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If it is in Google Maps, it must be true…

When I was working for the Forest Service, I heard of a family that tried to follow Yahoo maps directions that found the shortest distance between two major town…. along US Forest Service Roads, the unmaintained, forget paved, not even graded kind.  Got stuck, and then were complaining that it was on Yahoo.  This was years ago, and directions have since improved…in the US.

If you’ve searched for Santa Fe, Panama on Google Maps, you’ll see a nice, yellow line marking the highway between Santa Fe to the Caribbean.  You think, oh fun!  I could visit the beach. 
Ah no. 
I love the map in that it builds hope that one day this construction project potentially could be completed.  This could be referred to as a visionary map, a hope map, a potentially some day, somehow, somewhere this road will be built map. Of course with a town of 300 as the final destination and 30km to cut the road one wonders about the funding, but it could be possible map.

But please don’t view it as a road map.  You may hear me on the posts refer to a site being along the “road they’re building to Calovebora”.  This should be interpreted much in line with “along the beach that will be formed when the bedrock erodes” or “near the canyon that will form with the flow of the creek in the back of our inn”…This road has been in the process of being built for a few years, with current funding to go to Rio Luis, which is about 3/4 of the way to Calovebora.  However, between you and me, many road projects never meet their objectives.

Rio Luis Calovebora Panama
Rio Luis, Santa Fe, Panama on Road to Calovebora

So,while you likely won’t visit Calovebora on this trip, I don’t blame you for being curious…and the road is a wonderful trip in itself.  Cele and I went hiking to Rio Luis.  The mini-San Francisco like suspended bridge connects Bocas del Toro.  I’ll write more about the road itself in another post!

 

 

 

 

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The orchid and Cele

Orchid in front of Hotel Coffee Mountain InnSanta Fe is an orchid enthusiast’s dream, and not too bad if you’re an orchid quasi-enthusiast-think-they’re-pretty person either. Santa Fe hosts an annual orchid festival every August with hundreds of varieties in the forests around Santa Fe.  Websites differ on estimates of species (300, 400, 1200), regardless who is right, there are a lot of types.

My husband, who worked his childhood on a farm, has bought a couple of orchids last weekend to place around the inn.  A lady from a nearby town searches and harvests them from the area, and he went over on the weekend to buy a couple.  Why?  Because he thinks they’ll make me happy. So, I’m loving them.

Now here’s the thing, I’ve read that there are two types of orchids – the epiphytes that grow on trees and terrestrial that grow in the ground.  I’m looking at these and suspect that they are the epiphytic ones-why, well to me they look like the Oncidium genus.  Anyone know?

So,if they’re epiphytic, how good will they do planted in the clay ground around our inn?  Hmmm…well let’s see how good this farmboy is – at getting them to grow/survive. He’s got them staked.  And if there is someone that can make something grow by determination, that’s Cele.

Update: Me of little faith

Cele says he doesn’t have them planted but on dead wood within the planting box.  Farmboy strikes again!

 

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Mullahs, Molas and the very very clean bathroom

Bathroom, clean In our newly completed hotel bathrooms, we have these really great  blue glass tile, and the contrast with the white porcelain tiles makes the room seem very crisp.  It seems that everyone’s reaction has been -wow, it looks clean.

Now clean is not bad. But, err, shouldn’t your inn’s bathroom always be clean?

So, I’ve been trying to think of some special touches so that  people’s reactions go to “wow, it looks amazing”.  My go to solution for everything has been ‘hmm…maybe a plant…or two’, that can only work so many times, so I’ve been trying to get the ideas of others.

My mom thought I should hang a picture rail and put up shadow boxes with molas a type of applique art from Panama’s Kuna.  It’s a good idea, but the Kuna are in a different province, and I’m not sure how well fabric will hold up.

Side note: Mola evidently is a homonym, and can be confused in conversations with your sister with the word mullah, a title for islamic clergymen.  She may immediately and generously  offer her help with decorating ideas if she hears that your idea is  framing “mullahs” and placing them around your guest’s bathrooms.  You may be tempted to frame a mullah and a mola and put them side by side in your bathrooms to see if anyone gets it, but you edit yourself.

Any other ideas?

Mola
Mullah Source: Lonely Planet