“Santa Fe??? Hee!Hee!Hee! What is there, in Santa Fe?” asked my Panamanian friends from the capital city when I announced my intention to visit the small town of Santa Fe. “There are no tourists” they complain, not a “touristy place”.
If that was the only problem, there is no problem at all I was thinking. I heard there are beautiful mountains and I miss them living in Florida. I am looking forward to green views of majestic peaks, waterfalls, lush vegetation and clean air.
So on a Tuesday morning in July, 2012, I rolled my bag to the “Metrobus”, the modern new addition to the public transportation of Panama City. Just one year earlier the only transportation options within the city were either taking a taxi or taking the colorfully painted but crowded, hot and narrow seated “Diablo Rojo”. The Metrobus has air conditioning and it is way more spacious for the same price of $.25 one way, except that you have to get a “tarjeta” in advance and it will cost you $2.00 before you get to add funds on it. I find that to be a great idea as this way it will always get recharged and not thrown away.
From the main bus terminal at Albrook Mall I took the bus to Santiago. It was a comfortable ride and we even got to watch a movie on the flat screen TV mounted in the front the bus. About three hours later I had to change the bus in Santiago’s main terminal. I was rushed into another bus, much smaller, which was filled to maximum capacity. By that I do not mean “each seat taken” but rather each seat, space on the aisle and stairs. From my lucky spot on a seat I could see people hanging out the door like a cluster of grapes, while the little vehicle was moving away with open doors. At each stop the situation on the aisle would shift and remodel into a different enchilada, with yet more people coming in and different ones hanging out the door. I could not stop thinking of the song we sang just a few weeks ago, in Brazil, the one that stated “we are one”. I was beginning to feel that oneness in this pitiful little bus moving away at normal speed but slowing down and sounding like it will give up on us all at each uphill part of the road. While the bus would sound like an exhausted creature ready to die, my mind was creating passing images of all these people having to unload, and of myself with my rolling bag on the side of the street waiting for the next ride towards Santa Fe. But no, the bus miraculously made it and by the last station in Santa Fe it got much lighter, as first the grapes on the door disappeared, the aisle cleared soon after and by the end there were even vacant seats. What a nice ride!
Once in Santa Fe I parked my bag under the bed in a hostel with one dorm and a few private rooms. The place was beautiful, rustic and with a magnificent garden with lots of plants and colorful flowers. Called La Quia, it is owned by a couple that moved to 
Panama ten years ago. Built of a mixture of stone, brick, wood and bamboo walls, with red roofs and bamboo doors, the two separate buildings constantly exchange inside and outside air as the bamboo parts of the walls have gaps in them. Not bad, as the weather is nice enough all year round and the bamboo walls are strategically located so the rain does not hit them.
Santa Fe is a quiet city apart from its roosters, that can put out quite a concert beginning early morning. You can hear their voices clear, some confident and loud, others strangled and guttural and yet others more timid, the sounds coming from near and far. I wondered if they communicate with each other this way, over the hills and the vegetation of the town. Surrounded by rivers and high mountains, and located at the end of this bus ride, Panama’s Santa Fe has a lot of hiking to offer. A few different waterfalls one could hike to would take between 6 and 8 hours time round trip. The tube ride on the river would be less than 30 minutes to get to and a wet few kilometers long.
I chose to hike to Las Cascadas Del Salto and I enjoyed the gorgeous views of the countryside and river valleys, unobstructed by any clouds. I crossed several streams and picked mangoes from the road, making my way up the mountain with my breath sounding in my ears like a mythological dragon. I was happy not to see or smell any fire or smoke. It meant that my body was still functioning well and it had not overloaded just yet.
Right before the waterfalls I passed through the village of El Salto. 
The people here have embraced organic agriculture for over 15 years and they are proud to show you their farms. One of the farmers, Egberto Soto, showed me the way to the waterfalls and moved away a young tree that had fallen on the road. I took a minute to study the little white beads like flowers, while my guide said something with the Spanish word “pica”, a word I did not understand before I touched the white pretty beads. They stung and I retracted my fingers as fast as I learned a new Spanish word. LOL
While I enjoyed the waterfalls Egberto prepared a meal for me. It was a dish of spinach and eggs with rice and green peas cooked over a wood fire, and a tomato and onion salad. All the ingredients where from his organic farm and while I was enjoying my meal I found out that he is 25 years older than he looks and has ten children from age nine to twenty eight. For his much younger look he credits the good organic food without preservatives.
There are twenty-one waterfalls by El Salto and the two I could get to 
were named El Benado (about 35m high) and La Iguana (about 25m high). I took a swim in the pool at the base of La Iguana and the cold water was a blessing refreshment after the long hike up the mountain. It completely cooled down my overheated system and felt like mint on my skin.
The next day I went river tubing and the ride was the greatest experience I had in Santa Fe. I enjoyed every minute of the two hours it took. Most of the time the few kilometers are done in 90 minutes but it had not rained much here lately so the river was slower. William, the nice guy that rents the tubes, came with us and helped when the tubes would get stuck on rocks, as the water was low. It did not happen a lot but it was nice to have him around as this was my first tube ride ever and the rapids were a treat to me at first. He said there were times, when it rained more, that the whole ride was done in 30 minutes. Instead we floated fast over the rapids but to a snail’s pace over the parts with no rocks. We just sat on the tubes enjoying the sun and the surrounding nature, eyes closed at times, just slowly floating. It was a great experience and I was thinking of some of my relatives in Romania and how much I would love to bring them here and have them experience it all.