Looking Out My Back Door - El Palmar - Panama

So this is the first post for "Looking Out My Back Door"  thank you John Fogerty.

I moved from Coronado to El Palmar at the beginning of March.  El Palmar is a quiet little surfing village a few Kilometers west of Coronado in the Arco Seca part of the Panama coast, west of the city (Panama).

Just to confuse you, Panama is the name of the country, Panama is the name of the major city and Panama is the name of the province where I live.  So it would be, El Palmar (in the San Carlos district), Panama, Pa.  We try and keep thing obscure here in Panama.  That way it is easier to bribe the Policia (a story for another day).  Always keep a $20 bill handy in your glove box.

So sitting on my back porch, other than seeing the ocean, surfers and fisherman, I saw there 2 guys:

I know there is not much content here but I want to post my first "out my back door" so here it is.
Stay tuned, there will be more.

Wandering Through Panama (Day 12) - Drive to PTY

We left for Panama City around 0900.  An uneventful drive.  The GPS was working and we found the detour around Las Tablas and also the route around Chitre.  That had to cut 15 to 30 minutes off the 1.5 hour trip up to the Panamarican Highway (CA1).

On the way to the city, we stopped in a little town called La Nata.  In their town square they had the oldest church in the Americas.  According to the stone in the town square, the church was build around 1522.

We got to Panama City in middle afternoon.  The traffic was unbelievable.  I have seen aggressive driving before but this was amazing.
A couple of picture from the Bridge of the Americas.

We found the Bahia Suites.  Added drama because the road through from Balboa was closed due to construction so we had to go around several blocks to get the 200 yards to the hotel from where we had to stop and turn off of 31 Calle.  A task that is easier said than done  getting around the block because of the bizarre driving conditions and one way streets.

At first, I was really unimpressed by the hotel, the lobby and the room.  The room had a jacuzzi tub right in the bedroom.  The shower had a glass wall that looked into the bedroom.

This is a picture of the jacuzzi tub that is in the room, this is a picture from beside the bed.

This is a picture of the outside of the shower from the same spot beside the bed.

This is a picture of the bed from inside the shower looking through the glass wall.

After we found the rooftop restaurant and bar later in the evening, the hotel took on a whole different look. The rooftop made the whole place really great and I will definitely stay there next time I am in the city.
The picture from the room.

The view from the roof:

On the roof:

Wandering Through Panama - (Day 11) - Pocri

Today we drove to Pocri, a real nice, quiet little town a few kilometers North of Pedasi.
We saw a really nice little house a block from the square for $89k.  Jack, our host, knows the house and told me it needed work but it sure looked nice from the outside.

Every town has a town square and every town square has a church:

We drove to a little beach town called Conception, it was just a little ways from Pocri.  This was on the way to the beach:

Truly a little beach town not propped up by big Gringo money:

I was fascinated by this place. Not a candidate for purchase because it is a "right of possession" property with no clear title but might be an interesting place to rent for a while:

A little restaurant, very little, that we stopped at for lunch:

Pedasi air strip, I hear it does not get much use.  there are no commercial flights :-)

Wandering Through Panama (Day 10) - Pedasi

Day 10 was our first full day in Pedasi.  For a quick aside, we ate dinner at the Iguana last night and it was not very good.  We did meet 2 x-pats, April who is looking at buying the dive shop and the B & B at the other end of town and James who live south a few kilometers where he built a house on a fairly good chuck on land.

We drove to Posada Los Destiladeros in the morning, which was a few kilometers south.  An amazing place to go to totally clear your head for a while and connect with nature.  A long term rental here is reasonable and it would be very much like going to a spiritual retreat.  Quiet, private beach, no noise.  It would be an amazing place to clear one's head.

Then we drove to Playa Venado, then to Punta Mala.

Typical graveyard south of town in Pedasi:

Arenal, just a couple of kilometers from Pedasi:

An interesting little river just down from Arenal, it dumps into the ocean:

Playa Venado, on the southern point of the Azureo Peninsula:

Punta Mala, this is where the past president of Panama, Marcoso lives;

Punta Mala, they say this is a very dangerous area, not a good place to swim:

Low tide:

Wandering Through Panama (Day 9) Drive to Pedasi

We left David at a reasonable time Sunday morning for the drive to Pedasi.  We stopped off at the little beach town of Las Lajas. As we got close to the ocean, there was a roadblock where they were asking for a $1.00 contribution to the beach.  Since there was a Polica standing there, I assumed it was legit.  I think it is good that they want to care for the beach, but I wish they would use some of the money for a clean up the trash campaign.

