Wandering Through Panama (Day 6) - Drive to David

We drove to David, about 350km.  The road was good until we passed Santiago and then it became 2 lanes and some mountains and one stretch of about 20km was really pretty bad.  But all in all, the trip went well. 
We did detour in Penonome to La Pintada to visit the Cigar Factory.  The only maker of  "premium cigars" in Panama.

The factory:

On the inside:

Sally and the Owner:

I bought a box of 25 for $60.  The first one I had was a couple of night later and it was a little dry.  When I got home and put them in a Ziploc bag with a wet paper towel, after a couple of days I had another cigar and it was excellent.

We ate lunch at the little place next door to the factory, I think the owners might have been related to the cigar lady.
Picture from in front of the cigar factory:

Picture of the cigar factory in the background with our rental car parked in front of the factory.

The lunch was soup, and rice and chicken.  I asked for a beer and they did not have any.  About 5 minutes later their son got on his bike and rode off, I was not sure where he went but I suspected.  He came back 5 minutes later and a couple of minutes later, they brought me out a cold beer.  Now that is service.  The whole meal, including beer was somewhere between $4 and $5, I forget exactly how much.  The lunch was very good.


We got to David in the late afternoon, the GPS was off by a couple of blocks or it thought I meant Banco Nacional when I actually wanted to go to Hotel Gran Nacional.  Anyway, we went around in circles for about 1/2 hour till we got directions. The hotel was only2 blocks away and strategically placed.  Leaving the hotel, it was one turn to Boquete and going the other direction from the hotel it was one turn to go to Playa La Barqueta.  So, after we got to the hotel, we had no traffic issues.

Gran Nacional:

Picture of the room:

Picture from the window:

This was one of their junior suites, the room was great but it was in the front of the hotel across the street from the casino.    The noise went on till early early morning. 

One thing I noticed in all locations we visited, the young men of Panama are very proud of their sub-woofers.
Boom, boom, boom, boom till late in the night.  Just something that goes with the territory.