the rise of the isthmus

My first weekend in Panama and I’m already off to a vacation resort! Simon and Chris and I drove out about and hour and a half to have lunch with some of their friends, Tony Coats- a professor of geology at GW University (and natural genius)- and his charming wife Laur. After lunch we drove back to the resort where Tony and Laur were staying and checked out a couple rooms for ourselves (Simon insisted on getting me my own room, which was absolutely unnecessary but awesome). El valle de Antón is a valley in the crater where a massive volcano used to be. The volcano exploded millions of years ago but the base of the volcano still stands to form a ring around the lush valley. It is the world’s only inhabited volcanic crater! Tony gave an amazing explanation for the cause of the explosion and the valley that remains, but I’ll leave that to the experts and attach a link that briefly explains the geology :) It was all very beautiful and just breath taking.