Category: Panama

We arrived in Boca via shuttle and boat. Pretty bad all around. They picked us up at our hotel, a little late but fine. it was a little van that filled up as it circled Boquete. We stopped downtown and transferred to a modest sized bus with less leg room than economy airline seats. After an hour of dicking around, picking up people, putting luggage on the roof with tarps to cover, we finally leave Boquete. We’ve spent over an hour in our cramped seats and haven’t made it out of town! We bounce along, stopping for a passport check, a stop at a convenience store so the driver could get chips and a soda, then lunch at what is basically a truck stop. We finally get to Almirante where the boat awaits but it is typical mayhem with no one directing. Some locals aggressively grabbed your bags and took them to a boat but on the way telling me I had to give him a tip. Here’s a tip, don’t grab my fucking bag again. The boy putting the bags on the boat then went up and down the rows telling us we needed to give him a tip as well. We told him we already gave. Finally motored over to Isla Colon and found our hotel a short distance away.

Econo-bus from hell

Beautiful room with a deck overlooking the busy waterway.

We lunched down the street from our hotel, on the water. The town is full of 20-30 year olds and our lunch restaurant was in a hostel. There are many hostels here. Here is one across the waterway from us. Pretty nice. I don’t remember those when I was younger and traveling!

A walk about town led us to a lovely tap house with a local IPA. We found a boat captain that would take us on a private outing the following day, and a grocery store for ice and other essentials. We are easing in to it.

We woke up with coffee on our balcony then down to the boat. Captain David took us out after a bit of discussion, to Cayo Zapatillo, two islands with reportedly good snorkeling on the edge of the open Caribbean Sea. David was typical of our encounters with Panamanians. They are generally flat of affect and you often feel like you offended them in some way. There is quite a bit of animosity now with our countries current direction but I also think it stems from a long history of American arrogance in this region. He did let us snorkel as long as we wanted there which was pretty good. We saw a large Baracuda tracking us for a while and then many of the usual suspects in Caribbean. The water temp must have been mid 80’s as Katie did not get cold. David motored us over to a spot off of Coral gardens which was also good snorkeling but a totally different environment with grasses, soft corals, and sea fans.  We loved following a family of squid, maybe 10 of them. They would stop, tilt, change colors and move along. All of a sudden the wind picked up to 30-40 knots with incumbent waves. We clambered aboard the spinning boat and headed for a lee shore restaurant to wait out the storm.

After lunch on the pier we headed out to official Coral Gardens in calmer seas. We found another environment here with a mix of coral and very colorful sponges, from green to red, including yellows and purples, and oranges. We picked out a ‘Fireworm’ maybe a foot long or so. Didn’t touch. Katie found a swim ladder and returned it to a boat we think it belonged to. Our last stop was a shallow swim with sea grass, rocks and some coral. Katie picked out a small octopus right after getting in the water. She also found a tiny shrimp on a small carpet anenome. Probably a cleaner shrimp. We picked out another foot long fireworm but a little different than the first. Many feather dusters and a few Giant sea anenomes and a small striped eel, the first eel we’ve seen which is a little bit of a surprise as there so many good homes for them here in the coral. We made it back to our balcony just in time for a Gin and Tonic and eventually went out for….Pizza!

The sun rises at the foot of our bed so we were up before 7. Coffee on the balcony, reading the paper then booked a water taxi to red frog beach. Captain Adrian was a mirror of David, flat affect, no talk, no smiling. Red frog beach has several modest resorts to stay at but we walked on past looking for Playa Polo as we were told the snorkeling was better. We took some shortcuts I admit and missed the actual Playa Polo but we did find a lovely spot under some palms.

