El Valle Excursion

Hi all!  This past weekend the ISA crew took a trip to El Valle de Anton – if only I was living and taking my classes there!  El Valle is a couple hours from Panama City, and is higher in elevation which means that the temperature is far more pleasant than it is where I live.  The town of Anton is located within the crater of an extinct volcano, which I guess gives the soil an abundance of minerals and good stuff that makes the area especially fertile; much of Panama’s best fresh produce comes from El Valle.  The wealthiest families in Panama have weekend homes here, and understandably so – the scenery is totally amazingly beautiful, and I wish that I got to spend more time there!  

Our first stop after the van ride was at a zoo – we had been warned that the animal lovers amongst us might feel a little sad by the conditions the animals were living in, and this turned out to be pretty true.  Although the zoo, El Nisporo, is located in one of the most beautiful places, the animals are housed in tiny cages and many don’t look like they’re doing so great.  We did see some really cool animals and I enjoyed wandering around such a lovely place.

 

 

The most beautiful place I've been so far - makes me miss Boulder!!

 

 

 This guy was my favorite!  I tickled his feet!

 

 

 Shy ocelot!

(Pretty sad home, huh?)

 

 

I had never seen this creature before: a jaguarundi!

Basically a house cat and a jaguar mix, really cool!

 

 

Coyotes!  Far from their natural habitats...

 

Then we took a short jungle trek to see El Chorro del Macho, a waterfall that is well known in the area.  It was a really pretty hike, but very short, only about 20 minutes.  The trails we were on were constructed by a zip line company, but unfortunately the zip line experience wasn’t part of our itinerary. 

 

Wish we had trails like these in CO!

 

 

The crew with Claudio

 

El Macho

 

 

Claudio bravely crossing a bridge without holding onto the sides!

 

 

 

After a lunch in the town of Anton and a brief visit to the local market, we vanned up and traveled to where we would be staying the night at the Santa Clara beach.  We arrived and got settled into little yellow cabins/rooms at Las Veraneras, and almost immediately headed to the beach.  It was fun to play in the sea and very relaxing to watch the waves as the sun went down.  The next morning we had a beachside breakfast and hung out at the beach until we left to return to Panama City.  I wish this excursion could have been longer!  El Valle is definitely one of my favorite places in Panama!