Ancon Hill, Panama City, Panama

One of the sights you will definitely notice upon entering Panama City, Panama is the huge flag of Panama waving high on Ancon Hill.  It flies proudly to be seen from the downtown area as well as the Bridge of the Americas and the Panama Canal.

What most tourists do not seem to know is that you can go up there.  We had no idea until our taxi driver offered during our trip to Casco Viejo, the old town.  It did not take long for us to say yes.

It is not an easy taxi ride winding up the mountain on narrow streets.  It seemed every hundred feet there was an annoying speed bump to break our momentum.

Upon reaching the summit you will be wowed.  The views are simply spectacular.  To the north is a breathtaking view of the Bridge of the Americas and the Panama Canal.  The loading docks with all their cranes and huge cargo ships sit directly below you.

 

To the east are the Miraflores locks of the Canal.  If you are lucky you might catch a huge PanaMax ship coming through the gates and heading out to the Pacific Ocean.

The top of Ancon Hill is small making hiking around quite easy.  Within a couple of minutes you can get the spectacular views in any direction.  Southward are the beautiful skyscrapers of Panama City.

Finally spin to the west and you will be rewarded with a view of the old city and the Pacific Ocean.  The taxi ride should set you back about $10 and I can say it will be about the best $10 spent on your visit to Panama City, Panama.

A Wonderful Visit to the town of Portobelo Panama

Let me start this article by saying the day trip to Portobelo was my absolute favorite day of the entire Panama trip.  It was simply fantastic.  If you visit Panama make the time to hop over to the Caribbean coast to check out the small town of Portobelo and its centuries old Spanish forts. 

The original plan was to do the drive from where we were staying at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort.  Three weeks before the trip we had the very, very good fortune/insight to go ahead and book a personal driver and guide for the day instead of trying to do it on our own.

Boy, oh boy did that turn out to be a great idea.  Portobelo is about a ninety minute drive from Gamboa.  The way our guide took us from Gamboa was not an easy route at all through some "seedy" neighborhoods.  I am doubtful if we could have made the trip on our own without getting seriously lost.  We certainly could not have made it in 90 minutes or probably anywhere close.  So my first Portobelo advice is to hire a guide or at least a driver.

Our guide was wonderful giving us history, dates and neat facts everywhere we went.  He also knew the locals and workers and set us up with a great lunch at a local restaurant.

Portobelo is a quiet little Panama town nowadays.  It was equally quiet centuries ago.  That is for most of the time.  A few days a year Portobelo sprung to life when the Spanish gold arrived from Peru.  Led by Francisco Pizarro the Spanish had conquered the incredibly rich Inca Empire.  From the Inca they plundered amazing riches of gold and silver. 

Portobelo was the staging area where all the treasures were counted and organized for the trip across the Atlantic on the famed Spanish galleons.  The gold was kept in the Customs House of Portobelo before being loaded to the galleons in the bay.

With so much gold the Spanish needed security and they built three forts to protect Portobelo.   Fort Santiago and Fort San Fernando which sit on each side of the entrance to the cove and then Fort San Jeronimo which sits back inside the cove right next to the Customs House.

To get to Portobelo you drive right along the Caribbean coastline and come to Fort Santiago which was our first stop.  It has a entryway gate that is long lost, but you could just imagine the large gate that once protected the entrance.

There are slits along the walls offering the defenders plenty of shooting opportunities with their muskets from the lower level.  Once inside Fort Santiago there are the barracks which you can still go inside.  The strong coral and rock walls have stood the test of time for sure.

After checking out the barracks and lower area head up to the upper level where the cannon still sit.  The line of fire to protect the cove are obvious.  There is also a dry moat about ten feet deep that would have kept soldiers from entering from that direction. In the corner is a nice little covered lookout that provided a higher vantage point to see incoming raiders as well as a protected area to shoot down upon the attackers.

