Greetings from Guarare!
40 years later, I’m back living near my old Peace Corps site in La Enea de Guarare, Provincia de Los Santos and enjoying the old memories as well as new discoveries in Azuero. Last month was the famous Festival de la Mejorana – bigger and better than ever. I thought you might be interested in checking it out – www.festivalnacionaldelamejorana.com. In fact, if you don’t come back to Panama sooner, plan to come for the fiesta next year in September!
I’ve been here remodeling my house on the beach at El Puerto de Guarare for the past 10 months and am now ready to open up my 4 BR guesthouse on the Pacific oceanfront. It still boggles my mind that I am living in the community where I once lived as a PCV. So far, I’ve had no regrets, have many adopted families in the village and am even surviving the rainy season quite well. And if you haven’t been following the tourism articles – Panama has become quite a popular tourist and retiree haven. Fortunately, Azuero has not become saturated with foreigners – except around Pedasi where Mireya, the former president, did some big promotions and built an airport, put in street signs, fixed the roads, etc.
If you haven’t been back to Panama since your PCV years, or if it’s time to come back again, I want to especially invite you to come back to Azuero and Panama. There’s a marketing group that has a great website: www.azueroturistico.com that will show you how beautiful it is – with many places to see and things to do. I just coordinated and hosted a group of international students studying art and culture of Panama – so we did noches folkloricas, visited the artesanos making polleras, tortumas, tambores, mejoranas, ceramic en La Arena, mascaras en Chitre and had a multicultural evening on the beach meeting the friendly people of Panama.
So let me know when you are coming back to Panama, I’ll be glad to answer questions about places/activities. Also, consider staying at Casa del Puerto in El Puerto de Guarare for a central base for many day trips around the peninsula. My website is www.panamacasadelpuerto.com. Also, you can call me at 011-507-994-4982 (we’re now same time as EST). I still also promote and escort tours with Costa Rica Tours Ltd (Sandra Feldman, the owner is RPCV – Costa Rica 66-68) and they can offer custom tour packages of other sites in Panama and have a special deal for groups of 13 or more. Check www.costaricatoursltd.com for her packaged tours set for 2008 as well as for custom dates.
I look forward to hearing from you and hope that you will “spread the word” about travels in Azuero!!
Bonnie Birker
Casa del Puerto
El Puerto de Guarare, Provincia de Los Santos
Panama
507-994-4982; cell – 6772-2863
www.panamacasadelpuerto.com
info@panamacasadelpuerto.com