We tried snorkeling with our just purchased $15 mask and snorkel but really just sea grass and after 15 minutes swimming around we both asked, ‘Have you seen any fish?’. I swam away in search of Playa Polo. I had several moments of ‘What the hell were you thinking’ as visibility was zero, waves were crashing on the shallow rocks and I was a ways from shore. I finally managed a beach landing and walked along a pretty well defined trail with signs to Playa Polo. Not sure how we missed these but definitely took the road less traveled to get here. Playa Polo was a bust for me, much more wind and thus chop. I tried snorkeling some but it was as bad as where I came from. I hiked overland back to Katie who was touchingly worried about me. Or she said something about not having any of our future itinerary or tickets which bothered her. With her sense of humor, I took it for love. After several hours reading books, eating peanuts and pretzels, and having a few hand carried IPA’s, we walked back to the Red Frog beach where we ate some lunch and laid out on some loungers until out water taxi was to return. Vacations are tough. You have to work everyday on your stamina. G&T’s on the balcony are working again :-).

Katie had heard from her girlfriend, ChatGPT, that La Piscina beach was killer for snorkeling. Problem is it is beyond the end of the gravel road on our Island. We ended up renting a motorcycle! The man said the scooter was too low for the water crossings. What?. We set off, a bit shaky on the shifts but nobody got hurt.

Stopped for a view of a two toed sloth close to the road. Good luck sign I suspect. We motored on over gravel, then dirt, then mud holes into the jungle. We did spin out once but totally my bad with my choosing of the path thru the mud. Pushed past a gate at urging of a local and then single track, crossing creeks and dodging mud holes. Ended up just a 100 yards from the beach and it was gorgeous and isolated.

We snorkeled but honestly not very good and poor visibility this day.  We laid out reading our books and eventually drove back to a restaurant along the gravel road.  Again beautiful views and quiet with a nice sandy beach. Probably better to stay on this part of the island and take a short taxi, or motorcycle!, into town. 

I haven’t mentioned our lodging which is spectacular with its balcony and view of the busy harbor. The problem started our third night. There is a dance bar located just 2 doors down and it fires up around 10 pm playing extremely loud EDM. This goes until 2 am when it is abruptly shut off. Now I tried ear plugs with the pillow over my head but no help. Later, I have a white noise track playing in one ear with the other ear plugged on the pillow. This works somewhat but you can still feel the music, that’s how loud it is. I spoke with the front desk and they said they talked to the police but the local government has weighed in and said it was ok. Sounds like gangsta stuff to me. I would never stay in the downtown Boca area again. The reports were it was a calypso vibe but reality is it is EDM at a 100dB and a pretty shady clientele.

We rented a boat captain the following day and had a 4 hour snorkeling adventure. We saw some new stuff like sting rays, eels, and schools of fish, but the best was a curious squid that would get very close waving its front tentacles at us as if in greeting. We enjoyed several visits  from the squid and just had fun on our own schedule, staying out as long as we wanted. Following the half day tour, Katie wanted fish for lunch. She chatted up her girlfriend again and this time, success. We taxied across the harbor to The Big Fish for a fillet sandwich and some fish tacos.

Totally great vibe there and stuck out our thumb on their dock for a quick water taxi back to our place. Perfecto. We had dinner in Boca over the water and in bed by 8. Ear buds, white noise from YouTube and asleep until 12:30 or so. Read some and then 2 o’clock quiet time and more sleep.

Travel day but fit in a 2 hour private snorkel tour back to Cayo Coral. Clearer water this time and some new fish. Saw an Eagle Ray on the way back to town. Late checkout then water taxi over to The Big Fish again for their Classic fish sandwiches.Beautiful blue ski day.

back at the Big Fish for their awesome fish fillet sandwiches

stuck out our thumb and caught a taxi back to our hotel in about 2 minutes. Not bad for a buck

taxi pickup

Traveled out to Guna Yala or San Blas for a couple night stay on Yani Island. Interesting that Guna Yala is its own country. They do not follow any Panamanian law and when you enter their province you go through border control. The province is very green but poor, poor, poor. We were a bit shocked at the room offered on arrival to our island. The island is only about 500o feet square in total. The room offered would be one of eight in a cabin with open ceilings to all rooms and simple boards between rooms. I booked a private cabin. They first said this is a private cabin, then they said no you booked a private room. Like as opposed to what a dormitory!

