Bus stops and stray dogs

Using our somewhat trusty navigation system, who we so lovingly refer to as "Bambi," we made our exit from the Panama Canal and found our way onto what I thought was called the Interamericana. Turns out, that’s what the road is called in my Lonely Planet guidebook. However, when actually in the country, all signs say Panamericana.
This is the highway that in six or seven hours time will take us from Panama City to David. We weren’t going to make the ride straight through; we had decided to stop at the halfway city—Santiago.
The highway was decent, with two lanes going in each direction. However, beware of the looming potholes ... there are many and some are quite huge. A lot of them just laughed at our little rental car and tried their best to rip our tires off.
The roadside scenery wasn’t much to write home about. We passed through several small towns that each offered similar amenities: a gas station, a convenience store, and bus stops. The good thing was there was no reason to worry about finding a gas station along the way because there were plenty.
The amazing thing was the amount of bus stops and stray dogs. Bus stops are literally everywhere. I began to wonder how far these people traveled and for what, work? I know friends of ours who have hours-long commutes into the city to work, but I'm thinking these Panamanians might have to travel even further!
And if you are a dog lover, the sight of all the stray dogs will depress you. They are thin to the point where you can see their ribs and they are just walking the highway. It made me want to pick them all up and bring them home.
A friend of ours told us about El Valle, about a half hour off the Panamericana. With our stomachs growling for food, we decided El Valle would be good place to stretch our legs and eat.

Morning at the Panama Canal

Before exploring Panama’s countryside, we decided to visit MiraFlores Locks—the Panama Canal.
Like most things, you see it on the Discovery or History channel but there really is nothing like seeing it in person. It was impressive!
Not really knowing exactly when it opened, we arrived a little before 9 a.m. only for the guard to turn us away saying they didn’t officially open until 9 a.m. So we parked on the side of the road scanning the radio for an English music station for the 10-minute wait and then made our entrance.
The four-story-tall Visitors Center rests on a hilltop and offers fantastic exhibits on each floor as well as a movie telling of the history and future of the Canal that is shown in both English and Spanish.
On the fourth level, there is a huge outdoor deck where you can watch the ships carefully maneuver through the narrow waterway as a guide announces over the speaker system the specifics of each ship. We saw two tankers that morning, plus a luxury personal watercraft.
To do everything, it cost $16 total for the two of us. We ended up spending just over two hours there. Unfortunately, the Visitors Center's restaurant did not open until noon so we weren’t able to do the whole meal-overlooking-the-Canal thing.
If you are considering not seeing the Canal during a trip to Panama, I would reconsider. It’s one of those man-made wonders that really is amazing, especially considering the era in which it was built.

Roaming Panama City on Foot

We dropped our backpacks in our room at Hotel Marparaiso and stepped out into the heat of the city streets. Even with the humidity, it wasn’t all that oppressive considering it was overcast as the afternoon rains were slowly making their way in. Plus, being from Florida, 90 degrees and 100% humidity are nothing new.
I left my camera in the hotel room only because it is the city and I didn’t want to draw any more attention to ourselves than my blond-haired, pale-skinned self already would.
We decided to head down to the waterfront, which we could see from our hotel. Along the way, we passed by the hospital where many people stood outside on the cracked cement assumingly waiting for some medical treatment.
There was also a small market selling plates of food with names I did not recognize. The smells weren’t inviting enough to tempt me to stop.
We walked along the waterfront for a bit but our attention was more on the busy road that runs parallel with the water. Its three lanes of traffic in each direction were full of public buses crammed with bodies, little cars going crazy speeds, and lots of horn honking. And the smell of diesel was overpowering. It made me crave fresh air.
We left the waterfront and headed up past the hotel where we stopped in a small, dimly lit grocery and purchased a Pepsi for 30 cents. Most, if not all, of the colas come in glass bottles which the clerk will open for you.
We were both surprised to find that the Pepsi did not taste like Pepsi at home. There was definitely a different sweetener added.
We did find a Domino’s Pizza and a McDonald’s, and each had small motorbikes parked outside with huge metal boxes on the back for delivery. How funny that you can order a Big Mac and have it delivered to your home.
It was 3 or 4 in the afternoon and a lot of places were closed, maybe because it was Saturday. Although later that night from our hotel window, I did notice that some businesses that posted closed signs during the day, opened in the evening. Maybe they take an afternoon siesta.
If that’s the case, America can take a lesson from Panama.

