El Valle de Anton, Panama

El Valle de Anton

     Traveling down the Pan-American Highway from Panama City, you can turn onto Highway 71 and meander up the little winding mountain road, while carefully avoiding bicyclists and pedestrians, until you get to a little berg called El Valle de Anton. The drive itself is delightful, offering panoramic vistas of distant mountains, often swathed in clouds, like a hazy whipped cream topping.

     El Valle de Anton, or El Valle as it is more commonly referred to, is a quiet, tranquil little town of about 4500 people set in the crater of a long-expired volcano. We stayed at the Anton Valley Hotel. 

The room was clean, modest, and comfortable and the staff was courteous. Across the street was the Catholic church, and wouldn’t you know, the thing that high school Spanish students have been looking for since the beginning of organized education- LA BIBLIOTECA.

Our first night there, we found a little open-air establishment called the Restaurante Santa Librada. It was almost deserted, with one other table just finishing their meal. We sat down and waited. A skinny dog was right outside the dining area, looking hopeful, although you could tell he knew better than to step onto the tile. The lady who was serving appeared and took our order. The fare was simple-a chicken dish with rice and beans-but it was delicious. As we finished our meal and paid, our sweet server collected our scraps and added them to a larger pile, which she took outside the restaurant and gave to the dog. You gotta love somebody that is kind to animals. We came back the next day for breakfast.

There are lots of things to see and do in the town. Their website http://www.el-valle-panama.com/index.html  provides information and links to everything imaginable. We only had time for one attraction, so we opted to go see the “Square Trees”. 

These trees have trunks that have a squared or boxy shape, rather than a cylindrical appearance like other trees. The tour is located adjacent to the Hotel Campestre, and we parked, found a hotel employee who collected a small admission fee and unlocked the gate. The tour is self-guided, with little hand-painted signs that tell you which way to go, and also provide information about some of the trees and plants. We were the only ones there that morning, so it was like having an enchanted tropical forest all to yourself.  The square trees are interspersed with other varieties, and sunlight filters through the bright green canopy, dappling the path. At one point there was a wall of giant bamboo, and flowering plants abound. I highly recommend long pants and athletic shoes for this tour, as there are slippery spots, and huge exposed tree roots with leaf-cutter ants marching across them.

 We came to a narrow suspension bridge, which crossed a clear babbling brook, with little waterfalls tumbling over smooth mossy stones. Another really good reason to be wearing sensible shoes.

We have to go back soon, because we didn’t get to see the orchids, or the frogs, or the butterflies, or the petroglyphs, or the big waterfall……..El Valle is a gem nestled in a cradle of beauty.