Short Stay Accommodations  

Things to see and do in our area – Please check the ones that sound the most intriguing to you so that we can customize and maximize your visit with us!
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Ziplining #1– Sail (sometimes) hundreds of feet above the jungle, sometimes right through it, 12 platforms, exhilarating to say the least.  This activity is over in Boquete, so it can be paired up with the Tuesday Expat Market (see below) and made into a two-day affair.  Very popular!  Allow 4-5 hours by itself, 2 days if combined with the expat market.

Ziplining #2 – If the above adventure sounds a little too exciting for you, there is another, shorter zipline located closer to our place.  It’s only a two-platform affair (in other words, one “zip”), but it is almost 1,500 feet in length, so still plenty enough to get your heart rate up.

Janson Coffee Farm Tour – See for yourself exactly what it takes to put a cup of coffee on your morning table (believe you me, it takes a TON of work!).  Includes a look at the coffee bushes themselves, watching the harvesting by the hardworking pickers in action, how the beans are processed and dried, and concluded by an actual “cupping” where you are shown the best way to brew your morning joe and you can compare five different excellent brews (and one tea that I like a lot!).  If you drink coffee, this one’s kind of a must-do.  4 hours.

Fauna – If you’ve a notion to get up close and personal with some of the animals of Panamá, we can accommodate you.  We can take you to a carwash (of all places!) where we will find a spectacular nest of green and brown iguanas.  They’ll come down the tree and feed off of the pile of fruit right at our feet.  They range in size from babies to four-foot long adults.  Amazing photo ops here.  Another place we can take you is to a former rescue operation.  While advancing age has demanded the owner to downsize, she still has various monkeys that she will bring out and perch on your shoulders.

Beach cruise – From Boca Chica (about 1½ hours from our house), we can charter a boat that will take us out to any one of the hundreds of islands off the Panamanian coast.  Some have amenities, others have nothing in the way of services (like restaurants, sun shades, etc).  In other words, if sunning on a tropical beach turns you on, there are lots of islands available.  Swimming, snorkeling, world-class fishing, it’s a tropical paradise!  A full day.

Sitio Barriles – Named for the curious stone “barrels” found here, this is perhaps Panama’s most famous archeological site.  You have to remember that 550 years ago when our volcano, Barú, erupted, the lava and detritus totally covered the country, wiping all then-existing civilization off the map.  That means that Panamá doesn’t know a whole lot about its ancient history.  Much of what is known has been found at Sitio Barriles.  Edna starts us off with a fascinating little talk and then she will lead us on a tour of the site (at this place, amateurs like you and me can even PARTICIPATE in the scheduled work of excavating the artifacts!).  See the world’s first food processor, see mysterious ancient symbols reveal themselves when water is applied to stone boulders, marvel at the 4-ton boulder that served the ancients as their GPS (and it is remarkably accurate!). 2-3 hours.

Cerro Punta agriculture – CP is the breadbasket of the country and you’ve NEVER seen agriculture like they do it up there!  On steep, sloping mountainsides, they grow a host of different fruits and vegetables without tractors and machinery, without complex irrigation systems, and, for the most part, it’s all done organically.  The green waves of different crops are stunningly beautiful to observe from down below.  It’s all the workers can do to just precariously maintain their balances up there.  This is something that has to be seen to be believed.  4-6 hours.

Cerro Punta hydroponic tour – A lot of the agriculture done up there is done in huge greenhouses, some utilizing hydroponics, some not.  They are more than happy to show people through their operations.  1 ½ hours.

Finca Dracula – Translated, Dracula’s Farm.  Don’t let the ominous sounding name intimidate you, though.  This beautifully landscaped property is home to the world’s largest collection of orchids.  Including a very dark  (indistinguishable from black, really) one that the farm is named after.  You won’t believe the diversity of orchids and colors at this place.  3 hours. Open seasonally only.

Swimming holes – Both Macho del Monte and Los Cangillones offer easy-to-get-to pools where you can jump/dive off of rocks into delightfully refreshing waters.  Los Cangillones in particular will impress you. The mini-canyon (as it is called) isn’t so miniature. It runs for more than 130 feet until the canyon opens up. It really looks like the earth has cracked and opened up leaving the water in between.  What it has left is an awesome spot for a little adventure. You can jump from the sides of the canyon into the blue water of the canyon. Here the current is quite strong and most people swim down the canyon with the current and clamber out once the canyon walls subside and the river opens up. It is just a short walk back to do it all again!
River hike/walk – Down our road (Calle Bajo Frio) a piece is a delightful little river that is within hiking distance.  Some people fish it, I don’t.  It’s a gorgeous walk, though, where it is quite possible to spot monkeys, along with a bewildering display of colorful birds.  You might even be is the national bird of Panamá and you will immediately see why – it is absolutely resplendent!

