El Valle de Anton

About an hour away by bus, is a quaint village El Valle. Cruiser friends of ours told us it was one of their favorite places. It is a lovely place.

We arrived Wednesday around 1pm, and went right to the butterfly exhibit. Where butterflies fly around in an enclosed area.

After the butterfly exhibit we had lunch, and met some very nice expats that have been living in El Valle for 6 years. They gave us a lot of local knowledge. When we finally finished, we realized we didn’t have enough time to do all we wanted to do, so we got a place to stay for the night. We walked around a bit getting the lay of the land for the next day, had dinner, got a bottle of wine and a taxi to our casita for the night.

We started Thursday with a hike that took us past a huge bolder with petroglyphs on it. Then past several waterfalls. Then it was time for a mud mask and mineral spring soak at Pozoz Termales.

There are many frog species that are endangered and cannot survive in the wild due to a deadly fungus. The Panamanian Golden Frog is one if those species. We went to the Golden Frog sanctuary where they are protecting them and educating people about them. It was very special to see theses special dudes and their friends.