Up
On The Continental Divide And Down In The Desert
Hiking And Discovering Panama's Beauty ~
By Matthew Atlee
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We
decided that we wanted to hike some sections of the Continental Divide
in Panama. It had been a long time since I had hiked in the countryside.
Hiking in the Panamanian countryside is great fun because you are always
finding places that are relatively unknown to outsiders. We decided that
the one of the best places to start hiking the Divide was around Altos
del Maria. It was a good day to begin the trip as the air was cool
and there was a light rain and the clouds hung low over the cloud forest.
Our good friend Pedro Sarasqueta drove us up the mountain road to Altos
del Maria and took us up to where the trail across the Divide begins. The
trail begins on the valley floor and then slowly rises up to the cloud
forest and then quickly descends back down into the verdant valley of El
Valle. Before starting the hike Pedro showed us some of the places where
people had built small picturesque homes on the valley floor of Altos del
Maria. One property he showed me still sticks in my mind; it had a number
of large shade trees underneath which grew a handful coffee plants. Coffee,
the cool tropical plant with red berries and dark green leaves: the only
plant to challenge tobacco in its effect on the human spirit. The property
was placed near a small stream which looked like a nice place to hike or
take a swim. Other properties were set next to meadows with wildflowers
and tree-eating trees, small streams and waterfalls. The housing project
was nice because the houses were small and did not crowd out the beauty
of the valley.
After a short
tour around the valley floor we headed upwards on to the trail. As we climbed
through the mountains on the trail, the green of the valley floor changed
to grasslands and then to cloud forest. The changes in air temperatures,
vegetation and views reminded me of something I read about Uganda in Winston
Churchill’s travel book, My African Journey, 'paradise upon earth
. . . a tropical garden . . . a fairy-tale: you climb up a railway instead
of a beanstalk, and at the top is a wonderful new world.' Only here it
wasn’t a railroad but your feet and the walk up was invigorating and the
clean moist air made you hungry for lots of things. When we reached the
top the cloud forest was in clouds and our visibility was rather low, but
I took some time and walked into the forest just to get a feel of what
it felt like to be in enveloped by the large trees in the cloud forest.
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| One of
the many waterfalls that run along the valley floor of Altos del Maria. |
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.I’ve
walked in jungle and when you enter the jungle a strange shift in perception
almost immediately overcomes you: the horizon disappears and so you loose
that visual certainty of a static background in the distance. In a jungle,
foreground, middleground and background appear as one and the world of
the jungle is like a jack-in-the-box where anything might jump out at you.
The same was more or less true in this cloud forest, but the fear that
you feel in the jungle is more intense than the cool stillness of a cloud
forest.
It started
to rain about 50 minutes after we started hiking and we were wet. We walked
on and after a while we came to the top of the mountain that separated
the Continental Divide. There were too many clouds to see either the Pacific
or Atlantic Oceans. When we reached the highest point of our hike and as
the rain poured down on us, I thought about something a development specialist
had said to me about the watershed of the Panama Canal – the watershed
stretches far into the interior of Panama – it stretches almost to Altos
del Maria – and is the source of the enormous amount of water the Canal
needs to operate daily – the Canal uses the same daily amount of water
as New York City.
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| The high
mountain lake in La Yeguada. The water in the lake is usually much higher
than the above photo shows, though the above photo only shows a fraction
of the lake's true size. |
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The
development specialist (there are not many of these kinds of “specialists”
floating around Latin America anymore) said that any water that ran off
the Divide and went in the direction of the Pacific Ocean was considered
not part of the watershed; any water that ran down the Divide towards the
Atlantic or Lake Gatun, was part of the watershed. In order for me to visualize
how the Canal received its water from the watershed, he told me to visualize
it in this way: a raindrop falls and splits in half, one half runs in the
direction of the Atlantic and the other towards the Pacific, that is half
a drop of water to the watershed. Liked that visual: raindrops splitting
and each half going in the direction of either the Pacific or Atlantic
oceans.
