El Valle

Woke to find the street dogs that came back with us the previous evening had made themselves very comfortable over night. Cushions were scattered on the floor with one dog curled up on one, and another stretched out on the main couch. They didn’t budge an inch when I came out of my room which led me to believe it wasn’t their first such campaign.

El Valle’s most famous (and hence most popular…) hike is the India Domida; sleeping Indian. According to legend, a young Indian woman had the hots for a conquistador but papa said, “No way, Jose!!” So she topped herself. A formation that creepily looks like Sleeping Beauty is said to have resulted from her demise. I personally think it was one of those warning fables to ward young Indian ladies away from the skanky Spanish. As no self-respecting Indian chief wanted a Jose for a son-in-law.

I had heard that the India Domida trail was crawling with the town’s youngsters wanting to make a coin or two ‘guiding’ tourists. And that the trail itself was crawling with tourists. That was enough for me to look elsewhere for the day’s activity. I found a waterfall circuit hike on Komoot with a bonus offshoot up the caldera slope for a view of India Domida.

The trail took me to the outskirts of the tiny village that is El Valle and straight out of town. Almost immediately, I was now passing enormous estates with stately casas primarily built with expat coin; El Valle, being the Shangri-La for many US (and other) retirees. The road gently sloped around the southern side of the now extinct caldera which I was skirting to reach the waterfall.

I met a couple of girls who were heading on a climb which took in my planned offshoot up the caldera slope. It turned out I had met their aunts the day before when I arrived in town so we got chatting as we ascended the steep caldera slope. Unfortunately, the clouds were descending in full force so visibility of the India Domida was all but obscured, but it was still a magical view of the caldera floor and surrounding slopes. I left the girls to continue their hike up the caldera slope and made my way back down to rejoin where I had left my waterfall hike.

It would seem that the person whose land this hike detoured through had had enough of randoms trespassing and had erected fencing and signage demanding a cease and desist. Disappointed, but with no option but to retrace my steps back to the outskirts of town where I picked up the main road heading out which would take me to the waterfall.

Again, the universe appeared to conspire against me as I eventually reached my destination to find it closed with a barricade stating no entry. Just as I was about to turn around (again…), a couple rocked up and told me they had just crossed the barricade and went in themselves and that there was another family who had done the same. I decided to risk it and climbed over the barricade myself to walk down to the small river the waterfall was on.

A series of low cascades led to where the waterfall was further downstream, however, there wasn’t a path. To get to the waterfall, one had to rock hop over slick boulders on the edge of the cascades and hope for the best. As it was getting late and my knee was stiff from being punished, I decided not to venture any further. It was disappointing not to see the waterfall, but I had had an interesting hike nonetheless.

Back in town, I had a well-earned shower and changed ready to meet the girls I had met on the trail and their aunts for cocktails and dinner. Their hotel neighbour was also with them and as we were both heading to Panama City the following day, arranged to meet for coffee and breakfast the following morning prior to catching the bus.