. Embera woman learned from their ancestors how to weave baskets from the fibers of the leaves.

How do they get the fibers? First the heart of the chunga plant is cut and gathered, brought back to the village by the ladies which then are put it in water so that it doesn’t dry out in the sun. One leaf has four fibers. The chunga then is cooked to get rid of the natural green color. After cooking the leaves are dried in the sun. All dies are found in trees, seeds dirt and the fibers are cooked with the dyes. After having all the fibers the ladies start to weave. One basket can take anywhere from 3 to 60 days dedicating 6 to 8 hours daily. They usually charge one dollar per day for the basket.

Tagua (Vegetable Ivory) comes from a palm that grows about 8 feet tall and is found in the canal area of Panama.  The Tagua consists of 3 parts, the shell, which is the outside covering of the ivory which can have anywhere from 6 to 12 fruits. When the ivory is new, the part inside is edible. In the first growing stage it has water, and it is drinkable. The second growing stage is similar to that of coconut. After it hardens they can be carved. The natural color of the ivory is white, but it can be painted. The carving all are amazing.

La Chaquira (Beadwork) Traditionally the beads used were made from rocks, seeds and animal teeth. They still keep the tradition but use plastic bead they buy in Panama City. The designs made by Embera women are inspired by nature. They also make geometric and traditional designs, learned by their ancestors. Various items that are made include: Bracelets, necklaces, earrings, traditional breastplates, adorned with silver and money and the belts for the men.

The Embera people prefer strong, vibrant colors.

After the introduction of life in an Embera Village the women served us a traditional Embera meal which was fried fish with patacones (fried plantains) sprinkles with some lime.

Then we were invited to see and buy their crafts. There was so much to choose from but we all found something or more.

The village entertained us with their music and dance which was fun but we had the feeling that they put this together just for tourism.

The river called us for a refreshing swim and it was fun riding the fast current down the stream, wow amazing how powerful water can be. Then the boats ended this incredible experience with a fast ride down the river current. It was an unforgettable adventure and was celebrated with hamburgers at Captain Jacks.

The fun didn’t stop here, the very next day we took the dinghy out and putted out to Mame one of the islands off Puerto Lindo. A beautiful sandy beach awaited us, behind a grassy flat area that reached to a dense tree covered hill. We sat in the shade under a palm tree and took in the beautiful scenery. A guy at the next tree over was getting the BBQ ready and in the process of seasoning all kind of meats. Just as a joke I asked when lunch was ready, he responded in 10 minutes. Sure enough 10 minutes later he came over with three juice steaks on a plate for us, wow we did not expect that, later he came back with some sausage and again later with some juicy try tip sirloin wow.  We’ve never had a better piece of steak here in Panama. Of course we started to talk to him and found out that he is a waiter in an Argentinean Restaurant in Panama City, therefore ordered the meat through the restaurant. The funny thing was, he was sitting against the palm tree and a wrong move brought out an accidental loud fart, we all had a good laugh about it, especially his family could not stop laughing. We exchanged phone numbers with the agreement that when we’re in town we’ll eat at his restaurant and when he comes back he’ll let us know and we’ll meet him again on the island for a great BBQ, I can’t wait.

Another day we toured Portobelo and hired a boat to take us across to the incredible fort. Dave on Green Flash joined us. It was a hot hike up to the top fort and on our way down the reward was some snacks with Bloody Mary and an incredible view. All was good until some ants bit my legs, man they hurt.

Evenings we spent having dinner at Binnie’s followed with games, Mississippi Marbles, Phase 10 or Shit Head. We had such fun our faces hurt. The most fun though was when Kathy was score keeper and blurted out: “The score cheater always wins!” Oops, too late she realized what she had said and she gained a new nickname “Kingski the score cheater”; huge fun.

