Jen and I started our month of adventures on January 23 when we went to Panama City to prepare for a short visit to Florida. We are fully vaccinated and not required to test for covid when we travel TO Panama, but when we travel to the United States, even though we are citizens, a negative covid test is required. I am going to climb on my soap box for one brief moment, and then I will continue the story. The United States hardly requires masks, and the infection rate is under control enough for the President to repeal mask mandates at the White House. However, citizens traveling from a foreign country to the US must get a negative covid test to go home after a vacation or to visit friends and family there. We got our negative covid test and, as resident Jubilado’s, paid $30 USD each with our discount. Travelers without this benefit must pay $50 USD each, adding to the cost of travel. I believe that this is governmental overreach. Immigrants crossing the southern border are not tested and are allowed to board buses and flights all over the country, but as a tax-paying US Citizen, I must provide a negative test to go home. It is time to stand up to the tyranny of the government on this matter. These useless requirements should be removed.
We got our negative test at the airport which is required to be taken the day before travel. This cleared us to travel to our 2nd home in Florida on a flight the next day. Our winter guests in our condo were to arrive on February 1st, and we wanted to make sure everything was perfect for their arrival.
On Monday we boarded our flight to Florida. While in Florida we visited Jen’s brother, Bill, and his wife, Deb. They were snow-birding in Fort Myers, and it provided an excellent time to catch up with them. They treated us to a great meal at one of their favorite restaurants. In the morning, we all went over to a great outlet mall near their place, and I managed to buy a jacket and a couple of new shirts. Note to self…even in Florida a jacket will be necessary during the winter months. We had a delightful visit at their vacation condo, before continuing on to our place in Port Charlotte.
Mom and Rich had been staying in our condo since the end of November. It was a great time to be sure all the kinks were worked out. There were a few small mechanical issues that they were able to take care of for us before we arrived. One other issue required that we replace the washer and dryer before our guest’s arrival. With the nationwide logistics crisis, this was easier said than done. But we persevered and on Saturday, the new laundry pair was delivered. This gave mom time to do their laundry before traveling to Panama. We also had time to get all the sheets and towels washed before leaving, getting the condo in tip top shape for our winter visitors.
In addition to dealing with a few small problems, we were able to do some other visiting before turning our condo over on February 1st.
The main reason we wanted to be in Florida at the end of January was to bring Mom and Rich back to Panama. They had been reluctant to travel to Panama because of the language barrier, and they had rarely been outside of the United States. On Tuesday February 1st the four of us boarded our flight in Miami for our non-stop flight to Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, Panama.
Our arrival in Panama was late evening, and I choose not to drive after dark when possible. We had reservations at the Riande Hotel near the airport. This is where Jen and I had stayed prior to our departure for Florida, and they allowed us to park in their secure lot for about $5 USD per day. This detail is for those of you who may be looking for similar options in your travel to and from Panama. We stayed the night, had a nice breakfast, and found the car just as I left it. We loaded up the next day, and began our journey to Coronado.
Our journey took us past Casa de Jamon and Price Smart. We made brief stops at both. Casa de Jamon is a great restaurant supply-type food store in Costa Del Este. We picked up a few groceries there and went on to Price Smart for a few other things. Then it was on to our home in Coronado.
We arrived in Coronado mid-afternoon, and our special guests were able to settle in and relax in preparation for their full month of adventure. Our dinner plan took us to Gold Coast Brewery for half price wing night. There they met a few of our friends, and we enjoyed the wings.
I do not know where to begin other than to take the whole month in chronological order. That first partial week, we relaxed by the pool, took the buggy to the beach for some sand play, Rich got a haircut, and Mom and Jen got pedicures. Thursday is our weekly domino game. Mom and Rich joined us each week during their visit. Throughout Covid, Jen and I got together with the same small group of friends for this weekly event, and it has continued. Everyone agrees that it was one of the things that helped us all maintain our sanity during the lockdowns and other measures imposed by MINSA to keep everyone safe from the virus.
The other constant during their visit was Sunday worship at Coronado Bible Church. Each week we had brunch after church with many of our awesome friends. Our special guests enjoyed the church, brunches, and meeting a few of our friends each week. They were slowly beginning to understand why we love our life here in Panama. Mom loved that I was an active participant in the praise team at church.
Our first adventure outside our little community was to El Valle de Anton. We included good friends Diane and Mike for a full day of exploring up there. El Valle has been a favorite of all of our visitors, with those who have had repeated visits always wanting to return. There are so many places there that we had a difficult time choosing which to explore. That day we took them to the Orchid Sanctuary, The Butterfly House, El Macho Falls, and the Sunday Market. We were disappointed that our favorite restaurant was closed. This gave us a chance to try another place that just did not meet our high standards. The market gave me a chance to grab some fresh vegetables while everyone else shopped the vendors. El Valle is a short 45-minute drive from Coronado straight up the mountain. The entire village lies in the crater of a volcano. The climate is a bit cooler than the beach communities, and many expats live there. Check out my book or the archives of this blog to learn more about this magnificent place.
