For all of those in Florida that have ever complained about heat and humidity, Panama City ratchets up the humidity to a level I have never felt before. However, the thick wet air also has a little something extra in it – opportunity. Panama City has an electric feel of possibilities as the economy has experienced double digit growth over the past few years, the canal expansion project is nearing completion (2015), and development has begun to explode. I hope to produce sustainable business models and development ideas that can be incorporated with the massive growth, creating a economy that values a triple bottom line approach and a city that can avoid the pitfalls of many American cities.
While my time in Panama will be spent mostly in Panama City it begins with a 35 minute trip out to the Tres Brazos Valley where the first sustainable jungle village Kalu Yala is being built. The Kalu Yala site is about 5km past the small 5oo person town of San Miguel on a roller coaster of a dirt road. If you do not have a rugged 4×4 vehicle with strong axles prepare for a 2-4 hour hike up and down some of the most intense terrain in the world, only a very small group of Panamanians dare to venture out this far! The views from the trip to the Kalu Yala are breathtaking as clouds wisp at mountaintops, leaf cutter ants are blazing trails at your feet, and the enchantment of a jungle rain forest surrounds you. Upon arrival at base camp by Rio Pacora, it sinks in that this is real and the adventure is just getting started.
Kalu Yalu base camp is comprised of 5 ranchos where all of the 80 of us will be living for the next few days. As you can see in the photograph a rancho is a totally open living space about 7 feet in the air with local palm leaves as a roof. The locals have perfected this style of building and have shared this knowledge with Kalu Yala after they witnessed the gringos many misguided attempts at jungle construction. There is no electricity, our water is brought in by PVC pipe from a small mountain tributary, we use composting toilets, but life could not be better. It was great to be totally off the grid even though everything I had was soaked by monsoon rains and sleep was hard to come by. The rain and thunderstorms were so amazing and powerful as the rainy season has just begun, we were treated to fantastic lightning displays and massive flooding and landslides, the road we hiked in one was absolutely washed away. Over then next few days we swam, hiked, explored flora and fauna, and best yet we bonded as a large family learning the values of Kalu Yala and how we can do without many of the luxuries we take for granted. I have definitely left the jungle a different person, kind of like when Luke Skywalker left Dagobah.
The Panama City location we are staying at is amazing as we can look out too the ocean and see massive ships line up to use the canal and are right in the middle of all of the action with Parque Urraca right across the street. While I will discuss this more in my next blog I wanted to bring up that in our first few nights here we were treated to fantastic visits and discussions with leading Permaculture expert Stephen Brooks (La Ecovilla in Costa Rica, Kopali Organics), Entrepreneur Jimmy Stice (Kalu Yala), TEDxWaterloo creator Ramy Nassar, and Digital Entrepreneur Mackenzie McAleer. Very powerful group of people and it was amazing to hear their experiences and stories.
Until next time…
Brian Clair