On her last day we drove to an Adventure Center for river tubing which is up a river and over canyons near Maria Chiquita. They also have zip lines to glide through the treetops, but we decided to save that for when we go visit Kathy in Costa Rica. Unfortunately rainy season being over, the river was not flowing much and we didn’t think we should pay 20 bucks per person to just float in the same spot but we did have a wonderful pick-nick and enjoyed the tranquil surrounding.

We did so much in the 7 days Kathy was here and as usual when you have fun the time zips just by and before we knew it we were driving her back to the airport recounting all the fun we had. It was great to have her here and we are looking forward to seeing her soon again whether here or in Costa Rica.

One day later Cindy called me and asked me if I was interested in lobster. Am I interested in lobster you bet and so she sent the lobster guy Mario by our house. He had a shopping bag half full of lobster for 18 bucks, so I took them all and told him to come by any time with more lobster.

The very next day Binnie’s banker and family arrived to spend the weekend. Not just did they bring 14 family members but also a 100 pound marinated pig and a special pig roast grill. It was an incredible feast, the booze was flowing, then the harmonicas and guitar came out and Jim and I played a few rounds, followed by some dancing. It was a fun night and I think everybody needed a BM.

Chiriquí trip with the girls 2/21/12:

Do to Carnival being in full swing Binnie and I decided to leave early to escape

eventual road closures due to parades and thought it might be fun to do some

shopping at the huge Albrook Mall. Shopping would have been fun if the mall

would wasn’t closed. We did not expect such a huge mall being closed for Carnival, heck they don’t even close for Christmas.  The only store open was El Rey Grocery store and I don’t think I ever walked this slowly through every isle to kill time as Abby wasn’t ready for us yet. There were only so many isle and knowing Binnie loves her Zerts I knew there was a good ice cream parlor in Amador. Around four o’clock we pulled into Abby’s driveway and were warmly created by her. She ushered us out to her patio asked us to sit down and turned on the sprinkler. The sprinkler did its first “pfft” and in split seconds dozens of birds flew into the tree and took a bath under the spray of the sprinkler water, it was amazing.

Dinner was wonderful and after a restful night we left early for La Chorrera to pick up Jennifer before venturing to the mountains in the western part of Panama.

About half way to David near Nata lies El Caño one of Panamas most important archaeological sites; a ceremonial and burial place of pre-Columbian times. Unfortunately the site has been plundered in the 1920s by an American professor.

The granite pillars used to have carved heads which the professor chopped off

and exported to the US. Then again during the Pérez Balladares administration and not only were the objects uninsured, the government conveniently lost all photos so that they couldn't be put on the INTERPOL watch list. Later there also was a robbery which was an inside job during the Toro's relative Frank Iglesias, meanwhile, is still wanted by the FBI for trafficking in stolen antiquities while he was Panama's consul general in New York in the 1990s. And last there was the inside job theft from the Anthopology Museum's gold room during the Moscoso administration --- not all the pieces were recovered, and the higher-ups in INAC were carefully shielded from pro-corruption former Attorney General Sossa's "investigation." El Caño is now a protected national park.

The drive from Panama City to David is about 200 miles/320 kilometers. About an hour passed David and 20 minutes before Boquette we stopped in El Flor where Abby’s friends Chris and Kit live.

We were warmly greeted and immediately had refreshing and yummy Hurricanes in our hands which later were replenished with probably the best Margaritas I ever had. Dinner was wonderful and was followed by relaxing in their warm pool under a canopy of twinkling stars.