The bookstore, El Hombre de La Mancha, had requested more books which I was able to bring back from the States. The second Thursday our guests were here we went back into the city to make the delivery. This was a big highlight for me as, when we arrived, they asked me for an interview and photo session. They are promoting my book on their social media, and it appears that it is selling well in their stores. The delivery allowed them to stock it in every store nationwide. We were surprised to find it among the Panama Travel and History books despite the fact that it is only offered in English. People who have looked for it in the English section have been unable to find it in the stores. The price for it here in their stores is higher, but the bookstore is a huge advocate for literacy in Panama. That makes my day to feel like I am doing some small part for literacy here.
After leaving the bookstore we were able to take Mom and Rich for lunch at one of our favorite restaurants in the city, Michael’s. Mike Nikolich is the owner, and his place is a very successful for breakfast and lunch. He is a native of Michigan and has spent years in the restaurant business in Panama. Following lunch, we went down to Panama Viejo. This is the original ruins of the first Panama City. It was the first port where goods entered the country and were transported over land to the Caribbean for shipment to the America’s, Europe, and Spain. This gave our guests a perspective of what Panama was like before the canal was constructed. This location was repeatedly attacked by pirates who were after the precious gold and silver from South America. The city was later relocated to what is now called Casco Viejo (old town), where they could more easily protect it.
The following week we caught up with our good friend, and the master of tour guides, Marc Vargas, to take an adventure to the Caribbean side of the country. Marc picked us up and took us for a look at the Agua Clara Lock on the Caribbean end of the canal. Agua Clara is the new lock designed to accommodate the huge Pana Max ships. This gave Rich a firsthand look at how the canal works. Marc took us from there to the Gatun Locks just adjacent to the Agua Clara lock. The visitor center there is closed, but we were able to see a cruise ship passing through over the hill. He continued on down to the Gatun Dam where the Chagres River is dammed to provide water to Lake Gatun which is a huge part of the canal passage. We went from there across the new Atlantic Bridge. I call this the bridge to nowhere because, when it was completed, the road leading away from it on the west side of the canal was dirt. It is now paved and leads to Fort Sherman, Shelter Bay and Fort San Lorenzo Castle. We visited all three. The road is now nicely paved right through the jungle to the ruins at San Lorenzo. It is also paved all the way north to Shelter Bay. Fort Sherman has been mostly deserted since the United States turned the canal over to the Panamanian people. Shelter Bay remains a prosperous marina which is protected from hurricanes. After lunch at the marina, we went through the jungle to Fort San Lorenzo Castle. This was a wonderful experience. The Fort is under full restoration to maintain its UNESCO World Heritage designation. I cannot wait to visit again after the restoration is completed. Despite the construction going on, this is a beautiful tour. The Fort sits at the mouth of the Chagres River high on a bluff where it was easily protected from the pirates. Thank you, Marc, for showing us a great time.
Every week during their visit we went to the club at Coronado Luxury Club & Suites. Jen and I are members, and we enjoy the entertainment on Saturday nights. That first week we enjoyed a comedian in the Sports Bar followed by Pascal Turner at the pool bar. We especially enjoy Pascal, and, fortunately, he played every Saturday night during their visit with us. Pascal often invites me to sing with him and it has become something for which I look forward. The third Saturday we took our special guests to the fine dining restaurant at the club, Secundo Piso. We invited friends John and Barbie to join us. This was a special treat, and it is one of the places which we highly recommend. Reservations are required and they are only open on weekends. In the past, non-members have been welcomed at the resort on Saturday night.
Also, that last week in Coronado Mom and Rich spent three nights at the resort hotel to give us all a break from each other. Jen and I get free nights every year with our paid membership, and we wanted them to have a special treat. They hung out by the resort pool and got waited on. Rich wanted to order foo foo drinks with fruit and little umbrellas. I wish we had pictures of that. During one of those days at the resort, we got together for a special late lunch at the Beach Club. The Beach Club is reserved for members and resort guests. We had a nice lunch and missed the last shuttle back. I wish they had let us know that it would be the last, but we were hardly done eating when it came. The staff sent us back on the employee bus. Someone suggested that we just stay and sleep on the beach. That was not an option…LOL.
Almost every Tuesday we ventured to the movie. The local theater, Cine Moderno, plays movies in English every Tuesday, and it is a favorite way to spend Tuesday evening in the community. We always meet up with many friends there and enjoy the show. For Jubilado’s (retired people), the movie plays for $2.50 USD each. They have great refreshments also at a reasonable price. I put the movie schedule in my newsletter every week, but recently they have added more shows in English on other days. I cannot always put all the shows and times, so check with the theater for additional showtimes. Rich said he had not been to the movies in years, and both he and mom thoroughly enjoyed this activity…even if the movie was not always something we would normally go out of our way to see.
We ventured to Santa Clara to another of our favorite places on the beach, Deliciosa Del Mar. We invited friends, Lorin and Judy, along for what we hoped would be a lobster feast. Judy gets the credit for the magnificent sunset photo in the featured position above. Unfortunately, we missed the beginning of Lobster season by a few weeks. We all still had some great fresh seafood before venturing onto the beach. Everyone had a great time people watching and swimming in the ocean. This little restaurant has palapas on the beach where you can eat or have drinks. They rent them to people who do not order from them, but they are free to patrons. We all had a great time.
