El Valle de Antón, Panama
8° 37' N 80° 7' W
Jan 03, 2006 13:00
Distance 0km

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Hiking the India Dormida

Text written in: English

When I arrived the day before the lady of the hotel told me I could either hire a professional guide or a "niño" to take me to the Sleeping Indian Girl. I was curious (and, of course, a cheapo) so I asked to see the boy. He was about 12 years old. He looked very mature and spoke very slowly so I could understand where he would take me. So I asked, of course, being a pragmatic Westerner who sometimes forgets his humble origin as a village boy too, how much it would cost. After three minutes of awkward Spanish conversation, my conclusion was that he didn't have something in mind, but that the previous gringos (he didn't use that word) paid him $15. Wow, $15 for half day's hike! Amazing! The greedy westerner, after having overcome his desire to bargain it down more for the sake of bargaining, decided to take the boy. Besides, a "professional" might, God forbid, speak English!


I might have to add that the previous night I discovered I had no toilet paper or towels in the bathroom! And I didn't know where the Señora was! Good thing I didn't have to "go". That also meant no showers.

In any case, the hike with the boy was memorable, more because of him than because of the scenery at 1000 m above sea level (above Bocas, really). He really reminded me again how life can be tough and how tough the human spirit can be, regardless of age or race. It's strange how the plentifulness of the Western world can sometimes bring out so much weakness and produce so many weaklings.

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Photos / videos of "Hiking the India Dormida":

We saw this dead bird hanging on a tree. The boy was sad and angry to see this, and murmured that there are indeed evil people in the world who kill an innocent bird for the fun of it. A weird spider. These petroglyphs used to be all covered by dirt until some Scottish guy decided to come and spend his money and time uncovering them. He was kind of a weirdo, actually. Map of the village that was in El Valle, I think. The boy explained to me that it is a map that we were looking at This is a snail. One of the high-lights of this trail is these petroglyphs. It isn't clear who made them, but they have a lot of meaning and they are carved by the same type of instrument (based on the uniform width and depth of the lines). A break at the end of the trail. The boy now needs to clean his nice leather shoes before returning to work. He didn't have lunch and said he didn't want any food. But when I realized I couldn't eat the spam I bought, he didn't refuse my offer since the rich gringo was going to discard it. a little flower This is a cloud forest since it doesn't rain so much here as it is covered by the clouds trapped in the mountain clouds + forest = ? leafs more flowers, I wonder if the boy thought I was strange He climbed up some steep hill to tell mee that he found a nest. I climbed up too and saw this tiny nest with humming bird eggs. Down yonder at the bottom is his house. It's vacation now so he is working at the hotel-restaurant where I was staying. He has to track all these mountains every morning and every evening to make his $20/week "salary". $80 a month does help a family with no running water. Other times of the year he has to go to school, which is at the end of the valley from previous picture. cute flowers on the top [image] We are at the top of la India Dormida, which is a ridge. Clouds moved in quickly and surprised us with a light shower, good that I had my poncho. The boy didn't, but he has walked through worse, I guess. This is the shoulder of the Sleeping Indian Girl. That's me, by the way. Notice that I was still wearing the same yellow t-shirt I got from a Walgreens in Miami. That's the boy. He wore a pair of leather shoes. I guess it's for his work in the restaurant. I don't know how you can hike in leather shoes; but I could bearly keep up with him on my fancy hiking shoes. flower I wonder what he could be thinking. I asked him what he wanted to do when he grew up, expecting to hear something about biology since he knew so much about the fauna and flora around him. But he said he wanted to be a priest. The stupid me asked him if he had a girlfriend, or ever. The contemplating future priest That's El Valle in the crater. He spotted a wild orchid, really big. We had to clamber to get to it. So beautiful. The fact that we had to work to see it in the wild and not just buy it from Trader Joe's makes it all the more beautiful. bug leaf peeping flower again The flower above was everywhere. Another shot without the boy. The leafs were dotted with pink spots Then he brought me to his uncle's finca. On the way to and from he showed me all these orange and mandarin trees. Here was a banana tree. He climbed up a mandarin tree to shake down some ripe mandarin oranges. For me. More oranges So this is his uncle's "estate". His uncle was a really friendly guy, but spoke with such an accent in Spanish that I couldn't understand almost anything, but it sounded very peasant like. Do all peasant accents sound the same regardless of language? He also brought a lot of fruits, I wasn't sure until the end of the trip if they were for me or for his family. A bit farther down from his uncle's house was an abandoned house with a garden that some gnome or angel apparently had been taking care of because all the flowers were really nice. flower again I took this picture to remind me what a city pigeon looked light. mmm, roses.... [image] [image] [image] Yellow hibiscus! [image] [image] Do you get a sense that I like flowers? Yes, I am one of those "wussy democrats" that non-wussy Republican dude in Bocas was talking about! [image] Here's an example of a mandarin orange I ate. MMMMMMM Another little hummingbird nest Bamboo! Just like my birth place! Did you know that bamboo contains cyanogens, organic molecules that becomes cyanide when ingested? flower teardrops flowers galore! There were streams nearby. This isn't one of those mysterious petroglyphs, more like the work of some Christian inspired by those petroglyphs. little animal funny furry caterpillar Another caterpillar Here we approach the end The boy doesn't think this was one of those petroglyphs we saw early. [image] That's where we were! Browsing through the market again [image] [image] Poor little tucan in the backyard of my hotel. While having my breakfast I spotted this list of commandments/recommendations on what a woman's duty is to her husband. It's quite interesting!
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