Panama Day 7: Playa el Ulverito and Punta Chame

Devin and I were meeting at 10:00 a.m. at his place, Café  Limon, about a five minute drive south of Pedasi.  So I used the earlier part of the morning to fill the car with gas and check out some of the area northwest of Pedasi.  The first stop I made was at the gas station on the north end of town, but they had no gas; maybe they ran out because of the busy weekend.

Playa el Arenal

As long as I was headed in the right direction, I took the dog-leg right turn off the main highway and drove down to Playa el Arenal.  This is a fairly wide stretch of beach where you can hire a boat for the twenty minute ride to Isla Iguana; a small wildlife refuge that is said to have good reefs and two nice sandy beaches.  There are dozens of boats on the beach so negotiating a trip shouldn’t be hard.  One young man came up to me and offered an opening price of $50.00 round trip to the island.  I suspect you could negotiate a lower price.  Isla Iguana is home to (you guessed it) the Black Iguana in addition to a large nesting area for Frigate birds.  From June through October, Humpback whales migrate through the area.

Isla Iguana in the background

Boats also leave from Playa el Arenal for fishing.  This area of the Pacific coast is known for sport fishing.  Grouper, amberjack, sailfish, dolphin, tuna and wahoo are all caught in these waters. Kite surfing is also popular during winter and early spring.  The sea was very flat when I visited so it would probably be a great beach for swimming or jogging.  The boats in the water had ropes at least a hundred feet long and were tethered to spikes, trees or rocks high up on the beach.

I recalled that there was another gas station on the south end of Pedasi and filled the tank there.  Most gas stations have an attendant that fills the tank for you; I haven’t seen that in a long time in the States.  On the way to Limon I saw the local garbage truck making its rounds.  I saw no garbage cans anywhere in the Azuero peninsula.  Instead, they have a very practical solution to keeping the garbage away from prowling dogs and chickens – they have metal cages elevated about three to four feet off the ground.  These work great since the garbage man can pick the bags out of the cages as they drive by and you don’t have to haul big cans to the curb on garbage day.  Another example of the everyday practicality of life in Panama.

I got to Café Limon and Devin’s wife, Mãme, made me an espresso while I waited for Devin to finish giving his violin lesson.  Driving from Pedasi, I don’t think I could find Playa el Ulverito again without detailed instructions, but it didn’t take long to get there following Devin.  The road in must have been brand new since there was no striping.

View from the second floor looking East

A side observation before getting back to my real estate inspection – like many countries with relatively low wages, labor replaces technology in many cases.  As I traveled many areas where new roads or developments were being built, I noticed the use of portable saw mills.  Since they were taking out trees here and there, they cut them on site for fence posts, stakes for concrete forming, bracing, etc.  Why pay for equipment when you can have it custom made for a specific job?

Anyway, as we drove into the Playa el Ulverito area, we passed Hotel La Luna.  Had I stayed in Las Tablas instead of Pedasi, this is one of the hotels I was considering.  While I did not stop to take a look, I can say that it is convenient to several restaurants and is just a short walk to the beach.  I must also say that had I stayed here, I might never have explored much further because the beach is amazing.

As seen from the beach

Once there, Devin took me down a dirt road to the right that passes between the houses right on the beach and those on the heights, as it were, overlooking the beach.  Since most of the houses on the beach tended to be built down the escarpment to the beach, I think most of the properties above would have excellent views of the beach and the mighty Pacific from the second floor.  This road is the bumpiest, worst road I traveled on in Panama but it only runs a short distance to connect the beach houses to the main road running through town.

In front of Devin’s house was enough space for two, maybe three parking spaces.  The building is two stories and is really nothing more than a shell; the plumbing is run for the kitchen and a full bath has been finished on the first floor, but the electrical lines have not been run and there are no windows.  On the one hand, that is a real drawback since it is not ready to occupy but if you like designing and doing the finish work it is a diamond in the rough.  The building is about 24 feet wide and roughly 36 feet deep on the ground floor.  The covered back porch is about 15 feet deep and would be a good place to put the laundry.  I would guess the back yard is about 30 by 30… not big, but large enough to have nice gardens and a barbecue.  Public water is already run to the property and there is a private septic field.  The construction is concrete block with decorative, vented block in the areas where the windows would go.

