After Ngobe Bugle we headed to Cerro Punta. Los Quetzales. As I said in my last post, it was one of the more luxurious hotels we've stayed in. We had our own cabin to ourselves that could comfortably sleep 12-14 people (we had extra beds left over). There was a big warm fireplace... it was quite the chill place. In more sense than one.
I had no idea Panama had areas where it was cold. Numerous people will tell you that it is a completely different world up there, and they wouldn't be wrong. We were freezing all the time... I never thought to pack a coat for the tropics.
Playing cards in our cabin near the fireplace for warmth...Our food also was some of the best we'd had in a long time. The hotel had fresh salad. FRESH SALAD. It'd been awhile since we'd had that. We pretty much destroyed that salad bar three nights in a row.
The first day we went to GORACE, the Group of Organic Producers of Cerro Punta. They were based out of a little house, but worked on a lot of land. They showed us how they make their fertilizers and pesticides out of garlics, pesticides, molasses, and other organic materials. I actually ate one of their peppers that they use for the fertilizers. Mmmm spicy. There isn't a whole lot of genuine spicy down here in Panama.
Don Roger, one of the main guys of GORACE, was awesome. He's kind of like that sweet grandfather that knows everything and still has time to pull a quarter out of your ear. They prepared this wonderful lunch for us and then he pulled out this sauce made "especially for gringos (foreigners)."... more or less it was mayonnaise.
The entire time we were up there there was this heavy mist/rain, which meant it was pretty dangerous for us to try and travel in that weather. Meaning, we decided to skip out on El Boquete (a walks away on a cool trail... but a few hours by bus) and stayed in Cerro Punta... I don't think anyone minded.
Weird thing did happen though. In the mini-super, I got into a conversation with a couple Asian guys who run the place. They were Haka, and thus spoke 4 languages: Spanish, Haka, Cantonese and Mandarin, in that order. Then I started speaking chinese with them, and it came out quite odd after not having spoken it for quite a while. It was the first time anyone had told me that my Spanish was much better than my Chinese. Wasn't sure how to feel about that. Jaja.
But for those three days, we relaxed. After many days of traveling it felt good, and to be honest, after the experience in Ngobe, it felt good. But I almost felt bad, that is there every day. We were tired after just one night. We decided in Cerro Punta that we need to put something together for them. A charity, scholarship fund. Something. Hold us to that.
By the way, these photos are courtesy of other people as I didn't have my camera battery then. But this is Brooks, Celia (my mom there) and myself as we were heading down the mountain.
Tim Soo
No comments:
Post a Comment