Volcan’s mysterious blue-water mineral spring

By David Dell

The mountains of Chiriqui are dotted with tens of thousands of mountain-fresh springs, many of which provide pure, fresh drinking water –but 12 kilometers north of Volcan, there is one spring that is unique. Panama’s answer, perhaps, to France’s famous Perrier water.

Panama has gone one better, however. The water from this spring not only bubbles, like its French counterpart, but it has a natural sweet taste… wait… there’s more. If you take some of this organic bubbly and keep it for a few days it will pleasantly surprise you by turning a pale shade of blue.

Local Chricano, Esteban Gonzales, first discovered the spring in 1942. Esteban’s son has been given the water as a medicine for upset stomachs ever since. He is still alive, well and as I discovered recently, remarkably fit. On a warm sunny afternoon, I ventured out to see this wonder spring along with local historian, Ivan Flores.

The sweet, blue-water, spring is not on any guide map.

After many twists and turns on the Rio Sereno road, Esteban told me to pull over. He led Ivan and myself though a gap in the roadside hedge and then down an almost vertical cliff. Ivan has a medical condition that prohibited him from venturing further and when faced with the near vertical 80 foot drop, I had second thoughts too. I was carrying my new Sony Hi-definition camera and if I dropped it, I would have a medical condition courtesy of my wife. The thought of her inflicting several sub-dural haematomas caused me to pause. I left the video camera with the Ivan, and using both hands clambered gingerly down the slope.

After a few yards we ended up close to the surging Colorado River. Esteban pointed to the moss –covered vertical cliff face and indicated that this was the famous spring. There were minute drops of water dripping down and I cupped a few in my hands. It tasted fresh and cool but Esteban told me this wasn’t the real "Mc Coy". At the base of the cliff he scraped away a pile of rotting leaves and uncovered the mouth of a spring. The air was filled with the pungent smell of either sulphur or rotting leaves- I couldn’t quite tell which. Then Esteban dug into the sandy soil and took a mouthful of the water. he motioned me to do the same. Being British, and not wishing to appear the wimp, I placed my hand into the murky hollow and took a short drink. Wow! I thought, this is sweet.

I turned to Esteban and in my best Spanglish said. "Dulce." (sweet). He was obviously delighted and posed for several pictures in front of this aquatic edifice. The afternoon sun was sending shafts of bright sunlight through the canopy and partially illuminated the rock face. Silly me, I hadn’t brought a bottle or container to take a sample of this wonder water back home.

Esteban dug into the sandy soil and
took a mouthful of the water.

That would have to wait for another day. I clambered back up the steep rock face and met up with the waiting Ivan. Back at the road I decided to make this auspicious occasion an historical one. With Ivan and Esteban’s approval we formerly named the Spring the "Esteban Gonzales Fountain" in honor of Esteban’s dead father; the original discoverer.

Back at expedition headquarters – the Café Essenzia in Volcan, I asked Esteban if he had found any special qualities to the water. The only thing he knew is that as children, his mother had given it to them as a medicine for upset stomachs. Could this wonder-water be a natural panacea for today’s medical malfunctions such as hemorrhoids or erectile dysfunction?

In late June of this year, I once again clambered down the hillside, to the spring and brought back a bottle of the elixir. The water was warm –definitely emanating from a thermal spring. So far my test bottle is remaining clear, I wait each day with bated breath for the color to change.

The sweet, blue-water, fountain is not on any guide map and very few locals know of its existence. If you are a visitor to the Volcan area and want to hike into the mountains and see this unique geological wonder –then drop by the Café Essenzia, and ask Ivan Flores to guide you.

The Bookworm Corner

City Bookstores cater to English readers

VISITORS LOOKING FOR BOOKS in English will be glad to know that here are several bookshops in Panama City such as Exedra Books, Hombre de la Mancha, Gran Morrison and Argosy which sell English books. Here, we offer a sampling of the available publications with a brief description.

Ashes to Ashes - Author: Tami Hoag
He performs his profane ceremony in a wooded Minneapolis park, anointing his victims, then setting the bodies ablaze. He has already claimed three lives, and he won´t stop there. Only this time there is a witness. But she is not talking.

