Torio (slowest internet connection EVER)
An hour down the hill out of Santa Fe, a stop for gas and $$ in Santiago, and then another hour and a half down the west coast of the Penninsula de Azuero, and we found ourselves at Torio, a small touristy village by the sea. The road out this way isn’t the best, but it is paved all the way. There is rice and cattle out this way, and the trucks that service it beat the road up pretty good. 60 km/hr is a safe enough speed to avoid losing your front end in a chasm like this. There is surfing here, well, not really here but more up the road at Playa Mallena, but it is here.
Our first night was spent at a place that looked nice enough, but with a noisy bar at night (two customers) and no internet, it was too much to pay. The same evening we went hunting around a little better. At first glance there were no other games in town, but there were once you looked.
Now we’re at Cabanas Ludvig, where we have a room with A/C for $30/night. Not big, but quieter, for sure. I’m getting old, y’see. I don’t care to listen to AC/DC over breakfast.
Shade is still an absolute here. It’s hot, I tell you. Hot hot hot. There were other guests that made themselves obvious. This little fella here was almost as long as my hand. Great fun watching Cass freak out about it. 🙂
Cass thinks it’s funny that all the caterpillars here wear jackets. These ones are smaller than what was on Boca Brava, but you sure don’t want to touch them.
Once we had our stuff packed up (can’t change), we went for breakfast, moved a table outside where it was nicer (can change), and while we were drinking our coffee, along came Ludvig (know the difference).
We had met him the day before while poking around in the car here and there, and found ourselves looking at a sign saying “No Passe — Property Privada” (or however it’s spelt in Spanish). We had turned around and were heading back out when he called to us from a bar to say “go ahead”. ??
I stopped, and he came out to say that he owned all that land, swinging his arms from side to side, and that the sign was put up a while ago for something else, and not needed anymore. So, go ahead, drive on up the road, there’s a great little stream up there, but you can’t drive through it in this thing.
Seemed like a land baron to me, so I laughingly told him how good it must be to be king, and thanked him for the info. It was indeed, a very nice stream. Mid-calf deep, and 60 ft wide, it rambled on up into the mountains behind, where there were sure to be swimming holes and such. We didn’t linger much at that point, having not found a room yet.
So anyways, along came Ludvig, seemingly to get a coffee or whatever, so I asked him to join us. It’s always cool to chat with a land baron, though it became clear soon enough that he was a humble enough fella, and had been given the land a while ago some way or other. He was parceling it off here and there, using the money to develop the roads and infrastructure around the place, and keep himself entertained in the meantime. This explained all the road building equipment, crushers, and earth movers I had commented on the day before.
Originally from northern Norway, an interesting guy, to say the least, he ended up offering us a tour of “the project”, which was extensive. The land here is rugged, and extremely hilly, and because of it has great viewpoints all around. Sure!! we said, piled into his truck, and started up some half-developed roads towards the sky, which was just a precursor of what was to come.
The first place he took us was right up near the top of his property, and what a view! You could see Isla Cebaco, and he said on a really clear day, Isla Coiba as well. Do you think we had the camera? Nahhhh, but pictures would have been pointless anyways. The view was 360 degrees of awesome. He said he was asking 350k for that plot, but cash in hand spoke a different story. He pointed at this mountain peak, and that one, while trying to describe his property boundaries, but it soon became clear, it was just a big ole’ playground to him, and actually seemed a labor of love.
Once back in the truck, he leaned over a bit, and asked if we wanted to go off-road a little bit. We both knew better than to refuse a sly little smile like that, so off we went into grass 8 feet tall, looking at the sky one minute, hanging from our seat-belts the next, then to burp out of the jungle upon view after view, as he landed the truck on the various plots he had set out for future development.
We were fording his river back and forth, driving up the river bed, pointing out this and that, showing us his gravel pit, crusher, separators, all made by him. Later on, we passed his para-glider, and looking across a small valley there was his landing strip. He said he used to play with helicopters, but they were too expensive. I guess. Yep, one big playground. A wonderful inventor, risk taker, adventurist, self-made man, I was staring to get a man-crush, and all before 10 AM. How do you top that?
Well, you don’t, and don’t even try, that’s how.
The rest of the day was spent doing nothing much fun at all. We went to the beach. We played in the waves. We tanned. Meh. It was OK. LOL
Today, maybe we’ll head up the road towards the other surfing beach and see what that’s like. Another thought is to wander up that river in search of a spot to hang our hammocks.
The challenge to get through the New Year is still haunting us. We were told yesterday evening that our room is potentially booked for the 31st. He should know later today whether we have to move or not, so not knowing is on deck this morning. No matter, whatever happens, it’s only a few nights at best, then they all go home, and it becomes easy again to move around.