MUNGO EATS Latin America

We ended up staying in the very nice hotel for two nights.  After the 5 course gourmet meal we had the first night, we just could not drag ourselves away.  Delicious food, very nice staff and we pretty much had the hotel to ourselves. 

Probably because we were the only guests there, we got a little extra attention.  The staff kept asking us where Mungo was, was he okay in the room, does he want to come out and run around??  Actually, we noticed that housekeeping did not come into the room after the first night, but did not really think anything of it.  As I stepped out of the room in the afternoon, the receptionist intercepted me and said that they had not cleaned our room because the maid was afraid of Mungo.  I told her that we always put Mungo in his kennel when he is alone in the room, but she said, the maid was still scared.  Poor girl,  we’ve never had our dog scare a person out of the room when he is kennelled!!  Despite how wonderful a place it was, we had to get moving this morning. 

We are in another national park this evening, El Cope’ National Park.    We are not quite as high in this park as we were in the previous national park, but it is still lovely.  There are really nice facilities, but I doubt they get many tourists here.  I think that quite a few visiting academics stay in the facilities.  There is quite a nice (small) visitors centre, a cabin that you can rent and a really nice patio with a great view.  We have decided to set our bug tent up on the covered patio and see how it goes. 

By the way, the warden did not even comment about Mungo, he even saw him moving around off leash, and didn’t say a word.  So much for no dogs in the national parks. 

We went for a nice little hike in the forest today.  I think it is technically still a cloud forest even though we are only 900m up.  I think I am beginning to love cloud forests.  They are so amazing.  There are plants growing on plants, growing on plants.  Most trees are covered with either vines,   or epiphytic plants, or fungi

or moss, or a combination of all of these.  All the different types of leaves in this last picture,  are different plants that have glommed on to one poor tree.  It is just amazing. 

This park is famous for being the home of the golden frog.  I couldn’t find a live one (the story of this trip), so I took a picture of the model in the visitors’ centre. 

By the way, I found this little leaf to take a picture of, that shows you that I still love you all.

Sorry folks, just can´t seem to find any wi’fi.  We are still in Panama, still doing well, we hope to be in the middle of shipping our van in a few weeks.  Apparently Panama has 4 days of holidays coming up starting Nov 1.  We will really try to post soon.

We are in Santiago, Panama tonight.  We actually got into Santiago last night and stayed at one of those “used to be a very nice hotel 20 years ago” hotels.  It was quite disappointing actually.  Today we were going  to go to a town called Santa Fe.  We were told it was a nice little town in the mountains.  When we got there however, we found there was very little to see and do, so we just ended up driving back to Santiago. 

Tonight we are staying in a very nice hotel.  It is just a little way out of town on the shores of a “lake”, which is  really just a large pond, but it is very picturesque.  I think we are the only guests here tonight.   So far, I have counted 8 or 9 staff members, to 4 guests.  It’s funny actually, when we first checked in, they sent out someone to help us with our bags.  We don’t really have “bags”.  We usually just grab a handful of stuff each initially and then later we will go out and take things out of the van and put them in a backpack to carry them into the hotel.  Every time they see us at the van, they run out and ask if they can help us carry something in for us.   It is a very new hotel with very modern architecture.  It is beautiful, actually.  We spent the afternoon in the pool at the ponds edge.  Very, very nice. 

By the way, I don’t think I have mentioned that I have been drawing the flags of every country we visit on our trailer.  Sometimes it takes a few days before I have the time, or it isn’t raining, etc.  When we were driving through Costa Rica, a fellow in a truck started honking and waving to us.  Now we are used to people waving and hollering at us.  They see a strange vehicle drive by with a bunch of gringos in it and they just can’t help themselves.  This fellow however, would not quit.  He kept waving and honking and trying to slow down to match our speed.  Finally, he ended up lined up with us at a stoplight and he reached over and handed me a little Costa Rican flag.  I had not drawn the Costa Rican flag on the trailer yet, and maybe he figured that I needed a little push.

Oh, one more little story.  Yesterday someone asked us if they could buy Mungo from us.  Really!!!  Actually, in the short time we have been in Panama, we have had at least 2 or 3 people recognize his breed and one offer to buy him.  Maybe Panama is the place for a hound. 

I am not sure where we are heading to next.  There is another nice beach that we may go to tomorrow,  and then I think we will likely head into Panama City, where we will have to start arranging for shipping.  That will be stressful.  And  our timing may be a little off, because we think the first 4 days in November are holidays in Panama.   We will wait and see. 

We are on the beach in Panama, at Las Lajas.  We are camped under a bunch of palm trees, on the grass, in the shade.  We are virtually the only people on the beach and the beach stretches on in either direction, as far as you can see.  When we got here yesterday, the place was packed, but it turns out,  it was only the Sunday crowd. 

This morning, the coconut tree pruning fellows came to do a little pruning.  It was really cool to watch.  First, a fellow fastens a cord around his waist, and ties his machete to the rope as well.  The rope is not for safety in anyway, it is only a means to get the rope to the top of the tree.  The tree climbing fellow has spikes fastened to his rubber boots (the footwear of choice in Central America).  So he scrambles up to the top of the tree.

Once he is at the top of the tree, he straddles the leaves of the tree.

He unties the rope from around his waist and fastens it to a branch holding a bunch of coconuts.  He then cuts the branch from the tree, and the bunch of coconuts is slowly lowered  using the rope.  A second fellow waits at the bottom of the tree for the coconuts to be lowered.  He puts the bunch on his shoulders, and then unties to rope from the bunch, so the fellow up in the tree can lower the next bunch. 

The coconuts are brought to a truck nearby, and a third fellow, decides which ones to keep and which ones to leave behind.

When all the coconuts in one tree are cut down, the fellow in the tree lowers himself.

The workers saw us watching them, and offered us a fresh coconut to drink the milk out of.  Happy birthday, Sean!  Have a coconut (it’s a lovely one)!!!

This time, mungoeatsla fans, friends, relatives and followers want to wish Sean (aka. Seanito Bonito Chihuahua) a wonderful Birthday. Thank you for sharing your wonderful experiences with us and for being such a wonderful writer. We love you and miss you a lot.
FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS