Blogs from Panama City, Panamá, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 11

We have had a whirlwind of activity in our first 2 weeks in Panama City. After an easy drive down the Pan American highway from Boquete, Panama we arrived at our new house in Panama City. Actually our house is a 25 story condominium, our first high-rise on our journey so far. We live on the 18th floor and have a very nice 2 bedroom apartment with 2 bathrooms and all the amenities. Mike was coming to visit and we decided to enjoy a little luxury to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of our travels. However, there’s no rest for the weary here. We had to get out in town and learn our way around so we would be ready when Mike arrived. Panama City is a huge, beautiful town of more than 800,000 set on ... read more

After many lazy days in San Juan del Sur, our plans were to head to San Jose, Costa Rica to spend a few days visiting the capital and nearby volcanoes and rainforest. But best laid plans are iffy here in Central America. We were a bit lulled to complacency by the convenient entrance visas offered by Mexico, Belize, Honduras and Nicaragua. By just showing up at the border, we were granted tourist visas good for months without question. Not so for Costa Rica. Arriving at the Nicaraguan Costa Rican border around late morning, we were thrown off balance by the stern demands of the immigration officer. We were first in line to get our visa, with about thirty bus passengers behind us. The serious non smiling officer demanded sharply to see our outbound transportation tickets. Ha? ... read more

A combination of a cheap flight and a lifelong desire to see the Panama Canal resulted in us heading down to Panama City for our spring break. As Shauna wanted to relax at the beginning of the trip, we booked the first three days in at Coconut Lodge, which was just outside of the city. I was worried about the location, as it wasn't close to really anything. At least this way, I would have to relax… In all my years of travelling, I have never had quite the experience as I did here. While it bills itself as a B&B, it was really a B&B and resort combined. Right from the pickup at the airport to the free room upgrade and complimentary drink everything exceeded our expectations. We were the only guests there for our ... read more

Hola amigos para la ultima vez de este viaje! Panama City is full of juxtapositions! Old, ruined buildings standing next to modern glass fronted high-rises, millionaires in mansions surrounded by slums and shacks. Wealthy businessmen working along side the poverty-striken lower-class, fancy new highways that merge into pot-holed and litter-strewn tracks... It's an amazing place! The skyline of mighty skyscrapers and the ocean is a startling view, they nickname the city "Mini Manhattan" or "Miami of the South", both names are fitting but we still called it Panama City. When we arrived in the Casco Viejo district of the city we wandered for quite a while, hauling our backpacks from hostel to hostel and hotel to hotel. Many places were full because of the Easter holiday. Because of our style of just rocking up to a ... read more

Monday 13th Feb - Bocas to Panama City A 5.45am alarm and we were off to the tiny little municipal airport of Bocas. It felt like a bit of a sell out taking the plane and avoiding the 11 hour bus ride but what the heck, for a mere extra 50 quid we'd travel in comfort at speed. Our inflight meal consisted of a glass of Orange Juice and a packet of cheesy crackers which had a fluorescent orange filling and looked like they'd been dipped in Uranium but were actually quite tasty. We got fleeced by the taxi to the hotel who charged us more than double than if you walk out of the airport to pick up one. Panama City was indeed very different to every other city in Central America with it's towering, ... read more