Pensula de Azuero and Santa Catalina

                                      Peninsula de Azuero and Beyond

      We drove up and out of the crater surrounding El Valle, found our way west along the Interamerican  Highway, then south via la Carretera National to Pedasi.  It was a long trip, and although the highway is excellent the speed limit is about 25 mph in places.  There were plenty of police with radar guns so we thought it prudent to at least try to pay attention to our speed.  It was quite easy to get lost when going through towns along the highway, too. 

     The Azuero Peninsula is farm country.  We passed miles of sugar cane and had planned to stop at a sugar processing plant but we couldn't find it.  If the fields weren't covered in sugar cane, or the remains of harvested sugar cane, they were pastures for cows, lots of big white brahman cows.  We thought it odd we were told not to order beef in Panama because it is "like shoe leather".  

     We finally got to Pedasi, one of the surfing capitals of Panama only to find it not on the coast.  Playa Pedasi (Pedasi Beach) had no accommodations but there were some in town.  But why would we want to stay there?  It was hot and unappealing so we backtracked to Playa el Uvertio.  That's not so great either but for one night it was ok.  And the sun rose over the Pacific Ocean. That's so weird.  Gotta look at a map to get it!

                                                      Santa Catalina

     Off to the next destination, the surfing  hot spot of Santa Catalina..  We're not into surfing, just beaches.   That required driving another leg on the Interamerican Highway, getting lost going through a city again, and turning south beyond Santiago.  It was somewhere around there we got lost again.  Try getting directions when you don't speak Spanish.  Eventually we found the road and when in doubt at intersections there was usually somebody at a bus stop who pointed the way to Santa Catalina.   That was another long ride.  The road is a bit narrow and it twists and turns, but it's paved right to the beach.

     Picture a tropical beach town.  How does it look in your mind?  Well, it's some beach, somewhere, but not here.  There are no topical resorts lining the beach, one questionable  beach bar, a few equally questionable restaurants, one mini-mini-mini-mart, several surf shops, barking dogs, wandering children and roosters.  We drove out of town a bit and back, trying to get the lay of the land.  We decided on an in-town location, Rollo's Hostal.

     It's interesting how perspective changes when you're rested and an area becomes familiar.  We spent four nights at Rollo's.  Our private bath room was clean, air conditioned, and quiet, and there was fresh good coffee in the common kitchen in the morning.  We explored Santa Catalina on foot and found a couple of decent restaurants, a guy to take us fishing, a tour to take us to Isla de Coiba to go snorkeling, and a panaderia for muffins.  The locals were friendly, there was a laid back police presence, and the gringos  were mostly surfer dudes and girls from many foreign countries, and  ex-pats.  And then were Joe and me.

     If we had been there to surf we'd have been quite disappointed.  The surfers were hanging out waiting for the big ones, but the waves were fine for body surfing.  The sand is dark but the water was clear and very warm.  We didn't do much beach sitting because the sun is so hot.

     The snorkeling trip was a long day but well worth the bone-jarring  hour and half ride out to Coiba.  On the way out we encountered a group of whales quite near the boat so the captain shut the engine and we watched for a few minutes. Coiba is a large protected island about twenty-five miles off the coast of Santa Catalina.  It's largely uninhabited so the natural flora and fauna are undisturbed.  You can stay at the ranger station and take hikes into the interior of the island, but it's rugged and the fauna is not so friendly.  As well as monkeys and sloths there are several varieties of poisonous snakes, crocodiles, alligators, and cayman.  Joe and I have had one cayman encounter too many so that excursion was out! (See our Ecuador blog of the jungle.)  At the ranger station by the beach there was a sign saying not to swim because of the cocodiles.  No worries.

     Our snorkeling adventure was around other smaller islands.  The water was clear and the fish were abundant.  Our only criticism is that there was a strong current running along the backside of one of the small islands.  I'm a very strong swimmer but Joe had quite a hard time for a few minutes.  After stopping at three different snorkeling sights we rested  in the shade of the palms on an idyllic beach.  Joe and I took a walk to along the beach to small stream leading back to a fresh water lagoon.  At the edge of the stream leading to the ocean were very large creature footprints.  They were bigger than my hand and had claws. I could see where a tail had dragged between these claw prints. My first thought was "Oh shit.  Not another cayman!"  No, not a cayman, a crocodile. Two of them.  But we didn't see them.  Somebody approached us and confirmed the presence of these creatures.  Without hesitation we rejoined the other lounging snorkelers, climbed aboard the boat and headed back to Santa Catalina.

This is how the local get gas for there boats.  The nearest gas station is miles away.

Joe always like a fishing trip so naturally he found a local with a boat to take us out for two hours.   I found watching the local fishermen getting their boats ready for the day more interesting than fishing.  We caught two fish:  Mine was long and skinny with lots of teeth which got thrown back, but Joe caught a nice big mackerel.  We gave that one to the boat captain.

The last evening we were in Santa Catalina we went to local bar/restaurant which had been advertising reggae music, good pizza and drinks on special.  The music, which was supposed to start at 8:00, never got going until 9:30.  It seems they forgot to get a permit but the police told them to wait until 9:30 then the music could begin.  Maybe that's when the police went off duty.  The waitress kept bringing us free drinks to ensure we'd stay until the music got going.  "Don't go guys.  Music start soon."   Pretty soon the place was packed with mostly gringo surfer dudes and girls, and finally the music began.  It started with a Bob Marley song, but the singer read the words off his i-pod.  Clearly this wasn't going to be reggae for long.  It wasn't.  There was a Guns and Roses song, then a few Spanish songs, and a couple of songs we didn't know (no surprise there).  The first set closed with "The Summer of '69".  We're pretty sure we were the only ones in there that remembered the summer of '69 so we figured it was time to leave the partying to the kids. 

Sunday morning we packed our stuff and left the heat of the coast behind for Boquete, a town in the mountains between the Pacific and the Caribbean shores.

We saw many cows being moved via trucks and cowboys. There are a couple of guys on horses here, too but they don't show in the picture.  Many locals travel by horseback.

We saw a lot of these hawks.