Exploring Panama

We are staying at Chiriqui Storage http://www.chiriquistorage.com/ approx. 10 miles north of David - useful hub town for provisions.

We are back in a land of plenty and visited a mall. The shops are brimming with lovely 'things' and we walked around gawping and oohing and aahing at all the pretty 'things' and didnt buy any. That takes some training!

Helmut, Linda and Penelope jointly own the storage business and are very kind and helpful. H and L are into yachting so we look forward to more stories of their adventures. We are only the third RV guest they have had. Not many RV's make this trip and one of the reasons is that there are few and far between places to stay. Plus people don't want to face the border problems. So we are really grateful to Chiriqui Storage for making this space! available!

The doggy in the picture is Tigre - we have been feeding him up with German sausage!

Boquete is a few miles north and we spent a day exploring the town and area. Not hugely impressed with the village - rather tatty with very few original faded glory buildings that could actually be renovated to their former glory. Also a new water channel has been built at huge expense. It is all edged in original rock boulders but it looks like a huge scar running through the town. It badly needs some trees and vegetation planting to soften it all but i reckon they ran out of funds. The surrounding area is absolutely gorgeous. Its about 12000 meters high in altitude so has a cool and comfortable climate. A circular road around the mountains leads you to the posh areas where the coffee Barons and Baronesses have huge estates and plantations and beautiful horses running around.

There was a funky hot water spring hole near village of Caldera 1/2 way between Boquete and the RV park. It was very natural (read between the lines... very stinky toilet pit, no changing room etc. etc.) and in a beautiful setting on the side of the river. The owner(?) was dressed in his best cowboy suite and had some cute animal running freely on his land-horses, geese, chickens, baby goats, a monkey, dogs, peacocks, a cow etc - it was good to see him trying to maximise his location and create other interests to encourage the visitors to stay a while. He offered horse rides and the chance to play with his animals and take photos. He was a nice guy - although overly friendly and touchy, til he saw that I was attached to Uli - but his socks and plastic sandles spoiled the cowboy effect.