Green Caldera

One of my main goals on this trip is to hike some of the numerous gorgeous hikes Panama has to offer. I have duly gone up the mountain and down into the crater. 

From Panama City I moved to higher ground and el Valle de Anton, specifically the town/village/hamlet of el Valle, which is Panama’s only town/village/hamlet located in a volcanic crater. The mountains rimming the caldera form an excellent source of numerous hikes, all offering nice views of the town/village/hamlet, 

as well as some lovely mountain views in the other direction.

Since it’s the middle of winter back home in Finland, the wise woman may well choose to barricade herself at home, watch movies and eat lots of comfort food. My main form of physical exercise in January has been dashing off to the local shop for afore mentioned comfort food, or, if feeling particularly energetic, walking the 1,5 km to the centre of town to indulge in tea and cakes with my friends.

So I’m starting off relatively gently. The hikes in el Valle seldom rise more than 300-400 meters in elevation, which make them around moderate in difficulty. However, 400 meters is still around 130 floors in terms a city-born, comfort-food-eating layman could understand. That’s a lot of going up and then having to come back down again - with bits of even ground in the middle. My thight are certainly feeling it. 

Since there will be many more hikes to come, I will not indulge in a blow-by-blow of the two day-hikes I’ve done up to date. Suffice to say that the first hike was the iconic la India Dormida, or Sleeping Indian trek. The peak is so named for its natural curviture, which - so they say - remarkably resembles a sleeping Indigenous woman. I’ll take their word for it. It’s all hills to me.

But this trek is a very pretty ramble, which goes along the hilltops surrounding the caldera. Mostly it’s just walking with bits of climbing and, at times, the odd section of scrambling on all fours.

There’s one thing I wasn’t expecting in the hills of Panama: it’s really windy! Several times on this hike I was very bloody nearly knocked off my feet, when a particularly virile gust of wind suddenly hit me. Not one of my best hair days. 

The second day-hike was up the mountain and through the jungle at cerro Gaita. At the end of the trek, a set of seemingly endless stairs led through verdant jungle.

These steps led to an elevated wooden platform, which rose over the treetops 

and offered some rather stunning views. 

I’ve been in jungles before, but seldom has the foliage been as well displayed as around this stairway, probably because there was a larger than usual break in the jungle foliage which made it possible to view things from a greater distance. 

There are multinous species of trees, and on these trees grows moss and on the moss, a rich variety of plants grow. A botanist’s wet dream. 

Many of the plants in the jungle were ones, which I recognize from friends’ flower pots. 

Life bursts through anywhere and everywhere. 

As do travellers Kati and Uupi. 

Life is certainly good, when it’s green.