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: