Blogs from Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 3

Today, four days later than planned, we are finally leaving Costa Rica. The last challenge for my running club’s January Jaunt is a mystery run/walk where opposing teams must guess your location, so I have deliberately avoided mentioned our next destination - Panama City. I can remember learning about the building of the Panama Canal at school (a very long time ago) so am very excited to be visiting this engineering Wonder of the World. It’s a stressful start to the morning, as I have scheduled an Uber, but the hotel wifi is down so I cannot receive notifications of if/when it will arrive. The first 3 drivers cancel, but finally we’re on our way. It feels so good to be checking out of my ‘isolation hotel’ and getting on the move again, even if the ... read more

It was a strange relief to step off the dark, “comfortable,” air conditioned coach bus from the capital and into the rain and humidity of Las Sabanitas, a commercial hub outside of Colón. The intersection felt more like Latin America than anywhere else during my Panamá trip. The only constant from our vantage point under the steel supermercado awning were women seated at folding tables selling lottery tickets and counting wads of twenties. Packed repurposed U.S. school buses stopped every few minutes and the locals stuffed themselves into the aisles. Ours arrived about a half an hour later and surprisingly had empty seats. PUERTO LINDO Just walking through this village is an experience. A narrow dirt path handlebars off the main camino and cuts between wooden bungalows with the tide at their doorstep and rubbled concrete ... read more

San Carlos I need to stop visiting surf towns since I don’t surf. They rarely equate to nice beaches and I was a bit disappointed to find a black sand beach at San Carlos. I ventured onto the beach fairly far before I realized the sand was burning my feet. I did a high-step sprint back to the dirt road, looking around afterward to see if anyone was watching that ridiculous scene. The next morning I went for a walk on Playa Enseñada, a fairly nice adjacent beach, and then the owner of Sweet Dreams Hotel drove me to Santa Clara, about 25 minutes south on the Interamericana. Santa Fe It’s really difficult to tell how nice a beach is by browsing online photos. Practically any beach can look like paradise with the right framing and ... read more

My sixth stop to my Anthony Bourdain No Reservations Central America Trip 2016 is Panama. Looking forward to seeing the Panama Canal and how it works.... read more

Sabbath 28 March – Panama We passed the temperate check – yay! We were given an afternoon slot for transfer and made our way across. We arrived at the Rotterdam and expected to be in our same room but were told we were given another room. It was still a balcony but it was a downgrade on what we had. For those in the know about cruise categories, we were in an A category and moved to a B category. This meant a smaller room at the back of the ship under the outdoor pool, as opposed to a lower deck in the middle. The thing I miss the most? The dividing curtain between the lounge area and bed is missing, and the bathroom is smaller and shorter, meaning Dwayne’s head sits on the bathroom roof ... read more