Chorrera, Chitre, and Azuero Peninsula

We set off on a three-day excursion south to the Azuero Peninsula, stopping for the view of the Pacific entrance to the Canal.

Bridge of the Americas, spanning the Pacific entrance.

Cooking demonstration at Senora Edita's home in Chorrera.

Central plaza of Chitre.

A gang of gringos prepares to join the Sunday morning festivities at a Chitre cantina.

One of the colorful "Red Devil" buses.

Lunch stop.

Visit to Reinaldo Quiros, a master hat-maker, in La Pintada.

Some of the real Panama hats, not the ones from Ecuador!

Grounds of our home for three nights, the Hotel Cubita in Chitre.

Small museum in the hotel.

Catedral de San Juan Bautista in Chitre.

An interesting portrayal of St. John the Baptist in an ox cart.

Continuation of walking tour of central Chitre.

Atlas Beer signs everywhere!

In Las Tablas, we visit the home of a designer of costumes for the town's famous annual Carnival Taller de Tuna.  JJ models one of his designs.

Lunch stop at Sirena del Mar Restaurant in the town of Le Enea.

Low tide.

Visit to home of an expert embroiderer of pollera, a dress honored as the national costume of Panama.

Then on to Guarare to enjoy a program of traditional music and dance performed by local children.  Their enthusiasm was contagious!

We saw many of the traditional devil masks and costumes during our stay in Azuero.

Back at the Cubita.

A stop for superb bird watching at Cienaga de las Macanas, just a little north of Chitre.

Pottery workshop at La Arena de Chitre.

Visit to a panaderia, or bakery.

Tour of the Hacienda San Isidro and Varela Hermanos sugar cane farm and distillery near Pese, makers of the celebrated Ron Abuelo Rum.

Squeezing the cane - delicious both as cane and juice!

The noisy plant where the cane is ground and pressed.  The juice is then piped over to the blue distilling plant.

Aging warehouse.

Rodolfo explains the solera process for producing fine rums.

Visit to home of Dario Lopez, a master mask-maker, in Parita.  He produces many of the diablicos sucios, or "dirty devil," masks worn during the annual Carnival before Lent.

We ended our stay in Azuero with a stop at Finca la Esperanza, the sugar farm and mill near Anton.

Natalio Murillo demonstrated his entire production process for us.  Here he is heating the cane juice.

Then he and his brother pour the juice into a cooling pan.

As the cane juice cools it begins to harden, first into this delicious caramel.

Next they pour it into these molds where it granulates and hardens into blocks of brown sugar.  Naturally we bought one to bring home.

A real tropical beauty, and the flower is pretty nice too!

Termite mound.

Out in the cane.

Natalio.

A horse turns the mill, then some of us took turns as well.

A cashew apple, with the raw nut still intact.