The trick is to find the perfect balance

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Panama City & Boquete

We all have been there … with too many ideas and places to see and not enough time to realize it all. Usually it is a position in which all short-term travelers find themselves, however sometimes even long timers as us have to face the same. Then how to find the right balance and make the trip worthwhile? How to choose in order to feel no regret?

With those questions in our mind we landed in Panama City to begin our Central America leg of RTW. We had no clue as what to do next but we just decided to let it be. It had happened before that people we had met and things we had read altered our way so we knew that eventually we would get 'inspired'. Just in case we also had swapped South American LP for the Central America on a Shoestring to be able to know what there is to see.

Panama City amazed us straight away, with its splendor and riches and all the modernity. As we prefer old to new we opted to stay in The Old Town despite the ‘dangers’ and booked ourselves a very well rated Hospedaje Casco Viejo (25$ double room). Even though we booked dorm beds they were kind enough to upgrade us to a private for 2$ more. We liked this place straight away and we really liked the surroundings. It is not the kind of place you can fall in love with from the first sight. Al least not now as the renovations have been taking place for years and majority of facades are obscured by scaffolding or massive adds but there is a certain charm to this place.

We did not intend to stay long, just enough to see the town and visit the Panama Canal. After wandering around shady colonial streets we made a walk to the modern world and enjoyed the pretty skyscrapers horizon on the way. We walked through some shopping malls, ate ice-cream to cool down and then decided to take advantage of their cinemas. It is always a treat for us to find English spoken movies with no dubbing so we enjoyed it to the max. It was almost like a date followed by a nice seafood dinner in famous Coca-Coca restaurant in the Old Town. Days like that are to be cherished, no doubt.

One day we hoped on a chicken bus and got an interesting ride to the bus terminal, where we swapped it for another bus going to the Panama Canal (cost are listed at the end). We were the only gringos on board as majority of people pay the 15$ taxi fare to be on a safe side. Putting the costs aside we just love the interaction we get with local people and that is what matters the most. The Panama Canal experience was better that we thought. For the 8$ entrance fee you get to see the ships passing by, very informative movie and the museum that holds all the history records and photos from the time the canal was build. What astonished us the most was how many ships a year are passing and how much it costs to pass through it (around $400k), It is surely one huge money making machine.

Just as we expected met some people and we read some stories that made us realize what we want to do in Panama. We opted for a perfect combination of City, Mountains and Beach which seemed like a great idea. From PC we hoped on a local bus to Boquete to do some trekking. We read somewhere that this place is in the Top5 mostly chosen retirement spots in the world. Wow, it must be pretty ha?

Well, it is surely very nice but we believe it is a combination of things. It is in the end surrounded by a cloud forest, which gives it much milder climate and still it is only an hour or so drive to the Pacific coast (2,5h to the Caribbean coast). You can imagine that it is pretty American looking place but it still has the charms of a little mountain village. We went for a walk around to find some nice place to stay and we finally managed to find a cute Hostal Draho just by the main plaza (20$ double room with kitchen use). We found the Supermercado Romero to be the best stocked super we have seen in Latin America so far and we enjoyed the abundance of inexpensive veg, fruit, steak meat and Californian wine (4$ only).

It was also the time of my B-day,second time during this trip and even though I wanted to be on the beach for that time I was ok with this little mountain retreat. I got breakfast to bed and an amazingly lazy day with loads of good food and wine to toast it. Just as I wanted, even though the hangover next day was not a very welcomed after-gift haha Tomek decided that the best way to lose it would be some trekking, which for me seemed like the worst scenario ever haha He was right though as after an hour or so of hiking in the fresh air I was back to normal and really enjoyed stunning surroundings of Boguete. We did probably around 15km including a steep hike up to the viewing point – views were priceless.

How come the days go on faster and faster the more time you are on the road, it is beyond us but we felt like it was slipping through our fingers. Possibly we started to feel the pressure of the last two months on the road but nevertheless we enjoyed ourselves. It seemed so effortless to be in Panama. Maybe because of the access to good food and nice climate or maybe just because it is a path well traveled so we did not feel alone. Danger wise we did not feel any but we stayed alert when needed. We found the good balance and the decision was good so far. With some nice beach time coming up we were more than pleased and were looking forward to the next week…..

Additional info:


• If you fly from Colombia to Panama expect the airline to ask for your ticket out of Panama. Even though we had ticket home already she was pretty persistent on us buying another one. We just played stupid and pretended we could not understand and she finally gave up. She did not speak any English. That's the strategy that works:-)
• From the airport you kind of have to take a taxi (35$) or collectivo (11$ each) to get to the center or the Old City. Even though there are buses going to town you cannot use them as they only accept travel passes (no money) and the machines are not located at the airport. We thought it was very sneaky of the airport authorities as they can get more money from tourists for the taxi service this way. You can of course ask somebody to swipe it for you or take a number of chicken buses but it can prove to be really difficult.
• To get to Panama Canal from the Old Town –> walk to Plaza Cinco de Mayo and take a bus to Albrook Terminal (0.7$) and then change into the bus going to Miraflores (1.75$ each). Again people told us there were no buses and we should take a taxi – this is not true. Taxi is around 15$ one way so you save 2/3s this way.
• To get to Boquete take any bus to David (15$) and then change into a chicken bus (1.75$) for the last hour of a trip.



Want to see how the ship is passing through The Panama Canal watch our video:

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Photos

beautiful
in Boquete

close to sunset
so pretty

garlic fish
in Coca-Cola restaurant

steaks and red wine
yummy

Comments

[Anastasia78]

How precious!
I know I go on and on about your photography, but really guys, I love it. I wish I could use it all as screen savers! Keep up the good work.