Since it was Sunday, the beach was crowded.  It seems like every beach in Panama is crowded on Sunday, I think a lot of people work on Saturday so Sunday is the only real day off.  The beach was nice and I would like to go back on a weekday and experience the beach without all the people.
There was a 5 car traffic jam of people trying to get thought a gate to what I assume was a beach club.  There was an awful lot of confusion for what seemed like a fairly simple exercise.  I almost didn't get back out from the side road I parked in because the 5 cars were 3 abreast trying to push and shove their way into the compound.  Not sure what that was all about but in Panama, especially in the citys, there is a lot of pushing and shoving on the streets by cars trying to got somewhere.

Like most intersections, the intersection of CA1, Panamerican Highway,  & CA3, National Highway, was not marked but it was kind of obvious that this was the road down through the Azuero peninsula to Pedasi.  Pedasi is in the Los Santos province.  There are two major towns you have to go through to get to Pedasi, they are Chitri and Las Tablas and we got lost in both towns.  The GPS decided to not work for a while.  There is a bypass for both towns but again they are not marked very well.  (On the way back we managed to find the bypass for both towns and the ride was much quicker).

Our destination, Casita Margarita in Pedasi:

Our hosts, Jack and Sue:

The main drag in Pedasi:

Wandering Through Panama (Day 8) - Playa Barqueta

A short trip on day 8 to La Barqueta for a quiet beach day.  Leaving Gran Nacional, make a right out of the parking lot and a right at the first street and it is a straight shot to the beach, about 15 km.
We were a few minutes down the road when Sally asked me if I have my passport.  I said no and it was not 2 minutes later that a member of the Policia Nacional was standing in the middle of the road checking IDs.  I told him that we were told to never carry our passport (actually we should have had a copy - that is what was recommended in Costa Rica).  He was cool. I said I could easily go back to the hotel and get the passports but he said not to worry.
Anyway, when in Panama it is recommended to carry your passport or even better,a copy of your passport.

We stopped at the Las Olas resort on the beach just to look around.  We had planned on staying there for 3 nights but then decided that staying in a "resort" is not the right way to see a country.

A picture from the beach in front of Las Olas

This was a spectacular beach, several miles of nothing (to the East) but sand.  The water was beautiful and a little cooler than the water around Coronado.  It was refreshing but not cold.  The water actually reminded me of the water at Daytona Beach, with a nice offshore break and good waves for body surfing.  The only knock on the beach is the sand is dark as opposed to white sand.

Just down from the resort were a couple of restaurants.  We met the owner of the one where we ate, Benny's Place.  Benny was an interesting guy.  When I told him I was thinking of moving to Panama, he offered to rent me a room in his house, right on the beach.  He also offered to sell me one of his trucks.  It was a nice offer but I think I will be better off making my own arrangements.

A couple of pictures from the restaurant:

The beach to the West of the restaurant had gated community of upscale beach houses (this is where Benny lives).

 Anyway, it was a nice relaxed day at the beach in preparation for a drive to Pedasi the next day. 

Wandering Through Panama (Day 7) - Boquete & Volcan

Today we drove up into the mountains, to one of the most talked about areas of Panama, Boquete.  Leaving the hotel, we went left and took a right at the first intersection and technically it was a straight shot to Boquete.  When we got to the Panamerican Highway, we did have to go right to the next intersection and then go left because we could not go straight across but it was not real painful.  Remember that very few streets are marked so you need a GPS or good directions.

It is a pleasant drive to Boquete, they were working on the read so when they finish that, the ride will be very easy.

The road to Boquete:

Here you can see the new section of road, this will be a divided highway soon.

It was cool in Boquete and when the sun was blocked by a cloud, I did have to put on a long sleeve shirt.  There was also an occasional sprinkle in the form of a mist.

A picture of the square in Boquete.  All towns have a square and it seems like every square has one spectacular church.

This seemingly out of place golf community was only a couple of blocks off the square and we would not have found it if we had not been told it was there.

 I did talk to a fellow Gringo in the square, he was just sitting there and enjoying a cup of coffee and watching the goings on for at least an hour.  He told us about the large x-pat community there.  He also gave us a tip for the ride to Volcan "follow the yellow line", more on that later.

Next we drove to Volcan.  We took the new road.  We were told to go back towards David about 15 km and then go right at the Shell station.  We were also told the road was not marked so the only way to know if you were still on the right road was to "follow the yellow line".  Once or maybe even twice I drove right past the turn thinking I was on the right road only to have to back up to take the turn so I could "follow the yellow line".  Well it worked, we did get to Volcan and I would not have made it if I had not followed the line.

Volcan was a nice town but did not have near the charm of Boquete.  We did not do too much exploring around Volcan, we just kind of drove there, drove thought the town and then turned around and went back to David.

The road to Volcan

We saw this accident on the way to Volcan.