Spontaneous adventures in Panama
After landing on the long, palm-fringed beach known as Las Lajas on Panama´s Pacific coast, I skipped across the hot sand and dipped my feet into the warm water and decided that it was a “mountain” day. After enjoying a glass of fresh pineapple juice looking out to Coiba Island, I jumped in my rental car and headed for the Interamericana Sur.
It´s a straight shot through tropical forest and farmland along the mostly well-paved Interamericana Sur highway. From the border with Costa Rica, the Interamericana is a two-lane road which expands into a four-lane highway once you pass the city of Santiago. I sometimes toyed with the idea of rolling down my window and letting the hot breeze redden my face, but quickly wimped out. Since Panama has a reputation for being the coldest country in Central America, because of their obvious love of air conditioning, I decided to just go with the local flow.
Three hours later, I reaching the bustling colonial town of Penonome. I rode the clutch through the congested city streets looking for a sign that said Cerro la Vieja, home to a hotel rumored to enjoy some of the best mountain views in Panama. After getting directions from a police officer (the Policia Nacional are not uncommon in Panama) I headed off into the countryside. The narrow road lined with pedestrians and tiny wooden roadside kiosks selling sodas, candies, and a few other bare essentials wound past grazing cattle and scattered houses.
Higher up when the landscape revealed itself, the surrounding hills and mountains looked like a bubbling green cauldron. Round, triangular and mushroom shaped hills burst through the earth´s skin. As the road got worse and the minutes longer, I started to get a little worried. After a couple of take-a-chance forks in the road, I hoped that I would not finish at a dead end.
I stopped at the next kiosk and asked group of young teenage girls hanging out about Cerro la Vieja. Lejos! they said. Far, I thought, but I had already been driving a half an hour, albeit slowly. At least I was going in the right direction. Confident, I proceeded deeper into the increasingly surreal landscape until twenty minutes later I was face-to-face with one of the thin, steep mountains. I knew it before I saw the sign – I had finally reached Cerro la Vieja Eco-Hotel and Spa.
When I saw the hammocks stretched across the cottage balconies facing the dramatic landscape, my chest welled and I knew that THIS is where I wanted to be.