Enter Kate Conlan, former FBI agent turned victim witness advocate. Not even she can tell if the reluctant witness is a potential victim or something more troubling still. Now she faces the most difficult role of her career and her life. For she is the only women who has what it takes to stop the killer... and the one woman he wants next.

In the darkness a match is struck. Not for heat, not for light...but to ignite the fire of a killer. He leaves nothing behind but ashes... and the ice-cold certainty that he will strike again.

Therapy - Author: Jonathan Kellerman
“Been a while since I had me a nice little whodunit”, homicide detective Milo Sturgis tells Alex Delaware. But there is nothing nice about the brutal tableau behind the yellow crime-scene tape. On a lonely lover´s lane in the hills of Los Angeles, a young couple lies murdered in a car. Each bears a single gunshot wound to the head. The female victim has also been impaled by a metal spike. And that savage stroke of psychopathic fury tells Milo this case will call for more than police procedure.

The Conspiracy Club - Author: Jonathan Kellerman
When his passionate romance with nurse Jocelyn Banks is cut short by her kidnapping and brutal murder, young psychologist Jeremy Carrier is left emotionally devastated, haunted by his lover´s grisly demise and eyed warily by police still seeking a prime suspect in the slaying.

Devastated and suspected by the police Jeremy finds himself unwittingly engaged in a game of cat and mouse when additional murders take place and clues begin appearing in his mail.

All these books can be found at Exedra Books.

How the world’s wealthiest people protect their riches– in Panama

By: Steven Rich, Marketing Manager for Panama Offshore Legal Services

Panama is world famous for its Canal, the Colon Free Zone, and the ship registry, but there is another activity generally hidden from public view and the international media. No, it is not the current real estate boom or rising tourism.

A clue to this business is that Panama's banks hold over $55 Billion in total assets –twice that of Panama’s GDP in 2006.

One reason why Panama’s banks have so much money is the country's unique laws allowing the strongest asset protection in the world, in addition to the strict bank secrecy and anonymous legal entity laws.

Let us explore the ultimate in protection and privacy used by the world’s wealthiest people who use Panama's legal entities, which combine to offer the Complete Offshore Structure. This usually consists of a Private Interest Foundation, which owns an Offshore Corporation. This is the utmost in asset protection, privacy, anonymity, and convenience!

Panamanian Corporation laws allow for anonymous ownership of corporations by being one of the few countries legalizing “Bearer Shares”. Whoever possesses the majority corporate "Bearer Shares" is the legal "owner" or "majority shareholder" of that corporation. Beware; if you lose the Bearer Shares, you are no longer a shareholder.

Private Interest Foundation
In 1995, Panama took a great leap towards total Asset Protection by enacting the Private Interest Foundation law (PIF Law No. 25 of 1995), modeled after similar laws in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg. A Panama PIF is a legal entity combining three different things: a Trust, a Corporation, and an Estate Planning tool.

Protecting Your Assets
You can attain complete global asset protection by using a PIF as a holding company for several corporations owning different assets. One owns vehicles, another owns real estate, and a third owns stocks & bonds. Yet another owns jewelry, etc. The PIF holds the shares for all of these corporations. The true "owner" uses either Bearer Shares or Nominee Directors and Nominee PIF Council members with powers of attorney to become a "puppet master" pulling all of the strings and maintaining control.

The law specifically states: "Private foundations shall not be profit oriented," but the exception is that foundations may engage in commercial activities on a non-habitual basis or own shares of business companies and receive passive income – such as from rental properties or dividends.

Foundation Structure
The Private Interest Foundation has four main components:

1. Founder:  The founder creates the Foundation in the Panama Public Registry. 
2. Foundation Council:  The council serves the same function as directors do for a corporation.  The council members' names and passport numbers are registered in the Panama Public Registry.  In order to protect the privacy of clients, law firms generally provide a nominee (straw man) council, and provide pre-signed, undated letters of resignation from the nominee council.  Thus, the council has no real control.
3. Protector:  The Protector ultimately controls the Foundation.  Upon creating the Foundation, the council appoints a Protector through a notarized Private Protectorate document.  Since the document is private and not publicly registered, the Protector remains 100% anonymous.  Thus, the Protector has full control over the Foundation and all of its assets while remaining anonymous. If you have not guessed by now, the client is usually the Protector.
4. Beneficiaries:  The Beneficiaries appointed through a Letter of Wishes, written by the Protector.  The Letter of Wishes is a private document keeping the beneficiaries 100% anonymous.  Only the Protector can change or modify the Letter of Wishes.

