El Valle de Anton is a small town located in the highlands of central Panama. It is located in the crater of an extinct volcano witch is about four miles across. Though the town’s real name is El Valle de Anton most people here simply call it El Valle (The Valley). Because of its higher elevation it is significantly cooler in temperature than the rest of Panama and the wind also blows stronger. It is surrounded on all four sides by mountains and is about 30 miles away from the Pacific Ocean. The protected forests in the mountains surrounding El Valle have lots of wildlife, including tree frogs, butterflies, brightly colored birds, colorful amphibians and cute small mammals.
On Monday the 12th we went on the Canopy Adventure zipline. In case you don’t know what a zipline it is a couple wire cables strung between trees with little platforms in between the cables. At the Canopy Adventure ziplines there were four wire cables. Each cable was set at a different angle. The third cable was my favorite, it was a very steep trilling ride rite over the waterfall. This was the only cable were you did not have to stop yourself. They would stop you in the middle and since you were so high you could see the mountains, the waterfall and the forest.
The outdoor Sunday public market has a wide range of local produce, arts and crafts and beautiful orchids.
We are staying at a hotel called Los Captitones meaning The Captain. This hotel is owned by a retired German sea captain. There is a restaurant at the hotel with lots of German food. My family and I like it here very much so we are planning to stay here for the rest of our time before we have to go back to Panama City to catch our flight to Chile.
Written by: Lily Johannessen
