Panama Farm Life February 16, 2025

 Panama Farm Life February 16, 2025

Ting ting....ting ting.  A lazy morning interrupted at dawn...well, barely dawn.  Marta strumms the metal bars of the doggie gate to our bedroom.  Normally she just jumps over this barrier when she wants to change scenery.  This morning the bedroom door is also closed.  She has learned well from Codi.

My feet contemplate the cold tile floor.  Ding!  WhatsApp calling.  Amanda and Carlos have left Pilar's diaper bag behind and the three of them are now somewhere up the cleft of the continental divide to assist with a clinic for the animals of a remote indigenous village.  Could I bring the bag to them?  I tell Gary his pancake breakfast is on hold.

45 minutes of driving and I am lost.  No cell signal and the last pin location sent by Amanda renders no one at the site.  The last time I was in this beautiful area of the Boquete valley was the first year I was in Panama. With a focus on the lush landscape, the dramatic rock formations and the gushing waterfalls, I calm my frustration.  I breathe it all in.  Definitely better than making pancakes.

Trailheads for The Lost Waterfalls and Los Quetzeles hikes are up this way and I regain my bearings.  I sniff the air.  Make a left against the rasping directive of Google Maps.  Ok.  So the air-sniff didn't really help but 10 minutes later the kids see my truck and are jumping up and down with relief.  Diaper bag delivered.  And I need some of those wipes, please.  Nature is knocking and I can not wait until I get back home.  Where should I relieve myself?  Amanda sweeps her arm in a grand gesture encompassing the landscape.  Ok.  Got it.  Anywhere.  All in a Sunday morning... <shrug>

The last wave of visiting cousins was exhilarating, crazy fun and exhausting!  And yet, once they depart, I feel a huge void.  I love having family around!  Especially these cousins both from my mother's side of the family.   Malori and Barry of the Jewish tour company https://amazingjourneys.net and Susan Orlean https://www.susanorlean.com an author and her husband John Gillespie.   Malori is the reason I met Gary.  Susie and I had not seen one another for about 14 years. A family debrief from the Cleveland relatives was long overdue. Malori and Barry have been to Panama many times.  This was Susie and John's first visit.

San Blas Travelogue

And this is where The Farm Blog opens up into a bit of a travelogue.  From the moment my cousins arrived, we kept busy in Boquete and determined to not allow the cloudy, rainy weather to short circuit our activities.  But it did.  Riding horses through the vast and lush scenery, zip lining and hiking along the continental divide would need to wait for a future visit.  Typical weather in late January is dry and windy.  This year proved different.  And, truth be told, all of us were in vacation mode and didn't feel like over exertion. Bushwhacking adventures and embracing the beauty of remote rugged areas beckons a return visit.  We were replete with dining around town and visiting the bee and butterfly farm tasting 25 different kinds of honey.

On the fifth day of vacay together, off we went to the San Blas islands, a remote archipelago north of the Darien.  Yes, that Darien.  The jungle land bridge between Panama and Colombia where migrants risk life and limb to escape unimagineable situations in their homelands in hope to reach the U.S.  San Blas is a designated comarca, a reservation, and the home to the Guna Yala indigenous tribe of Panama.  

A 45 minute charter flight from the small Albrook airport deposited us on a landing strip...on an island...in the middle of a vast turqoise sea.  "The plane!  The plane!" sprang to mind.

A short ride in a motorized raft and we arrive at our home for the next 3 days.  Kuna Lady is a 49 foot catamaran complete with a captain, a cook and a deck hand.  Away we sailed to find calm harbor for the night tucked behind one of the palm tree laden small islands.

The next morning, a walk around the island yielded...not much.  Except two other persons overdressed for the environment.  'Shaloms' were exchanged and then everything changed.  This was a rabbi and his wife.  On an island.  In the middle of nowhere.  Back on Kuna Lady and preparing for lunch, we hear joyous shaloms above the noise of a motorized raft on trajectory straight towards us.   The rabbi.  Tefillin in hand.  Without request, he boards the boat and loudly greets everyone asking who is first to acquire an internet connection to G-d!  

At this point Greg, the Chilean boat captain, flashes all of us an accommodating and toothy grin but his eyes say something else.  I know he wonders who is this bushy-bearded dude with the strange black box adorned with strings and what does he want with us.  Sara, the chef from Italy, just looks perplexed and the indigenous deckhand, Jeffrey, looks ready to bolt over the side and swim away.  We calm everyone down.  All is good.  The rabbi proceeds to wrap Barry and then Gary all the while distributing ebullient joy over connecting with G-d.  

Seriously.  This is a statement and not a question.  Inherently impossible adventures seem to find us...no matter where we are!

I later ask Greg if pirates frequent the San Blas area...the proximity to the Darien and all.  His answer is a deft side-step.  Something about 'they are around but not in our area'.  At the moment anyways.  This explains a lot!

Upon return to civilization, we cap off the adventures with a fabulous dinner together in Casco Viejo and part ways later that evening.

COME BACK!!!

Meanwhile, back at the farm...

We entertain a lovely couple here to view the new Villa for rental.  Not new to Panama, they have decided to live in the mountains of our Boquete village after some time roasting in the heat of the San Carlos beach near Coronado, about an hour from Panama City.  For the sake of brevity, the couple are nearly clones of us in all the ways important.  They will join our family farm later in March.  Don and Debbie come from NC and they lived not too far from my cousin Lorna before retiring to Panama.  Don and Gary have much in common including people they knew from their careers. Don grew up on a farm and loves horses and dogs. Debbie was a pediatric nurse and wants to garden.  Oh, and Don is the same name as Gary's brother...

We ordered what we wanted and what we got was near perfection!  Hopefully the mountain weather and the local insects won't deter them from a nice long lease!

Photo credits:  Barry Asman     All, except the shot of Porky.