Greetings from El Valle, Panama.  We were not able to get the motorcycles on a plane to Ecuador last week, so we had to schedule to drop them off on Monday, Jan   2.  After originally being told there was plenty of room on passenger flights for Monday, when we went to buy tickets suddenly there was only room in the business class seats, so we are flying on Tuesday.  Since no one was really interested in staying in hot, humid, smoggy Panama City for most of the next week, we took the advice of an American with family in Panama who told us to go to El Valle.  Sure enough, it was good advice.  The temperature and humidity are quite pleasant up here.  I don't think the elevation is particularly high, but it makes a big difference nonetheless. 

El Valle is nestled in an extinct volcanic caldera, with a series of steep tree-covered mountains forming the remains of the old rim.  Eric and I climbed the highest one this morning.  It took about an hour.  About half was up we encountered a guided tour, who were turning around since the trail ahead was considered too difficult.  I can't believe they didn't at least go 10 more minutes, since the trail topped out on a sub-peak at this point from which there was a great panoramic view of the mountains, town and Pacific Ocean off to the southeast.  The trail from here did get more difficult, and there were steel cables in a few places where it was really steep with few handholds.  The trail was muddy and the jungle was doing its best to take back over.  In some places the jungle tried to fend off the humans with thorns and twisty trees that we had to climb through.  However it was worth it, we summited the highest peak in the area and had a view that extended from the Pacific to the Atlantic.  How many places can you see both oceans from one spot.  To be fair, I can't really claim to have directly seen the Atlantic.  I know I was looking at it, but it was cloudy over there and it looked like the last line of land ended in a gray that was indistinguishable from the sky.  However, we had been told that both oceans were visible from up there so we kind of had to assume that the gray was the ocean just blending into the sky.  Very cool spot.  I worked up quite a sweat walking up there, but the cool breeze on top cooled me off in a hurry.  The walk down was possibly more difficult then the walk up - it was harder to see the foot holds on the really steep spots.

We will be here tomorrow also, and there are lots of other things to check out around here.  There are apparently some square trees nearby, they grow this way naturally.  There is a hotspring, a waterfall, some petroglyphs, a frog zoo and a crafts market that are all supposed to be quite worth checking out.  On Sunday we will head back into Panama City and check into the expensive hotel near the airport again.  On Monday morning at 8am we are scheduled to drop the bikes off at Girag Air Cargo with cash in hand.  Back to the hotel, maybe post some more photos on their fast connection, and then Tuesday morning we fly to South America.  I can't wait!

Friday December 30, 2005 - 01:05pm (PST)