One Beautiful Day in Panama

Who?  Bob  Where?  In many nations, Pedro is at that age when he is starting retirement and wondering what happened to his waistline!  But Pedro has better things to do, in this case prepping horses for a couple crazy gringos out to see the farm on Lake Bayano in eastern Panama.

Who?  Jaime Toro  Where?  While Panama City has some truly wonderful and very modern restaurants to satisfy the most discriminating palate, many of us especially appreciate the small restaurants that are so common in the rural areas.   They offer simple but good food for very little money.  The restaurant above is found just outside the town of Cañita near the shores of Lake Bayano in eastern Panama and is a good example of a rural restaurant where good food, low prices, and friendly people make eating a pleasure.

Who?  Antonio Mojica  Where? For generations, many Panamanians have raised cattle, both for meat and for milk.  This mother and child, the very picture of contentment, live on a dairy farm in eastern Panama province on the shores of Lake Bayano.

Who?  Antonio Mojica  Where?  It is not exactly a tunnel.  It is from inside a cave, one of the Maje Caves on Bayano Lake in eastern Panama province.  These ancient caves are deep in an area called home by our Native Americans, the Embara and Kuna in this case.  Although ignored in the past, there are now tour guides who can take people out to the caves and they are slowly being added to the lost list of “places to visit in Panama”.

Photographer: Antonio Mojica Where? Earlier photos highlighted some members of our Native American tribes who represent a small, but very important, part of Panamanian society. A traditional form of water transport is the wooden canoa (canoe) and, in this photo, one of our Panamanian members demonstrates its use on Lake Bayano in eastern Panama.

Photographer: Antonio Mojica Where? Panama is known for its incredible variety of bird life and many other exotic tropical creatures, but Panama is also “horse country”. Horses provided the primary means of personal and business transport for many decades and they still are a common sight in the countryside. These horses, including a young addition to the family, are on the shore of Lake Bayano in eastern Panama province.

Photographer: Antonio Where? The sun sets on another near Canita in eastern Panama beside Lake Bayano. The line you see over the water is to prevent fisherfolk from getting too close to the dam that provides much of Panama, including Panama City, with its power. So much tranquility near so much power.

Photographer: Antonio Where? This is the Barrigón tree. You don’t see a lot of them, but when you do, they are hard to ignore. They drop their leaves in December, but regrow them when the rains arrive in April or May. Their white flower is shaped like a cheerleader’s pom-pom and is food for many local mammals.

Photographer: Bob Where? Awhile back, we showed you a photo of a ficus tree, one that was substantially larger than you might have expected. Today, we’re showing you a mango tree. Yes, the tree that produces those under-ripe, over-priced fruits you see at your market in North America or Europe. In Panama, they are very cheap or, better yet, they can be free if you have one in your yard. The mango tree above just off Lake Bayano is not unusually large, but it dwarfs the man and boat. You’ll never go hungry during mango season with a tree like this!

Photographer: Luis Where? One of the nice things about traveling through the countryside is to come across something unexpected and beautiful around the corner. There are young guayacán trees in full bloom. They were on the edge of Lago (Lake) Bayano far from any homes, just sitting there, waiting for someone to appreciate them.