That last Friday night in Coronado we caught up with Mike and Diane for a great dinner at Café Med. We always seem to get a great meal there and this visit was no exception.
To cap off our month of adventures with Mom and Rich, we went from Coronado to Panama City at the beginning of Carnival traffic. Travel into the city can be a challenge during Carnival. We soon encountered the lane inversion and we were sharing our side of the highway with traffic heading to the beaches. This was not horrible, but it slowed down our journey. We anticipated travel challenge, so we wanted to have plenty of time to get them near the airport for their journey home on March 1st. This gave us a couple of days to adventure in the city.
When we crossed the Bridge of the Americas, the decision was made to check out the Amador Causeway and go to the Biodiversity Museum. This is something that all of our past visitors have enjoyed, and we knew that Mom and Rich would love the experience as well. We were not wrong. The Biodiversity Museum is something that no visitor to Panama should miss. We went down the causeway for lunch and some souvenir shopping, followed by our visit to the museum. After the museum, we checked into our hotel at the Radisson Panama Canal.
Even after almost four years living in Panama, I look for new adventures when we have company. Sometimes the new adventures are a giant failure, but this one was a definite high and one of the best experiences for myself. On Saturday evening we ventured to the JW Marriott (former Trump Tower) for a ringside seat on the 66th floor for sunset. The pool bar is owned by the casino and only accessible through the casino. The elevator will only stop at the parking garage or the 66th floor unless someone has a key to stop elsewhere. When we exited the elevator, we were welcomed into an amazing outside venue with an infinity pool, and our reserved table was waiting for us next to the pool. The views of the city and sunset were unbelievable. We enjoyed a light dinner (pub food) and drinks while we watched the sunset. This will be another of those experiences that we share with others. If you get the chance, do not miss this one.
The following morning, we were whisked away by shuttle to a boat dock in the middle of the Gamboa Rain Forest where we caught our boat. It is definitely a small world when every one else on the tour bus is from the Grand Rapids, Michigan area, really close to where mom and Rich live! The Pacific Queen took us on a partial transit of the Panama Canal. Rich was so intrigued by the canal that we could not deny him this experience. When we departed the dock, we had a few drops of rain which quickly subsided. Our boat went south on the Panama Canal as the guide told us interesting facts about what we were seeing. We traveled past a Pana Max ship, the largest of container ships. We would see this ship later passing through the big new lock at Miraflora while we were passing through the smaller locks. We passed the prison where Noriega spent the last years of his life, and several big dredging cranes. The Gaillard Cut, which was formally known as the Culebra Cut, is where most of the lives were lost in the construction of the canal. It is the narrow mountain pass taking the canal through the Continental Divide. This stretch of the canal requires constant maintenance due to the mud slides and silt accumulating in its bottom. This is where the canal authority spends the majority of its maintenance budget.
We continued through the cut and past the Centennial Bridge before reaching the Pedro Miguel Lock. We moved into the lock which we shared on this journey with another tour boat, a small cargo vessel, and a larger ship. We were lowered in the lock to the level of Mira Flores Lake. Mira Flores Lake is a manmade lake connecting the Pedro Miguel lock with the Mira Flores Locks. Once across the small lake, we entered the Mira Flores locks once again sharing with the other three vessels. Mira Flores has two locks taking us down to sea level. After passing through all three locks, we moved on toward the Pacific and our destination port. We passed under the Bridge of the Americas, then past our hotel and the Amador Causeway before rounding the point and making dock at the Port of Panama. The total time of our excursion was right around 5 hours. Previously, Jen and I did a full passage which took around 12 hours. The partial passage was much better, as the full passage took several hours crossing Lake Gatun.
Our day was not over. We went back to the hotel for a minute, and Marc Vargas picked us up for a little tour of Casco Viejo. We wanted to have another sunset experience from a rooftop in Casco. Marc selected Tantalo, where we had a bite to eat and watched the sunset from a different perspective. Marc graciously showed us around a little, and we took in the amazing sites of Casco Viejo. This is one of those places that really requires an entire day. If you are fortunate enough to get to this neighborhood, check out the many plazas, the churches, The Panama Canal Museum (among others), the artisan vendors, architecture, restaurants, coffee shops, chocolatiers, souvenir shops, and do not miss the rooftop bars.
On their last day in Panama, we mostly just rested from exhaustion. We relocated to a hotel near the airport, got covid tests, and shopped in a mall nearby. Jen and I are still recovering here, and I imagine that mom and Rich are doing the same in Florida.
For more information about adventuring in Panama, grab a copy of my book 2 Retire In Panama?. It is available at Amazon, on Kindle (Kindle Unlimited Readers get it free), and at El Hombre de La Mancha bookstores in Panama. I am sharing some links below for some of the adventures and sites that contributed to this great month of adventures with my folks.
Blessings From Paradise,
Greg and Jen
#welovepanama
El Hombre de La Mancha bookstores
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