Spending time in Penonomé

Forecast: 91°/74°, sunny

Humidity:  77%
Sunrise 6:33 am., Sunset 6:29 p.m.

 

Before I traveled to Penonomé, my host-to-be, José, cheerfully told me I'd love the change in weather: it's much more "fresca" (fresh, cool) than in Panama city.  The pastor of my church in Panama city heard where I was bound and shuddered, "oh, Penonomé: it's really hot there!"  So who was right?

I think neither, really: Panama city is hot, and Penonomé is hot, and they're both really about equally oppressive midday.  There are a few more breezes here, but the temperatures are not all that different.

The Penonomé forecast Tuesday:  
29-to-34 degrees Celcius is 84-to-93 Fahrenheit.

Much of the city of Penonomé itself seems to be stretched along either side of the Carretera Americana (Route 1).  From a restaurant the other night, I had a lovely view into the hills and mountains.  I asked José if people live off in that direction, and he said no, mostly along the road.  During my first two days, I visited several restaurants, a hotel, and the University of Panama (local campus), and not one of of these places is more than a block away from the highway.

Downtown Penonome

The next day, my host took me into the main part of the city, which is a small area off the main Carretera, with tiny roads and painted houses and a typical Panamanian town square in front of the main church.

This plaque in front of a statue notes that this spot
is the exact geographic center of Panama. 

And here's the statue, a map of Panama with a little hole
marking our location.

The main church in Penonomé is in front of . . .

. . . a lovely plaza. 
The police station and governance buildings also border the plaza.

The streets are narrow, and the houses are lovely.

We visited the Museo de Penonomé, one of the items I'd added to my "possible to-do" list after scouring a Panama tourism book a friend had gifted me.  

The museum is in the former homes, slightly redone,
of some of the early prominent people. 
This is the entrance room to the museum.

Another room contained clay, stoneware, and other items
from archeological excavations.

Yet another room contained the work of contemporary artists.
These birds-and-bees pictures delighted me.

I was actually most intrigued by the ceilings/roof,
designed with a layer of wooden trellises
and topped with ceramic U-shaped tiles,
to allow for lots of airflow and breezes.  It was pretty and functional.

There were two more rooms with even more impressive artifacts -- statues, and jewelry, and hats (showing how they are constructed), but pictures weren't allowed in those rooms.

La Pintada

When we left the museum, apparently we were only about 20 minutes from a town called La Pintada where, famously (at least, famously in these parts) traditional Panamanian hats are made.  These hats are generally tan in color, with tiny bits of darker colors woven in, but they are called "el sombrero pintado" for the same reason we say "buffalo wings": they come from the city of La Pintada/Buffalo.

The variety of weaving patterns for making these hats had caught my attention, so José decided I needed to visited the city: good choice, José!

Even tiny towns here have colorful, 3-dimensional letter sculptures
to welcome visitors.  This type of signage is all over the country,
and I love it.

But of course there is a town plaza bordered by the town church.

José brought me to an artisans' store where we could
see many hats on display. So beautiful!  

I happen to already have a hat,
AND these were $150, so I didn't get one. 
But I did admire them.

Leaving La Pintada.

Along the side of the road, we got to see Guayacanes trees,
right now in full yellow bloom and just beautiful.
I've been hearing about these blooms for months and months,
and I'm finally in the season to see them.

The University of Panama, Penonome campus

Of the various campuses I've gotten to attend here in Panama, this one was the smallest and also the best maintained.  The exterior of the buildings weren't under construction anywhere I could see, the classroom felt quite modern, and (gentle drumroll . . .) there was toilet paper in the bathrooms! 

University of Panama: the abbreviation feels optimistic!

The classroom we used had projectors with smart boards, and a generous group of round tables for people to sit at. They also brought in a portable whiteboard so we could share solutions to things.

Here's me, next to the Panamanian flag,
talking to professors and students.

We had so much fun . . so, so much fun.  I love the material that I was presenting, and it's just a joy to share it with others, especially when they're as enthusiastic as the folks I worked with this week.

Students and teachers determining whether the painting
I'm showing is in one-point, two-point, or three-point perspective.
Everyone is doing it!  No slackers in this group, for sure. 

In the middle of a lesson on Geogebra (a computer app).

My workshop ran Tuesday through Friday.  On Wednesday, a bunch of us went out for dinner together to a local taco place (that's foreign food here; tacos are Mexican, not Panamanian).

Me, students, teacher, and a grandchild.  Such a cheerful crowd.

Thursday was our last in-person day (more on why below), and at the end of the day they regaled me with gifts -- a certificate, flowers, jewelry, a caliche (traditional Panamanian bag I'd admired in La Pintada), cookies, arroz con leche, and a cake decorated with a geometric fence post design we'd learned about earlier in the week.

So sweet! A tres leches cake,
made by the woman in black with a green sweater behind me.

Oh, and one starry-eyed student who earlier in the week had proudly showed me her amazing manga-inspired art gifted me with bananas she'd grown at her home.  Did you know there are red bananas?  I'd had them once before: they are amazing, and I was touched and very, very happy to nab those for my future oatmeal breakfasts.  Score!

Why did I leave Thursday instead of Friday? 

In a word, Carnaval.  It's an exuberant, Mardi Gras-like celebration that happens all over the country, but especially in select cities in the interior, Penonomé included. The celebration involves spraying participants with water, lots of dancing and music, lots of noise.  See more here.

Even more, it includes lots of cars leaving the city of Panama and heading toward the interior.  To wit:

To give you an idea of the magnitude of the exit, 

a special carnival task force converted the Bridge of the Americas 

into a one way road out of Panama City 

starting at 4pm on Friday until at least 7 pm, 

with the potential to extend it til later.

I did not want to face all that traffic on Friday evening after our last workshop, and we all agreed it would be best to play it safe and head back "home" a day earlier.  So, I did, and we had our last workshop day virtually. 

One of the participants sent me this photo of
his workspace during our virtual workshop:
obviously, we were creating möbius bands and möbius shorts
to help describe the projective plane

Another participant workspace.
On her laptop is the pretest/posttest we were walking through.

And that's my trip to Penonomé and back!