Hotel Marparaiso in Panama City

I found Hotel Marparaiso on the web. It looked friendly enough, as friendly as any city hotel can look on the Internet, and for $33 a night I decided to take the chance.
This seven-story, yellow building with Hotel Marparaiso painted in red on its side, rests at the corner of Avenida Cuba and Calle 34, just two blocks from the waterfront, but not a very picturesque waterfront.
The girl who checked us in spoke English, explaining what time breakfast was available in the adjacent restaurant as well as providing us with remotes for our room air-conditioner and TV.
The hotel’s website says it offers secured parking for up to 50 cars but when we asked she said parking on the street was fine. All we could do was cross our fingers and hope that our car survived the night.
We headed up to #108 with our funny looking key and found two beds (one twin, one double), a private bath with a hot-water shower, and a TV mounted in the corner. It was almost hospital-like with its drab white walls and white tile floors, but it was clean and had a large window overlooking the city streets. Plus there was a deadbolt on the door.

Knowing the parents were worried, we immediately headed back downstairs to use the computer. A small room off the lobby has three computers where you just insert a dollar and get one hour of Internet usage. We emailed everyone letting them know we had arrived safely at our hotel and that the city was well … just that, a city.
We spent the evening watching “Die Hard” in English with Spanish subtitles. Very funny!
After a few hours, it became apparent that our air-conditioner was leaking so we expressed our concern to the girl at the front desk who hollered (literally) for the maintenance guy. He immediately came up to our room, inspected the unit, and, for a temporary solution, placed a bucket underneath it. He also gave us fresh towels since we had used ours to soak up the water on the floor. We were impressed with the quick attention. We grabbed a quick bite in the restaurant downstairs, which was empty for the most part but take-out orders were flying out the door. The menu was at least 10 pages long. It was huge! We split a club sandwich and called it a night.
The next morning we headed back down the restaurant to claim our free breakfast with our two poker chips given to us during check-in. The two poker chips entitled us to two rolls each (not heated) with butter and grape jelly, a small glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice, and coffee with milk. We were there when they opened at 7:30 a.m., took our free meal, and checked out.
More importantly, we were happy to find our little Lancer, still in one piece, waiting for us just outside.

Surviving our first few hours in Panama

We arrived with empty stomachs at Panama’s Tocumen International Airport around 2 p.m. on a Saturday and decided to grab a bite to eat before heading out into the unknown.
Things you should know about Tocumen:

• Very nice, bright, and modern facility
• Tons of places to duty-free shop for jewelry, liquor, cosmetics, even candy at the M&M store
• Few choices for food: a hot dog cart and a sit-down place aptly named Cafeteria

We chose to sit down.
While not huge, the menu was varied, and we each ordered a pizza. The prices were moderate at $7 a pizza, but we were in the airport so we knew we wouldn’t be getting any deals. Overall, the pizzas were large, very cheesy, and very tasty, and our service was fast, making the Cafeteria a good stop.
We then headed downstairs to Immigration, where Wes bought our tourist cards for $5 a piece while I waited to get a stamp on our passports. Then it was off to Budget to retrieve our car. The car rental companies all conveniently have desks within the airport.
The attendant was not fast by any means but he was courteous and we were soon sitting in our four-door, automatic Mitsubishi Lancer, which my six-foot, five-inch husband crammed himself into.
We were required by law to purchase two forms of insurance, plus we purchased the additional tire and windshield insurance bringing our total cost for the week to $294.
As we started to pull away, we were approached by an officer inquiring who we rented the car from and how long we were renting it for, which he noted on his clipboard and then sent us on our way.
Our navigation system found our hotel in Panama City and we were off following the signs to Panama Centro.
Some things to be aware of on the roads:

• Lots of people running across the highways. These people were literally running across two lanes of traffic, climbing over the cement divider, and continuing on to the other side. It was crazy!
• Tolls along the way with hardly any signage alerting you. Two tolls going into the city cost us $1.40 and $1.50. No big deal, they just came upon us without any warning.
  The skyline of the city as we came in across the water was breathtaking, but then again I think any city skyline is impressive from afar. It’s when you get into the city that the view turns sour.

