Panama → Santiago → Santa Fe → ?
I'm back on the road and it is a strange feeling. I left Panama City and took a bus to Santiago de Veraguas, the midway point between Panama and David. Last time i was in Santiago i switched buses almost immediately to go to Aguadulce, but this time i had been stuck in traffic on the Pan-American Highway for almost 5 hours and was starving, so jumped out looking for something to eat and a place to stay.
I ate french fries with sliced chorizo topped with a random mix of bland sauces like mayonnaise and thousand island. Fucking Panama, eh.
Got a hotel, checked in, tried to find somewhere for a more substantial meal, but nothing was open. Fucking Saturday, eh. I ended up getting two bananas from a local superstore, then heading to a bar on the corner that only sold beer.
Admittedly it was 80 cent beer, so it was good value. But it got worse when everyone started buying me more. Two of the guys who bought me beer at least came over to my table to chat to the funny looking gringa who popped up in their country town all by themselves. They were all very drunk, so the conversation was as vapid and hard to follow as you'd expect. Still, it felt nice to socialize a bit with the locals.
Until it wasn't. At one point i had three unasked-for bottles of beer on my table, and a shot of white rum, and the guys who sent it were still at their own table hanging with friends. I was already 3 beers down - 1 more than i had intended to have going in - and was feeling a bit trapped by the situation. I know they were just old married men from the country, thrilled to have someone new at their bar, but it made me feel pressured to drink even though i didn't want to. It's one thing for someone who you are actually talking to to buy you a drink, or for someone to quietly cover your bill for what you already drank, but sending drinks to your table unrequested is some creepy ass bullshit. Don't fucking do it, gentlemen. It basically robs me of my freedom to set my own pace. Gross.
So i left, with a couple of full beers still sitting on the table. And i woke up the next morning with a small hangover.
I started to finally WhatsApp with the person i am supposed to meet at the restaurant up in the mountains, but have been avoiding because i detest making plans and ruining my freedom by arranging to meet with or even talk to other people. I am extremely reluctant to make this happen because i hate everything about these planned holiday moments so fucking much i can't even begin. It's the literal worst. But i feel like i should push myself to do it anyway just to get a different experience from normal, and maybe surprise myself.
Anyway, she said her restaurant is open from Thursday, so i had some time and - on a whim - decided to take a bus to Santa Fe, which is a village in the mountains right next to Santa Fe National Park. National parks in Panama are not like the ones in Canada or the US. There is basically no development, no services, no maintained trails, no campsites, no nothing. They're just protected areas of backcountry. What that functionally means is you kinda need to hire a taxi to get up there, hire a guide to walk you around, and so on. So, basically, exactly what i don't want to do.
Fortunately, Santa Fe itself has several hostels and some hiking trails kinda close-ish to the town. After wandering around aimlessly trying to find a place to stay (none of the hostels had anyone at reception) i managed to get in touch with someone over WhatsApp who had a room. I think COVID has completely killed the tourism industry here.
The good news is i got a private room with shared bathroom and didn't see a single other guest the whole time i was there.
I also got a map of the area and hiked up a very rugged back road past some farms and retirement chalets into the rainforest, then made my way to a trailhead that took me into a steep jungle-drenched canyon with several waterfalls. I only saw a handful of other people, mostly locals. It was a peaceful afternoon and much overdue after spending 7 weeks in the city. I don't much give a shit about rainforests or waterfalls, but you take what you can get. I didn't encounter much wildlife, but there was some animal that i didn't see but which spat a string of poison at me out of the bushes when i passed. That really freaked me out and had me probing the path ahead with a stick a bit more often. There were some big spiders too, and birds, and an absolute shit-ton of fire ants, but nothing much different to hiking in southern China or other warm, humid climates. It was neat to see horses presumably belonging to local farmers just wandering randomly about the place.
Around the town are several other trails that lead to waterfalls and nearby peaks. I had planned to shoot for the most famous peak in the area today, but then the rain started. It wasn't a big, epic rain - not like the tropical downpours of December - but it was still a lot of fucking rain. I checked the weather report and although the rain was scheduled to clear in the morning, by lunch it'd be back.
