El Valle, Panamá

El Valle is in the central Highlands of Panama. We had a lot of good hikes and ate plenty of good food. We stayed in a wonderful place called La casa de Pietra, a slightly upscale stone house in a shady garden. Our Costa Rican/ Italian host Alfredo was amazing. We did several long hikes up to small mountains and the views were picture perfect.

We sweated our asses off during the day and then at about 5, cool winds would blow in and it made the most comfortable night's sleep you can imagine. The rustling of the leaves were like a natural white noise. And the best part of all is that there were no bugs! We left our patio door and windows open all day and night. For me this is the most perfect climate ever. Several times I told Deanne there's no bugs!

Oddly, there were over 8 Italian restaurants in this small town. It's a weekend getaway for those in Panama City. We ate at one Italian place and then tried some local restaurants and a Spanish restaurant run by a sweet older couple from Spain.

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