Driving along the city streets we only hit two snags:

• A build-up of traffic in front of the Hard Rock Café, which was scary because buses and taxis were dropping off and picking up, and traffic, including us, was trying to squeeze by in the remaining lanes. Needless to say, there was a lot of honking going on and no blinkers being used.
• Turning the wrong way on a one-way street. Thankfully there were only two cars coming at us and my husband expertly stayed off to the far side before turning onto a side street.

Happy to see our hotel, we parked, checked in, and flopped down on the beds for a breather.

Panama City lessons learned

Here are some things I learned about Panama City.

1. Do make hotel reservations. The city itself is a popular destination place year round and it can be very difficult to find a room. Plan ahead.


2. Ask for a room toward the interior of the hotel. Like any city, it comes alive at night and you'll suffer with the noise till the wee hours of the morning unless you request an interior room (and even then there's no guarantee).


3. Panama drivers do not use blinkers. And you using them only gives away your foreigner status.


4. Panama drivers use the shoulder to pass.


5. Cars stop anywhere they please, even in the middle of a lane, to pick people up and drop them off.


6. Sometimes there are lines painted on the road indicating lanes, sometimes there are not.


7. One-way streets are not always marked. Keep your eyes peeled for traffic going in all one direction as that may be your only indication of a one-way street.


8. The horn is a beloved form of communication for these drivers. They use it constantly and it can mean everything and anything from "Get out of my way!" to "How are you?" to "Do you need a taxi?" to "Don't cross the street because I'm coming through!"

My husband has driven in many large cities: Washington, D.C., New York, L.A., Minneapolis, London, Miami, San Francisco … and he insists there is nothing worse than Panama City. Several people we spoke with agreed.

This following video is from YouTube by jonoanzalone, but it is representative of our experiences.

Panama City chewed us up and spit us out

We are not city people. We know this about ourselves and yet we still chose to drive in Panama City and stay at least one night.
Estúpidos Americanos!
The only piece of advice I can give is this: Invest in a portable navigation system or make sure the car you rent has one.
We have a portable device which we brought along after purchasing the Panama map off the Internet. Unfortunately, it let us down a few times. So much so, that at one point, my husband literally banged it against the dashboard a few times in his anger and frustration while saying a few choice words that I cannot repeat.
Thankfully, the system survived. Otherwise, there’s a very good chance we would still be driving around the streets of Panama City today.
Yes, we did make a couple of wrong turns only to end up in some very unsavory neighborhoods. On those occasions we quickly made a u-turn and made our escape. All those stories we heard about gringos ending up in such places only to be carjacked, thankfully did not happen to us.
We did eventually make it to our various destinations, Hotel Marparaiso, Miraflores Locks, Albrook Mall, Hotel Riande Aeropuerto, within and around the city at which point we drank heavily.

There's no place like home

I went to Panama with no expectations.
From those I spoke with prior to the trip, I had heard mostly good reviews with a few words of caution sprinkled in. But I didn’t arrive in Panama with any ideas of exactly what sights we would see, what people we would encounter, and what adventures we would have (which were many!).
Leading up to the trip, I had been reading Richard Dietrich’s blog regularly, which prepared me for some potential rudeness and/or indifference from the Panamanians. So I wasn’t really surprised when the lady at Tocumen Airport’s immigration literally waved us away with a flip of her hand. We were not offended. In fact, we actually found it funny.
Being a third world country, we knew we would encounter many poor areas. But when you look beyond that, the overall landscape is breathtaking, especially once we were out of Panama City.
What I wasn’t prepared for was the overwhelming desire I had of wanting to hop on the first flight back home after only our second day in the country.
While I want to consider myself a woman of adventure, this was one vacation where I was completely out of my comfort zone. Thankfully, what ensued was a week filled with fun and challenging experiences as well as near death events. And we met a lot of fascinating people along the way.
I look forward to sharing them all with you.

Florida Keys part 3 - By Scott Kelsey

I am exploring the wonders of Central America, Scott Kelsey of Dining on the Bay will be sharing his adventures with you from his recent trip to the Florida Keys. Enjoy!

The whole time we were in the Key I was plotting the biggest surprise in my Girlfriends life. On our last night on the Island I asked my mother if she would watch David (my girlfriends son) while me and Linsey went out by ourselves.

First we headed to Islamorada (about a 30 minute drive) to go and eat dinner at the Wahoo's. I must say that was one of the best plates of fried grouper that I have ever ate. After dinner and a sunset we decided to head back to our favorite place on Marathon "The Island Tiki Bar & Restaurant".