The caretaker and Devin in front of the house

There is a nice custom made circular stair case to the second floor, which is a single room about 24 by 16 and a wonderful open verandah that is about 24 by 10 facing the ocean.  The roofing is the typical corrugated fiberglass and concrete extrusion.  If I were to buy it I would lift the roof a couple of feet and add a second room on the back.  The structure is eight years old and there were no signs of cracks in the foundation, so it must have been poured well.  Devin has a caretaker who keeps the weeds cut and generally watches over the place.  A crew of four, made of a project manager and three skilled laborers, can be had for just $100.00 per day.  The cost to renovate would not be that great, but the asking price of $155K is out of my price range.  For someone with a little more cash and an interest in finishing the project, this would be a good buy.

After a walk on the beach I said good-bye to Devin and drove the short distance into the main part of town in search of lunch.  I chose a simple open-air restaurant across the street from the ocean front park.  It wasn’t fancy and had plastic table cloths along with melamine Coca-Cola plates.  I ordered a ¼ fried chicken with papas fritas and a beer – the total came to $3.70.  Time and again I learned that the out of the way, mom and pop restaurants provided good, stick-to-your-ribs food at amazingly low prices.

More beach houses on Playa el Ulverito

There are several more restaurants up and down the beach.  I took a drive going east and found more houses like the ones I passed on the other end of town.  There are also a number of open air beach houses that were clearly nothing more than a party spot for the weekend with a large covered area, bathroom and probably a single room for secure storage of beach chairs, a portable grill, etc.  Many of these places did not even have electricity running to them.

After checking out the beach area, I drove into Las Tablas with the intention of continuing on to the stretch of resorts and condos between Playa Blanca and Coronado.  This was the one night that I did not have a hotel reservation and purposely set aside one day to provide some flexibility in my plans.  I got lost again going through Chitre but this time didn’t waste any time before finding a gas station to get directions out of town.

As I drove East on the Pan-American Highway, I kept looking for signs that would get me to this area full of condos and gated developments along the beach.  I took a chance and drove down a few random roads, but most of them turned into heavily rutted trails that you couldn’t do more than 5 MPH on.  There may have been a few signs but they must have been in Spanish and I did not recognize the turn-offs because while I could see the condos in the distance, I never did get to the beach.

Punta Chame beach

Frustrated, I figured I would just push on to Panama City and spend the following day exploring some of the great historic neighborhoods.  About twenty minutes down the road an American-style green and white road sign for Punta Chame appeared. I had read some about Punta Chame and since this was the first sign I had seen that pointed to a familiar name, I made the split-second decision and made a quick right.  Unlike the last several roads, this one continued to be good.  Fifteen minutes down the road I had passed a few small towns and went through some very pretty countryside made even more beautiful by the light mist that made the trees sparkle in the dimming light.  I soon realized that I was on a very skinny peninsula as I saw lagoons and mangrove swamps along both sides of the road.

Punta Chame Villas swim-up pool bar

As the sun continued to set I began to get nervous that I would reach the end of the road and not find a place to stay and would end up navigating Panama City at night.  As I neared the end of the peninsula houses appeared along with well-marked lanes leading off from both sides of the road.  There were signs with minimal information that at least appeared to be for hotels and/or restaurants.  At the very end I pulled into what turned out to be Hotel Punta Chame Villas.  The sun had set and it was now pitch black as I made my way to the lobby to inquire about a room.  I was offered a room with breakfast at $108.00.  This was much more than I was hoping to pay and was in the process of gently objecting when a young guy with a big grin on his face walked up and apologized that his front desk clerk did not offer the room without breakfast for $55.00.  Now we’re talking.

The young guy turned out to be George, the owner/architect/builder/host/chef.  More about George later.  Punta Chame Villas has just fifteen rooms on three levels and is almost on the point of the peninsula, so it is nearly surrounded by water.  George showed me to my room and I congratulated him for developing such a great property.  I mentioned my past ownership of a B&B and so he proceeded to show me around the place and talk about his vision.  There is a fourth floor that is for his Sky Bar with 360 degree views of the pacific and the mountains to the northwest.  The bar has two large terraces that are sometimes used for private parties. From here you can see Panama City in the distance.  He pointed out a point of light in PC that turned out to be an enormous jumbotron on the side of PC skyscraper – incredible.

