So after hanging out in Bocas del Toro for more than a month, I decided it was time to venture out a bit. I was planning on renting a car and just driving around Panama for a week or two to get an idea of the rest of the country.
Coincidentally, Mitzy (of the GC Gang) emailed me and told me that she had some time off coming and was interested in coming down to Panama for a visit. We decided to work on a plan to rent a car, and do a little road adventure down the “Interamericana” highway for a week. Then, do a sail on Andiamo for a couple of days when we got back. That was the plan at least.
Mitzy got here on the 9th, and by the 10th, we were on our way to David. This is where we would pick up the rental car, and start our road trip in earnest. Getting to David required us taking a water taxi to a town called Almirante, then catching a bus from there for the 3 or so hour ride to David. We arrived in David that evening, but because the airport was already closed, we couldn’t pick up the car until morning. So we got a hotel, which was VERY nice, for the mere price of $24 a night.
The next morning, we picked up the car at the airport. After refusing the first car Dollar tried to give us (a tiny little Toyota Yaris), because it was basically smacked up and had a really bad rear tire. We ended up with a Nissan Sentra, which was what we were supposed to get in the first place. It had a nice stereo and ice cold AC, so we were mobile.
The first stop was Boquete, about 45 minutes or so from David. Lisa (Crazy Ex-lawyer from Ohio) lives there now, and we told her we’d come up for a visit. She was actually on her way back from Panama City, so we were all going to meet up that evening after she got back. We arrived in Boquete with no problems, and opted to drive around to get a feel for the town. Boquete is nestled in a narrow river valley, on one side is a dormant volcano, and on the other side is a green mountain ridge. Flowing right through the valley is the Chiriqui river. It’s really quite nice. And, because it’s a much higher altitude, much cooler than the rest of Panama.
On the downside, it’s becoming quite the gringo retirement destination, and with that comes the slow disintegration of the place. When you start seeing signs in english everywhere, you know that the place has had it as far as the gringo invasion is concerned. Yet, Boquete still maintained a pleasant ambiance, provided you were just there for a visit.
Lisa showed up that evening, and we met up at her place for dinner. She shares a place with another american guy named David. So we all jumped in the car for dinner at a new Lebanese restaurant that opened close by. the food was outstanding, and lots of good conversation. From there, we headed over to a small jazz bar for drinks.
The next day, we met up with Lisa and she took us around town and beyond. We went on a nice drive through the foothills and cliffs that surround Boquete. Plenty of waterfalls around here, really nice scenery. Then, she took us to a park called “El Explorador”. Which was a little too “cute” for me, but because of the company, we managed to have fun with the place. Mitzy and Lisa both got on the same loopy wavelength, and it provided much entertainment for me.
We also stopped at a kids’ center where Lisa sometimes volunteers. Apparently, this particular day, she was going to help teach an improv class for local indian kids(?)(we’re still trying to figure that one out too). Unfortunately, (but maybe fortunately for us;P), the class was cancelled.
After eating a late lunch at a local spot, we broke off for the afternoon and met up later for dinner and drinks. It was just Lisa this time. We went to a nice small hotel called the Panamonte for dinner, then to a gringo bar for drinks afterwards. The one thing about Boquete is that it gets really sleepy really early in the evening. By 11pm, there really is nothing to do.
Next morning, we headed over to a lookout point over the river and had coffee. We ran into David there, apparently, the local gringo “AA” meeting gathers there, and it’s become more of a social networking event than anything else.
We stopped by Lisa’s house on the way out of town to say goodbye. She was planning on coming with us when we were planning the trip. But she ended up having to stay behind because her mom was coming in any day for a visit. So we headed onward. We were going to do a hike up the volcano, but the weather was getting rather crappy, and we didn’t feel like getting trapped up ther e in a deluge. So we opted to head straight for the Pacific instead.
