travel

Using San Carlos as a home base, I took the Panama-El Valle bus over the winding road through the hills at the edge of this country's dry arc, noticing many a new home or a residence under construction on the way. In El Valle itself --- a town set in an ancient volcano crater --- there is not much room left for major residential developments, although there are some vacant lots and a few spots where older buildings might be replaced. On the hills and in valleys along the road between Las Uvas and the town, however, the scubland well endowed with black rocks thrown up from an eruption more than 10,000 years ago is slowly giving way to the developers.

As you climb toward the edge of the crater, there is ever more mist upon the hills and the hue changes from shades of brown and yellow to an infinite variety of greens, speckled with as many different colors as there are flowers in season.

This foray took place on a mostly overcast Wednesday morning, when the relatively few market vendors had fruits and vegetables to sustain a weekday shopper, but nothing like the variety to be had on a Sunday. Nor were there big crowds of tourists on this day.

I got off the bus near the elementary school, where I noticed a boy and a girl quietly tilling the soil in the garden to the side of the building where they study. This didactic garden will both teach them agricultural techniques and provide ingredients for their school lunches. As soon as I took out my camera a gang of little boys came running, stripped the two little farmers of their tools and insisted on posing for a photo. I don't apologize for my failure to reward this creepy behavior by putting their picture in the paper. I do, however, want to mention this part of rural education in Panama, which becomes an important factor for those seeking to hire workers in the city as well. Panama's public schools are mostly awful, but some kids manage to excel anyway. If the time comes when you must choose between hiring the young man or woman from a humble family from the capital or his or her counterpart from the Interior, understand that the one who grew up in a place like El Valle is more likely to understand and embrace the concept of hard work than the one from the city.

I then hiked further into the town, checking out what's new, what's the same and what's in bloom, until turning off on the dirt road toward El Nispero, a combination commercial nursery, zoo, aviary, experimental orchid propagation project, park and place to buy extraordinary barnyard fowl. If you are building or buying one of the homes along the road into town, you will probably want to visit this place in search of flowers, trees and shrubs to landscape your new abode.

El Nispero is a good place for a nursery because El Valle has rich and fertile volcanic soil. There has been no volcano since the explosion that created this valley 10 millennia ago, but there's still enough magma close to the surface to give this town warm springs. I didn't do it on this visit, but for a modest fee one can bathe in warm mineral water and do the mud plaster at one of the springs in town. This will not cure all that ails ye, but it is very soothing, particularly for those of us with sensitive skin.