From there we headed into town further to the Customs House.  This is where all the gold from the Inca conquest in Peru was brought, counted and recorded.  Once a year the huge Spanish fleet of galleons would arrive with goods from Europe and the Caribbean to be offloaded and traded. The fleet of galleons would then be loaded with gold, silver and artifacts to be sent home to Spain.  The tiny town of Portobelo would explode with traders, sailors, soldiers and all else while the fleet was in port.  We toured the two story gold house.  On the first floor is a little museum to peruse that will take you about fifteen minutes.  There is also an informative video to watch that will give a nice history of Portobelo.

Just a few yards from the gold house is Fort San Jeronimo.   It was raining, but that didn't stop us from heading inside to explore.  Plenty of cannon sit in place ready to defend the treasures next door. On the second level there is a covered lookout as well as stairs down a barracks room.   There is also a neat water well.

The final fortification of Portobelo is Fort San Fernando and it is actually across the bay from the town.  The only way to reach Fort San Fernando is by water taxi.  Our guide gladly arranged for our passage at a cost of $25 for the three of us.

We piled in the small skiff and headed across the cove passing many anchored sailboats as we went.  Reaching the other side we pulled onto the beach.  There is no dock there so we had to jump from the boat.  Expect to get a little wet (ankle deep).

The whole of Fort San Fernando was ours.  Seems not a lot of tourists take the time to hire a water taxi and make the short trek (it did not take ten minutes to cross). Their loss was our gain though.  Fort San Fernando is tremendous.  Different from the other two forts.  Inside was wet.  Very wet.  I decided to trek through the middle of the grounds and was rewarded with a swamp basically.

I sank ankle deep and feared I would lose my shoes.  I trudged on eventually reaching the ramp to the second level.  Everyone got quite the kick out of my trial, but I made it.  The guide took the others safely along the wall where it was much drier.

There is also a smaller fort on the hilltop above.  Make sure to take the time to do the hike up.  It is about a hundred feet above and it will get your heartbeat up as you trudge up the steep trail.  Once on top you will be rewarded with a wonderful view of Portobelo and the harbor.  You'll also marvel at how much effort it must have taken to get the monster cannons all the way up there.  After taking in the view, I carefully made my way back down and back to the waiting boat.

Our trip was not quite over though.  The guide had a lunch planned for us at Restaurant Las Anclas.  The appetizer was a large flat fried plantain.  It was like a huge tortilla chip and our host brought out three separate types of homemade salsa to go with.   It was SO good!

We all had grilled sea bass that came along with rice and carrots.  Everything was first class.  We topped it off with some delightful grapenut vanilla ice cream.  A fine ending to a great day in Portobelo, Panama!

El Valle de Anton - Chorro El Macho waterfall

After a few initial days in Panama City we rented a car and headed to the country  spending two days in El Valle de Anton.  After a monster traffic jam on the PanAmerican Highway we finally made it.  El Valle is a small village inside a long extinct volcano. 

Looking down into El Valle

Surrounded on all sides by the volcano walls, El Valle has its very own ecosystem basically.  The inland side of the crater is wet and rainy as the clouds come over the rim.  The south side is much drier as the clouds rain themselves out and evaporate before they travel the short distance across the crater.

The wet side of El Valle has several nice waterfalls and dense rainforest.  The highlight of the waterfalls is named El Macho.  The morning of day two we planned to make the hike to Chorro El Macho.  Our travel guide said it was a two and a half hour trek so we prepared accordingly.  It is a short distance from downtown El Valle to the beginning of the hike. There is a small hut and you must pay to access the trail.  If I remember right it was about $3 which was well worth it in the end.

We paid the nominal fee and headed off for what we thought was going to be a nice long hike.  In reality the hike to El Macho is very short.  We crossed a delightful swinging bridge and took some pictures.

From the bridge we carried on and within minutes found ourselves at the falls.  A two and a half hour hike was more like ten minutes.  Surprised, we shrugged and turned our attention to the magnificent 85 foot waterfall before us.

El Macho is beautiful.  I climbed down from the bridge to the river below and made the short hike to the base of the falls.  There is a small pool at the base of the El Macho that offers a nice area for a refreshing swim.  The water is not overly cold so hop right in!

