The upside of central america

We really did find paradise. A number of times.
But the most recent time(s) were in Panama. After a week of stifling hot weather we thought we might head up into the mountains before we progressed down to the beach in Panama to meet my childhood friend Dan at a yet unknown surf break called Playa Venao.

[Panamanian food- notice the lack of beer] Our friend in San Cristobal told us about a climbing area on the flanks of the highest mountain in Panama. It is just outside of a town called Boquete and the weather up there is supposed to be "cold." Every Panamanian and Costa Rican that we talked to confirmed this cold aspect because when we told them we were headed to Boquete they smiled and said "fresca" and "frio." Two lovely words for the motorcycle traveller.
It being Semana Santa week (the latin America equivalent of Christmas/ Memorial Day- where everyone packs up and leaves town), we were a little nervous about finding a place to stay, but after a few searches we found a killer hostal just outside of Boquete that was quiet and friendly. We did however miss the memo that they stopped selling alcohol on thursday and wouldn't start until saturday at noon. Do you know hard it is to not have beers after a day of climbing (or doing anything)?
The next day we cruised out to the climbing area and met Cesar, the man responsible for every route in the area. He has a very different business plan regarding climbing than anywhere else I have seen in the world. Lets start with the first part of which I totally agree.
He politely asked us to pay 20 dollars each in order to climb for as many days as we would like. I gladly payed it (as we were going to leave a donation anyway) because developing a climbing area costs a lot of money. He has to pay the mayor of Boquete an annual fee in order to use the area for climbing (which is a bit nutty because the climbing area brings a lot of money to Boquete), and he has to pay for the hardware to develop the routes. It isn't cheap. Even with the cheapest of hardware, it still costs around $50 for one route.
The second interesting thing is that to drum up business, he takes off his shirt (he looks pretty good) and free solos up and down the crag to draw attention from passing cars. When the people jump out and ask if they can do that, he tells them yes and charges them $20 to try (but with ropes). It works!
The climbing was good, with a couple of routes being very stellar and others sometimes missing hardware. However it was refreshing to move the muscles again and meet some climbers.

The next day was spent feeding horses, trying to ride our motorcycles to the top of the mountain (we didn't make it very far on the uber-steep loose gravel road), hiking through the cloud forests, and riding fun twisty roads around coffee plantations.

[getting a surf lesson from Dan] Then we were off for the true paradise. Playa Venao is a recently discovered (by americans) world class surf break. As the story goes, my childhood friend Dan Pasette and his buddy Oliver were traveling the world looking for a spot for a reforestation project. The two criteria were that there needed to be land to reforest and there needed to be a surfbreak. They found it in Venao, Oliver bought the land (350 acres) and started a little resort out there called Eco Venao.

[the view from our cabana] It is still a very sleepy area with a mix of dorm styles accommodations all the way up to luxury cabanas overlooking the beach (we got to stay in the luxury cabanas).


Playa Venao feels like the kind of place that in ten years will be over run with hotels and condos, but for now it is a fantastic area complete with resident yoga instructor and fun waves.

Our schedule for 3 days went like this:
Wake up around 7.
Drink coffee and laze make some breakfast.
At 10, stroll down to the beach for 1.5 hours of powerful yoga.
Go for a swim and body surf for a while.

Go back to the house to make some lunch, drink a few beers and shoot the shit with friends for a while.
At 4 or so, grab a surfboard and thrash about in the waves for two hours.
Enjoy the sunset.

Eat dinner with friends.
Go for a night swim with the luminescent critters.
Go to bed.

Now we are in Panama city getting ready to catch a sail boat to Panama... once we get there (see previous post).

Volcano in Costa Rica. That isn't fog, but rather eruption gasses in the morning. During the day they go in the air.

Fixing a flat in Costa Rica