Adventures of Trent & Jane

 It’s Thursday and that means market day. Jane needs her $5 chair massage. We gave Ron and Shannon a ride to the market, they were looking for bargains. Unfortunately they didn’t find any. We had a tee time at noon. Having said that, I feel a little foolish. I remember commenting that though there were signs warning of crocodiles that there weren’t any on the course. Well I stand corrected, we saw 2 yesterday while playing. Granted they were not huge, the little one about 3 feet and the big one only slightly larger, they are definitely crocodiles!

  We needed to walk out and get our car, but knowing us once we got it there was no turning back so off we went our our road trip. First stop was La Laguna, very idyllic place.  Found some tent campers, and families having picnics.  The road to it had 75 degree grades for the last couple of km.  Then as there was no restaurants or chinos we headed to el vale, the town inside a crater. Where we visited a zoo and seen a lot of exotic  and some other animals as well.  Could not find much info on the background of the zoo, it was clean but old style with animals in cages.   The zoo was also a nursery so a chance to get pics of some local flowers On our way home we found a trail that led us to the edge of the crater nd could see the town inside.  Also great views of Panama inland and the ocean    

 OK, now I am trying to keep up but struggling! Here comes Tuesday the 31st. Golf! There are a lot of local critters on the course. They warn about crocs but I don’t think there are any as the water is shallow and fairly still, I keep looking though. We have also walked the beach a lot. It’s about 2.5 km to the Coronado Beach Club. They have cabanas and chairs on the beach with service. Easy to while away the day reading, playing in the Pacific and having cocktails in the sun or shade. There is also the Bahia beach bar about halfway between home and Coronado. I good place to revive from the strain of the long arduous trek through the scorching sand…..phew! We weren’t able to make it around the point as the tide was coming in. Jane was mortally injured on the rocks and I had to carry her all the way home. Well not really, she tore a toenail that hobbled her some she will survive. We got her foot looked after and got ready to party. We had reservations at Hawaii Bar. The party was OK...

 Wow, time flies! We should be posting daily but it gets away from us.  We have been quiet for a day, sat around and read and sunned on Thursday. Better weather than my weather app indicates. Even if it rains though, it isn’t uncomfortable, plenty warm! Friday we headed for Gamboa. There’s a nature park and hiking trails, and the sloth sanctuary. Going to see the sloths (we kind of feel for them as what we were doing on Thursday is what they do all the time, move slow, eat and sleep). The road trip itself was longer than we thought, if only because the signage and road system are really confusing. Siri was no help, ‘go west’, doesn’t help when you have just turned a complete circle on a very strange set of traffic circles. We did make it to Gamboa, they want $80 to take a two hour boat ride to monkey island. It is raining intermittently and any monkeys we have seen in the trees are hunkered down to try and stay dry, no activity. We take a pass on monkey island, maybe we’ll go ...

 We did another road trip on the 23rd. ( We are a little behind on our posts, busy few days). We decided to try to go to Punta Chame. We were told that the road was terrible but thought we could try it and turn around if it was too bad. It was slow, the road did have some large potholes(but what road here doesn’t) and some construction but otherwise a pretty easy drive. I could say ‘I could have driven a school bus through there’. Pretty little town, fairly isolated, lots of fishing boats. What else would you do here. A number of resorts with one very large one, Playa Caricol Residences and Beach Club. Really big and very new. Us, being plebeians hung at the Surf Shack for a bit. It’s right beside the resort and much more regular. Cold beer is cold beer! If you look hard you can see some kite surfers in the second pic. Instead of just heading home I decided to see where the road went. Not too long a track but it ended right at the tip of the point. It was completely deserted. You c...

  Had a quiet Christmas in Panama went to Christmas Eve dinner next door and then did Christmas tapas downstairs with great fiddle music.  Christmas gifts helped us fit in with the locals!  Wishing everyone a great holiday season and looking forward to seeing you in 2025.    

  We went to Anton Valley and the town of El valley which is the only town in the world, according to them built inside a crater.   The drive was spectacular as you are driving on the rim seeing the inside on the crater one side and the Pacific Ocean on We attempted hiking the Iguana but the road was being graded and the incline was straight up, made it about 200 yds and then as we were starting down, got a lift in the back of a panamian truck, saved my knees.  Decided we would go to the Waterfalls instead.  At the gate we paid our $4 entrance fee and was told it was a 10 minute walk to the falls, it was more like 20 minutes scrabbling over rocks and leaning into the moss rocks to get to a 5m waterfall!  Not the most spectacular but still a great Stopped in town and was shown a great view of India (I am pointing at her head).  El Valle has Millionarre street with huge homes that the rich from Panama come to to escape the heat as El Valle has spring temperat...