I heard Tom get up early to go for a walk, but I definitely did not feel like joining him this morning. I was just too tired and wanted the extra sleep. I rolled out of bed sometime after 8:00 and took my time getting ready. Tom was back after logging 8 miles this morning. Pete, Laurie, Ryan, and Angie headed out about 9:30 and drove to Portobelo to see what they could find for snorkeling. Tom, Linda, and I got out the door just after 10:30 to head to Punta Chame.
My Panama guide book mentioned a worthy pit stop on the way to Punta Chame to see the La Chorro Chorerra waterfall on the outskirts of the city of La Chorerra. I saw the sign for the city and pulled off to a gas station to look for further directions on how to get to the waterfall. We had a half of tank of gas, but Tom wisely said we should just fill up since we were there. All the gas stations are full-service so we made our attempt to properly communicate what we needed with the assistance of Google translate. I’m sometimes reluctant to ask for directions, but when Tom told me to ask the attendant for directions to the waterfall I did, and she helped us put it into Waze to make sure we were going to the right spot. We were only about 15 minutes away. The guide book said that Chorro is the Spanish word for a jet of a water, so we joked that the waterfall was probably just a drain pipe, but we were pleasantly surprised of what a nice waterfall it was. There was a short path where I could get a closer view of the waterfall as well. Sadly there was no geocache at this location, but it would be a perfect place to put one. There was nobody at the waterfall when we arrived, but another car load of people pulled up as we were leaving.
Back on the road to Punta Chame we ran into Carnaval traffic. The highway is a two lanes in each direction, but they had made one of the northbound lanes we were travelling into a third lane going South. This slowed us down a bit but at least the traffic kept moving. In the town of Capira we could see off the main road the town was holding a Carnaval celebration. There was the water truck spraying down people and the food and drink tents lined the streets. Traffic continued to move along, but when it came time for me to take the left turn to Punta Chame I found I couldn’t due the extra converted third lane of traffic they had set up. I kept looking for a place to sneak over but it wasn’t happening. 10 Kilometers later I followed another car who had pulled over to make the swing to turn left and got over to the actual Northbound traffic lanes.
Once we made the turn to Punta Chame it was smooth sailing traffic wise. We made our way to the very end where the road dead ends into the dirt road to the beach. Tom Googled somewhere to eat and found a place called Machete Wind and Waves, which is a Kite Sailing club. The first order of business was to visit the bathrooms which we found to be very nice for as remote as we were. We decided to eat and found that much of the menu was not available due to supplies not being able to be received due to Carnaval. Linda and I had chicken fingers while Tom had a burger. The food was very good and it was great to eat it outside under shaded cover with the ocean breeze. This was also the perfect place for Tom and Linda to hang out while I walked the beach. It was 2:50 when I was ready to walk and I agreed that I would be back by 4:00. The tide was out so the beach was huge and full of hard sand. It’s almost the perfect sand to walk on with tennis shoes, but I was wearing flip flops. I could tell right away there wouldn’t be a lot treasures as it was mostly a sandy beach. It was actually sad to see how much garbage/plastic washes up with every wave. I was shocked when I found a perfect shell and the biggest sand dollars I have found anywhere to date. I kept an eye on my watch and when I had walked about 30 minutes I turned around and went back the other way. The sand banks were really high so I couldn’t tell how much further the beach went, but I have a feeling it went on for a few miles. I made it back to Linda and Tom ahead of schedule at 3:50. It felt great to get steps in on the long stretch of beach.
We were all preparing ourselves for a terrible traffic jam on the way back, but was again shocked when it moved pretty steadily. There were some slow-downs, but no out-right stops. I was feeling pretty confident that I knew the way back and hadn’t turned on the GPS to conserve my phone battery. All was good until I missed our exit (have I mentioned before that they don’t have signage to clearly mark exists) and had to drive a few extra kilometers before I could turn around. We made it back to the condo by 6:00. Nobody was in the condo when we got back but we knew Vicente and Peyton had made it back since we saw some of their stuff on the table. We decided to walk down to the pool/beach area to look for them (and for me to have one more shot at treasure). I walked out of the condo and Pete and Laurie were pulling in. The pool was closed but we found that the tide was way up on the beach. We walked a little ways down and found Vicente and Peyton swimming in the water. Tom and I joined them for a quick dip to hear all about their evening. It sounds like they had a great time with the group from the dining experience going to a couple of bars and Carnaval. Vicente said Carnaval was a much different experience at night as it was jammed packed with people (much like Summerfest).
Back at the condo we started to pack up since tomorrow we are all heading out in separate directions. Tom and I are headed to an AirBnB on the Caribbean side, Pete and Laurie to an Air BnB 3 1/2 hours North, and Ryan, Angie, Vicente, and Peyton to the airport to head home. Tom and I shared my leftover chimichanga for dinner. It was just as delicious as a leftover as it had been when we first got it.
It has been a good first week in Panama. I’m looking forward to what the next three weeks brings.
Stats of the Day
Steps: 12,313
Cost of 1/2 tank of gas: $21.00
Extra Kilometers Driven Due to Missed Turns/Exits: approximately 30