When we found the tiki bar last year we absolutely fell in love with it. The whole year following our trip we would always talk about "our tiki bar". Now we were back and it was the same ole' place as it had been in the past. Only this year I had a plan!

After everyone started leaving the dining area's around the marina Linsey and I made our way to one of the table. Soon we were the only people in the whole dining area, which made it all the better. We started talking about our normal non-sense stuff when I stopped her to tell her that I loved her. Linsey being Linsey tells me that it is not true and keeps on telling her story. So I stop her again and say "what do I have to do to prove to you that I love you" so she points at her finger and says "put a ring on my hand". Without hesitation I reached in my packet and pulled out the most beautiful diamond ring that I have ever seen and ask her to marry me. She looked up at me with these big alligator tears and says "Am I dreaming".

I must say it couldn't have been any better timing then that. We are now planning a May wedding. Let the fun begin!

Posted by dining on the bay.

Florida Keys part 2 - By Scott Kelsey

I am exploring the wonders of Central America, Scott Kelsey of Dining on the Bay will be sharing his adventures with you from his recent trip to the Florida Keys. Enjoy!

The house we stayed in was perfect, it was 5 bedroom, 5 bathroom, stilt home right on the intersection of two canals. It was the last house on the street so there were no homes blocking our daily view of the sun setting over the mangrove trees.

About a mile down the road we found a public beach, Coco Plum, which seemed to be the locals “Secret Hide-away”, the parking lot had room for maybe 10 cars but we never seen more then 3 or 4. The best part was the white sandy beach stretched on for as far as my eyes could see and there were no huge condos or hotels to block any of the view, it felt like we had the whole beach to ourselves.

We would take the boat out every morning and fish until around lunch, come back to the house and eat then head back out for a day of snorkeling. We found a great man-made reef not 5 miles away from our house; it had 5 boat tie off’s and crystal clear water. We saw sharks, stingray, lobster, and the most beautiful fish you can imagine. You really don’t have to pay to go to the snorkeling sites, just pull over to the side of the road and explore on your own. Bring your mask and snorkel and you are set. We made a trip to Key West to check out Mallory Square. The women made their trip to the Kino Sandal Factory to buy the famous Key West style shoes. Then we made our way to the Blode Giraffe you can’t make the trip to Key West without having a “Blonde Giraffe” a frozen chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick!

A great time was had by everyone on this trip to the Florida Keys!

Posted by Dining on the Bay

Florida Keys - By Scott Kelsey

While I am exploring the wonders of Central America, Scott Kelsey of Dining on the Bay will be sharing his adventures with you from his recent trip to the Florida Keys. Enjoy!

A few weeks ago my family and I took our 2nd Annual road trip down to the island of Marathon in the Florida Keys, for a fun filled week of fishing and just being lazy, this would be one to remember. My whole family was there and a few friends of the family showed up. My girlfriend and her son also were along for the ride which made it extra special because her 5 years old son couldn't make last years trip.

The weather was perfect and the water was calm, basically it was the best fishing weather you could ask for. Unlike last year when we didn’t catch a single fish nor did we have a day that didn’t rain this year was different, we were catching dolphin all day and going home to the house we rented and catching snapper on off the sea walls. We were having and Awesome time.

posted by dining on the bay

Smart travel advice

I've received a lot of good advice about traveling, not just to Panama but out of the country in general.

1. Wear a money belt inside your clothes to keep the bulk of your money in. Of course, I'm thinking inside the bra or shoe might work, too!
2. Remove the memory card from your digital camera as often as you can. This way, in case the camera gets stolen, you still have your photos.
3. At least try to speak the language so the locals see you are making an effort (it may endear them to you more).
4. Let your credit card company know you are traveling so when strange purchases start showing up, a fraud alert isn't placed on your card.
5. Know the currency. In Panama's case, I've learned that it is best to travel with bills smaller than $50 and not to bring traveler's checks because most places won't accept them.
6. Stand your ground. Act like you know where you are going and don't let locals take advantage of you.

I'm thinking that last piece of advice may be more difficult to pull off. Being a blondie in Panama is not really going to help my case. In fact, it will just scream "gringa" to the locals.
So, armed with "Habla ingles?", a map tucked in my pocket, and my arm around my 6'6" husband, me and my blondie self are ready to take on Panama and have a great time!