Path to the beach with the mountains as a backdrop

George invited me down to the sitting area outside the lobby for drinks and to meet the other guests.  This was when I went from merely impressed to truly amazed by his skills.  After freshening up in the room and slapping on some of my new insect repellant oil I picked up at the Pickled Parrot in Bocas, I went down to join the others.  As I approached, George seemed to appear from nowhere and introduced me by name and where I was from to each and every guest, also by name and city of origin.  I sat down with the six other guests and continued to be amazed as others arrived and George, once again, appeared to make the introductions but this time with a bit of history, our professions or how long we were staying.  He conducted the evening as if it were a fine orchestra.  We all had a fabulous time and who would not want to go back to a place where you really enjoyed yourself?

I alternated time speaking with a divorcee from Toronto (who is staying the week with her sisters from Vancouver, but lives in nearby Anton); a local fisherman; a retired navy chief petty officer from Houston who lives up the road; and another gentleman who lives nearby and is originally from Detroit.  Other guests staying at the Villas arrived and were introduced in turn.  As the evening went on there were a dozen of us chatting away.  One of the two sisters was saying she had heard about the local fishing and would love to have a special dinner the next night for the group she was with.  The fisherman whipped out his cell phone and called a buddy out on the water and laid claim to the best grouper of the night, which George then bought to serve to his guests.

The Sky Bar

I was having a great time and before I knew it, it was 9:00 and I hadn’t had dinner yet.  Mike, the guy originally from Houston, and I went to the restaurant to have dinner.  I had the grilled snapper and a very nice glass of merlot.  Mike said that he began his retirement in Panama living in a condo in PC.  He saw that the real estate market was taking off so he bought five more condos in his building and was netting nearly $1000 per month on each before selling them in 2009 for a tidy profit.  Once he discovered Punta Chame he said it was a no-brainer to move here.  I learned from Mike that the road was just paved a couple of years ago and cut the time driving from the main highway down from 90 minutes to 30.  There is also a 24-hour clinic in the village.  He said he rarely locks his doors because theft is almost unheard of and has no bars on his windows like you see in much of Panama.  Mike loves his neighbors because they are friendly and dependable, yet not intrusive so he can live his life pretty much as he wants.  He also commented that he uses his AC infrequently because the natural cross breezes on the peninsula keep the temperature down.

All in all, it was another great evening in Panama and totally impromptu.  I wandered around the property for a few minutes after dinner and said good night to the other guests before calling it a night.  It felt like home.

Panama Day 6: Playa Venao and the Southern Azuero Peninsula

When I logged in today and read through the comments left on the blog, one of them was an anonymous nasty-gram asking me why I hadn’t finished writing about the rest of my trip (I think it might have been my sister, but she denies it). Again, my apologies. I realize this is taking a long time but I have had other demands on my time. I will try to get it all done by the end of the year partly because there are a handful of people, like yourself, who want to get to the end, but mainly so I don’t start forgetting things.

Anyway, I had planned on using my sixth day in Panama to drive to the towns surrounding Pedasi and make it to the far south end of the Azuero Peninsula. As I drove along I noticed many farmers had put out their milk cans alongside the road to be picked up. I don’t know if the milk was being picked up by a commercial processor or a co-op, but there they were sitting by the highway. Later in the day I saw a man on a horseback riding away from the road side with a milk can on each side. As luck would have it, this was one of the few times during the day when there was a car behind me so I couldn’t stop to get a picture.

The southern end of Playa Venao

I went through many small towns along the way that weren’t on any of my maps. For example, I discovered the village of San Francisco when I took a left-hand turn down a road just to see where it might lead. I ended up at a beach whose name I do not know, but this was the first time I had seen mangroves right on the beach. As I drove back up to the highway I realized that I had lost track of the number of turns I had made and wasn’t absolutely sure that I was back on the main highway. Oops. Well, I figured, if all else failed I could just head northeast and eventually make it back to Pedasi by following the highways along the coast.

I continued down the road and in the hopes it would lead me to the section of road that goes from Playa Venado to Canas. I guessed correctly because I saw a sign or two for Playa Venao and knew I was on the right track. Even in the far south of the peninsula there was road work going on. I had read in one of the English language newspapers that the country loses a significant amount of agricultural product each year due to the inability to get crops to market in a timely fashion, hence the tremendous amount of money being spent on better roads throughout the country. It didn’t hurt Pedasi that former Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso Rodriguez de Arias, the nation’s first female president, grew up there. Somehow a major road-building project was magically scheduled for the eastern coast of the peninsula -- imagine that!

From San Francisco on, it felt like I was on a slalom course instead of a highway as I swerved around pothole after pothole. I wasn’t always successful in avoiding the divots in the road and I know that Thrifty had to do a major realignment on my vehicle after I returned it. I continued to notice se vende signs all along the road, some of them noting that the land is “permitted” or the number of meters of beach frontage. I recall Ted telling me that there are no private beaches in Panama… there may not be a convenient way to get to them, but the actual beach is public property.

