We were absolutely blown away by the 2 weeks we spent in Guatemala, at Lake Atitlan and in Antigua, and were devastated to be leaving after such a short time. However, we had big plans to meet up with Sazzie’s sister Nicola, and her boyfriend Chad in Panama! Their brother Adam would be joining us shortly after, so we were excited to have some nice family time.
After spending the night in an airport hotel in Guatemala City, we boarded our 5 am first flight to San Salvador City. The flight was less than 30 minutes, and we had a long 6+ hour layover in the airport. We killed time at the airport lounge, and picked up sandwiches at the airport Subway. They turned out to be the most delicious Subway’s we had ever eaten. The meat was such high quality, the bread was perfectly toasted, and the whole thing was just supreme!
We boarded our second flight to Panama City. After we settled into our seats, I drifted off into a nap. I was peacefully sleeping when a flight attendant walked by and woke me up. I was extremely annoyed… only to realise that she had MY PASSPORT! It must’ve fallen out of my pocket as we were boarding the plane, and a passenger had picked it up and turned it in. THANK GOD. My feelings of annoyance were immediately replaced by feelings of gratitude. It was a good reminder not to get too comfortable and complacent, after almost a year of travelling!
We landed in Panama City and were immediately assaulted with the heat and humidity in the air. After over a month spent in the mountains, it was a bit of an adjustment to get used to the heat again. We walked about 15 minutes in the blistering heat (across a highway) to our airport hotel. Nicola & Chad wouldn’t be arriving until the next day, so we decided to just stay close to the airport. We had a nice shower, ordered some Uber eats, and tucked in for the night.
The next day, we headed back to the airport to wait for Nic & Chad to arrive. They arrived just shortly after their scheduled arrival time, and we had a happy reunion! An awful cold front had just hit Vancouver Island, so they were stoked to be in the warm, tropical sun. We hopped on the airport metro to take us to the Panama City bus station. Unbeknownst to us, the airport metro line was just an add on that connected the airport to the main line where we had to change trains, so we accidentally rode the airport metro line all the way back to the airport. We finally figured out the metro system and made it to the bus station after about an hour on the metro and 3 line changes.
We were heading to El Valle de Anton, aka Anton Valley, a beautiful region about 3 hours outside of Panama City. The bus station was huge and sprawling, but a helpful guard pointed us to the ticket booth and we snagged our $4 USD per person tickets to El Valle. Bus might be a generous term to describe it… it was more a sprinter van with added seats for maximum capacity. The 4 of us crammed into a row and settled in for the drive. We hit rush hour traffic exiting the city, so it took longer than expected. Saz & I threw on the American Nightmare documentary on Netflix, and were so engrossed with all the twists and turns that next thing we knew, it was dark and we were arriving in El Valle.
The Airbnb we had booked was a little cabin right off the main strip of the town, but with an absolutely gorgeous yard with plants, birds, and hammocks. It felt like we were completely removed from the town, despite being a literal 1 minute walk to the main drag. We grabbed some pizza from a local spot for dinner and settled in for the night.
The next morning, we had brunch at a restaurant called Heaven’s Cafe, and set out to explore the town. We were in a basin surrounded on all sides by beautiful mountains, and the weather was warm but comfortable. Everything was so lush and absolutely teeming with tropical birds and butterflies. Chad impressed us with his extensive bird knowledge, pointing out different species sometimes just from their bird call.
We decided to do a sunset hike, and set off around 3 pm to summit in time. The road to the trailhead was under construction, so we trespassed across the construction zone and over a little river to reach the other side. The hike was pretty steep at points, but not too difficult. We had vastly overestimated how long the hike would take, and were at the top in about an hour. We realised we had over 2 hours to kill before sunset. The end of the hike was on top of a ridge that was completely unprotected from the elements, and was so windy that we felt like we would be blown off while we waited, so we found a little protected nook on the trail with a big rock blocking the wind to post up. We had brought some drinks and snacks, so we just chatted and chilled at the top of the mountain waiting for sunset.
As the sun started to go down, we braved the extremely windy ridge to make it to the sunset spot. The sunset was absolutely stunning and our ridge had panoramic views of the entire valley, which we had entirely to ourselves. It was magical!
We enjoyed the sunset but started heading back before it got completely dark.
As we were heading down, Chad suddenly said “am I having a stroke?? What are those blinking lights?!” It was FIREFLIES! The forest was lit up with them! Chad, Nicola, and Saz had all never seen fireflies before in their lives, so it was a super exciting experience. We made it back to the main road and tried to trespass across the construction zone/river again, but this time Sazzie stumbled and stepped completely into the river.
Wet and muddy, we continued the walk into town to try to find some dinner. The road was suspiciously dark, and nothing was open. We soon realised that the power had gone out in town, so a lot of restaurants weren’t serving food. We were starving after our hike, and luckily came across a street food stand that was run on propane making burgers and grilled chicken. They saved the day.
The next morning was my birthday! We decided to take the chicken bus down the mountain and spend the day at the beach. Chad and I hit up the grocery store to stock up on drinks, sandwich stuff, and snacks. Chad made a delicious breakfast feast with pancakes, eggs, and ham, and then we got ready to catch the bus. It took about 45 minutes to drive down the mountain, and was another 20 minute walk from the bus stop to the beach.
It was significantly hotter down at sea level, so we were melting by the time we arrived. The beach was super odd – half white sand and half black sand, and it was absolutely scorching. We couldn’t even walk down to the beach barefoot without burning our feet, we had to wear our shoes down to the water.
We set up under the shade, and jumped into the water to cool off. It was perfect. We spent the whole day relaxing at the beach, swimming, drinking, playing games, and reading. Chad even went for a snorkel.
We headed back around 4 pm. Chad and I made some cocktails, put on some music, and cooked up some chicken and potatoes for a birthday feast. After dinner, we made some popcorn and put on Holes, an absolute classic. THIS IS 29!
The next morning was our last full day in El Valle before meeting up with Adam back in Panama City, so we decided to check out a local waterfall called Chorro La Poma. Instructions online of how to get there were vague at best, so we hopped on the chicken and hoped for the best. We were pointed in the right direction by some locals, which included walking through a farm and finding the hidden entrance to the trail under the tree line.
The waterfall was beautiful and completely empty, so we had the place to ourselves. The water was quite cold, but it was very refreshing to cool off in the hot sun. We spent the day enjoying being in nature and swimming in the waterfall.
That evening, we got pizza for dinner and went to bed early because we were planning on doing a sunrise hike the next morning. Except… when the alarm went off at 4 am we both immediately agreed that we weren’t in the mood to hike and went back to sleep. We instead had a nice sleep in and enjoyed the morning drinking our tea, watching the hummingbirds fly by, and laying in the hammock.
El Valle had a butterfly sanctuary we wanted to check out before leaving back to Panama City, so we walked over and paid the entrance fee. There was an insane amount of colourful butterflies! We learned about how the caterpillars make the cocoons, what type of food butterflies eat, and a bunch of other random fun facts. One of the butterflies even hitched a ride on my shorts for at least 20 minutes as I walked around the sanctuary. They were so cute!
After an adventure filled few days in nature in El Valle, we grabbed our bags and hopped on a chicken bus back to Panama City. Adam texted us that his first flight had been delayed and thus he had missed his 2nd connection, so he wouldn’t be arriving until in the evening. We made it to our Airbnb in the early evening, and settled in, waiting for him to arrive for our time in Panama City.