After some fuss and saying they were full they put us in a private cabin over the water which certainly was better than the 8 room cabin.

We had some difficulties from then on with the staff but overall enjoyed the beautiful island setting.

We had a good day of snorkeling our second day with an actual coral reef and later some nurse sharks, but the staff tended to think people wanted a boat ride out to a sandbar so they could swim. No fish to be seen but 1-2 feet of water to swim around in. We did that twice. They also thought the boat excursions would be great by taking you to a nearby island, just like the one we just left and relax on that island for a couple hours. All in all a disappointment and I would not recommend going there. We did hear some great snorkeling stories for Coimba, so I would do that over San Blas.

On to Buenos Aires

We did a few educational activities while in Panama City. We visited the Canal Museum which was pretty informative about the complex history of it being built. Katie managed a good solid hour there. The Mola museum was about the Guna Yala tribe’s ‘embroidered’ cloths which I lasted about one hour. We had some dinners out though approaching $150 for dinners when you had the wine. We did try an authentic Panamanian restaurant but we had to leave before ordering as every dish included Culantro which is very similar to Cilantro but stronger in smell and taste. Katie as we all well know can’t stand Cilantro so we were out of there after many apologies.

We were up early one morning to be picked up by our bird guide ‘Mario’ for a trip out to Soberania National Park and the Pipeline Road. Mario was fantastic with spotting birds and other wildlife. There were so many different birds. I think it ended up being something like 50 different species. Colorful Toucans and Trogons, Antshrikes, Warblers, and Herons. So many birds!

We also were treated to a mother Anteater who was carrying a huge baby on her back. Probably a lazy teenager my guess.

He also led us to a sloth moving thru the treetop and the prevalent Agouti on the ground. A great walking tour though very hot and humid, probably mid 90’s for both.

One morning we waited outside to be picked up for a boat tour thru the Panama Canal. Finally calling the office they said we don’t see you on our list and there is no tour today. So they refunded the money and Katie and I visited Miraflores locks where we caught a modest sized container ship go thru. We walked out on the Amador walkway but that was mostly a bust and just hot hot hot. Did manage to Uber downtown to a brewpub (of course) where we had one of our favorites, Chivo Perro IPA.

Up early on our last day in Panama City, we hiked in Metropolitan Park, Too early, I guess, because we had to wait for it to open. This was a couple hour hike with some big views of both downtown as well as the canal. We saw 2 different Trogons (birds), saw a snake, a family of Howler Monkeys and lots of Turtles.

Howler Family

Back to the hotel for showers and packing then Uber to the airport. I have to say we used Uber maybe 10 times while in the City. The car always arrived within 2-3 minutes, sometimes less. Almost always the 20 min drives were $5-7 and the long ones to the airport were $25. Never used a taxi though they were everywhere. We were told they are used mainly by the kids going to the schools.

We flew to David and then Ubered 40 minutes to Boquete in the rainforest, again like $25. We stayed at the Garden Inn and it was really a garden! Beautiful room with a balcony overlooking the gardens and the rainforest as a backdrop.

Ended our first day walking down to ‘The Rock’ where we had a great dinner. The following day, pouring rain.  We parked ourselves on the balcony of our room waiting for the rains to stop. Many birds to watch but we cancelled our hiking plans. We walked into town, about a 20 minute walk, but not a lot to see there.  Walked back to the Inn for some hot tub then taxied down to an Italian restaurant in town. Great food and an easy commute. We were picked up after breakfast at the Inn the following day by Daniel who was our chauffeur and guide at a local coffee Finca, Gran del Val. So happens his dad was the manager of this Finca before he died from Covid. Daniel was a wealth of information. So much that I think I lost 90% even before leaving.

