![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerPanama Travelog #23
El Valle, Panama - Thu, 26 Dec 2024. 4pm.
I see my blog backlog growing huge with this trip in Panama. For example, the hike to La Dormida wound up spanning 5 entries— which will fill most of 2 days if I maintain my pace of 3 posts/day, longer if I don't. (Ed: It took 4 days to finish.) Thus I'm going to shift gears and start posting one-a-day summaries. I'm leaving space to fill in later with detailed entries including photos and such. One benefit of structuring my blogs this way should be a clearer narrative for our trip.
Mid-morning we noticed that the sky was clearing overhead. How fitting that now, on our last full day in Anton's Valley, it looks like it will be sunny. Rather than just shake our fists at the sky as it mocks us, we decided to take advantage of Mother Nature finally taking pity and smiling on us a bit. We pulled together our hiking bags and headed out in the car with a list in mind of many things we could do while the sun is shining.
Also seeming to mock us is that today we could actually see La Dormida. The vantage point for this photo is not ideal, in down with electric and telephone wires running above us, but it's the clearest view I've seen. If you squint you can see the form of a woman lying on her back in the mountain. Her head is on the right, her next to the left of that, then her chest further left.
Driving around to the upper trailhead on the other side of the mountain brought us up into the clouds. I knew it was possible, even likely, this trail would be socked in with clouds. While the sky was mostly clear from down in the valley there were places where low clouds were sticking around. And Cerro Gaital was one of them. This is where it was critical we planned a list of many things we could do today. We opted to nope out of hiking Cerro Gaital and instead go to the next spot on our list.
We parked the car in a few places up on the ridge to explore different areas and see different views. I'm including just one photo here because, like I said at the top, I want to actually catch up on my backlog with these one-a-day entries, not fall further behind.
I picked this photo out of my collection for two reasons. One, it shows the spread of Anton's Valley below us. And two, that far mountain in the middle? The one with the clouds on it? The only one with the clouds on it? That's Cerro Gaital. Once I got to this spot around midday I knew that pulling the plug on hiking Cerro Gaital was 110% the right decision. Coming here I got the beautiful view I would not have gotten there, and it was much easier here with a super-short trail instead of a steep slog I would have been miserable doing.
Update: I've posted a blog with photos of Las Mozas waterfalls.
The butterflies were... huge. There's this one species in Panama that's at least 6" across when it opens its wings, and it's brilliant blue on top. The butterfly sanctuary uses a double-door system so visitors can get right in with the butterflies. Some people in there with us had butterflies landing on their fingers. I couldn't get them on my fingers, but they sure loved my shirt and kept landing on my collar and shoulder.
Sharing photos and video of the butterflies is definitely a thing that would backlog my blog worse, so I'll leave those to post later.
El Valle, Panama - Thu, 26 Dec 2024. 4pm.
I see my blog backlog growing huge with this trip in Panama. For example, the hike to La Dormida wound up spanning 5 entries— which will fill most of 2 days if I maintain my pace of 3 posts/day, longer if I don't. (Ed: It took 4 days to finish.) Thus I'm going to shift gears and start posting one-a-day summaries. I'm leaving space to fill in later with detailed entries including photos and such. One benefit of structuring my blogs this way should be a clearer narrative for our trip.
An Easy Start to the Day
Our day started off with breakfast in the usual place, with the usual foods, at the hotel. After breakfast we rested a bit; I'm still getting over achy legs from overexerting myself with the La Dormida hike two days ago. Today's better than yesterday. Going up the stairs is only slightly tough now. Going down the the stairs, though... ouch, that's still painful. My stabilizer muscles are wrecked from the uneven, steep, slippery trail at La Dormida.Mid-morning we noticed that the sky was clearing overhead. How fitting that now, on our last full day in Anton's Valley, it looks like it will be sunny. Rather than just shake our fists at the sky as it mocks us, we decided to take advantage of Mother Nature finally taking pity and smiling on us a bit. We pulled together our hiking bags and headed out in the car with a list in mind of many things we could do while the sun is shining.
Also seeming to mock us is that today we could actually see La Dormida. The vantage point for this photo is not ideal, in down with electric and telephone wires running above us, but it's the clearest view I've seen. If you squint you can see the form of a woman lying on her back in the mountain. Her head is on the right, her next to the left of that, then her chest further left.
Hiking Cerro Gaital... Or Not
First on our list was hiking Cerro Gaital. It's part of the rim of the volcanic basin the valley lies in, and it's the mountain just behind our hotel. Of course, getting to a good trailhead to reach the top meant driving all the way around to the other side. I mean, we could have just walked straight up from the hotel... but that'd be a monster hike even more monster than La Dormida. So we drove.Driving around to the upper trailhead on the other side of the mountain brought us up into the clouds. I knew it was possible, even likely, this trail would be socked in with clouds. While the sky was mostly clear from down in the valley there were places where low clouds were sticking around. And Cerro Gaital was one of them. This is where it was critical we planned a list of many things we could do today. We opted to nope out of hiking Cerro Gaital and instead go to the next spot on our list.
The View from Cerro La Cruz
Bailing out of hiking Cerro Gaital was absolutely the right choice. I had misgivings, strong misgivings, when we decided to get back in the car at the trailhead rather than hike. All those misgivings melted away as we came back down around the mountains and saw that our next destination, Cerro La Cruz, was clear. Beautifully clear.We parked the car in a few places up on the ridge to explore different areas and see different views. I'm including just one photo here because, like I said at the top, I want to actually catch up on my backlog with these one-a-day entries, not fall further behind.
I picked this photo out of my collection for two reasons. One, it shows the spread of Anton's Valley below us. And two, that far mountain in the middle? The one with the clouds on it? The only one with the clouds on it? That's Cerro Gaital. Once I got to this spot around midday I knew that pulling the plug on hiking Cerro Gaital was 110% the right decision. Coming here I got the beautiful view I would not have gotten there, and it was much easier here with a super-short trail instead of a steep slog I would have been miserable doing.
Waterfalls at Las Mozas
I did stretch my legs at our next stop, the Las Mozas trail. It's just down the hill from from Cerro La Cruz. A short trail leads into a stream canyon with a few waterfalls. The short trail was surprisingly primitive. Any semblance of a constructed trail disappeared after about 20 meters as the route simply traversed the rough, volcanic rock next to the stream. With my weak ankles I was concerned I'd slip on the wet, very uneven rocks and stopped about halfway. Then I decided "Fuck it, I'm only here once" and pushed on to see the main waterfall. I'm glad I did.Update: I've posted a blog with photos of Las Mozas waterfalls.
Lunch & Butterflies
Next up on our agenda was the butterfly sanctuary in town. But first was lunch. We stopped at a pizza spot in town we'd eaten at a few days earlier. Their pizza sucked but their empanadas and fries were good. So today we ordered just empanadas and fries. I washed mine down with a Panama beer. Usually I'm not a day drinker, but at these local restaurants a domestic beer is almost the same price as a soda. For an extra 20¢ I'll enjoy a beer.The butterflies were... huge. There's this one species in Panama that's at least 6" across when it opens its wings, and it's brilliant blue on top. The butterfly sanctuary uses a double-door system so visitors can get right in with the butterflies. Some people in there with us had butterflies landing on their fingers. I couldn't get them on my fingers, but they sure loved my shirt and kept landing on my collar and shoulder.
Sharing photos and video of the butterflies is definitely a thing that would backlog my blog worse, so I'll leave those to post later.
