Panama's Beauty#21 El Valle Valentine's 2020, via Highway

If Coronado is our "pot of Gold under the Rainbow", then El Valle de Anton is "the Jewel in the crown". This is the first of several planned videos of it. We'll be doing many more of this kind of chatty video with useful tips to help you plan a super vacation in Panama, So do LIKE this video + SUBSCRIBE to get new ones ... COMING SOON!
(1) Travel time by car from Panama city depends on time of day. 2 - 2.5 hours if you leave early (you will be going against the rush hour, out of the city) before 9am you will encounter "lane reversals" where 3 of 4 lanes are reserved for the inbound rush hour, and from 3pm till 7pm, outbound from the city. If you are unlucky enough to join the "rush-hour traffic" it's going to seriously dampen your mood. So enjoy a nice breakfast and leave the city around 10am, heading to Coronado, and on the way back, be sure to be back on the Bridge of the Americas, heading back into the city, before 3pm.
(2) Weekends: It seems almost everyone leaves Panama city at noon on Saturdays, heading into the Interior, and that's really going to try your patience! As well, they all head back to the city after 12-noon on Sunday, and it's one long parking lot! So avoid those days/times, else a 1.5 hr trip will take 3+ hours.As a rule, we head out to Coronado after 10am and leave Coronado before noon, to head back to the city.
(2) DRIVE SAFELY!!! Going from the city, after Chorera, where the 3-lane Highway ends, the 2-lane Pan-American highway is not built for speed, and there are ridiculous speed-limits (almost always 60km/h - sometimes 80km/h - and there are a LOT of RADAR speed-traps, as each little community's Police force act like Roscoe and Kleetus (Dukes of Hazzard) and try their best to trap you speeding! If in doubt, go 60km/h as I've rarely seen lower limits.
(3) If you take the scenic route the previous video describes, Honk before every corner, to warn people coming the other way to get over onto their side. You really don't want your vehicle to leave the road up high in those mountains - that may well be fatal! My wife and friends call me "the Roadrunner" as before each and every corner in the road, I go "Beep-Beep".
(4) For those who like restoring old classic cars, here's the story of how I started restoring old Diesel Mercedes Classics from the early 1980's - it all began as a surprise gift for my Childhood sweetheart, Mercedes Limo #1: http://snow-white.us/FairyTales.htm
(5) More about Altos de Campana National Park (El Valle is in this park) http://www.ecotourismpanama.com/natio...
(6) Info: https://www.anywhere.com/panama/desti... AND ALSO https://bestplacesintheworldtoretire....
(7) El Valle facts: https://elvalleinformation.wordpress.com/el-valle-the-volcano/
(8) Link for the hyperactive folks (not us, we're 63 and relaxed) https://www.journeyera.com/el-valle-de-anton/

Видео Panama's Beauty#21 El Valle Valentine's 2020, via Highway канала Panama