I had an errand to run in El Valle, with no great constraint as to time. But doing my wee hours blogging I looked to my laptop’s weather projection for Anton and it said “partly sunny.” So maybe also an opportunity to look around and take pictures along the way? This is how it looked from my house as the sun was coming up and I was about to be on my way.
A morning’s photo excursion
photos and notes by Eric Jackson
Generally I take my camera everywhere I go. There are certain anchors to work that I resist, but this isn’t one of them. Plus, without voice recording or writing notes, I try to remember what’s along the way, with this news sense that generally speaking, the unfolding state of Panama’ economy is the most important story here.
I have a late morning until the early evening road trip later in the week, and the dogs and cats have limited tolerance for my absence at their usual feeding times. That went into my calculations as well. The weather projection for this rainy season day clinched it. This would be a time to go over the ancient volcano rim and into El Valle.
Dogs’ and cats’ water bowls filled, it was out the door and on a trek to the bus stop first thing.
By direct lines, or following the roads on a map, the shortest way would have been to catch a bus going north, to Altos de la Estancia, then another down into El Valle. However, buses are less frequent going that way, both from my barrio, then downhill into the crater. Easy decision to make — but six full buses passed me by before I could board a San Juan de Dios to Penonome bus. That got me to the Pan-American Highway, where that I got off and crossed the road as the first bus headed west. Almost immediately I got an eastbound Penonome to Anton bus, pulling into Anton before 7 a.m. Scratch the option of getting a newspaper at that point — too early.
Quickly an Anton to Panama bus pulled into the caseta, and it was mostly empty so the pavo said there would be no problem taking me to the “other” entranice to El Valle, across the provincial line in Las Uvas de San Carlos. Before grabbing the next bus onward, I trudged up and across and down the pedestrian bridge, then across to the Zaz and the bakery. A can of Monster energy drink and a couple of hojaldres, and a glance at such tabloids as they had — just gangster carnage and US news that I had been following all night — so I passed.
Back at the bus stop on the corner, I did have a chance to talk to a nice lady and pick up some reading material. The Jehovah’s Witnesses — the Testigos — were there with their literature stand. I could argue politics and/or religion with them, but to this old hippie the Witnesses are honorable brothers and sisters in the antiwar resistance.
A barbershop in the right-of-way under the pedestrian overpass at Las Uvas. There was a double interest for me, cultural and economic. With the changes in government, which businesses get expelled from alongside the highway and which stay? And of you may remember or appreciate Panama’s bus art, which took a big hit with the diablos rojos were replaced by the Metro buses in Panama City and San Miguelito but lives on in other venues like Colon and La Chorrera. A lot of these same artists, and distinctive stylistic traditions, found work decorating businesses, especially barbershops.
It was not long before I got onto a crowded little San Carlos – El Valle bus. There were not many picture-taking opportunities during the ride, but there were observations and things about which to wonder.
Gone was the place with the faux medieval castle walls. The monastery is still for sale. The road’s in reasonable state of repair — not perfect, but in sharp contrast to the road the other way. There were a number of beautiful new or about to be finished houses along the way. There were more offerings of lodging than I had seen before. There was a guy busily cleaning the mirador.
Get into town, and El Valle has seen some economic devastation over the past few years, but not like many other places in Panama. Gone in the Peruvian restaurant — or did they just move? — but for the first time I noticed a Colombian eatery on the main drag.
It was a Monday morning, not at all prime time to look at El Valle business activity. All these coffee places and nobody there. The weekend is generally when this corregimiento is hopping. Did not see the person whom I had hoped to find but did drop off what I had brought from her. And I stopped to appreciate and photograph some of the flowers and scenery.
Wow man! Like, Flower Power! Below, a security wall that would deter most would-be intruders, but a much more tasteful addition to the El Valle scene than would be razor wire. When you have this rich volcanic soil, you have much less of an excuse to neglect your gardening.
I almost always go to the public market when I go to El Valle — to shop, to see if there’s anyone I know, to take pictures of what’s for sale. But this was a Monday and this was not particularly a shopping or socializing excursion.
The people watching, though? Always. Folks tooling around in an incredibly expensive, by my standards, new BMW SUV. Little groups of backpackers whom I took to be German, as so much of Europe is on paid vacation at the moment. The Chinese retail store clerk putting her hand over the candy jar into which a little boy was trying to reach. (And by the way, although there is no easy way to know the cause, I noticed more little mini-supers in El Valle this time than I had before. Is it progress or retrenching?)
Nature watching on just about any morning in El Valle? There is the ever-present mist in the hills, the bajareque, that drives Panamanian highland ecologies in general. El Valle is a special bowl-shaped case, as it’s a long-dormant volcano crater.
That was brief. Time to head back, lest the dogs decide to show how much they miss me by trashing the place. But first, a stop to grab something to eat at Sofia Z — a baked fish filet, a couple of carimañolas, some salad, something unsugared to drink — and THEN the morning’s shopping, some bread, rice and dog and cat food. And, belatedly, one of the daily newspapers that looked like it had some interesting political news.
It’s a bit after 11 a.m. and as I approach the bus back to the barrio from Anton, the rain starts. They DID say “partly” sunny.
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