After a brief stop in David to get a much needed FM adapter so we can play music in the car off my MP3, we headed on to Boca Chica. This meant going down the Interamericana highway to a place called Horconcito. Then we turned off there, and headed past Horconcito on a road that rapidly becomes gravel and clay instead of asphalt. It was clear to us, though, that the road was being graded and ready for paving. Probably because that area was next on the list for tourist and gringo development.
After a longer than expected ride through some dirt and muddy roads, we made it to Boca Chica. Boca Chica is a small fishing town in a small bay off the pacific. There are a couple of islands right off of it, including Boca Brava. Lisa told us about Boca Brava, so we decided to head over there and stay at the only hotel on the island.
We took a water taxi over and got checked in a the Boca Brava Hotel. We got a pretty decent room with terrace for something like $22. Not bad. It had a TV, but only antenna. That meant only a few Panamanian channels with really, really bad programming. Think Jerry Springer in spanish.
We had dinner at the hotel restaurant. If you didn’t eat by 7, you were basically left to starve. The weather got pretty bad, so all we did was play dominoes in the restaurant and then went back to the room to watch some bad tv for awhile.
The next morning, the weather was better. After breakfast, we ventured down to one of Boca Brava’s beaches. There was a trail that led down to the beaches from the hotel. After a nice walk, we got to one beach. We walked along it, up to a rocky point. We decided to walk around the point to see what was on the other side. It was a relatively easy walk over smooth boulders and pumice rocks. On the other side was an even nicer beach, so we hung out there and swam. There was only one little shack on the beach, which was a ramshackle beach bar run by a rather strange german lady. Though she was open, she didn’t really have anything to serve us. But she did take photos of us.
We then walked back to the hotel, and washed up and got ready to head back to Boca Chica on the 1pm boat. We were running a little late, so Mitzy went to pay the bill and to tell them that we needed a couple more minutes to get our bags ready. But the owner of the hotel, who was also german, decided he didn’t want to wait for us and just took off. So they called another boat to come and get us instead. That was a bit strange.
We were back at Boca Chica in minutes, and back on the road. Our next stop would be somewhere on the pacific peninsula of Panama, if we can find a nice beach. We drove through the next city, Santiago, and took a turn south to head down to Chitre’ . We figured we’d find a nice beachside spot there.
However, when we got to Chitre’, we were told that there were no hotels on the beach, at all. That was a bit strange too. So after some searching, we found a rather nice hotel. And, there was a casino right next door. So we figured we’d at least have some entertainment for the night.
We had a nice dinner at the hotel restaurant, and then ventured to the casino. Being a Las Vegas veteran, I’ve come to know how casinos operate and the quality of their games. We decided to play blackjack, since there was no poker room. The blackjack was definitely a bit odd. The dealer didn’t deal their second card (or the “hole” card) until after they’d dealt out everyone else’s. There were other oddities in the game as well. But we played anyway. One thing I saw right away was how bad the Panamanian players were. Basic strategy was absolutely an alien concept here. We saw people burn through hundreds of dollars in minutes. Most of it really unnecessarily. After losing $60 and Mitzy losing $20, we decided to call it a night.
The next day, we hit the road again, and headed onward to the city. This was to be the highlight of the trip for us. Mitzy had been to Panama City before, so she knew a bit about it. All I knew about Panama City was that that canal goes through there into the pacific, and that it’s one of the more cosmopolitan cities in Central America (though the Panamanians insist they are in South America).
After having a bit of an ordeal to find our hotel, Mitzy got a hold of Alfredo, a friend of hers who lives in the city, to help us out. He took us to where our hotel was, thankfully, because we never would have found it on our own. After getting checked in to our HUGE hotel suite, which had a kitchen and everything, we ventured out into town.
I was kinda hoping to see if I can find another casio dive watch like the one that I had stolen back in Honduras during the bus hold-up incident last December. I was told by a few people in Bocas that Panama was the place to get it and at a good price. So we headed out to a very large mall called Albrook Mall to search for it.
Now I’ve seen some big malls in my day, but GEEZ, this mall was frickin huge. And it was packed with frenzied Panamanian shoppers, like I’ve never seen before. It was pretty nuts. I’ve never been in a mall where every single store was packed with crazed shoppers to the rafters.
