Panama City - day 21

Has it really been 3 weeks? Tomorrow it will be time to go home. I'm really not looking forward to seeing how tall the grass is in the front yard. And I know the back yard is full of dead tree limbs since we had 45+ mph winds the night before we left 3 weeks ago. Hoo-boy!

Looking at all the yard work waiting for me when I get home, a beautiful condo on the beach is looking very appealing.

So for our last day, we decided to go back to the Metropolitano park and take another hike thru the forest. We chose a 45 minute trail, which had a few ups and downs to it, but Jan did quite well navigating the terrain. Unfortunately, we saw no wildlife this hike except for the thousands of ants busily carrying material for their nest. Jan did swear that she had a brief glance of a Toucan flying thru the trees.

For our last meal, we chose to return to the Balboa Yacht Club and try some of the Longhorn Texas BBQ. The owner is from Texas, and this place had some real BBQ. The brisket, chicken, and sausage was delicious.

View from Longhorn BBQ of the Canal

Note the colorful bus below. As of this week, they are not allowed to carry passengers in the city. They were replaced by the more modern buses you see in the next pic. The older colorful buses were a real site to see. Some of them had exhaust pipes that went straight up the rear, just like this one in the pic. At night, they were completely adorned with led lights that were hard to miss.

As I was sitting here, we had a brief power flicker. Must of been off maybe 3 minutes, before coming back on. Whew! Glad it wasn't another 3 hour sweat box ordeal.

Panama City - day 20 - Ancon Hill

This morning did not start out so well. We thought we would finally get up to Ancon hill to get a good view of the whole city. On the way out we passed by an accident a few blocks from our apt where there was a body laying on the center meridian covered by a tarp. The Policia were standing by along with a stopped car and a few people. Apparently the vehicle hit a pedestrian. About a few miles later, we heard screeching tires and saw a taxi with his rear bumper laying on the road. An SUV was speeding and hit the taxi and spun him around. We were beginning to think that we should head back to the apt for the rest of the day.

But, we tallied forward to Ancon hill. Ancon hill is a landmark that I use every time I leave the apt in the car. If I can see Ancon, then I know where I am. Ancon used to belong to the Americans during occupation of the canal, so there is very little development on it. Today it is a virtual forest surrounded by the city. You can drive to the top and see all around Panama City. It is a sight not to be missed. Unfortunately, the pics below do not even begin to describe the views from this hill. It is breathtaking. You can see the canal, the Miraflores locks, old town Panama, the skyscrapers, the ocean, everything. We even saw another capybara, the large rodent.

View of the City from Ancon Hill

Casco Viejo in the distance

View of Albrook Airport

View of the Canal

We also went back to Casco Viejo, the oldest part of town. On Sundays, the markets are alive with vendors selling the exact same thing as every one else. After two booths, you no longer see anything new, but it is still fun to walk thru them. Jan bought another beaded bracelet and a beaded hummingbird, something she has been looking for every since Bocas del Toro. There are some very old churches in this area, where restoration can be seen everywhere.

Shopping at the narket

We have one more day here before coming home, and although we are looking forward to coming back to the states, we are going to miss this place.

Panama City - St Patricks Day

Where do you go in Panama on St Patricks Day? Well Bennigans of course. Yep, they have everything here in the city. We drove down to the Amador Causeway for lunch where we had seen a Bennigans a few days before. We enjoyed some green draft Balboa cervazas at lunchtime.

Yummmm!

Panama City - day 19

Today was a first for a couple of things.

This morning we thought we would hike around the Metropolitano park which is real close by to the city. After paying our $4 entrance fee per person, the park personnel showed us the trail to take. Not more than 12 minutes into the hike, we saw our first sloth, up high on a tree limb, taking his siesta. This guy did not move an inch. I can now come back a happy camper. After reaching the end of the trail we were going to take, we turned around and came back the way we came. We showed 3 ladies the sloth since they had missed seeing him, and sure enough, it still hadn't moved. Also, there is a pic below of one of the termite mounds that attach to trees. They are all over the rainforest here. Gives me the chillies.

Sloth snoozing in the tree

Termite mound attached to a limb

For lunch, we walked a few blocks to the Pomodor Spaghetteria which is another favorite of ours. Real good Italian restaurant we had discovered last year when we were here.

