Gorgona on the beach

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  Gorgona, Panama
Sunday, February 24, 2008

Gorgona is a beautiful little fishing village about an hour and a half outside of Panama City.  We have rented a house here. which is right on the beach.  It is a large property with a kidney shaped swimming pool, and a house of approximately 4500 square feet.  The house is 4 bedrooms, 2 stories, with large patios up and down which face the ocean.  This house is as close to the ocean as you can get, and in fact on the couple of ocassions when it rained we could feel the waves of the ocean from the house. 

For those of you who know Panama Gorgona is the next beach to Coronada.  Coronada is probably the most expensive beach here in Panama with decent homes going from 3million US and up.

From our house here in Gorgona we can walk along the beach for about 20 minutes and we come to the local fishing village where we can purchase fresh fish.  There are many types of fish here, corvina, red snapper, and seafoods such as octopus, shrimp etc.  We choose the corvina (St Petersburg) fish, which is the most common here in Panama.  We bring it home and make ceviche or just fry it.  It is delicious.  There is no substituting for fresh fish!

Each day and often 2 or 3 times a day we are enjoying wimming in the private swimming pool.  Between the wonderful fruits, vegetable, fresh fish, and exercise Sid has already lost 20 pounds!  My story-oh well!

We are exploring on day trips while staying here in Gorgona.  We visited the area known as En Valle.  This is a valley  lush and beautiful.  The homes here are quite magnificent.  They are generally quite large and sit on very large pieces of property, a few hectars generally.  The valley has many beautiful birds, butterflies, and flowers.  Birds here are not quite as beautiful as what we saw in Southe Africa last year, but they run a close second.  There are amazing colors, brown birds with yellow breasts are the most common, but there are turquoise birds, magnificent blues etc.  En valle has an area where people go to rub mud on themselves and also hot springs. The mud is black like the Dead Sea and is supposed to help arthritis. villages etc. 

Much of Panama has jungle right beside civilization.  The trees are covered in bromeliads, and many species of orchids are growing everywhere.

We took a trip to an area called Alta de Maria.  This is very clsoe to Gorgona, but across the highway and on the mountain side rather than ocean.  This development was started by a man named Melo.  Melo is a Panamanian success story.  He seems to own the major part of the chicken industry as well as the egg indsutry.  His name is on the wrappers in the supermarket.  He also owns a large chain called Pio Pio where people buy fried chicken.  It seems to be quite popular.  Anyhow Melo also owns a lot of property and one of his developments is Alta de Maria.  It is a lovely spot with good infrastructure in place.  We went to see a house owned by Mr. & Mrs. Cohen.  The Cohens like most of the people in Alta de Maria are Pensionados from North America.  She is from Texas and he is from New York.  Their home is something to behold.  The front is full of local plants and in the centre are 2 koi ponds, with huge koi in them.  They have aviaries with doves, and budgies, and 1 has the most colorful pheasants
we have ever seen.  Red, and blue who ever thought these birds could have such colors!  They also raise turkeys and chickens.  At the back of the property is a pond full of ducks, and alongside of the property runs a river.  There are trails for people to take along the river, but most people take a snake stick as there are lots of snakes here in Panama

The Cohens property is a couple of acres and the landscaping is incredible.  They have carefully planted local plants and have also put in fruit bearing trees.  The house iteself is hacienda style, well-constructed around a lovely swimming pool.  It was all I could do to kepp Sid from purchasing this house on the spot!

Mr. Cohen  has a very interesting history.  His family started the first kosher wine business in upstate New Yrok.  You guessed it- agan David wine!  He worked in it as a youngster, but the family sold the business when he was 18.

Our week in Gorgona has been quiet and peaceful, and we have driven around and seen a lot of the country.  The people are generally poor, but hard working.  They do not have happy faces, but when you speak to them they are friendly and pleasant.  We will now return to Las Olas for a few days.

We have been asked about keep kosher here in Panama.  It is not too hard.  There is a kosher supermarket of a good size with meat, cheese, bread, sabra salads, and local products.  This is in Panama city so to travel you need a cooler.  There is a meat snackbar in this restaurant so you can sit down and have something to eat.  There is a 2nd kosher supermarket opening any day now.  It will be even larger, and have kosher products from New York.  It will have a bigger selection than the 1st supermarket.  It will have both a meat and a dairy restaurant in it, and take-out should be pretty easy.  These supermarkets are regualr size so you can do all your shopping in them and not have to go anywhere else.  They are definitely convenient. 

Until next time,

Sharon

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