ATV'ING AROUND EL VALLE

Before leaving Virginia, we had made a few plans for our vacation to Panama.  We tried to have things to do and then have days just to discover things and make last minute decisions.  One plan we did make was to take an ATV tour with Ty (he owns Ty’s Sports Grill) (http://tyssportsgrillpanama.com/).  We scheduled the tour for 9:30 am--since it rains more in the afternoon, we were hopeful we would have a sunny day.  First stop was quick Egg McMuffin and coffee from McDonalds.  Going back to what I wrote about my sister and her coffee IV drip.  No one really speaks any English in Panama.  Or in the towns we visited.  We managed to order Egg McMuffins but with sausage rather than ham and the combo rather than just a single sandwich with a drink.  Combos are $3 and single sandwiches $1.80.  The coffee was $1.05.  There were four of us and with our broken Spanish we got along just fine. 

Coronado Mall with McDonalds and Super 99

The turn off to El Valle is about fifteen minutes west on the PanAmerican Highway.  The roads (once out of Coronado/off Ave Roberto Eisenman) are in great shape.  Then it was thirty minutes up the mountain on a curvy road.  We had motorcycles pass us and we followed a horse trailer.  Then, along with a bus, we passed the trailer.  Another easy drive.

Ty was outside his restaurant looking at a sloth.  We named him “Sid”.  We all got a kick out of Sid and his slow mannerism.  We introduced ourselves to Ty, picked up our helmets and signed the contracts.  One of the ATV’s had a flat tire, so we stopped down the road to have Ty fix it (the shop was closed so he used Fix-A-Flat which worked perfectly great), he picked up beer and Smirnoff Ice for the road trip and he gave us some time to look around the Farmer’s Market.  It was Sunday so a lot was being sold (our idea was to shop after the tour, but never made it back that day). 

Eric meets Sid, the Sloth

Sid poses for his close up

The tour was fantastic.  Ty took his time with us making sure we knew what we were doing and could handle the ATV’s.  I rode with Ray and my sister was with her son.  We stopped along the way for pictures and within an hour we were at the falls.  Stunning.  It is a $5 entrance fee.  We were given freshly squeezed orange juice, drank beer and took our walking sticks down to the falls.  It gets steep and wet.  The water was pleasantly cool; it was around 85 degrees that day with the sun shining and big white puffy clouds showing up here and there. 

Waterfall (with Ray in the bottom right corner)

One of many photo ops

The crater of the dormant volcano

Ty took pictures for us while we swam, told us to take our time (it’s low season and we were his only tour for the day), and once back at the bohio, we drank more beer, Smirnoff ice, had the chance to wash up (there is a bathroom, so we could have changed) and shared stories about our families and lives at home.  We got back on the ATV’s, stopped at a few photo opportunities and after a five hour tour, we made it back to Ty’s restaurant.  We ordered wings (meaty and delicious), nachos and beers/frozen margaritas (no wonder I gained twelve pounds!) and were introduced to Mona, the monkey.  A cutie!  Very spastic.  Very hungry for Eric’s wings.  Loves limes, but she isn’t allowed them.  She will bathe herself in them.  I chatted with a man named Mark802 from the Expat Exchange Panama Forum.  We bought him a rum and coke.  He tells it like it is and lives in El Valle.  Our bill for seven beers/drinks, nachos and wings was $35.

Eric and Mona

Then the rain moved in.  It was now 4:30, and we never made it back to the Farmer’s Market.  Instead, time for more coffee!  We stopped at the one coffee shop in El Valle for coffee, hot chocolate (so good!), and pastries.  We sat on the covered porch in the back of the shop (lovely) and watched the rain.  Still such a beautiful day.  I would highly recommend the ATV tour.  Pack a backpack (wear your swimsuit) with a towel, camera, sunscreen, chapstick, water shoes, bug spray, batteries for camera (you are nowhere) and extra card and change of clothes.  We wore our water shoes and bathing suits, put our sunscreen on before getting on the ATV along with bug spray but never used our change of clothes—too lazy to be bothered with changing.   One thing I am happy I did was take pictures on the way to the waterfall.  Then, on the way back, I put the camera away and enjoyed the ride completely. What was so wonderful was how we lucked out and were given more time by Ty. 

While Eric slept, we toured Coronado.  The roads are a mess.  There is a five bedroom house with a guesthouse and pool that is for sale for $570,000.  They need to pay someone to repair the roads, but perhaps they will wait until dry season?

That night we stayed close by and ate at Picasso’s.  It was a Sunday at eight pm (they close at nine).  We were the only one’s there.  The waitress did not speak a lot of English (barely any, but I didn’t expect her to either and we muddled our way through it).  It is a nice atmosphere, the pizza was great ($8 for 8 slices—Ray and I split one), we tried the sausage appetizer which was just “okay”, my sister and her son split the Thai curry that was very good along with the sea bass with white wine sauce (again just “okay”).

Another long day but fun-filled.  Early to bed, and the next day (Monday) was going to be a “do nothing” kind of day.  Yeah right.