After spending an exhausting couple hours at the mall, the search proved futile. We got close, particularly at one store called “CASIOLANDIA”! This was a large store that carried nothing but Casio products of every kind, and STILL I couldn’t find my dive watch! They had a similar model, but not THE one. So I guess I’ll just have to wait to get back to the states for that.
We got out of the mall in a hurry, and decided that we would have dinner then head over to another casino nearby. Mitzy was particularly serious about getting to a casino with a good poker room. There was a nice casino right down the street from our hotel, called the Via Veneto. So after dinner we crossed the street and headed over there. Good news, they had a poker room. Bad news, they were pretty full with not a lot of open tables, so there was quite a wait. The buy-in was $200 which I was used to, but was a little too much for Mitzy. So we opted for blackjack again instead.
I did well this time, I won back my $60 I lost the night before in Chitre’ and then won about another $175. Mitzy didn’t fare too well, but I managed to win back some of her money too. After some fun playing, we had a couple drinks at the casino lounge, which was PACKED with people, and called it a night.
The next morning, we headed over to Panama Viejo, which was the old city of Panama until 1671 when it was sacked and looted by Henry Morgan. There are still some ruins of the old church, and other parts of the city. It was a nice way to spend half a day. Then, we drove down to the Miraflores locks of the Panama Canal to check it out. That was quite a sight, watching these huge freighters going through these massive locks to get them lowered back down to sea level. There is a rather interesting museum there about the history of the canal as well. We ended up having to be thrown out of the place when it closed at 5, but it was a day well spent.
We headed back to the hotel, and decided to grab dinner at an italian restaurant close to the hotel. Good food, and awesome prices. Mitzy wanted to do some more gambling, I was starting to sense an addiction here…
We headed back to Via Veneto. Of course, the first place we scoped was the poker room, but apparently we had gotten there too late, because all the open spots were full. After that, we decided to just play some blackjack for fun. I started really jamming on blackjack, but had a couple of bad runs. I was determined to make a comeback and did, but I had to work a little bit, and we know how I hate that!
We called it a night a little earlier this time, because we had to get up early to start making our way back to David.
We made the drive all the way back to David in about 5 hours. The plan was to catch a plane back to Bocas from there. But because the next day was a tuesday, there were no flights. So we had to bus it back to Almirante, which turned out to be a horrific bus ride back filled with puking kids and really horrible smells and noises. Well, the horrible noises were more Mitzy’s problem, since I had my MP3 player on the whole time. 
But we made it back intact, nonetheless. The night we got back to Bocas, we headed out to dinner with Eveline and Lana from the Spanish school, and then for some drinks at La Iguana. Mitzy barely got out the next day after a horrific flight snafu (on her part).
So now the plan is to get some stuff done on Andiamo and get her ready for moving into the dock this coming week, while I do a bit more traveling and perhaps even a stateside stop.
That’s it for now…
Comment from: Jacqueline [Visitor]
Your trip sounds more like a gambling run than anything scenic…I think you had more stories about finding a table than of checking out cute animals and lush greenery. You both are addicts!!! Lol…just kidding…sounds like you and Mitzy had a good time.
07/23/07 @ 23:38
Comment from: Lisa [Visitor]
Hey Tony…too funny about the fine service by the wacko German running the hotel on Boca Brava…the first time I was there I thought it was me….but I have come to realize that everyone gets treated in just as aweful a manner. He had to be restrained from a fist fight with a guest the last time I was there…but a las, does make for interesting conversation…and hey, the place is up for sale. Also…yeah…how about the odd ball lady on the beach…when I was there she invited us to have a seat and watch some “good entertainment”…she would throw frozen tuna out to her dog. Then the dog and the vultures would battle for it…and she would just howl with laughter…then grab her beer, turn up the tunes and start dancing about!…ah ain’t island life grand! Sure was great to see you guys!!
07/25/07 @ 18:31
