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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Clown Plant

I suspect you have never ever seen a plant like this before. These funny little gourds feel like rubber and when you pull them off the tree they will last on your table for a very long time. No water required.
What great flowers!

They are definitely conversation starters, as no one knows what they are or where you can find them. Even in Panama they are pretty unique.

El Valle de Anton is an incredible garden area and almost anything will grow here. How about this one. These strange plants, beautiful orchids all sorts of bonzais and many more weird and wonderful plants can be found at the Golden Frog nn. This is one of the premier B and B’s in Panama and run by my friends Becky and Larry Thormahalen. Be sure to stop in and say Hi and ask to see these strange plants.

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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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Panama Plants and Flowers

The garden of the Golden Frog Inn, a wonderful bed and breakfast in El Valle de Anton is always one of the best places to find beautiful plants and flowers. This truly is the rain forest at work but this is not the natural rain forest.

Gardeners tend these flowers daily and these plants and flowers have been lovingly chosen to allow the avid gardener to find virtually any plant that grows in Panama, here in this garden.

This garden is 2. 5 acres of some of the most amazing plants that grow naturally in the rain forest. They get lots of rain as they sit in this old Volcanic crater where the rain clouds are captured and help d by the volcanic sides far above. They get lots of sun, this is Panama, and the soil is broken down volcanic ash, full of minerals.

Plants galore, are here for your enjoyment. Come and visit soon.

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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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