On the way back to the apartment, we stopped at the Duran Coffee shop which is just behind our apartment. We have been drinking Duran in the mornings, and it is pretty good. We then returned to the apt and got cleaned up after the hike.

When it came time for dinner, we couldn't decide on either eating pizza in or going out for dinner. About 6:30 pm, that decision was made for us. The power went out in the apartment building so we had no A/C, no microwave, and also apparently no water. So off we went walking again to our favorite pub a few blocks away. This pub brews its own beer, and it is pretty good. After about an hour, we walked back to the apartment, but still no power. At least the electricians were in the area. So we opened the windows, and got as comfortable as we could. About 8:50 the power came back on. Ahhhhhh, A/C. I do not see how the majority of the folks here live without A/C. (Apparently when the power is out, the wind stops blowing as well, since we had no breeze when the windows were open....)

Some more info about our apartment. There are 5 floors, and each floor has 12 apartments. Each set of 3 apartments are behind a caged door with a lock. There is a parking garage below the apts, and there is usually a guy there watching everything. And the door into the building is locked as well. So there is plenty of security here.

Yes, that is the life here in Panama. Never a dull moment.

Panama City - day 18 - Gorgona

Today we went casa hunting again. This time we focused on some beach front houses and condos in Gorgona, which is about 2 hours outside of the city. At this point I wish that we had already gotten our visas and sold everything back in the states. We stumbled upon a condo right on the beach, with a real nice 3 bedroom that we could almost afford. They are just now starting construction, and the units will not be available till August 2014. There are only 5 units left that have not been sold. Can you spell capital DARN. We went thru the model and really liked it. The master bedroom faced the ocean, and had sliding glass doors that opened up directly to the balcony. What a beautiful view to wake up to every morning.

For lunch we stopped at Pantay restaurant again in Coronado. We ate there a few days ago and thoroughly enjoyed the flavorful food. Today we had the fish of the day and grilled chicken. Both came with coconut rice. This is now our favorite place to eat.

We also visited a gated housing community that already had a few houses occupied. We toured a couple of 3 bedroom homes that would work for us, and the prices were right. Unlike the houses in Altos del Maria, these houses had a carport for 2 vehicles. Below are a few pictures of Malibu housing community.

Panama City - day 17 - Isla las Perlas

Today has been another long day. Up at 6 am so we could get to the Trump tower by 7:30 for the ferry ride to the Pearl Islands. Traffic at 6:30 in the morning is a heck of a lot better than at 6:30pm. It took us about an hour to get 3 miles coming home afterwards.

But enough about traffic.........the ride to the Pearl Islands was about 2 hours. We made 2 stops at other islands before we got to our beach. On the way there, the boat slowed to a crawl, so we all jumped up out of our seats to see why. What we saw before us was way too kool. There was a super pod of dolphins crossing in front of us, so we slowly cruised thru the thick of them. We could see them swimming right along side us, in front of us, behind us, etc. hundreds of them. We were so excited to see them, that unfortunately the pics did not come out so well.

Isla Perlas Ferry

View of the City as we head out to the Pearl Islands

After reaching Isla Contradora, we went walking but the hilly terrain caused us to turn back and stay at the beach where we landed. It was a nice beach, with a bar/restaurant just up the hill. We lounged around in beach chairs drinking cervazas until one of us got a little sunburned. Oops, I am hurting now!

The ride in the morning was smooth as glass. The ride coming back was choppy with 3 to 4 foot waves. Whoo-hoo, but it didn't help trying to convince Jan to get a 43 foot sailboat to live on......

Panama City - day 16 - Chame

It is now 8 pm and we just got back home. Someone please remind me that I absolutely hate driving around in this city at night. It is bad enough in the daytime.

We spent the afternoon in Chame, which is a small town about an hour and a half outside of Panama City. We visited Clyde and Terry who most of you may know as the owners of "Along the Gringo Trail" . They moved to Panama just over a year ago and Terry does an excellent job writing about their experiences.

Before visiting Clyde and Terry we had an excellent lunch in Coronado. I had grilled chicken with coconut rice, and the favors were unbelieveably delicious.

We had a great day, well except for the drive home. Nerve racking but home safe.

Lunch at Pantay Restaurant in Coronado

Terry and Jan 

Clyde the Host/Cook/Bartender