Deep River Gorge at New House

Today Blue and I went out to "Paradise Ranch", the site of my new home project. I had never ventured down to the river behind my property. It involves cutting through a jungle type environment on a very steep slope and some of the trees that would make good hand holds have thorns on their trunks

Blue went part way down with me, only stopping when he could no longer get footing ... long after I had told him to "stay". The first trail I cut was down a drainage ditch behind the 2 lots that I have for sale. That trek ended on a rock ledge about 30 feet above the river. Altogether it is about 120 feet vertically to the river at this location. It is dry season, so the river is just a small, steady, spring-fed creek now.

The second attempt was led by one of my helpers who cut a new path with his machete. This was about 40 yards from the building site for my new house. Again, we ended up about 30 feet above the river on a cliff. The third try, we went down beside my building site, below the 2 old giant trees and were successful in reaching the bottom.

It is evident that much more water flows in the river during the 8 month "green" season but right now it is a pleasant, shallow, rocky stream with a very small water flow.

We had a successful morning and even managed to get the tall grass cut over the entire "footprint" of the new house.

Rain Starts - New Oranges - House

It seems that the "green" season (rainy) has begun. We have had heavy rain showers for the past 3 days, starting from noon to 3:00 pm and lasting for 30 minutes to an hour. I haven't checked the amount of rainfall but it is usually 1 to 2 inches in a short period of time. Update 8 May: False alarm! We are still not fully into the green season.

Today I picked the first new orange from one of the 3 orange trees in the back yard of my rented house in Volcan. I should have waited another day or two. Although oranges here are often ripe while the skin is still green, this one was not yet ripe.

Monday I have a second appointment with the surveyor to stake out the foundation outlines of the new house at "Paradise Ranch". Keeping appointments is not a 'thing' to be counted upon in Panama. I may overwork "Paradise" but this is my own personal experience of the scenery, climate, location and people in the mountains of Chiriqui Province in western Panama.