We stopped
for a second and walked on; we made our way over the mountain, through
some more cloud forest and then suddenly the rain stopped – though the
dark clouds continued to circle above. In the distance and through
the forest we could see the town El
Valle. By this time we were hungry and after an hour of walking we
reached the town of El Valle and went to a small restaurant to have something
to eat. There is a small pizzeria in El Valle that is very good. El Valle
also has a small zoo, nice waterfalls, some hot springs, a canopy tour
and a local market. There are some nice inns to stay at if you want to
spend the weekend. The walk and fresh air were great and we slept well
that night.
La Yeguada
Well I wanted
to take another hike on the Continental Divide and so we decided to hike
across from Cope National
Park to the mountain town of La Yeguada. This is a hike that takes
you through mostly pine forest, a pine forest that is part of a pine plantation
that was set up by the Panamanian government in the 1970s. The rain was
falling again so the walk was difficult. If you are interested in making
a walk along the Divide then try to do it between January and April. May
is a little late and when the rain mixes with the red earth, the going
can be either very sticky or very slippery. The pleasure of hiking from
Cope to La Yeguada is seeing Lake Yeguada in the distance. The lake is
set high up in the mountains and is very isolated. There is a bad road
that reaches the lake but you need a 4X4 in order to climb it. The lake
is very quiet and you can hear the wind whipping through the pine trees.
There is a small community next to the lake and sometimes you will see
a fishing boat or two out on the water. I used to visit friends who lived
in the communities around the lake and the interesting thing about the
lake is that it changes from season to season. It looks very different
from one season to the next. The dry months are the best as the sun is
hot and the winds high; during the rainy season the lake appears to be
an almost pearl gray color and sometimes when you look at the lake it appears
as if the sky is reflecting on the lake or the lake is reflecting on the
sky; both seem to have the same color. |
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If you want
to see the lake go around February or March. Start your trip in Santiago
de Veraguas, from Santiago travel to Calobre, and then ask where the road
to La Yeguada begins – this is where the road becomes bad. The town near
the lake has electricity and they’re a few shops with the bare necessities.
The lake in the summer would be a good place to set up a tent and camp.
You can walk from the lake to the high mountain town of Chitra or you could
walk to the coffee and orange producing town of Santa Fe. From Santa Fe
you could walk over the Continental Divide and down the other side, through
the jungles of Veraguas and out on to the isolated beaches of Calovebra’.
There you might have to wait a day or two for the supply boats to take
you to Colon. You can sleep on the beach, but terrible mosquitoes.
For that kind of trip be careful, because if you get lost all could end
badly; there are plenty of snakes and wild cats on the Atlantic side of
Veraguas and people have been known to disappear; again, if you think you
want to try, go between January and March.
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Desert
Panama has
a tiny desert located in the province of Herrera. The desert of Sarigua
is very small and is located near the ocean, a visit to the desert is worth
it. The desert formed because of deforestation in the region: slash and
burn agriculture is very prevalent in Panama. The day we went to the desert
there were few people and you could walk to where the desert begins and
just look out and feel how lonely this area has become. There is a small
look out tower which you can climb and see the desert in the distance.
The desert is a National Park because of the indigenous people that once
lived there. There are a number of archeological digs going on in the desert
and important remnants of the earlier civilization that lived here have
been found. You can see shell mounds and pottery shards that have been
uncovered by researchers. The Smithsonian has been digging in the area
looking for artifacts. One of the mysteries of Panama that archeologists
have tried to uncover is where the indigenous communities smelted gold.
You can find pre-Colombian artifacts all along the river valleys of Veraguas
Province, but it has never been determined where the gold that was used
to make these artifacts was actually smelted. Gold fever is still strong
among the people of the interior. I remember a farmer that I worked with
in the interior who spent two months digging large holes on his property
hoping to find gold. He told me there was gold all around and he was going
to find it.
The rain was
coming down strong again, as we left the desert and started our trip back
to Panama City. We were tired and hungry and I almost fell asleep at the
wheel, but I saved myself at the last second. |
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Sariqua
on Sunday morning, say, 7:30.
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