Deep sea fishing – Out of Boca Chica, off the coast of Panamá, you can find world-class sport fishing.  You can go out for a ½ day or a full day or, I suppose even longer if you have the money.  To charter the boat for a full day runs about $1,370 or so, but they are immensely knowledgeable and helpful, will do all the filleting for you on the way back to shore, and they will guarantee you a royal sunburn if you forget to bring your sunscreen.  Lol

Boquete and Volcan’s expat markets – These are wildly popular with our visitors.  The one in Volcan is on Friday mornings, the one in Boquete is on Tuesday mornings.  The one in Boquete dwarfs Volcan’s in size and really is the one to take in.  Expats and natives alike market a mind-bending array of foods from all over the world, along with beautiful and colorful handmade artisanal products.  You can talk with people from almost any country, from almost any religious background, in the world.  They are all here in Panamá.  The market is the big social event of the week for many of these people and it is so cool to listen to the music and watch the fun.  3 hours, unless combined with the aforementioned ziplining, in which case it turns into an overnight 2-day thing.

Arte Cruz – A visit to Panamá wouldn’t be complete without a stop at José Cruz’s art studio.  He is a world famous woodworker and has acclaimed creations in homes and museums all over the planet.  He’s the most down-to-earth fellow you’ll ever meet and I have yet to EVER see him without a smile on his face!  He can knock you out a custom nameplate with a chisel and mallet faster than you can write your name!  He is a one-of-a-kind and you HAVE to make this gentleman’s acquaintance.  One hour.

Our school – If you’d like, we’d be proud to show you the little school in Cuesta de Piedra that we’ve been helping with.  It is by far the most gratifying thing that Syl and I do.  We would LOVE for you to meet the kids!  They are the most genuine, natural, respectful, polite, and real kids that you could ever hope to meet.  They will absolutely melt your heart!

La Concepción swimming pool – If swimming is your thing, there is an amazing complex of pools down  here.  Funded and built by the owner of El Mirador, many schools take their classes here so that they can learn to swim.  This is an incredibly valuable community resource!  It is easy to get there before the kids come, though, and we’ll have the whole place to ourselves. 2-3 hours.

Mangrove swamps – If you’d be interested, we can go down to Pedregal (about 1.5 hours away) and charter a panga-type boat to take us through some of the most biodiverse environment that you’ll ever see – the mangrove swamps!  Brimming with colorful flowers, bustling with monkeys, sloths, snakes, etc, and birds of every hue and color flitting and flying overhead.  The captain (or his mate) will serve as our guides, pointing out things that we would probably not be able to spot on our own.  It is fascinating to learn how valuable the mangroves are to the earth’s ecology.  4-6 hours.

Waterfall on way to Boca Chica – I’ve only seen this one from afar, but evidently we can secure permission from the landowner to drive up pretty close and then walk the rest of the way up.  Opportunities for photo ops are reputed to be out of this world.  3 hours?
 
Gavilla Beach – Picture in your mind what a secluded tropical beach looks like.  Swaying palm trees, white sand, waves gently lapping the beach, gorgeous water, nobody around, and you have Gavilla Beach.  It is privately-owned, a little difficult to get to unless you have a 4-WD, and a little bit hard to find unless you know where it is, but I do!  We can take a picnic lunch or, if we call ahead, the owner will go out into the bay, catch our fresh lunch of fish or lobster, and his wife will then prepare it for us.  His children will bring it out to us as we’re lounging under the palm-thatched shades in our hammocks.  This activity is best done during the week (less chance of people being around).  All day.

Race horse ranch tour – There is a stunning ranch up by Cerro Punta owned by a family known as the Panamanian Rockefellers.  They have fancy race horses that they race at the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, the Preakness, and such.  I mean, we’re talking about horses that are worth more than you and I put together!  Lol.  Anyway, they will take us on a tour of the operation if you’d like.  Don’t exactly know how long it would take, but I estimate 1½ hours.