After a hearty breakfast the 4 of us drove back to David and up the side of a

mountain in the Chorcha rainforest to the Alouatta Lodge which is a rescue and sanctuary for Howler Monkey’s. 

http://www.boquetemountainsafaritours.com/junglesafari.html

Alouatta means Howler Monkey in Latin. Getting out of the car a howler monkey with a peeled banana in his hand came running towards us followed by a cuatimundi and then the owner’s warning about the little cuadi critter “Ginger” that he bites. Coati is a mammal in the raccoon family. This one was wild but adopted the family and tags along everywhere they go and loves to nip on ankles, luckily I had socks on and he managed to just bite the socks. The howler monkey was cute and we all were able to cuddle him for as long as he tolerated it. He seemed to be most fond of Jennifer, but then she was the only one grooming him like monkeys do. After explaining all about the Sanctuary we were lead on a tour around the property with breathtaking view. But the most incredible thing was to encounter with the rest of the howler monkeys. The cutest was of course the baby but the most amazing was a wild male had joined the group and just lately a wild female was accepted into the group as well. The owners are hopeful that these two will lead the orphaned sanctuary monkeys into the wild.

The plant life in this region is amazing as well. A leaf was handed to us and after all had a whiff we all agreed that it was allspice. We learned that Cinnamon and nutmeg was growing here as well and I was jazzed to see the beautiful flowers of the vanilla orchid.

After we all had our monkey fix we headed to Boca Chica which is a short drive from the sanctuary and is at the mouth of the river that leads to David. There wasn’t much to see so we decided to drive to Playa Hermosa which 10 minutes away. Just as the name says Hermosa it was a very beautiful beach. After posing for some photos it was time to head back to El Flor but not without stopping at the Liquor store to replenish the margarita ingredients for Kit. When we arrived at her house chilled Margarita was already waiting for us. We had to endure another night of fun, good food and starlight pool cool down before another restful night.

Sitio Barriles was our next destination which like El Caño is one of the few

archeological sites in Panama regularly accessible to the public and is located

several miles away from the town of Volcán, in the highlands of the Chiriquí

Province of Western Panama at 1200 meters above sea level. In 1927 the Houx family bought the land to start a coffee plantation. In 46 they by accident they found the barriles = barrels and statues of human size and also gold. In 1949 National Geographics visited this are and an excavation started. The sculptures found were not Mayan like sculpture but showed a chubbier male wearing a conical hat sitting on top the shoulders of a naked man. The owner of this property thinks it is a Chinese sitting on top of an African male. One alter was found with many faces on it but unfortunately all the sculptures and alter disappeared. All that remains are copies of the sculptures. Potteries with natural colors (white, black and red) and a variety of artifacts are still on display in a small room the owner hopes to build into a museum. Not all of the artifacts on display were found on-site.  A few grinding stones are still on display in the garden and she demonstrated how they worked rolling back and forth without help due to their weight of about 56 pounds. The tour ended in front of a fake excavated wall which showed how the urns with people’s ashes were found.

 Some of the rocks displayed on the property are magnetic and were used for

healing;  she proofed it with a compass. (Later on Jennifer did a research on this place and found that many things the owner told us was not true so some of the info here I found on the Internet).

We found an amazing array of different flours: Haleconias, Torch, Ginger, an

Ethiopian banana tree that does not produce bananas but the leaves are the

eatable part, Naranja or Lulo. Some of the plants she showed us were or are used for medicinal purposes, like a medical banana tree where the banana is filled with seeds. Transinas a type cactus is said to filter the air. There was citronella grass and Amarilis the well known Easter Lilly. The most interesting was the insect eating Aristolochia grandiflora or Pelican Flower. This one is a deciduous vine with enormous flowers that emit an unpleasant other that attracts insects.

An hour drive later in Vulcán we visited Binnie’s carpenter, had lunch at a Greek Restaurant  and drove up the mountain to Guadelupe which is the second highest village in Panama neighboring Cerro Punta at 6500f/2000m above sea level just south of the Continental Divide.

Many inhabitants of the village and the surrounding area are indigenous Native Americans. The climate, like the rest of Panama is tropical with short dry season and rain season for about 9 to 10 months of the year. Due to the high elevation it gets pretty cold at night and the clouds drop over the mountains bringing drizzle to this area almost on a daily basis. This area has a fairly rugged terrain with small plains. They mainly live of agriculture here and I was amazed to see the fields at angles of 60 degrees, I have no idea how they can harvest these fields without rolling down the steep hills, or maybe that’s what they hmm? The land here is very fertile as a result of being on the slopes of a dormant volcano and the coolness and wetness resulting from the elevation.

