Panama - More Than Just a Canal

Friday we drove about 1 hour and 45 minutes from the slightly chilly raininess that is Boquete to what will hopefully be, if nothing else, a warmer climate even if it does rain. During the ride the sun is out and I hope that it is not just teasing because we are driving and that once we get where we are going the skies open but we'll see. When we arrive to the area we pass by where we are staying and head on down to the village so we can get a few provisions. The village itself is so small. There is one street in and one street out. When you arrive at the entrance to the village you basically stay to the right, drive down a few blocks, cross over and come back up the other side. There is one small store in town and it's funny because they have practically everything you could need - if you can find it in the cramped store- but they don't have bacon. They do however have cold medicine for Dave which appears to be very similar to Alka Seltzer Plus cold medicine back ...

Tuesday is our anniversary and it is also our travel day from Volcan to Boquete. These towns are just over an hour apart from each other and have similar climates - perpetual spring. Of course that means it is still the rainy season in Boquete - more on that a little later. There's a nice shortcut road between the two cities that we take and it is pretty scenic and for now the rain is holding off so it makes for a nice drive. We encounter two police check points and unlike in Costa Rica a few years back, we have and present our passports and we pass through without issue. I had actually read that in Panama the police can at any time ask for your ID and if you cannot produce it you can be thrown immediately in jail, not sure if it is really practiced but we are not willing to find out. We arrive in Boquete whose main road (and almost every other one) is under construction so it makes for a slow go but no real issues. We find the place that we are staying up a winding road that is p...

We arrived safely at our first apartment in the Chiriqui region in Cuesta de Piedra to be exact and quickly settle in. It's a peaceful birding paradise with views to die for but we are hungry from our travels today and head out in search of an early dinner which is found in a quaint Italian restaurant called La Carbonera and we have a good sized, tasty, well deserved meal. Our next mission is to find the Red Sox game! When we were in Bocas, I was able to log in to my PlayStation Vue account and watch some live TV and some of my DVR'd shows too, even though it placed me as being in the Los Angeles area - this came in handy for the one rainy day we had over there. I assumed I would be able to take advantage of the same thing here for the game as long as the internet signal was strong enough which our host Jerry said it should be, but alas, PlayStation has now figured out that I am no longer in my home country and I am not able to watch anything...crap. So, I search around for a...

There is always this one moment during our vacation where I think "Oh shit, Dave's really gonna kill me for this", and this trip poses one of those times. At least I am consistent!! Let me explain a little, as you know from my last post, we were on Isla Colon in Bocas del Toro. Now there's really only a couple of ways to get to and from the island, fly to/from the city or water taxi to/from the mainland. Since we started in the city, we flew to Bocas but our next journey is to the Chiriqui highlands so it doesn't make sense to fly to the city just to fly over to David in Chiriqui and then rent our car. not to mention the expense. Through my research I find that we can take a water taxi to the mainland, catch the bus to David and then pick up our rental car, so that's what we are going to do! Once we are here in Panama and I mention what we are going to do people are mostly supportive and I further find that from the water taxi we will have to get a taxi to ...

Tuesday we traveled to Bocas del Toro and even though Air Panama cancelled our 2:30 flight, they did get us on the 5:00 one and there were no issues getting to Bocas. Bocas del Toro is a province on the western Caribbean side of Panama which includes some mainland area which is not very populated and the archipelago also known as Bocas del Toro. The main island is Isla Colon whose main center is known as Bocas Town. OK, enough geography for now. We are staying on Isla Colon, not in Bocas Town but outside of town in the Big Creek area. Sandi, who owns the property we are renting picked us up at the airport, took us to a market, of which there is one on every corner, and then we head out to the house. To get to Big Creek you have to pass through what is known here as Saigon and oh the smell that came from here!!!! There is no way to describe it but sewage! UGH. The apartment we are renting is really nice but if I'm being honest, Sandi is a little scatter-brained and seems a little ...

OK - so, it's no surprise that Dave and I are not looking to move to a city of any kind but Panama City is definitely out of the question! We arrived without any issues on Saturday and aside from waiting for our bags for 5 minutes while they were sitting on the other side of the carousel, we got through the airport quickly and once outside were customarily accosted by every guy that wanted to give us ride to the hotel. I had previously read that you should just walk to the right and catch a white taxi at the end of the curb but man getting there took a bit of persistence. and a lot of "No, Gracias" before we got to the end of line and were on our way to the hotel. I have to say that's often the one thing that I don't like about traveling, especially to areas where tourism is key, the aggressiveness of people that want to sell you something or otherwise get your money. But, such is the way it is and I just have to keep politely declining their offers. The first ...