Remote Panama

Friday, Dec. 28, 2012--Panama City to Santa Fe

We rushed after getting up and having breakfast.  We knew we had quite a trip ahead.  It started with a city bus from our neighborhood to the main bus station in Panama City.  There, we had to wait about 10 minutes before the next bus from the company that had sold us our ticket arrived.  We were lucky to get on early and get good seats.  By the time it left 30 minutes later, people were told they had to wait for the next bus.  It's the beginning of a long weekend with many people going home to celebrate the new year.

After 3 1/2 hours, we arrived in Santiago.  There, we had to change buses again.  Fortunately, just 5 minutes after our arrival, a bus for Santa Fe arrived.  There was a rush for it, but the young man who handled the luggage and tickets saw us, grabbed our bags, and told a man inside to save two seats for us.  An hour and a half later, we arrived in Santa Fe.

Our hotel is outside of town.  We have to walk uphill about 1/2 a mile to get to the center of town.  The center isn't much, though.  This is really a SMALL village in the mountains.  It's a dead end, too.  Visiting here is like visiting Boxelder in Texas.  It's quiet and remote.

After resting for a while in the room, we walked into town.  We explored up and down some of the streets.  There is a small general store, a small fruit and vegetable market, a few places offering rooms that looked mostly closed, a small school, and a scattering of local houses.  Many homes have a saddled horse outside ready to use for local transportation.  Many lawns have colorful flowers.  Crocuses are very popular, too.  And almost every home has both an orange tree and a tangerine tree.

Mountains surround the town, and clouds float in and out of them.  The air is cooler than in Panama City, but it is still humid.  Everyone was friendly.

Our room is clean, but it isn't as nice as what we had in Panama City.  It will be fine, though.  I don't think we will stay for 3 nights as we had planned.  It's likely we will stay only two nights just because the place is so remote.  Tomorrow, we will explore the area.