While placing our baits, we noticed a petite man emerging from the jungle onto the road, clutching a basket to his chest. He wore a tattered hat and a colorful collared shirt that was dulled by sun bleaching and dark dirt. Speculating about his age, we wondered if his wrinkles were a sign of his age or rather a consequence of his life style here in El Valle. We discovered in our broken spanish conversation with him that his name is Lionel Lorenzo and his basket contained "bananos". We offered to give him a ride to his home, and he gratefully accepted. Joel, being the only spanish speaker in the car, asked Lionel questions on behalf of both himself and the curious Patty. In response to hearing that Patty and Steve have been visiting Panama on and off for 30 years, Lionel offered with a smile (striped with missing teeth) that they're practically locals. When we arrived at his destination, we parted ways with our new Panamanian friend and he offered that we may see him at the market where he sells his bananas. Hopefully, we will see him on our way back through El Valle as I'm sure his bananos are the best in town.
El Valle to David is 400km total. Cautiously driving through torrential downpours, it took us 6 and a half hours to make the trip.
It took some impressive directional intuition on Terri's part and the help of the locals to find the city of David. It's pleasantly unlike Panama City, or any other city I've ever seen. Old lightly dilapidated structures line the streets on which aggressive drivers will not hesitate to give you a tap if you're in the way. We walked in a cluster around the central square in search of dinner, finally settling on an Italian restaurant for lack of more interesting options. We then meandered over to the gaudy casino, where we were conspicuously underdressed. We enjoyed our night people watching and hanging out with the locals while celebrating a "Salsa Festival" and watching a boxing match.