Registered Agent: The act requires every foundation have a registered agent, who must be Panamanian lawyer.

Capitalization: Only US$10,000 is required as the initial endowment of a Foundation.

The story of Lola, the unwanted pup

By Craig Weincek

Betty Weincek, a retired school teacher from Maryland living in Panama City's Old Quarter, was talking to her friend Sunny Justice, on the corner of Plaza de Bolivar, near the Casa Blanca sidewalk café, about stray cats to which the area is prone.

Lola.

It seems that Justice, who leads local Buddhist meditation classes, had taken to feeding some of the cats, which for the most part don’t seem particularly starved because Justice is not alone in her philanthropy. After a while, the subject of stray dogs arose. Weincek mentioned that she and her husband (the author, not yet in town), were hoping to rescue a dog, but were only interested in a puppy (for all the regular reasons —early training; bonding; and cuteness). "So if you hear about a puppy, please let me know," Weincek said. (Always be careful what you wish for.)

Just then a dirty, beat-up beige sedan came screeching around the corner, moving a bit too fast to safely negotiate the tight cobblestone streets and someone tossed a puppy out the window. The pup squealed when it bounced hard on the sidewalk; and the two ladies and three or four other people ran to the scene. The car kept going.

Upon inspection, the ashy-grey, small dog did not seem to have any broken bones, but was covered in ticks. As Justice lifted the dog in her arms, the group noticed a song playing on the Casa Blanca sound system. It was "Her Name Is Lola" by Barry Manilow.

"Well, I guess her name is Lola," a bystander quipped and Justice and Weincek agreed with a laugh.

Lola was taken to Justice’s apartment where she was cleaned up and nearly 80 ticks were carefully removed by Dermot Doherty, Sunny’s husband. After they had removed a thick coating of soot, Lola’s benefactors were surprised to see that she was really ginger-colored. Then Justice and Doherty took the dog to Dr. Aixa Reyes at VETS on 74th Street who determined that the dog was about three months old and seemed okay, though her coat was thin and bare in spots and she seemed weak. When they got back home, Sunny called Betty and said, "Well, do you want her?" To which Weincek responded, "Yes, I would love to take her."

Even before I arrived from the states, friends had e-mailed me photos of Lola hanging out with Betty and friends at the Casa Blanca, where she can often be spotted with her leash around a chair leg, greeting friends and passersby. Lola has turned out to be an energetic, mischievous, very friendly, rather calm, but cute and loving pet.

There were problems. Because of the ticks, Lola got tick fever, so her white blood cell count was low. That meant she could not get her regular shots because her immune system was weak, and she could not be spayed because of the threat of bleeding. However, weekly trips to the vet, and the love and care and feeding of a new home, means that Lola has grown from eight to twenty pounds and her shiny ginger coat has filled in smoothly and she seems much stronger. Just last week, the vet declared Lola’s blood count in the healthy range, which means she can get her immunizations and then be paid a visit by Spay/Panama when the time comes.

If you’re sincerely interested in rescuing a dog or a cat, but not willing to wait around on a street corner until someone tosses you a pup, you should contact:

Spay/Panama: www.spaypanama.org
pchan@spaypanama.org
261-5542 / 6671-0246

Adoptamascota: www.adoptamascotapanama.com
adoptamascota123@yahoo.com

Mari Pily at Arraijan Animal Rescue & Shelter: maripily29@hotmail.com

Fundacion San Francisco de Asis: www.fundasis.org

Melo Animals: melo@cwpanama.com

At Los Quetzales Lodge & Spa

A true fisherman’s tale

Carlos Alfaro shows his catch.

New attraction at Los Quetzales Lodge & Spa in Chiriquí is the trout lake. Owner Carlos Alfaro said he wanted to show us how easy it is to land a fish. So he plied his fly rod; we plied our camera and within minutes a plump trout was caught.

Los Quetzales is Panama´s highest hotel, up in the mountains of Friendship National Park, in Guadalupe above Cerro Punta. The hotel offers comfortable accommodations, with chimneys for the cold nights -and also cabins deep in the cloud forest.

For more information tel: 771-2182.
www.losquetzales.com