We took a trip to Panama over Jason's spring break in March. We started in Panama City, then headed to the mountain town of Boquete, and then spent a couple of days in Bocas del Toro, a chain of islands on the Caribbean side, before heading back to Panama City.
On our first night in Panama City we stayed at La Casa de Carmen, a hostel/budget hotel that had gotten great reviews. We met some fun people and hung out for awhile, but had a rough first night's sleep with bus engines and car horns making it hard to stay asleep for long. On our first day we rented a car and drove into the canal zone. The Miraflores Locks, which is where most people go to see the canal, were really cool, and we were lucky and got there right as a big container ship was going through. We drove a little farther north and had lunch at the swanky Gamboa Rainforest Resort, and then stopped off on the side of the road to do an "easy, half-mile nature trail" that was definitely longer than a half mile and had me fording a stream in flip flops and a
skirt (thanks Lonely Planet). The best part was that we saw a whole family of monkeys, although they were right by the road... anyway.
We got back to our hotel and found out that our room and the one next door had been broken into while we were gone. We lost some cash and my old iPod, and the room next door lost a videocamera. Luckily that night we'd planned to meet up with some friends of our friend Megan who were also traveling in Panama, so that took our minds off of things. When we got back to our hostel, the owners had arrived. They handled the whole thing pretty well, but at that point we just wanted to get out of there, so we packed up and moved to a business hotel closer into town. The next morning we got up, enjoyed our hotel's fancy breakfast buffet, and then headed to the airport to catch our flight to Boquete.
WaterfrontWe took a wrong turn driving back into the city and ended up here, but at least it was pretty.
Panama's Flag
Map of Panama