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The road less traveled

4/15/2018

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Any day is a fine day for a Sunday drive in Panama, even if it happens to be on a Saturday.

We decided to try going to the Jerusalem mall in the Panama side of Paso Canoas, Costa Rica, using the back road Highway 414. According to a couple of different maps, including a local one updated a month or so ago, it appeared to be a decent road, not a main road but still a paved secondary road. It goes past our gate, and is quite good as far as we have been down it. The kids go to the boys & girls club about 15 minutes down the road, so we thought it would be about the same for the whole way.
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Most of it was great! The road winds around, up and down, with many river crossings. The river crossings are at the bottom of ravines, which mean the road is very steep going down to then up from each crossing. The slope was about 10%-13%, with a couple steeper than that!

The road was quite narrow in spots, and there were a couple of sections that were church roads. (Quite Hole-y!) We got to a point where they are building a new dam, and the road kind of stopped. There was a bit of a gravel trail around a corner, so we tried it, and ended up on the steepest section of the road, not sure the grade, but our truck was in low gear, full gas, and no acceleration! I would have put it in 4x, but didn't think I could get started again if I stopped.

We made it out the other side, and over all it was a great trip! The scenery was amazing (GeoLin has some pictures to post) and because of the road, there was hardly any traffic (a couple of taxis, and a bus or two...). We did pass one village that had cool bamboo arches with flowers over the road, and it was the first time in Panama where people actually stopped to look at us. Not sure if it was because we are gringoes, or if it was cause no vehicles and come through that way in a while...

​We will try the road again in a couple weeks when there is more water to see how the rivers look.
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Coffee

3/14/2018

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Panama has great coffee. I was expecting the fruity/sour coffee that I've had from Costa Rica, however so far this coffee is really good. Some quite dark and a bit bitter, but a few local farms have very good, smooth, not bitter or fruity coffee. The Black Mountain Coffee is up there with the best I've had from Rwanda or Kenya.
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SPIDERS!

3/14/2018

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We don't have bugs here, but we do have spiders. Quite a few of them, and they are large. Not as big as the ones we had in Kenya, but still large. The seem to come out in the evening, after we close up the doors and windows, and turn the lights on. We usually do a walk around the house in the evening to get rid of the big ones in the bedrooms.

​We have seen a few other bugs around, a couple of beetles, some tiny ants, fireflies, various moths, a few cockroaches, some caterpillars, a centipede or two (one stung Caedon), Tiggie found some tiny jumping worms, stick bugs, locusts, grasshoppers, praying mantis, spiders, a single mosquito, dive bomb beetles, tuner moths, large moths,... Hmm, so maybe we do have bugs here?

But mostly, just spiders. Not sure what type they are, or if they are poisonous - one looks like a wolf spider, but not really sure. If you can identify any of these, let us know! I tried making a lemon oil and water spray, it was supposed to make the spiders move along to somewhere else. I think instead they liked it, and invted their friends over.
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To market to market to buy some veggies (and bananas)

2/23/2018

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On Fridays there are two markets that open in the morning and offer some choices that are different than the normal offerings at the grocery store. The first one opens early and it's called the "gringo" market. It is mostly gringos selling stuff to other gringos. They have things like homemade cheeses, sauerkraut, kombucha, herbs, spices, local coffee, and amazing bread. The bread is from a bakery in Boquete called Morton's Bakehouse (http://www.mortonsbakehouse.com), the sourdough is really good. The other market is one hosted by the Catholic church. They have various veggies and fruit at the cheapest prices in town. You weigh and bag things yourself, then mark what you have down on a clipboard and take it to the cashier to pay. We picked up some fresh parsley, green peppers, and a couple of other things which, including the $0.50 donation, came to a grand total of $1.05.

We decided to walk into town to go to the markets. As we were walking to the gate one of our neighbors drove by and asked if we were going to the gringo market. She said we wouldn't make it in time and to get in for a ride. We got to town and made it in time to get the last little bananas and
cinnamon bun! We had time in between the gringo market and the Catholic market, so the ladies we were riding with decided we should go up the road a bit to see some of the other produce stands.

Not too far up the road they decided we were just about to Cerro Punta, and should just go all the way. Cerro Punta is where almost all of the produce for the whole country, and a large amount of exports, comes from. It is about 1,000 feet higher up the mountain than Volcán, and is very steep and mountainous. It is beautiful. We stopped at a roadside shop and got strawberries with hand whipped fresh cream.

​We didn't get our walk in, but ended up getting a tour, some great veggies, and a very nice day! We have heard that typical Panamanian days never turn out as planned. We're kinda glad it didn't!
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