The Little Chef

Yesterday we wandered down to Volcan to check out the Land's End clothing store we heard about. It's actually part of a Catholic church that runs the thrift store to raise money for the school and sell goods at discount to the locals. Someone or some company in the US sends down new and gently used Land's End sweaters, vests, fleece jackets and down parkas so that the local people can have access to affordable warm clothing. We ended up buying way more goodies than we actually needed because the deal was so good. Dad got a down vest and a big sweater, I picked up a nice zip-up hoodie, a big sweater and a cool tank-top - all for $20.00. I had planned to leave all of our warm weather clothing behind when we head down to the islands, but I want to bring all this cool gear home so I think our bags will be stuffed!

We found a little Greek restaurant run by a real Greek man in Volcan and had a yummy lunch of hummus, tzatziki, salad, pita and baklava. While we there a bunch of Americans came in; two girls who are in the Peace Corps down in Bocas and their family who came to visit for a couple weeks from Oregon. Later that afternoon while we were relaxing on the veranda at our B&B, they all showed to stay the night. They invited me along for a "chick hike" while all the guys were napping. We walked up this crazy steep road through the potato farms and the view was spectacular. The girls from the Peace Corp speak fluent Spanish so they were able to chat with one of the farmers who was from Yugoslavia. It seems like there are people from everywhere around the world here.

We all carpooled in our little Nissan and went down the road to an Argentinian restaurant for dinner. The food was good but the entertainment was the highlight of the night. The two Peace Corps girls who speak Spanish were late arriving as they couldn't quite pull themselves away from the TV and stereo; they've been living in huts with indians for nine months. So the rest of us arrived at the restaurant and were greeted by a little guy who looked to be about 9 or 10 years old. (We later found out he's 14, but the Panamanians seem to look younger than they are). He handed out menus printed in English and refused to let us reference the Spanish menu. Instead, when we each ordered our meal, he taught us the Spanish for each particular dish. He got out a little pad of paper to draw artistic renditions of the food if we didn't seem to be understanding what he was saying. It was so funny! He was also in charge of pouring our wine, although he had to get a chair to stand on in order to
reach the wine glasses. He seemed to be the only person around, and it turned out he was also our chef! He grilled, garnished and served dinner for seven people single-handedly - what a guy! After the meal I asked if I could take his picture and he got so excited, he ran in the back and grabbed his chef's hat which he proudly wore for the rest of the night.

It was a great evening which was made even better by the conversation and companionship of new friends. Thanks to Dad for driving us all around last night and avoiding the dogs that sleep in the middle of the road.

Cielito Sur

(Thanks to Michael for posting some blog entries for me so everyone can stay up to date! I had to get really creative and figure out how to add to the blog from where we're at; I think this will work for now. The format is turning out kind of strange, so please forgive any word spacing problems!)

About three days ago we noticed we were starting to lose track of what day it was... even more so by now - I think that's a good sign and it means we're letting go a little bit...


We left the Boquete area on the 6th (consulting my hand-written journal now since I don't rememberwhat day that was) after dining one more time the night before at the awesome Peruvian restaurant. We ordered all kinds of dishes just so we could trydifferent things. We had a Peruvian ceviche dish which was great; traditional ceviche is raw seafood and fish that has been marinated in lime juice andis "cooked" by the enzymes of the lime, and seasoned with various spices.The dish we ordered was fried ceviche which is prepared the same way andthen just barely fried for a moment and served on a plate of greens, onions and other veggies all marinated in lime - yum, yum, yum. I ordered a bowlof Peruvian seafood soup, chock full of fish, baby shrimp, camarones (mediumshrimp), clams, pulpo (octopus) and calamari
(squid). This bowl of soup would have been a meal all by itself!

Jane& Barry, our hosts at the Coffee Estate Inn waved goodbye to us the nextmorning and we were sorry to leave their wonderful hospitality. I had Daddrive me up all kinds of crazy back roads that wound up the mountain sides so I could get familiar with the different little towns and areas. Thesewere some pretty bad roads with potholes that could truly eat our littleNissan. But we made it up and down several times and thankfully the brakesare still holding up! In order to get to the other side of Vulcan Baru we have to drive back to David and hop on the Panamerican Highway, a four lane highway that runs the length of Panama. We forget that this country is sosmall compared to Montana, so in what seemed no time at all we were at ourexit point and we headed up into the mountains again, this time on the westside. The road to Volcan and Cerro Punta is a really nice paved road completewith fresh painted lines and everything!

As wewere driving up towards Volcan we could almost forget for a moment that weare in Central America - there are so many tall evergreens and with the windingmountain road, the cattle farms and horse ranches it really seemed like awarm summer day in Montana or Idaho. Volcan is the largest town up the roadhere, and quite a bit bigger than I had expected. The people are friendlyand the town is clean, but it is out in an open area with not many treesso it is pretty hot in the sunshine. We kept winding our way up the roadand in no time we were back in river valleys and mountains again...


...where wefound our bed & breakfast, Cielito Sur, run by Janet & Glenn.

Thisis the perfect place to settle in and spend five days in the cool, clearmountain air. The grounds are just gorgeous and there is a little waterfalland stream running right through our back yard so we can hear the water babblingday and night. There is a large common room with phone, computer, TV (no reception but a large DVD collection) and stereo with all kinds of CDsto choose from. The first night we had the place to ourselves which was afun treat! Janet makes a great homemade breakfast every day with lots offresh fruit, juices and two hot dishes to choose from. I had a watercress omelet one morning; today was cream cheese stuffed french toast.

Ourfirst night here we drove up the road just a few miles to the town of CerroPunta; it is a rolling hill area on top of the mountain, with deep valleysdown and steep slopes up. Dad & I both were reminded of Italy and Switzerland.It is an agricultural area with vegetable, strawberry and flower farms. Thefarmers here have no equipment aside from a few small tractors; everythingappears to be done by hand, from tilling to sowing to harvesting. I think most of the produce for the country is grown in this area. These farmersare utilizing every bit of their land; you should see the fields that areplanted on almost vertical hillsides - it's truly amazing. I've tried walkingup some of these hills - you've got to be in REALLY good shape to be a farmerhere. There are lots of little mercados or stores around for packaged goodsand beverages, but between the fresh trout and all the fresh fruit and producesold on the side of the road a person could eat really well for not muchmoney.

We had our first dinner at the Hotel CerroPunta and a friendly little woman named Gisela was our server. She has no English but we were able to have great conversation. She was very touchedthat Dad & I are traveling together and she wanted to let us know thattravelers to Panama are not only welcome but blessed. The hotel has a commondining room with big long tables to facilitate the large groups of touriststhey receive. That night there were only eight of us there; ourselves, aCanadian couple that are going to hike the Quetzal Trail over the mountainto Boquete, a couple from Panama City and two fancy American ladies. The American women didn't speak any Spanish so we all pitched in trying to translateand get their dinners ordered just the way they wanted - it was hilarious!

It'svery cool here at night so it was fun to cuddle up in bed with blankets.There is a hot tub here that we'll have to check out one of these nights,too. We've got lots more stories to tell but right now it's about time to head out and find some supper!

Jenn & Dad