After some time to take in the view and pictures we made the short hike back to the road.  In all the entire trek took about an hour.  Shorter than we expected, but a worthwhile jaunt.  Don't miss the hike to El Macho on your El Valle de Anton visit.

Panama City, Panama - Metropolitan National Park and Old Town Casco Viejo

So TexanTreks survived the adventure to Panama!  It was magnificent and aside from a rainforest chigger invasion the trip was a total success.  A few days in Panama City, followed by two days in El Valle de Anton, followed by a few days in Gamboa with a fabulous daytrip to Portobelo mixed in.  Tough to followup the wonderful Peru trip, but Panama held its own quite nicely.

The flights were not a problem at all getting to Panama.  Even navigated the horrid Miami airport as best as possible.  Easily my most hated airport in the world!  We landed in Panama City late night and took a taxi from the airport to our hotel.  Unfortunately it was dark and we were unable to see the wonders of Panama City until the next day.

Up early the next day and it was time to start the adventure.  The plan was to stay around the city opening day and check out Old Town (Casco Viejo) and hike a bit in the Metropolitan Nature Park.  The decision was to hike in the morning before the day heated up.  Good decision for sure.

The Metropolitan Nature Park was really nice.  It is only a few minutes from downtown Panama City and a cheap cab ride.  The park is quite large and it would be easy to spend a whole day back on the trails.  You completely forget you are in the city while you are up and down the trails. 

We took a cab to the visitor center and headed out on what was recommended as a 2-3 hour hike.  It was really nice.  Plenty of wildlife and rainforest foliage to observe.  Plenty of birds and great nature to look at.  The terrain is hilly, but not a difficult hike at all.

We found very interesting termite hives that were suspended in the trees.  The leafcutter ants were also hard at work carrying monster cuts of leaf that were many times their body size.

We made it up to the top where there was a lookout with a wonderful view back to the skyscrapers of Panama City.  Made for some great pictures.

Finishing the hike we grabbed a cab and headed for Old Town (Casco Viejo).  Another short cab ride.  Not easily accessible at all though.  Tons of traffic and easily the most “touristy” place we visited on our entire trip.  I’m not as much for the touristy stuff, much preferring to get out and about, but it wasn’t too bad.

Everything is under construction.  And I mean everything!  It seems the whole of Old Town is under renovation.  It will be wonderful when completed though.  A little bit of shopping.  A lot of walking and wondering what it must have been like back in the 1600 and 1700s!

We finished it off with a wonderful meal at a little Old Town restaurant named Diablicos.  The food was very good.  My fish seemed to smile at me with its sharp teeth!  A little daunting, but as good as any meal that I had in Panama.

The next day we were up early and heading along the coast on the PanAmerican Highway for El Valle de Anton.  El Valle is a small town situated inside an ancient volcano.  Surrounded by high mountains it is basically its own ecosystem with great hiking and beautiful waterfalls down the ancient volcano walls.

Cusco's La Casa Concha Inca Museum

The La Casa Concha is the result of a joint project between Peru and Yale University to return the Inca artifacts to Peru from the Hiram Bingham Expeditions 1909-1915.  Peru has been demanding the return of these artifacts for decades and the sides finally came to agreement recently for the museum.

It is located in Cuzco at 320 Santa Catalina Ancha in the historical district and is well worth the visit. La Casa Concha is inside a quaint colonial mansion with the display on two floors.

The La Casa Concha is home to nearly four thousand Inca artifacts and is dedicated to the inhabitants of Machu Picchu.  There are eleven display rooms each well laid out and quite informative.    The scale model of Machu Picchu just inside the entrance will blow you away.  The photo display of Hiram Bingham's photos from the original exploration of Machu Picchu are quite impressive as well.

If you are making the trip to Machu Picchu and the Inca Valley you will most likely begin your trip in Cuzco.  Make sure to check out this museum before heading out.  It will give you a fascinating look into the culture and sights you will see as you head onward.  Dedicate a couple of hours for La Casa Concha and you will not be disappointed!

