Cooler day in the Mountains.

It is a beautiful day here. There is a good breeze blowing, the sun is shining and the birds are chirping. From our balcony you can really tell we are in a collapsed volcanic crater. Mountains surround us. The soil is volcanic so it is rich in nutrients and plants thrive here.
We had a delicious breakfast. And the coffee here is superb. They have coffee farms in Western Panama (probably up here too). Property here is more expensive closer to town. This is where a lot of wealthy Panamanians have places to escape the heat and noise of Panama City.
There is a big area called Altos de Maria, close by, but I have read that is more isolated and farther away from goods and services.
We are relaxing on the balcony now, and are going to go into town and drive around to see the area.
So we mapped out about a 30 minute drive along Highway 71, which is the road from the PanAmerican Highway up to El Valle. It goes through town and heads west. Thought it would be go sightseeing. Well, we got about 5-7 minutes out of town and this road turned into a steep grade roller coaster. At one point, it was a hairpin turn that then literally took us up the steepest road I’ve ever driven. But there was a small bus coming down, and one behind us, so we just kept going. After about 2 more minutes, I found a turnout and we stopped to assess where we were and if we wanted to continue. We both decided we’d rather look at neighborhoods and got to the farmers market rather than overheat the rental car trying to drive straight up a mountain. We had a good laugh and had a much easier time going back down.
We perused a few stores, at mango from the farmers market and had lunch. Lunch was big plates of nachos under a cool shaded patio. Funny, the big brown lab we saw at yesterday’s lunch was down by where we were today. He settled under our feet for about a half hour.
We then found a great bakery and had dessert and coffee. Then we headed back to the hotel to lay down, enjoy our food coma and watch BBC news.
We head back to Panama City tomorrow and fly out Saturday. We wanted to enjoy the drive back and take our time.Read more