I’m back at the beach after a fun
weekend+ celebrating our fortieth wedding anniversary. For those of you worried
(you know who you are), the surf is still up, back to my expectations of Las Lajas.
Monday, we set out for the mountain hotel where we spent our honeymoon those
four decades ago. Hotel Bambito is located in an amazing mountain valley at the
base of the highest mountain in Central America, Volcan Baru and yes, it is a
volcano. The hotel was sparkling new when we stayed there in 1982 but the aging
matron has not fared well over the years. It had shut down for two years due to
the pandemic and after reopening in September 2021 was hit with a flood in
November. It had only been open for a month when we arrived. The small bushes
near the front lake are now full-grown trees. It was highly nostalgic to walk
in after all these years and not much had changed except the inevitable aging,
from both the hotel and ourselves.
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| Wife and I in Front of Room We Stayed in 40 years Ago |
We talked with a bunch of the staff over
our stay and mentioned how aged it looked. They volunteered that when the
ownership changed to a Spanish group instead of the American and German
predecessors the place went downhill. There were only three other guests in the
entire hotel which made it kind of spooky at times. We got dressed up after
dinner and planned to have some celebratory drinks in the hotel bar only to
find it dark and unattended. We had the front desk guy track down someone to
serve us and we had the requisite adult beverages. While we were in the bar, the
front desk guy was also tracking down someone to find out why the toilets
stopped working. In turned out they were trying to save money by reducing the water
pressure but went too far. I got the definite impression that the old lady had
seen her better days and was now desperately hanging on to her former glory.
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| Near the Front Entry |
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| The Towering Cliffs |
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| Gardens in Front of Hotel |
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| Lake in Front of Hotel |
Our room achieved something of hero
status for me with the Favorite Panamanian. We had a two-floor suite with two
bathrooms (a definite plus once they got the toilets working). The scenery
around the hotel remains awesome. The pictures do not do justice to how
impressively the cliffs tower over the location. We took a walk around all the
places where memories resided from our honeymoon. We’ve relived those moments over
the years as we’ve looked at photos from that time. As I said, nostalgia. We
tried to take photos from many of the same locations but a comparison will have
to wait until I get home as I was only able to find one. It was still a very
nice stay in the grand old lady (terrified what that says about how long we’ve
been married) of the mountains.
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| Our Room |
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I'm Standing Near Where my Wife Posed (below) in 1982
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| Wife Posing in 1982 |
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| Back to 2022 with Less Unfortunate Hairdo |
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| Pointing Out our Honeymoon Suite |
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| In Front of our 2022 Room |
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| Late Night Solitary Bar |
Prior to going to the hotel, we stopped
by the nearby town of Volcan to visit the wife of one of my wife’s cousins. She’s
a transplanted Brazilian and a very talented artist. She is also one of the few
people I’ve ever met that can give my Favorite Panamanian a run for her money in
the verbose department. When you put these two together you might as well find
a seat because the conversation is going to be lively and long, very long. I’m
talking world class conversationists here. You’ve now guessing where I’m going
with this. It was a very nice visit and she gave us a tour of her beautiful
house and grounds. It was during this tour that we encountered a bona fide chicken
emergency.
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| The Two Talkative Ladies |
Her son, an architect, lives in the
house directly behind hers and built an impressive chicken coop to house his
special breed of birds (they all had shaggy legs!). While we were admiring the coop,
we noticed that two chickens had wormed their way between two close fences and
were hopelessly trapped. Chickens are not the brightest, probably why they end
up on so many dinner plates. It was going to be a team effort freeing the
idiotic hens, so their freedom was delayed until additional people showed up.
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| The Chicken Coop |
I was eventually able to tear the serial
conversationalists apart long enough to get my wife in the car for the drive to
the hotel. She was checking periodically back with the cousin’s wife to learn if
the chickens had been freed. Tuesday morning we checked out of the hotel and
headed further up the mountain road to visit Cerro Punta. I’m always impressed
with the hard working Panamanians who have pushed their mountain farms high up
the towering mountain sides. Because of the more temperate climate at their
elevation they can grow a variety of crops. This whole area serves as the bread
basket of Panama, feeding the entire nation.
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| Cerro Punta Drive |
As we headed back down the mountain it
was decided to stop by and learn the fate of the trapped chickens, because,
well, that’s important. Me, with my 49% of the vote again. The two ladies were
soon once again decisively engaged in their lively conversation. We paid a visit
to the chicken coop and met the recovering victims. My wife dropped her cell
phone into the chicken coop which immediately became an interesting pecking
target before its rescue. The two peas in a pod then spent another hour touring
and comparing garden notes (I was a
fascinated listener). My back
started acting up, the same way it did after the long standing up at Soxfather’s
calling hours. I mentioned to the wife that we eventually had to leave.
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| The Dropped Cell Phone |
They started their goodbyes as I went to
the car and blessedly sat down. Twenty minutes later they came into view still
in a lively discussion. They eventually pried themselves apart long enough for
my wife to promise to return when she wasn’t encumbered by the male anchor (yours
truly) making imperious gestures towards me. I was glad she had this
opportunity to fully engage her conversationalist side because I am hopelessly
outmatched trying to keep up with her. I didn’t have to resort to large muscle
movements to get her into the car but it was a near thing.
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| Lots of Swiss Immigrants in the Mountains |
We encountered a lot of traffic and road
construction on our way up to Volcan on Monday. About ten kilometers short of
Volcan I noticed a sign pointing to a side road indicating it led to Boquete.
This would allow me to bypass the construction and the always choked InterAmerican
Highway. My wife understands I have an almost weird love of exploring places I’ve
never been before and driving down this road offered the perfect opportunity for
that. It was a great decision because the road was well maintained as it dove
up, down and around through the mountain valleys at the base of Volcan Baru.
There were even signs at each of the intersecting roads that led us in the right
direction.
I loved the drive. We only passed three
other cars during the forty-minute drive. We came to a last intersection and the
guiding sign was missing. I made a decision and started turning when my wife
spotted a lady standing beside the road and decided we should ask directions.
The lady turned out to be a school teacher waiting for an overdue bus. She told
us we were turning the wrong way and asked if we could give her a ride into
David, a small price to keep us from heading into the bowels of an unknown
mountain valley. By the time we reached David, twenty minutes later, my wife
and the passenger was fast friends, having shared each other’s life stories. My
wife does like to talk. The teacher takes three different buses for an hour and
forty-five minutes each way every day. I was impressed.
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| Waves Booming This Morning |
It's so good to be home though and to
find the surf appropriately booming throughout the night. We are, once again,
the only residents of the entire condo complex and I was able to find a movie
last night that we both enjoyed (no mean task). After my Favorite Panamanian retired,
I started watching the new Reacher series and I was impressed. They finally
have a title character that does justice to the physicality the role screams
for. As I wandered off to sleep last night I returned in my mind to the fading
hotel and that highly entertaining drive off the beaten path. A very good weekend,
indeed.
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Because of Who I Got to Spend it With
At the Talkative Friend's House |
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RECURRING CHARACTERS
BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter #3, BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog Reader - first
granddaughter, ABFA – Amazing Best
Family Athlete - my daughter in law; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since
high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great
Aunt - my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue
about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten
whom I reunited with after many years; Pittsburgh
College Roommate– high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in
Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard
deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two
close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3rd musquetera
(musketeer); Riggins - also known as
the Grandpuppy, son's dog; PanaGals
– female relatives /friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife
accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia
member, Favorite Panamanian - the
wife (of course); First Friday –
celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her
single days in Brooklyn
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