On Sunday Eric decided he wanted to go for a drive. Not really something we ever did in Raleigh, but we’ve been so happy to have our little Yaris after 8 weeks or so of walking and metroing and taxi-ing that it’s been nice to get out a little further. He let me choose the destination, so I picked Ancon Hill (Cerro Ancon), which is the hill with the Panamanian flag on it that we can see from our living room window when we look towards the Canal.
The view of Ancon Hill from our window (on the left) – you can kinda see the flag at the top to the left of the radio/cell towers.
The hill is 654 feet tall and overlooks the city. It was under US jurisdiction until 1997 as part of the Canal Zone. They say it’s not uncommon to see sloths, white-nosed coati (photo below), armadillos, tamarins (squirrel-sized monkey things), and deer on the hill. I wanted to see a sloth. We didn’t see anything. They say orchids also grow on the hill, but it must not be the right season for that.
Anyway, my plan had been to drive as far as we were allowed up the hill because the path up is actually just a road. However, we were stopped by a guard and told that it was too late in the day to drive up because it was dangerous for the folks who had walked to have cars flying around corners at twilight. Understandable. He told us it was a 15 minute walk to the top, which I doubted when I looked up at how far we had to go. I wasn’t dressed for a hike – I was wearing a skirt, but hey, this was one of the dates I had planned in the book of dates that I made for Eric for Christmas, so why not, right?
After maybe 20 minutes at a brisk pace, we made it to the top – sorta – where we then proceeded to climb a ton of stairs to reach the real top…and from there there was a big hill up to see the Panamanian flag and another view. Lots of levels. Anyway, we had perfect timing. We arrived just as the sun was setting.
We asked two police officers to take our picture with Casco Viejo in the background and didn’t realize until later that in the two photos we held opposite poses. It made me giggle.
As we descended after taking all of the necessary photos, we heard an animal scurrying around through the trees. The 8 year old little boy who was walking near us told me that it was probably a coati (or gato solo or…this thing has a million different names). They look like this:
Pretty big for a rodent, huh?
I wish we had seen it, but nope. No luck. We got to the bottom happy with our little outing, our unexpected little adventure. Eric then made a great dinner using a new vegetable (to us) called a ñame.
You say potato, I say ñame.
It really is like a softer, mushier potato, kinda. Maybe less starchy? I’m not sure. But when you peel it, there’s a kinda peachy-colored…um…skin maybe(?) underneath that is really pretty slimy. You don’t have to take that part off I don’t think, but I did. Then you get this really white color underneath that. But if you let it sit for much time, it’ll turn peachy-brown, kinda like how apples turn brown if you let them sit after you peel or cut them. Very interesting. Eric boiled the pieces in chicken stock. It was pretty good! We ate it with hamburgers. Yum.
The next day, so yesterday…last night I guess, we tried chayote for the first time. It looks like a wrinkled green pepper on the outside:
But on the inside it’s solid, more like an avocado without a seed, but full of water. Not juicy though. Hard to explain. Anyway, I cooked one of these with an onion and some fresh oregano that our Spanish teacher, Marianela, brought us yesterday, plus a little salt and pepper. It really doesn’t have much taste on its own, but it picks up the taste of the foods around it. Here’s what it looked like:
Chayote, onions, oregano
Chayote, onions, and steak
I’ve seen recipes for stuffed chayote, kinda like a stuffed pepper, with cheese, and also they often cut it into little cubes and mix it with hamburger meat and onions. I can see that being pretty good. My nutritionist (a series of visits mandated by my GI doc) has given me all kinds of do’s and don’ts, so we’re experimenting with new foods while trying to accommodate my new diet. It’s interesting. We’re learning a lot.
And while I’m on the topic of food, remember that typical Panamanian place where we kept going when Katie was here that was near our old apartment? The one where the owner, Neli, was trying to set up the young Canadian guy with her daughter? Well I finally took a picture of our dinner from there. We still walk up there from time to time because it’s so good.
Oh! So the managers of our building have hired people to paint the edges of our balconies, so we’ve had ropes hanging down the sides of the building for about two weeks now. Since the place is all glass, you never know when you might have a guy hanging outside your window looking in and painting. It’s pretty strange. Plus, I can’t imagine doing that job! I get dizzy just standing on our balcony sometimes. Check this out:
No way would I do that. I don’t think those ropes look very thick or strong, and it looks like he’s sitting on a scrap piece of plywood. No thanks.
Today we had a new maid start working. Her name is Miriam and she’s from Perú, but she worked in Italy for a while, so she speaks fluent Italian too. She’s really nice and much less intimidating than Marta. We’ll see how it goes. I’m listening to my relaxing yoga type music and trying to be at ease with someone being in my house. I need to be calm enough to get enough food and water in me to go to my second capoeira practice tonight. And THEN…
WE’RE PICKING ADDIE UP FROM THE AIRPORT TONIGHT! Please say a prayer for safe travel for her! She should get in at 9:10 pm. Our friend Jorge, the cab driver we met here last year, is taking us. He has a friend at the airport who is going to help us with getting the paperwork done, so hopefully we can get her home safely tonight. I’ll keep you updated.
