Searching for rest in Santiago

We arrived in Santiago, our halfway point in our drive across Panama, while there was still thankfully some light left in the evening sky. This was the part in the trip where I wanted to fly by the seat of our pants, which basically translates into no hotel reservations.
There isn’t much in Santiago, but I knew from our guidebook that there were a couple of hotels. And, even better, there was civilization, meaning there was a McDonald’s and a KFC.
Turns out, one of the hotels, Hotel Plaza Gran David, was no longer in business with huge weeds growing through cracks in the sidewalks; and the second hotel looked fairly unsavory. By now, night was coming on fast so we had to make a decision if we wanted a decent night’s rest.
We drove on a bit further through town (granted the main strip through town isn’t too long) in the hope that we wouldn’t have to resort to sleeping in the car. And then our mecca appeared: Hotel La Hacienda.
It was a huge stucco building in bright colors of orange, yellow, and red at the north side of town. It looked inviting enough, with wagon wheel accents and cute horse posts in the parking lot. Its prices were a little on the high side starting at $57 for a double bed. Knowing we’d never be comfortable in a double, and the queen didn’t look much larger, we opted for the king-size bed for $71.
On the way to our room, we snuck a peek at the pool, which has an adjacent children’s playground. We then dropped our bags on the Mexican blanketed bed and headed down to the restaurant to enjoy a glass of sangria.