Check out our wonderful article Machu Picchu - Getting off the Beaten Path

A Visit to the C-Gem GPAA Claim near Stanton, Arizona

The community gold dig was over in Stanton and we found ourselves with some free time. We had a few hours in the afternoon and decided to make a trek to the nearby C-Gem GPAA claim a few miles from Stanton. The GPAA C-Gem gold claim is new and made its debut in the most recent GPAA Mining Guide.

We studied the directions in the guide and set out for the claim. We made our way to the Old Stage Coach Rd/Yarnell Rd which is just off the small mining camp at Stanton. Following the directions we turned and headed the 2.1 miles towards Yarnell as the guide instructed. We had five people in an ATV and a jeep. The jeep led the way with our gps. Once we made the 2.1 mile mark there was no right turn. Looked like we were going to have to figure this one out. A typical TexanTreks adventure was on!

The closest right turn to the mileage was actually a locked gate that looked like it headed into a residence set well off the road. We backtracked some more to a right turn just before a creek and went that way. The road was rough, but navigable for sure. The mining guide gives the gps coordinates so off we went seeking the right spot.

The farther we went, the worse the road became, but we were making progress towards the right gps position. There were definitely signs of mining along the road as it followed the creek. Up and down we went with the road getting worse and worse. Finally we could go no more. The trail had petered out and we were still well short of the gps coordinates for the claim. We parked and scouted out our surroundings.

From where we were the claim was a hike up over a hill and downwards to the creek. Judging from our gps it was close to a half mile still. To get to the claim it would be a decent hike. We decided to stay in our immediate area rather than hike it. The creek/washout ran close though the climb down was a bit tricky. In fact pretty much anything you wanted to do here should be termed "tricky". I climbed down to the creek where there was evidence of previous prospecting. We also did a bit of metal detecting finding some old nails and such but no gold.

I would say we only stayed an hour or so, due to the difficulty of locating the right area. In summation, the C-Gem is not easy. A rough road. A bit of hiking required. No real good flat terrain for metal detecting at all. It is beautiful country that's for sure and quite the adventure too. It definitely deserves more than the limited time we gave it. Check it out for yourself. It's only about 25 minutes from the Stanton Camp.

A Visit to GPAA claims near Sierra Vista, Arizona

Our destination was the GPAA event at Stanton, Arizona Dec 29 - 31st, but on the way we set aside a day to check out the GPAA claims just south of Sierra Vista, Arizona.  The original plan was to go to the claims near Ancho, New Mexico, but snow turned us southward to Sierra Vista.

The plan was half a day at the Big Four #1 GPAA claim and half a day at the PC-2 GPAA claim.  Both claims offered easy access just off State Highway 92 south of Sierra Vista.  No four wheel drive needed at all for either claim.

So we hit the PC-2 claim first.  The GPAA Mining Guide offers perfect directions and the claim is easy to find.  The PC-2 claim runs along the wash in Ash Canyon.  The country is really pretty as you can see from the pictures. A fire came through in the last couple of years and the trees are scarred, but the views are still quite nice.

It was completely dry so all I did was collect material to work later.  I hiked well up Ash Canyon identifying sites before turning back and collecting material.

Time flies when you are having fun and before I knew it was time to head out to the other claim.  If you are going to the PC-2 GPAA claim have no worries.  Easy access and plenty of area to dig. Just no water.

The afternoon led us to the Big Four #1 GPAA claim which is only a few miles up the road from PC-2.  The Big Four #1 lies on the wash down Miller Canyon.  Once again access was quite easy and the GPAA Mining Guide was spot on.

There is water here.  A small creek runs down Miller Canyon.  It is only a couple of feet wide, but offers enough water for a small sluice or some panning.

Again I hiked way up the canyon.  It is a bit steeper climb than the PC-2, but not strenuous at all.

I spent a couple of hours collecting more material before a snowstorm came over the mountain and sent us to the truck. 

We were tired and ready for a good dinner anyway so we headed into town for dinner.  Sierra Vista is a surprisingly large town.  I did not expect such so far south and close to the Mexico border.  Plenty of good restaurant choices and plenty of hotel options for those wanting to stay.

After dinner we headed back north on our trip to the GPAA Stanton event.  Stanton stories coming soon!