Easy Christmas Morning at the Hotel
Dec. 29th, 2024 07:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerPanama Travelog #19
El Valle, Panama - Wed, 25 Dec 2024. 10pm.
Merry Christmas! We're in Panama in the small remote town of El Valle. How small and remote is it? Well, the town calls itself the most populated volcano in the world. That's a clue how small it is. Actually there's probably a few thousand people in the area. It's a big volcano. 🤣
We're taking it easy after our gonzo hike to La Dormida, the sleeping Indian girl, yesterday. I got wrecked from hot-footing it down a steep mountain trail to get out of the rain and thunder. My leg muscles are still sore. I'm walking with a pronounced limp. Thus we're taking it easy around the hotel this morning instead of going hiking. Plus, it's drizzling anyway. After yesterday I am fucking done with hiking in the rain. For at least a day or two, anyway.
So, what's it like around our hotel? I haven't shared much about that, focusing instead on all the other things we're doing besides staying.
The Hotel Campestre is a modest two-floor hotel with stucco walls, an aluminum roof, and exterior corridors. We're on the upstairs level where there are nice chairs to sit out in under the wide brim of the roof.
At the end of the upstairs walkway, just before descending the stairs, is a nice view south across the valley. I believe that mountain in the distance is called the iguana. I don't know why, but I'd guess it's because somebody back in the day when graffiti was sacred and not a misdemeanor thought it looked like an iguana. There really aren't iguanas around here, which is probably why that person thought a mountain looked like one. But the stupid name aside, it's a pretty view.
Each morning we've headed downstairs for breakfast in the hotel's restaurant. Today I wobbled down the stairs. I'm on rubbery legs because of my strained muscles. Just going down the stairs once this morning I think I almost fell twice.
I forgot to take a picture of breakfast until after we'd eaten most of it. So far we've both been ordering pancakes and chorizo (sausage) from the small breakfast menu. Each breakfast also comes with a plate of several fresh fruit slices, muesli, yogurt, and bread. The window next to our table overlooks the fountain and the mountains in the distance (see previous photo). BTW, this is the free breakfast Hawk negotiated for us after the hotel's room bait-and-switch.
After breakfast today I joined Hawk for a walk around the extended hotel grounds. It turns out there is a swimming pool! It's behind a stand of trees, where you really can't see if from the hotel building.
Except it's not really a swimming pool. It's more like a duck pond with a stone wall. The water's murky, the bottom's muddy, and there's duck shit all around. I'd be pissed about the hotel having been so misleading about stating its amenities include a swimming pool but I've decided there are so many things that have been wrong this trip— literally all the hotels, the car, the weather, and every hike—that I'm just done being pissed. I'm pissed out of being pissed off. And my legs are so achy I just want to lie down again.
El Valle, Panama - Wed, 25 Dec 2024. 10pm.
Merry Christmas! We're in Panama in the small remote town of El Valle. How small and remote is it? Well, the town calls itself the most populated volcano in the world. That's a clue how small it is. Actually there's probably a few thousand people in the area. It's a big volcano. 🤣
We're taking it easy after our gonzo hike to La Dormida, the sleeping Indian girl, yesterday. I got wrecked from hot-footing it down a steep mountain trail to get out of the rain and thunder. My leg muscles are still sore. I'm walking with a pronounced limp. Thus we're taking it easy around the hotel this morning instead of going hiking. Plus, it's drizzling anyway. After yesterday I am fucking done with hiking in the rain. For at least a day or two, anyway.
So, what's it like around our hotel? I haven't shared much about that, focusing instead on all the other things we're doing besides staying.
The Hotel Campestre is a modest two-floor hotel with stucco walls, an aluminum roof, and exterior corridors. We're on the upstairs level where there are nice chairs to sit out in under the wide brim of the roof.
At the end of the upstairs walkway, just before descending the stairs, is a nice view south across the valley. I believe that mountain in the distance is called the iguana. I don't know why, but I'd guess it's because somebody back in the day when graffiti was sacred and not a misdemeanor thought it looked like an iguana. There really aren't iguanas around here, which is probably why that person thought a mountain looked like one. But the stupid name aside, it's a pretty view.
Each morning we've headed downstairs for breakfast in the hotel's restaurant. Today I wobbled down the stairs. I'm on rubbery legs because of my strained muscles. Just going down the stairs once this morning I think I almost fell twice.
I forgot to take a picture of breakfast until after we'd eaten most of it. So far we've both been ordering pancakes and chorizo (sausage) from the small breakfast menu. Each breakfast also comes with a plate of several fresh fruit slices, muesli, yogurt, and bread. The window next to our table overlooks the fountain and the mountains in the distance (see previous photo). BTW, this is the free breakfast Hawk negotiated for us after the hotel's room bait-and-switch.
After breakfast today I joined Hawk for a walk around the extended hotel grounds. It turns out there is a swimming pool! It's behind a stand of trees, where you really can't see if from the hotel building.
Except it's not really a swimming pool. It's more like a duck pond with a stone wall. The water's murky, the bottom's muddy, and there's duck shit all around. I'd be pissed about the hotel having been so misleading about stating its amenities include a swimming pool but I've decided there are so many things that have been wrong this trip— literally all the hotels, the car, the weather, and every hike—that I'm just done being pissed. I'm pissed out of being pissed off. And my legs are so achy I just want to lie down again.
