I Love Panama

Yes, having recovered from illness, we hiked again today.  We walked the Tower Trail in Soberania National Park. It might have been the last of the nearby hikes we had not done.    The 2.2 in and out mile trail is a steep, paved road that winds through rainforest to the top of a hill where the tower stands.  We imagined a forest fire tower at the top that we might be able to climb but no, it is a locked and fenced-off old US military radar station that has not been in use since 1965.  Today it is lodge for serious birders and wildlife watchers.  Who knew???  Maybe we will find a way to spend a night there before we leave here.  We certainly don’t want to miss something wonderful. Stan says no.

 Today’s exercise and the scene inspired this message.

 Rainy season ended one day in late December.  A breeze picked up and rain was no more.  No more.  Although a couple of weeks late, Panama’s dry season is now in full swing.  From time to time clouds form and threaten rain, nothing but a few drops fall.  Already the colors of the landscape have changed.  Today’s Panama is a stark contrast to the Panama we met when we arrived in October.  Fields of grass are now yellow and will be dead and brown in just a few weeks.  Leaves are dropping from trees.  The trees are not dying, they are merely shedding their leaves to conserve necessary moisture.  The leaves die but the tree survives for another year.  Some of the leaves are so large and leathery they make a crashing sound as they drop from limb to limb on their way to the ground.  Some are so big a fallen leaf might look like a small animal lying in the path or on a road.  Some fallen leaves’ bodies are so tough I wonder how they will ever decay and form the loam that nourishes the mother tree and the vines and palms that live around it in the seasons to come.

We are very thankful we arrived here in the midst of rain.  We’ve seen both sides of Panama now.

We have learned about Panama in the rain and now in the dry.  It is fun to return to an area we have visited before with great wonder and awe at the lush green and still be amazed today at how the scene has morphed in just 5 weeks. 

While the season has changed there are somethings that are a treasure regardless of the season.   I’m talking about Panama’s art, fashion, food and its people.  Panama’s people are among the most civilized, gentile people I know.   Not once in our time here has a person been rude or disrespectful to us.  Nearly everyone we have met, men, women and get this, children too, are so warm and pleasant, we’d like to invite them to our home for dinner.  It is as if, except for the kids at the Mexican restaurant last Saturday, most people we have encountered had a hard-minded mama who taught her children well.  She taught them and expected them to dress well, have proper table manners, street manners, respect for elders and know how to give a friendly greeting to those they meet. 

Today’s hike was inspirational and full of wonder – we saw a coati walking down the road before he turned into the forest and saw a big lizard crawling through the the leaves. We heard a bevy of birds in the trees and as we walked to the bus stop Stan nearly became ensnared in a spider web that stretched from tree to road sign at just about his eye-level. That man can dance!!

I’m sitting here tonight, preparing to go too San Blas, but I just cannot resist sharing how fond we are of Panama, and how we enjoy being in this little playhouse of ours.  The amazing view off our balcony still astounds us.  Sometimes we count and talk about the ships in Stan’s armada on the horizon awaiting their slot to pass through the canal, sometimes there is a random celebration with fireworks just below us  and sometimes we just watch a small fishing boat in the bay.

In our wildest, we never dreamed of living in Panama but it is a truly a dream. 

San Blas manana!!!!