Thickair Blog

I have been told that Panamanians are leery and rarely invite people into their homes.  Distrust is endemic.  During the high winds our mandarina tree blew over and left a huge gap in the focal point behind the pond garden. We also have the exposed chain-link fence and are trying to coax our little plants to grow faster to create a screen. We wanted to add some banana trees there, because the foliage is full and it has the right structure for the space. Now bananas grow everywhere here, but no one really sells them as garden plants. I asked the nurseries and they just sort of laughed at us. So I asked our gardener, where I might buy one. He said, we have them…So in this way of figuring out how he was going to bring me banana trees on his bicycle, I offered to come get him in the car.

I first asked him to draw me a map of where he lives. He just looked at me blankly like he simply could not. I sometimes wonder if he can’t read. So he suggested that his next work day I would take him home so that I could learn the way. After leaving El Valle a litte inconspicous road that looks like the entrance to someone’s estate, a road leads beyond and over another mountain ridge through a rocky and steep road. Definitely 4×4 terrain. We drove for 20 minutes or so and after a point he told me where to stop. He said that he lived down in the valley. The road is on the dry ridge and his house is by the lush-lined river at the bottom. A narrow and steep hiking path has been made by forming the clay soil into steps. He put his bicycle on his shoulders and we hiked down.

The trees and the river created shade and a noticeable (probably 10 degrees) temperature difference. His house is the first one, surrounded by little gardens of roses, “lilis” (ammaryllis) and other plants he has obviously nursed from cuttings. The house was made of mud walls and a zinc roof. The design is a square with a notch for outdoor space where he had a rocking chair and a neat row of cactus plants. A deep trench was dug in line with the overhang of the roof to drain the water. The corners and walls were incredibly straight and flat, considering I imagine they had very little tools to make the homes. He gave me a very proud tour of his gardens and we walked across the bridge made of different sized rocks to the other side where his sister, brother and father live. There she too had a rose garden of many varieties and orchids. She stood on her front porch, curious to have me visit. It is clear they live alone there and rarely have visitors, let a lone gringa visitors.  We toured behind her house where there was a grove of banana trees of every variety. Sloping up the hill, the vegetable garden was tucked behind the ornamentals. A caged rabbit sat in front of her house and the chicken pen was to the opposite side. I got to choose my bananas and we sauntered back. He gave his sister the protruted pursed lip look that here is something guys do as a machismo thing to girls or other guys, sometimes as a joke but other times as a ‘woman do as I say’ kindof thing…She ran inside and came out with a huge plastic sack full of fat tomatoes. She gave them to me.  Sharing food is also a sort of tradition here. I always try to reciprocate.

I didn’t have a lot of time to really look at the houses. But I was amazed at the cleanliness, simplicity and ingenuity they had developed out of completely living with nature. I imagine it takes him 2 hours to get to our town every morning, and with such a narrow steep trail, it would be difficult to carry many materials there. We gave him some cyclone fencing, it was a huge roll, and we could barely move it to scootch it on the ground. I wonder how they got it home.  Perhaps one day he will let me visit again and I can describe in more detail the design and construction of the homes. I can say that it was clear they function very well for them, these solid little mud houses.

This entry was posted Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 at 9:27 am and is filed under Architecture & Design, Gardens & Nature. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.