Well, fuck that. I know that it's totally normal to hike in the rain here, and in other countries with a rainy season, but i have no interest in it. It's bad enough to be stuck in a fucking rainforest in the first place where you can't see anything because of all the trees, and where it's dark all the time, and where you have to squish through ankle-deep mud even when it's sunny, but rain too? For fuck's sake.
To add insult to injury, my phone stopped working. I don't know why it stopped working, because i could see the 4G connection icon, full bars, but it had a little exclamation mark next to it and the internet was not working. It was working yesterday, but this morning no. My hostel only had wifi in the public area, which i have no interest in spending my time in, so i sat there in my bedroom with no internet moping. I decided to leave.
And that's where i am now, on the bus back to Santiago. Miraculously my internet started working as soon as i got out of the mountains. Perhaps the cable up there was broken or something? The rain washed away the internet? Satellite blocked by a cloud? Fuck, who knows. I do know that even though i like hiking, and i like being in the wilderness, i hate rain, and i hate not having internet, and i hate not having anywhere in town to buy coffee.
I mean, i did get a coffee and a hojaldre this morning, from the fonda near the bus stop, but it was a tiny coffee suitable only for feeding to ants or Italians.
Actually, small coffee wouldn't be so bad if it was very strong, like in Miami, but this was a weak one. Which is funny because those mountain areas actually grow the damn coffee.
Anyway, fuck the mountains. I mean, i had my preview, and now i need to go to some other mountains again, way over the other side of the country. But maybe i will hang out in the plains a bit more first because fuck the cold ass wind and "temperate climate" in the hills. If it drops below 30C (85F) it's cold. No me interesa that cold ass shit, might as well be back in Canada at that point.
Fuck. I'm cranky. I need to get another coffee when this bus gets to Santiago. At least we are packed in like sardines listening to accordion music. I think i'm happiest when i'm squished in a bus going somewhere, anywhere. Traveling is so much better than being stuck.
-o-
I am squatting in the Santiago bus station drinking another bad coffee, but it feels grand, because there are a million people bustling about, and everyone is going somewhere. I love these places of travel so much more than places of tourism. I wish i could just keep riding buses and hanging out in terminals forever.
There was a guy on my minibus with a very well behaved (or sick) chihuahua in a cardboard box. There is an epic line of people waiting for fried chicken or some damn fried thing at the fonda next door. I am debating whether to get a third coffee before taking the bus. I think i will. Even i slept a long time, i am tired from all the hiking yesterday.
Where to, where to?
I ate french fries with sliced chorizo topped with a random mix of bland sauces like mayonnaise and thousand island. Fucking Panama, eh.
Got a hotel, checked in, tried to find somewhere for a more substantial meal, but nothing was open. Fucking Saturday, eh. I ended up getting two bananas from a local superstore, then heading to a bar on the corner that only sold beer.
Admittedly it was 80 cent beer, so it was good value. But it got worse when everyone started buying me more. Two of the guys who bought me beer at least came over to my table to chat to the funny looking gringa who popped up in their country town all by themselves. They were all very drunk, so the conversation was as vapid and hard to follow as you'd expect. Still, it felt nice to socialize a bit with the locals.
Until it wasn't. At one point i had three unasked-for bottles of beer on my table, and a shot of white rum, and the guys who sent it were still at their own table hanging with friends. I was already 3 beers down - 1 more than i had intended to have going in - and was feeling a bit trapped by the situation. I know they were just old married men from the country, thrilled to have someone new at their bar, but it made me feel pressured to drink even though i didn't want to. It's one thing for someone who you are actually talking to to buy you a drink, or for someone to quietly cover your bill for what you already drank, but sending drinks to your table unrequested is some creepy ass bullshit. Don't fucking do it, gentlemen. It basically robs me of my freedom to set my own pace. Gross.
So i left, with a couple of full beers still sitting on the table. And i woke up the next morning with a small hangover.
I started to finally WhatsApp with the person i am supposed to meet at the restaurant up in the mountains, but have been avoiding because i detest making plans and ruining my freedom by arranging to meet with or even talk to other people. I am extremely reluctant to make this happen because i hate everything about these planned holiday moments so fucking much i can't even begin. It's the literal worst. But i feel like i should push myself to do it anyway just to get a different experience from normal, and maybe surprise myself.