We stayed at the beautiful Los Quetzales Ecolodge and Spa and rented one of the many wooden suites. www.losquetzales.com

We had a breathtaking view from our second floor balcony, a cute fire place,

kitchenette and a bathtub in a good sized bathroom. The main chalet of the resort had a big reading room, game room and cozy restaurant. The food was fabulous and the best hot chocolates with local grown cocoa.

The night was cold so we had the fireplace going, but unfortunately it was not

working right and filled the room with smoke burning our eyes and throat. Luckily the very comfy beds had down duvets which kept us warm, well …. wearing pants, sweater and socks helped.

Jennifer organized Carlos for a birding day to the Quetzals trail and barely out of the car the first birds we saw was a male and female Quetzals, what a

magnificent bird. They both showed off their flying skills and we were all in awe over the beautiful colors and long tails. I am amazed how many different bird species we encountered in just a short walk of about 1 kilometer. The afternoon birding tour took us to Lago de Vulcan where we mainly encounter water fouls.

 Not knowing much about birds it was an incredible experience for me to see a

total of 63 bird species:

Blue-winged Teal – Black Guan – Spotted Wood – Quail – Least Grebe – Great and Cattle Egret – Black Vulture – Purple Gallinule – Common Moorhen – American Coot – Northern Jacan – Wattled Jacana (very unusual for this location—Lagoons) – Scaled Pigeon – White-tipped Dove – Parrot (2 flying over lagoons, probably Red-lored Amazons) – Costa Rican Pygmy Owl (heard only)  – White Collared Swift – Violet Sabrewing – Green Violet-ear – Rofous-tailed Hummingbird – White-throated Mountain Gem – Magnificent Hummingbird – Volcano Hummingbird – Resplendent Quetzal – Prong-billed Barbet – Blue-throate Toucanet – Oliveaceous Piculet – Red-crowned Woodpecker – Hairy Woodpecker – Spot-crowned Woodpecker – Plain Antifireo – Mountain Elaenia – Paltry Tyrannulet – Commen Tufted-Flycatcher – Tropical Pewee – Black-capped Flycatcher – Yellow-winged Vireo – Rusous-browned Peppershrike – Black-chested Jay – Blue and White Swallow – House Wren – Tropical Pewee – Grey-brested Wood-Wren – Black-faced Solitaire – Mountain Trush – Clay-colored Thrush – Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher – Flame-throated Warbler – Black-throated Warbler – Wilson’s Warbler – Slate-throated Redstart – Collared Redstart – Sooty=capped Bush-Tanager – Summer Tanager – Blue-gray Tanager – Golden-hooded Tanager –

Yellow-faced Grassquit – Slaty Flowerpiercer – Yellow-thighed Finch – Rufous-collared Sparrow – Buff-throated Saltator – Great-tailed Grackle – Thick-billed Euphonia.

We managed to survive another wonderful dinner followed by a cold night under the feather duvets and woke up to heavy rain. Jennifer told us that this is really what the weather is like up here in the highlands and that we were lucky for the last two sunny days. The rain stopped but a drizzle stayed until mid afternoon. We all decided it would not be much fun bird watching in the rain and instead drove the Orchid Farm “Finca Dracula” which was founded in 1969 and are dedicated to promote education, research and conservation for orchids and other tropical ornamental plant species. In the gardens you can find more than 2200 orchid species and other exotic plants. It has one of the largest collections of rare orchids in America and has discovered about 150 species of previously unknown to the scientific world. I have never seen such a beautiful garden anywhere ever.