I saw a sign for La Playita Resort and followed the deeply rutted road down into a low valley, across a shallow stream and finally came to the resort. I did not drive into the resort but I can confirm that it is set in a beautiful forest on the hillside overlooking Playa Venado. It is a very peaceful spot and a great location – close enough to civilization to make a quick trip into town, yet just remote enough to provide the peaceful solitude one might want for a real get-away-from-it-all vacation. I never did get to the beach, but the setting was gorgeous. Another hotel in the area is El Sitio Hotel that has a surf report on their website.

Just down the road was Playa Venao, host to the Third Annual Central American Surf Championship, a major surfing beach that is positively breathtaking. There is a nice hotel being built right on the beach to accompany the bar and restaurant that are already open for business, and at least one other bar/restaurant on the east end of the beach. There is also a small convenience-style store and quite a few high-end homes being built. There were a few surfers out on the water but I was told by the bartender (yes, I had a couple of Balboas) that the surf had been down the last couple of days.

I took a walk down the beach and just tried to absorb it all… the nearly hypnotic sound of the ocean, the mist created by the crashing waves and the gulls overhead. If someone had offered to sell me a house on the beach at a price I could afford I would have bought it on the spot. Every time I visit a beach my resolve grows stronger that I have to retire on the water. I sat for quite some time on the open-deck veranda of the bar and just enjoyed watching the waves and the surfers. I’ll definitely be back. My nephew loves to surf; maybe we can come back together some day.

With some difficulty, I tore myself away from the beach to continue my trek. I laughed really hard when, between Playa Venao and Canas I came across a teenager on his horse ambling down the side of the road texting on his cell phone as he went – what a land of contrasts. This is a very agricultural area with lots of cattle and corn (for silage, I presume) and I loved it… the cattle reminded me of growing up in Montana. There were even some areas of open range, which surprised me. I haven’t seen open range since driving through the Blackfoot reservation in Montana. Working the land and raising cattle is hard work but I’m sure it is also very gratifying. Ag communities have a strong sense of place and even stronger family values. The idea of moving to a small town in an agricultural area is very appealing.

I think some of these farmers are actually better off than their homes would suggest. I saw many brand new, state-of-the-art tractors and combines. While it’s possible that these were custom crews, I doubt it. This isn’t like North America where the custom combine outfits start in Alberta in August and make their way south to Texas; there just isn’t enough land or crops to support such massive operations.

As I continued towards Tonosi I came across a couple of guys hand mixing concrete on the road… not off to the side, right on the road. I guess there must not be too much traffic to bother them. This wasn’t the only time I saw this practice of using the road as a concrete mixer. I made it as far as Tonosi before turning around to return to Pedasi. It was raining steadily when I got to Tonosi but from what I could tell this is a major town in the area. There are a lot of stores and shops, a large-animal veterinary near the center of town that had a drive through so you could unload your animal under cover, several groceries and at least two banks.

I arrived back in Pedasi just as the sun was going down. After downloading my pictures and taking a shower, I planned on going to Smiley’s for dinner but saw a sign pointing towards the Chili Reef restaurant and decided to check it out. This place was closed the night before but was obviously open that night because it was all lit up and there were was another couple at an outdoor table enjoying dinner. After a while several other groups of people showed up including a group of five that I had seen in town the last couple of days that I think was staying at one of the hostels.

While waiting for my meal to be delivered (a pair of fish burritos that were excellent), I struck up a conversation with the couple at the next table. It turned out that Devin, a former music teacher from Pullman, Washington now lives in Limon, about three or four miles south of Pedasi. Devin  has a partner from the Big Fork area of Montana (it's a small world) and together they bought some acreage along the coast that they are slowly selling off. In the meantime he met a Panamanian woman while surfing and slyly suggested that she teach him more Spanish. Today she is his wife and they have a small four-room hotel and cafe in Limon.

Devin also has a house for sale that he bought on the beach outside of Las Tablas and offered to show it to me. The house was originally intended to be for him, but as his business developed in Limon he decided to sell it instead. We agreed to meet the next morning after he finished giving a violin lesson and I would follow him to the house. This was a good plan since I was heading back towards Panama City the next day anyway.

My next installment will be about the house on Playa el Ulverito and my “discovery” of Punta Chame.