La Casa Vieja Steak House

I promised pictures of this wonderful steak house but no picture can show you how great the steak was.

This building has been remodeled but it was the original first “painted” house in this village. Everyone else had homes made of straw. So people used to say, “voy a la casa pintada” “I’m going to the painted house” and eventually this got shortened to “La Pintada” the name of the town today

Just to give this little steak house some context here is the Central Park in La Pintada.

Keep in mind this little town is miles from the ocean and very much in the interior of the country. Certainly it is an unspoiled jewel. There are expats, Ted Apodaca, the restaurant’s owner hails from New Mexico but this is a town that is still populated by the same people who have lived here for years. Move in here and you will have a Panamanian as your neighbor, not someone from another country.

But even here it is being found by the expats looking for a peaceful retirement or maybe someone looking to enhance their income. The bed and breakfast, Nature’s Inn just down the road is run by Canadians. So you won’t be the first expat here if you decide this looks like your new home.

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Surprising Panama

Imagine my surprise when I went to try and find the source of “made in Panama” Hats and instead found a restaurant serving imported Angus beef, probably the best beef you can get on this planet, and a gold mine.

Check with any Panama guode book and they’ll tell you that La Pintada is famous for the “made in Panama” Panama hats.  Well we didn’t fnd the hats but we certainly found La Casa Vieja Steak House and one of the prettiest little towns I have ever seen.  I have to get the pictures off my camera to do this justice but it was such good steak and so unexpected I just had to let the world know.

Head north out of Penonome on the west side of town.  Before reaching La Pintada you will find the headquarters for Petaquilla Gold Mines.  Continue up the road another 5 minutes and you will be in the heart of La Pintada.  The city center is gorgeous and the Government  buiidngs are gorgeous.  But if you like real good steak than La Casa Vieja will be your destination.  We had such a good time that we ran out of time but we will go back to find those hats.

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New Bed and Breakfast

In the hills above Penonome, capital city of Cocle province, in a little town called Pintada, famous for the “made in Panama” Panama hats, a brand new Bed and Breakfast has sprung into being.  They have a great web site, check it out below.

I love receiving emails like this one.

HI Mary

We have an 8 room B&B with at least one queen sized bed in every private
room, and of course a private bath. We also have a hostel type shared accommodation room with bunk beds.

The private rooms, with private bath, are $50 a night and include breakfast. The shared room
is $15 per person with access to the kitchen. Our website is www.NaturesInnPanama.com If you, or your friends want to come up and spend some time please feel free to give us a call and come. Phone from North America: 1- 647-476-5253; in Panama call 6539-6118 English or 983-0005 Spanish

We currently have weekly horseback trail rides coordinated with the Royal Decameron Hotel
and everyone has just loved our location and the lunch we arranged at our local Steak House Restaurant.

We are starting a wildlife and rehabilitation sanctuary which people will likely find really interesting!

Kindest Regards,
Jenny and Allen Madore (your hosts)

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Rincon Vallero

Let’s start by talking about “the Interior”. To many, anything outside of Panama City is “the interior”, but on these pages we will talk about the interior as those places lying along the “spine” of Panama. Look at your map and look closely as Panama is a very narrow country, running east and west. Colombia lies to the East and Costa Rica lies to the West. The Atlantic, and in this instance the Caribbean, lies to the north and the Pacific lies to the south. The Panama Canal runs between the north and the south sides of Panama,through Panama at a place where there is little “spine” . The “spine” is the volcanic chain of mountain which extends through all of Central America but they start to become smaller and older in Panama. hence our only active volcanoes, so far as we currently know is Volcan Baru in Chiriqui Province near the border with Costa Rica.

All of the towns and development located on or near the “spine” of Panama are higher in altitude and thus cooler, with more rain. Great for coffee and for people who do not like the humid heat of the coastal regions, it can be wonderful spring-like weather all year long. Plants and flowers in Panama grow abundantly everywhere but in the “interior” areas they are profuse. You find flowers, like impatiens, growing everywhere, in every ditch, growing in everyone’s fields where they are considered pests interfering with crops like coffee and they grow up and around many trees. So if you like springlike weather with temperatures in the mid 70′’s F all the time and a world that is wrapped in flowers, the “interior is for you.

One of the towns in the Interior is El Valle de Anton. It is situated on the “floor” of the second largest extinct volcano in the world. Like so many of the interior towns it is loaded with flowers, you can grow coffee here and produce of any kind seems to flourish. Hence their “market” is wonderful.

When in El Valle de Anton, we often end up at Rincon Vallero for lunch but our friends who live there shared some of their photos of Rincon Vallero at night. I hope you will find this as charming as we did.

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Night Lights

One of the many wonderful “finds” in El Valle de Anton, is Rincon Vallero. A hotel set around a lovely courtyard that includes this restaurant and the carp ponds.

There are also flower gardens and pools for your total enjoyment, but for me the restaurant is always a joy. The food is excellent, which is very important, it is not expensive which is nice and the setting during the day is lovely. A wonderful place for a Sunday lunch lingering over a glass of wine and good conversation. But at night as you can see in the picture above the setting is magical.

So when you need that special place to go and enjoy a special occasion consider Rincon Vallero. Why not come for lunch, enjoy this wonderful valley and all the amazing gardens and come here for a magical dinner. Better yet spend the night. why drive when you don’t have to?

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Eco Lodge on Top of the World

This lovely lodge sits on the “spine of Panama” and below, the vistas are amazing. Walk into the bar and restaurant and you are immediately awe-struck by the views. This is truly a garden paradise. Organic coffee is grown and served here and in the restaurant you can see the coffee plants, many herbs together with beautiful flowers lie spread below you like an exotic carpet. Mixed into this vista are the various rooms, some are located in the lodge and then there are 10 lovely rooms in bungalows, with two rooms to a bungalow, each with separate hot water baths and a patio where you can sit and simply enjoy these views of the lush vegetation beyond the gardens and the green green valleys far below.

You truly are on top of the world. Around the lodge there are many walking trails that take you to waterfalls and across the spine to places far away. You can enjoy walks of various length and difficulty and there are many walking enthusiasts that come here and hire a guide and go off to explore.

The spa itself offers mud baths and herbal oil massages. After a full day of hiking up and down along the various trails your body is going to love one of those massages. Then enjoy dinner and a glass of wine before you drift off to sleep.

Getting here is part of the wonder of this locale. The road is paved and as you drive, your eyes will feast on the green vegetation, the beautiful flowers and trees, the beautiful little streams that you cross, where you often find the locals enjoying a cooling swim and the views from the various look out points you can find on your way up, will completely captivate your senses.

So come to the top of the world, and enjoy the journey.

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