Things we do in El Valle

     Last Friday we finally got to go surfing.  We went to a beack Called Playa Tetas.  Going to the beach here is unlike California.  All the beaches are at the end of the road...and sometimes the road looks more like a creek bed than any road you have ever traveled.  Tetas is a good break and we spent an hour in 80 degree water and only had to share the break with two other people.  All in all we couldn't have asked for a better first day in the water. 
     Four or five days a week I try to get 45 to 60 minutes in on a bicycle.  I got one from the local general store...paid about $100...and try to do a big cloverleaf around town that is a mix of flat and gentle sloping asphalt.  My friend "N" rides with me, and is patient about riding slowly so I can keep up.  He's been riding for 35 years and usually rides 100 to 120 miles a week.  Twice a week he climbs out of the valley and rides to the Pan American highway and back...a distance of about 30 miles round trip.  He's a good climber and rides at a totally different level than I do.

Here he is, beginning a climb on his $9,000 bike with the shoes and pants and jersey and helmet...

And here I am, on my $90.00 bike in sweatpants and shower shoes, doing my best to keep up.

Yesterday we went on a hike up one of the local peaks.  It's called the "India Dormida".
The legend is that it's a buried Indian princess, who killed herself when her father disapproved of her choice of a boyfriend.  The mountain takes on the form of her supine profile, with her nose at the highest point.  It is considered the easiest climb in the valley, but you couldn't prove that by me.


                        Here I am at the top of the climb.

         And here's the view of the valley...the reward for all the effort.

     Sunday is buffet day at Ty's Sports Bar...all you can eat for $7.95...and many of the local gringos get together for lunch.  It's nothing formal.  Just whoever is in town and we swap gossip and lies about ourselves for a couple of hours.

     This is Ty's Sports Bar. All you can eat...until it's all gone!  So that's just a few of the things we do here in the valley...that is when we're not sunning ourselves or watching the rain.   Annother day in paradise with Mike and Sandy's Excellent Adventures in Panama.