Today we arrived into El Valle de Antón (Antón Valley) about 2.5 hours outside of Panama City which is a small town nestled inside an inactive volcano (apparently the only one in the world?).
We decided to come out here for 3 nights to get away from cities for a while and jumped on a bus without a proper confirmation of our accommodation or its location. Once in the small town a helpful dude at the information point gave me some crude directions to out “Hostel” where we had a tentative booking. On the way however we were stopped by a guy who was offering some accommodation. When we explained we had a reservation at another place he insisted he drive us there instead of us walking all the way in the heat.
Still being in “Cuba” mode Viv and I instantly looked at each other suspicious if this was some sort of scam to get us to stay with him, or to pay him an exuberant amount for his taxi services. After a few err’s and arr’s we remembered that we weren’t in Cuba any more and agreed to take up his offer. It turned out he was a friend of the owner and his offer was genuine. He took us on a short detour to point out some walking trails and dropped us off without expecting any sort of compensation except a handshake and a gracias.
The accommodation is loaded with hammocks, run by the nicest dude and filled with plants and animals. The rest of the town is the same from what we have seen so far. Tonnes of friendly locals pottering about, amazing hills all around and hummingbirds and turtles animating about.
Tomorrow we are off to find some hot springs and waterfalls I believe.
