Impressions of Sea Cliff, Panama

Thursday, 11/25/10 – Sunday, 11/28/10. As I wrap up my month long stay in Sea Cliff, I want to pass on some of my impressions of this little area of Panama.

Sea Cliff is not a town, I doubt you would find it on any map. It is the name given to a beach. There are a lot of these here; Del Mar, Blanca Playa, etc. You turn off the PanAmerican Highway and within ½ a mile, you are on the Pacific Ocean Coast. It is a remote, mostly quiet (except for the occasional dog barking) little community of spread out houses. It reminds me of when I lived out in the country in St. Johns, Michigan. The closest neighbor there was ¼ mile away. The house I am in here is on a little grass covered path with three houses. It is called Calle Los Corrales. The road from the highway is not paved, but made up of hard packed sand and rocks.

It has rained here a lot. I am told that this is very unusual as November is typically dry. I’m not sure I believe them. It doesn’t matter; it has rained a good 60% of the time. I go nowhere but down to the beach without my umbrella. Several times I have started walking down the road toward the highway on a clear and sunny day, only to have a cloud suddenly move in and it start pouring. Most of the time, it rains for maybe ½ hour, and then is overcast the rest of the day. But a couple times, it has rained for days. However, it has been sunny enough for me to do my laundry by hand and hang it out on the line to dry, for which I have much gratitude.

I have loved communing with nature. Here there are beautiful flowers and so many varieties of birds I can’t begin to name them all, a lovely white sand beach, and nice, clean, attractively landscaped houses and friendly people. Even my walk to the beach or to the highway has been an experience in appreciation of nature’s bounty.

The bus rides into Coronado or Bejuco have also been a “trip” - literally. The buses are in good condition and clean. Most of the time, the bus driver was good, but once in a while, I got a crazy one who weaved all over the road and slammed to a stop. There was the occasional one who liked to beep his horn. However, frequently, they liked to blast fast paced Latin music over the speakers.

That’s my next point. Panamanians love noise. Music on the bus and in the streets, TV’s everywhere such as in the grocery stores, restaurants and in the food court at the mall. And loud! It’s like they are all slightly deaf and must have the volume up full blast in order to enjoy it. The only noise I generated was at night when I watched American TV on my computer - that is when the intermittant internet service was working.

As I have mentioned before; I specifically picked this secluded location to stay at so that I could do some inner reflection. It worked. I feel very spiritual and content. Now I’m ready for some action.

I head off for Panama City on Tuesday and then for an overnighter in San Jose, Costa Rica on Wednesday.

As I enter the last stages of my journey, I would like to thank my readership which numbers 100-200 at any given time. I hope my blogs have been interesting to you and that you stick with me as I complete my Latin American journey in Belize.
As much as I am looking forward to Belize, I also am getting excited about spending Christmas at my cousin’s place in the mountains of Los Gatos, California, USA.