Anyway, she said her restaurant is open from Thursday, so i had some time and - on a whim - decided to take a bus to Santa Fe, which is a village in the mountains right next to Santa Fe National Park. National parks in Panama are not like the ones in Canada or the US. There is basically no development, no services, no maintained trails, no campsites, no nothing. They're just protected areas of backcountry. What that functionally means is you kinda need to hire a taxi to get up there, hire a guide to walk you around, and so on. So, basically, exactly what i don't want to do.
Fortunately, Santa Fe itself has several hostels and some hiking trails kinda close-ish to the town. After wandering around aimlessly trying to find a place to stay (none of the hostels had anyone at reception) i managed to get in touch with someone over WhatsApp who had a room. I think COVID has completely killed the tourism industry here.
The good news is i got a private room with shared bathroom and didn't see a single other guest the whole time i was there.
I also got a map of the area and hiked up a very rugged back road past some farms and retirement chalets into the rainforest, then made my way to a trailhead that took me into a steep jungle-drenched canyon with several waterfalls. I only saw a handful of other people, mostly locals. It was a peaceful afternoon and much overdue after spending 7 weeks in the city. I don't much give a shit about rainforests or waterfalls, but you take what you can get. I didn't encounter much wildlife, but there was some animal that i didn't see but which spat a string of poison at me out of the bushes when i passed. That really freaked me out and had me probing the path ahead with a stick a bit more often. There were some big spiders too, and birds, and an absolute shit-ton of fire ants, but nothing much different to hiking in southern China or other warm, humid climates. It was neat to see horses presumably belonging to local farmers just wandering randomly about the place.
Around the town are several other trails that lead to waterfalls and nearby peaks. I had planned to shoot for the most famous peak in the area today, but then the rain started. It wasn't a big, epic rain - not like the tropical downpours of December - but it was still a lot of fucking rain. I checked the weather report and although the rain was scheduled to clear in the morning, by lunch it'd be back.
Well, fuck that. I know that it's totally normal to hike in the rain here, and in other countries with a rainy season, but i have no interest in it. It's bad enough to be stuck in a fucking rainforest in the first place where you can't see anything because of all the trees, and where it's dark all the time, and where you have to squish through ankle-deep mud even when it's sunny, but rain too? For fuck's sake.
To add insult to injury, my phone stopped working. I don't know why it stopped working, because i could see the 4G connection icon, full bars, but it had a little exclamation mark next to it and the internet was not working. It was working yesterday, but this morning no. My hostel only had wifi in the public area, which i have no interest in spending my time in, so i sat there in my bedroom with no internet moping. I decided to leave.
And that's where i am now, on the bus back to Santiago. Miraculously my internet started working as soon as i got out of the mountains. Perhaps the cable up there was broken or something? The rain washed away the internet? Satellite blocked by a cloud? Fuck, who knows. I do know that even though i like hiking, and i like being in the wilderness, i hate rain, and i hate not having internet, and i hate not having anywhere in town to buy coffee.
I mean, i did get a coffee and a hojaldre this morning, from the fonda near the bus stop, but it was a tiny coffee suitable only for feeding to ants or Italians.
Actually, small coffee wouldn't be so bad if it was very strong, like in Miami, but this was a weak one. Which is funny because those mountain areas actually grow the damn coffee.
Anyway, fuck the mountains. I mean, i had my preview, and now i need to go to some other mountains again, way over the other side of the country. But maybe i will hang out in the plains a bit more first because fuck the cold ass wind and "temperate climate" in the hills. If it drops below 30C (85F) it's cold. No me interesa that cold ass shit, might as well be back in Canada at that point.
Fuck. I'm cranky. I need to get another coffee when this bus gets to Santiago. At least we are packed in like sardines listening to accordion music. I think i'm happiest when i'm squished in a bus going somewhere, anywhere. Traveling is so much better than being stuck.
-o-
I am squatting in the Santiago bus station drinking another bad coffee, but it feels grand, because there are a million people bustling about, and everyone is going somewhere. I love these places of travel so much more than places of tourism. I wish i could just keep riding buses and hanging out in terminals forever.
There was a guy on my minibus with a very well behaved (or sick) chihuahua in a cardboard box. There is an epic line of people waiting for fried chicken or some damn fried thing at the fonda next door. I am debating whether to get a third coffee before taking the bus. I think i will. Even i slept a long time, i am tired from all the hiking yesterday.
Where to, where to?