In Vulcan is a highly recommended restaurant Cerro “Brujo Gourmet”. The owner Praticia wrote a cookbook using just indigenous ingredients so of course we had to have lunch there. The food was presented in French Cuisine Style, so portions where a little small but the flavors opened a new palate for everyone. The restaurant is a little difficult to find but oh so worth it. We enjoyed it so much we almost forgot the time for our facial and massages at the Quetzales Lodge. That was one of the best massages I have had, including with facial the cost was 70 dollars. 

The first week of February the protests of the indigenous tribe Gnöbe in the

Western part of Panama has caused great problems in the Province of Chiriqui. They blocked the only highway between Chririqui and Panama City for almost a week.  This land was given to the trip but now the Panamanian Government has found some copper on their land and approved a mining and hydropower developments in their region. They want President Martinelli to exclude the indigenous area from the industry to protect the natural environment, rightfully so as the hydropower plant would place their land under water. The protest was stopped for peace talks with the president. This protest of course affected us in a way not knowing if we were able to go on this trip, we were able to but we knew that on Monday the 27^th the protests could resume so we were a little bit worried to get stuck for a while especially as on our return from the Cerro Brujo Restaurant we saw a gathering of indigenous, not good.

The decision was made to leave early to escape eventual protests but not with

leaving Finca Santa Marta out of our plans. http://fincasantamarta.biz/

Kim and Ron Miller are Kit and Chris’s good friends and run an organic farm

bordering the Rio Gariché near David. The tour was interesting but hot in the

blistering sun. The lunch Kim produced for us was the best and prettiest gourmet salad I have ever had. For desert she made us Chocolate Maple Syrup Candy and believe me I don’t eat chocolate but I tell you this one is out of this world.

Our plan was to reach Santiago before eventual Riots would start and needed to make it to Santiago to be safe from getting stuck. Again as on our trip to Chiriqui we noticed motorcycle cops every few miles along the whole stretch back to Santiago, so keep an eye o the speed. We saw a gathering of Gnöbe’s along the road having a big banner ready and all the tires to burn. We made it to Santiago and stayed at the Hacienda Lodge and Casino and found out that just half an hour after we saw the Gnöbe group they blocked the road, huge sigh we made it.

 Food was great the casino smoke free with only 1 cent machines we did not

recognize, two Black Jack tables and one Roulette. Binnie and I shared a room and we had so much fun our laughter at 10 PM disturbed our neighbors and the lobby called to shut us down. We were amazed by that as Panamanian party until late and never complain about it. We found out the next morning a group of German’s were spending the night in the hotel that explained it.

The trip was not over yet, we had one more visit to do “Don Perezoso Organic

Farm in Churuquita Grande. http://www.organicpanamapermaculture.com/

About an hour up the mountain brought us to the dirt road to the farm which

brought us by a ranch where the farmer was just in the process of making raw

sugar out of sugar cane.

From here it was a short drive to the farm which was across a river with a hang bridge for pedestrians cars have to drive through the river.

John the owner says the secret is in the Garbage, meaning for fertilizer he only

uses plants: “So… Grow Trash (dat is organic material to u educated folks) lots of Trash”. What he is doing different is putting organic material on top of  the soil composting in place without even chopping up. He also grows material for

composting to use around plants. The whole plantation looks disorganized but we learned why. Most plants between fruit bearing plants are the fertilizing plants which leaves fall to the ground, decompose and make compost. Around important trees he has the compost arranged what he calls a magical circle. It was very interesting and at the end he cut off pieces of tree branches of two different trees. One cleans the air the other the soil and handed us each a piece and told us to just stick them in the ground in our garden and it will grow. I stuck mine into a pot and sure enough three days later leaves started growing out of the stick.

On our drive back Jen popped a book on tape into the stereo and we all were

hooked on it, but by the time we arrived at Jen’s house where she and Binnie got out of the car the book was no over yet. So Abby and I kept listening as we drove to Abby’s house and still yet the book was not over with yet, even we slowed down we had 14.52 minutes left. No problem for us, the next morning at 8 we finished the tape sitting in the car sipping on our morning coffee.