Mt. Totumas Cloud Forest Resort – This beautiful property borders the La Amistad National Park and the range of biodiversity up there will take your breath away.  Don’t go out at night, though, as that biodiversity includes jaguars, pumas, and leopards out searching for something to eat!  Check out their hummingbird sanctuary where you can don a specially designed hat that has feeders built into it so that the hummers come up within inches of your face to feed.  There are different trails (of varying ranges of difficulty) and the resort can supply a very knowledgeable guide to go with you if you’d like.  We found the guide was able to show us birds and things that we would have no way seen if left to our own devices.  Well worth the expense, IMO.  This is an all-dayer.

Los Pozos Hotsprings – I only recently discovered this delightful mineral hotsprings, but a stop there can easily be combined with a visit to Mt. Totumas Cloud Forest Resort.  It’s just a hop, skip, and a jump from there.  It’s not big and it’s best to go during the week (chance of fewer people), but it is so-o-o relaxing to immerse yourself in those warm, soothing mineral waters!  1-1½ hours.

Panel painting – This activity is limited to family only, I’m afraid.  All family that come to visit us are asked to pick out one panel on the outside wall of our studio/workshop and paint it.  We don’t care what they paint, it can be anything that tickles their fancy, but we want them to leave a little piece of themselves behind when they go home so that we can remember the visit.

Other art/painting/woodworking – If you are an artist, a wannabe artist, or have never even picked up a brush, we can supply you with easels, paper, paints, and brushes to dabble with.  Out on the studio’s veranda, down in the garden, out on the promontory, set up wherever you like and start creating!  Art is a wonderfully relaxing way to spend some quality time and you’d be more than welcome to try your hand at it during your visit.  Time depends on interest.

Birdwatching – Believe it or not, birdwatching has become one of our main entertainments.  Simply sitting out on our balcony and watching the ever-changing panoply of colorfully-hued birds is both relaxing and fascinating.  Bird watchers have come from all over the planet to spot from our balcony and have remarked that it is one of the best vantage points in all of Panamá.  They have actually recorded pages and pages of avians that they’ve observed.  Sometimes it’s nice to just relax and do nothing.  We don’t have to all the time be going and doing.  That can be kind of tiring and we don’t want you going home so that you can have a vacation.  Lol 

Bambito Trout Farm – Up by the famous Bambito Hotel, Panamá runs a trout farm raising fish for stocking local rivers and streams.  They are always more than happy to let visitors see how they do it.  And Bambito itself is right across the highway.  This place was commandeered by Manual Noriega when he was in his heyday as a dictator and only his cronies were allowed in.  It is gorgeous and well worth the time it takes to see.

Trampoline Park, David – Okay, this a facility that I’ve seen, but have never personally checked out, but it could be an option if you have kids with energy to burn.  It’s in David, but that’s only 45-50 minutes away.  As you might expect, trampolines wall-to-wall and the kids I’ve observed through the windows appear to be having a whale of a time.

Town square parks – It seems like all the small towns of any size have their parks and the whole community revolves around them socially.  They are THE place to come to for visiting friends, listening to music, enjoying delicious edible wares of the street vendors, and, in short, for just living.  If you are interested in soaking up local culture, there is no better place to do it than the parks.  Simply sitting and people watching is so fun, so pleasant, and so relaxing on a bright sunny morning that we can definitely recommend the pastime.

Picnic/kite flying – If you’re in the mood for a more relaxed and easy going activity, how about let’s pack a nice picnic lunch and go fly kites?  We have the perfect place for it right by our house, just next door actually.  With a spectacular 360° view out on the promontory, no trees to contend with, and an almost perpetual light breeze blowing, the conditions for kite flying couldn’t be better.

Casinos – If you are interested in trying your luck, there are casinos in David, Concepción, Volcan, and Paso Canoa waiting to accommodate you.  We only recommend the ones in David and Paso Canoa, though.  None of these are like casinos that you are used to.  All of them are relatively small, pretty much only offer slot machines, and take a percentage (like 5%) of any winnings you wind up with.  They’re kind of fun, though, you just want a cleaner, well-lit one like they have in David and Paso Canoa.

Depending on the activity of the day and where we are, we will proudly be able to take you to some really outstanding local restaurants:
Dos Rios, Volcan
Las Brezas, Volcan
The Wandering Sloth, Paso Ancho
La Carbonara, Volcan
Slabón, David, 
National Sushi, David    
Black Mountain, Volcan
Los Totumas
Bambito, Paso Ancho
Fikas, Volcan
Rancho de Asado, Paso Canoa

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