Sights and Stories of Panama - Taboga
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Fri 8 Feb 2008 22:39
The day before my brother Bill left Panama to go back home, he and I took
a ferry the short five miles off the coast to the island of Taboga. We
weren't sure what to expect, but had been told that there was a beach and
quite a few hiking trails, so off we went. We arrived at the island
around 10am and the heat was already starting to build. We figured it
made sense to hike first and go to the beach afterwards before catching
the 4:30 ferry back to Flamenco Island.
There were a couple of cryptic signs that looked like they were pointing
the way to a hiking trail, so we followed them down a road (the term
'road' is used loosely here...there were no real vehicles on this island,
just golf cart types and a few small pickup trucks, and the 'road' was a
concrete pathway slightly wider than a typical sidewalk). Along the way
we ran into a man who immediately asked us if we were American - wow, was
it that obvious? We found out in the space of five minutes that he had
traveled to Taboga seven years ago and liked it so much, he bought a house
the second day he was there. Then he went back to Ft. Lauderdale and sold
his home there before returning to Panama. He was especially happy to
tell us that he paid zero taxes in Taboga and he had a 'young wife' that
spent most of her time in the apartment he had purchased for her in Balboa
(west coast of Panama, near the canal). Then he went on to debate the
merits (if any existed) of the various American presidential candidates
with us and at the same time, gave us an update on the campaign progress.
It's sad, really, that we had to learn what was going on in the American
presidential campaign from a guy who has been living on a fairly remote
island off the coast of Panama for the last seven years, but he was very
informative and we learned a lot in the space of those five minutes.
We left the happy tax-free American behind and continued on our quest to
hike up to the top of one of the high hills where there was a cross
mounted overlooking the Pacific. Taboga, and all of Panama for that
matter, is extremely Catholic, so many of the island hills and mountains
are topped with a cross or two or three. As we walked along the path/road
the flowers were incredible (picture 1) and it became obvious why Taboga
is called the island of flowers.
The concrete path/road turned into a dirt path and we continued to follow
it upward in the steaming heat. We passed a couple of forks in the path
and had to guess which way to go because the cryptic signs had petered
out. After an hour or more of trudging upward, we came to an area where
the view opened up to the west and the Pacific was spread out placidly
below us. As we were admiring the view, we started to notice a stench in
the air and bits of garbage under foot. We hadn't made it to the
cross-topped hill after all, instead we had stumbled across the island
dump where burning trash was spread down the hillside toward (but not
reaching) the ocean below and one lonely guy was set up in a lawn chair
presumably watching to ensure the burning garbage didn't get out of
control. I think we startled the dump guy - we decided he probably didn't
get many visitors since most tourists wouldn't go out of their way to
visit a dump (us being the exception). He chatted to us in Spanish and
seemed to point the way to a continuation of the trail - understanding one
word out of ten, we followed what we thought were his directions and
continued on. The trail got smaller, and smaller and started to disappear
as we picked our way through the forest. It wouldn't have been so bad if
we hadn't been to the Panama Canal Visitor's Center recently where they
had a whole display of all the very large (many inches) and scary bugs
that exist in Panama. After persevering a little longer we decided it was
best to turn back and apologize to the dump guy for our inability to
follow the directions he so kindly gave us. He didn't seem surprised when
he saw us emerge from the forest and chatted with us some more in Spanish
as we passed back through the dump. It was a bit of a one-way
conversation, but we did smile and say gracias several times so at least
we weren't impolite.
We went back to one of the forks in the path and chose a different
direction. This time the path seemed more promising, but it was also
steeper and seemed to go on forever. Another 1 1/2 - 2 hours and three
gallons of sweat later and we had made it to the top of the hill/mountain.
Of course there was no cross there, but the hill we had climbed was much
higher than the one we had originally intended to climb and we had a good
view of the cross-topped hill below us. The air was hazy, but the view
was still amazing. We could see Panama City as well as all the freighters
waiting patiently at anchor to enter the canal (picture 2).
The walk down our hill/mountain went a lot faster and we made a beeline
for the beach when we got back to the town. We had the beach almost all
to ourselves and aside from the inordinate amount of trash that was washed
up on the shore and floating in the shallow and very clear water, it was
quite nice. Picture 3 shows the beach with Bill in the background
collecting shells. We caught the ferry back to Flamenco Island shortly
thereafter and our visit to Taboga ended. Picture 4 of Bill was taken
that night. We're not sure whether the grin was due to the good time he
had sweating in Panama with us, the new World ARC t-shirt he has on or his
happiness to be heading home to cooler temperatures the next morning.
Regardless, we enjoyed his company and appreciated his help through the
canal as well as with all the mundane boat chores.
Anne