Editor’s Note: The first thing I want to say here is that I owe the fabulous people at Panamonte Inn in Boquete, Panama a serious apology – particularly to Charlie and Yolanda. When I returned from Panama just over a…
The Porter was the best. In the glass it was brown and turned ruby where the light shined through the liquid. The head was a nice auburn and the taste was a perfect mix of chocolate, coffee and the slightly…
Below the grassy parking area where the majority of the stone artifacts were on display I crawled into a cool, tiny sandy nook. The hole at the edge of El Sitio Barilles was made into a cave by the dangling…
I’ll get it out of the way up front. The Boquete Garden Inn is probably THE BEST little inn I’ve stayed at, ever. Understand, of course, that I am a fanatic for birds, gardens and flowers. So walking through the…
Everyone was yelling. You notice all the shouting about the same time the fetid reek of salt, tin, ammonia and decay smacks you in the nose. “¡Permiso! ¡Permiso! ¡Cuidado!” A short man in a mustache and green apron pushed past…
I don't like it much when a vulture stares at me at the entrance to a church. I don't like it much either when three crows are sitting, all consubstantially trinity-like, on the Catholic's cross at the narthex. Yes, that's right, the…
Ten minutes across some pretty rough waters from the Panamanian village of La Guaira, we found ourselves kindly deposited on the Caribbean island of Isla Grande. The boat pilot didn’t want to take on the larger waves near the reef…
She said: "Ito and Roni are brothers. And since he was born...since Ito was very young...the Virgin comes to him. We call this 'vidente'. The Virgin used to talk to him in the trees. His madre thought he was sick…
This morning, my last in Panama City, Maria Elena and I hiked (well, ok...it is an easy 15 minute walk) up Cerro Ancon for a sunrise view of the city. Not a bad sight. Amazing to me is that, at…
Below, where we looked at the black volcanic sand that covered the Barriles Panama village so long ago, Edna was telling a story about a UFO in the mountains near the volcano... "...we saw one just out there...one afternoon...all…
The Quetzales Trail Panama connects the town of Boquete to the town of Cerro Punta along the edge of the Baru Volcano, the highest mountain in Panama at 11,398 feet. The trail cuts through the cloud forest along the Talamanca…
Miraflores is the name of one of the three locks that form part of the Panama Canal and the name of the small lake that separates these locks from the Pedro Miguel locks upstream. In the Miraflores locks, vessels are…
