Final Panama thoughts

Our final day in Panama took us from the white-sand beaches of Santa Clara and the beauty of the Las Sirenas resort, where hammocks swayed in the ocean breeze, to the craziness of Panama City, which unfortunately we had to drive through in order to get to the airport.

Neither one of us looked forward to driving in the city again, but we knew our chances of kissing the U.S. soil were far better if we could successfully navigate the city and come out on the other side.

We decided to waste a few hours at the Albrook Mall, which after a couple of wrong turns we finally found. Albrook was a HUGE mall! I mean talk about sensory overload! It was like Miami on steriods. The energy level was so high for 2p.m. on Friday afternoon, I think it would have benefited from some Ritalin.

In any case, we strolled along its large and bright corridors, scanning store after store, that all had foreign names but whose contents mimiced those found in the U.S., including the insanely high-high heels, tight-fitting and low-cut shirts, and hipster jeans, until we found the food court.

There Wes enjoyed a tasty steak from Lenos y Carbon (a place highly recommended by our Panama friend Jessica) while I had sushi. Then it was off to the arcade, which turned out to be larger than a department store with small carnival rides, loads of pool and air hockey tables, and a whole wall of my favorite - skee ball!

The only thing that ruined it were some kids following us around who kept trying to show us how to play the games by shoving us over and taking the controls, or in my case, the skee balls. Very frustrating, so we quickly left and gave our remaining tickets to a cute family with small children.

We left a few hours before night fell in an effort to find Hotel Riande Aeropuerto, which was only a few short miles from the mall. What should have taken us minutes ended up taking us hours because our wonderful navigation system let us know about 50 feet too late that we had to make a turn.

Instead, we ended up in 5 o'clock Friday traffic. It was a nightmare! And of course, there was some rain thrown in too, just to keep things interesting.

We finally made it to the hotel after dark and as we sipped our drinks at the bar and shared our last Panama club sandwich, a fellow U.S. couple expounded on why they love Panama and were so disappointed that we did not fall in love with it as well.

My feeling is ... if everyone loved the same place, we'd have quite a population problem in some areas of the world.

Some of the things I'll never forget about Panama:

• A guy standing on the side of the road dangling two-foot-long iguanas from each hand evidently trying to sell them for food
  
• Seeing products at The Rey, a grocery store, that I didn't think existed anymore: Tang, Close Up toothpaste, and Shasta soda
  
• Armed guards both inside and out the Albrook Mall
  
• A bidet in the bathroom of Hotel La Hacienda
  
• Purchasing three baked goods and a cup of coffee at The Rey and only paying $1.40
  
• A family's morning catch - a huge red snapper hanging from a rope on the side of the road

The search continues for our dream location. After this experience, my thought is it has to be predominantly English-speaking and probably within the U.S. I hate to limit ourselves, but ...