The life of a coffee bean

Barrista extraordinaire

We did learn a lot of new info about coffee and we were stunned to learn of some of the high prices paid for coffee. Apparently, the people in Dubai pay $1000 for a cup of Geisha coffee. We got to try some but honestly I am used to Peet’s, not a light roasted aromatic tea like coffee such as Geisha. Fun facts, dark roasted coffee has less caffeine than medium or light roast. Coffee has Cortisol in it! In making coffee, it was a recipe of weight to water poured over intervals in a certain direction, over specific time periods. So much to it, you would miss breakfast just making the coffee!

Daniel later dropped Katie and I off at the Pipeline Trail. We hiked for 3 miles along the trail looking for the famous Quetzal bird but in the end just looking for anything moving in the rain. No luck on the Quetzals.

We rode the local bus back to town which ended up being a terrific view of the countryside in the upper mountains. We stopped at a local brewpub(of course) after being dropped off and then stayed around to watch a once a year Cowboy/Horse parade. It was supposed to start at 2, we had beers at 3. Waited over an hour on the street after that, but then I would guess a thousand locals on beautiful horses dancing and prancing down the street with intermittent trucks full of musicians providing music. Quite the sight!

annual Horse Parade part drink fest

We are on to Boca del Toro tomorrow so expect a more Caribbean vibe from there.

Barting it

This is our first big trip of the year with no disrespect meant for Scottsdale and the Savana Banana baseball tour! We, like others were ready for trouble at the TSA crossing but honestly it took literally 5 minutes. It helps that Katie did not have her Swiss Army knife with her this time but still 5 minutes! Paying people may be overrated.

We were denied access to the Polaris Club despite the COPA Airlines website saying we were entitled. I mean we are not entitled but we were supposed to be able to get in. We found a United Club that did let us in and we ended up with a very relaxed wait. The business class seats were great lie-flat things but service was pretty suspect. We were offered water after the first 2 hours and the dinner at around 10:30 that night, several hours into the flight. I watched a couple shows on my iPad and promptly fell asleep. I woke up close to arrival. They had left some water and some vegetable chips for breakfast! No coffee.

A driver picked us up from the airport and drove us into old town, quizzing us about Trump on the way and telling us about Panamanian feelings. Yikes, I hope that doesn’t keep up the whole way. We left our bags at the apartment and walked over to a much needed coffee shop. Set out walking up and down the streets of old town, looking in art shops and reading the menus of the restaurants we passed. We decided to hike up to the top of Mt Ancon for views of the city. Google says 30 min. Reality says hour and a half. You can’t walk the way google says. A policeman at one point asked to help and suggested we not go thru a certain area so we detoured a little. Saw a deer after entering the park (you don’t see that everyday, no wait a minute you do). A sloth sighting farther up the trail made a wonderful welcome. 

The views at the top were good but my shirt was completely soaked with sweat. Not that it was a hard walk, just 89 degrees and probably the same in humidity. We hiked back down hungry and thirsty and found ‘Bruma’ in old town where we split fish and chips and had a couple IPA’s (no sharing).

We checked in to our place where we promptly fell asleep for 2 hours. We read a little then out for a spicy margarita at a rooftop bar, SAMA Sky Lounge. Great views of old and new Panama City. We walked around a bit more then found a tapas restaurant for of course potatoes bravas. We also had croquets, Portuguese sausage on a croquet covered with chickpeas aka hummus. We did get an eggplant thing which, as usual for me, did not fail to disappoint.

We were picked up today for a boat ride out on Lake Gatun to several monkey islands. The first had capuchin monkeys (white faced). They came on the boat and promptly grabbed this guys money and ID out his backpack and ran for shore. Luckily with a little fright he dropped it before exiting the boat.

The next island had Titi monkeys, small beautiful monkeys both Katie and I had never seen before. There were also very large iguanas in the bushes.

Another island was home to some Howler monkeys. We pulled up to a tree with very small bats all lined up on the trunk and there were several hawks about.

Finally we saw up close a large container ship that was traversing the canal as Lake Gatun makes up a large portion of the canal. Back home for a small plate of empanadas and now relaxing in America Hotel sipping a Seco/Tonic and a Rum/Coke. Tradition.