Bites and Mountains

Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012--Santa Fe, Panama

When we returned to our room last night after having dinner on the porch and using the computer in the lounge (the only place with wifi), we were surprised to find that we both were covered in bites.  They were mainly on our arms near the elbows and on our legs at the bottom of our shorts and on the back of the calves.  Wes had said he thought he felt bugs, but I didn't feel anything.  We must have each had 50 bites.  However, the spots were small, did not result in welts, and did not itch.  We aren't sure what caused them, but we were happy not to be feeling miserable.

The main purpose of being in Santa Fe is to hike in the mountains exploring the area.  We walked to town and ate a fantastic breakfast in a small cafe--a chicken leg in a wonderful sauce seasoned with local herbs and accompanied by two freshly made pieces of fried flat bread.  It was the best meal we have had on the trip, and it cost a total of $3 for the BOTH of us.

We planned a loop trip.  We headed out of town toward the east, curved around the north side of town, and came back in from the west.  It took about 4 1/2 hours.  The scenery was beautiful, but the hills, especially with the high humidity and heat were difficult.  Actually, they were steep mountains rather than hills.  We came to a swimming spot on the river east of town.  No one was there, but it was a beautiful area.  Then we headed off the main road onto a local country road that took us far up and across a mountain.  A few houses were scattered along the way.  Usually, someone was on the porch to greet us as we passed.  All of them had nice flowers in the yards and most of them had trees loaded with oranges and tangerines.  Everyone seemed a bit surprised (and happy) to see us walking, but none of them thought to offer us a fruit from their trees.  When we found a spot with a breeze, we would pause under the shade of a tree and enjoy it.  But within a few minutes of walking again, we were hot and sweaty.

We were using a map the owner of our hotel had provided for us.  It was quite accurately made making it easy to know which roads to take.  There was a turn off for a waterfall at one point, but we could see the trail went up a mountain.  We figured we had seen Niagara, Iguazu, etc., and that it wasn't worth the effort to climb that mountain (45 minutes up plus return) to see another we didn't even know existed until a few weeks ago.

At a small church, we stopped to sit on an outside bench for a while.  One of the problems with the entire route was that there were few places to sit.  If we stopped for the breeze, we had to stand.  Although the church building blocked the breeze somewhat, we still enjoyed being off our legs which were aching from inclines of about 45 degrees!

As we approached the river again on the west side of town, the road was really two ruts.  With no one in sight, I saw a tangerine tree with fruits low enough to pick.  I picked two of them for us to eat.  There were many on the ground rotting, so I didn't feel bad about taking two.  Mine was so refreshing!  Unfortunately, Wes had about 1/4 of his tumble out of his hands onto the ground as he was trying to pull off sections to eat.

The second place we passed the river was so remote that it had only a walking suspension bridge.  (Sorry that photo at the link is blurred; it's the only one I could find of the actual bridge we crossed.)  The river was so peaceful there with rapids both above and below the area.  We watched the water a while and then crossed the bridge.  Two teenage boys were there enjoying making the bridge bounce some.  They had been swimming in the water just before we arrived, because their suits were wet.  They were nice, however, and let us cross without creating havoc.  I told Wes that I'm sure both of them will fondly remember their days of swimming on the river and bouncing on the suspension bridge without a care in the world when they are adults.

We were in a very remote area after passing the suspension bridge.  It was quite special because of all the beautiful butterflies.  As we walked along a road only passable on foot or horseback, we passed an area where swarms of butterflies swirled and flitted around us.  Just past there, we were back on an unpaved road for autos and found a good place to sit in the shade on stones beside the river.  Am American man and his daughter were there swimming.  (We could hear them speaking English).  And a man walked up to us who was hiking along the river.  He was a local man living with his wife and parents who goes hiking along the river regularly.

Back in town, we were exhausted.  We returned to the room and watched TV while enjoying the air conditioning.  Then we walked back into town in the evening to have dinner at the same place where we had breakfast.  I had a plate of rice with fresh tomatoes, onions, and chunks of roasted pork.  Wes had the same except it was a chicken breast in the same sauce as what we had for breakfast.  Dinner was $4.50 for the BOTH (not each) of us and was fantastic.

We will leave here for Boquete tomorrow.  We were able to get a hotel reservation in a nice place and are just hoping we won't run into problems getting buses.  It will take 3 of them to get us there.