Day 1

I’m starting the blog slightly differently. This is my first night here in Panama City. The day started out with an Uber ride to Newark airport and a short hunt to fill water bottles. From a relatively easy boarding process, to the flight leaving on time at 11:52., We chose this time because we figured that would be in line with our circadian rhythm and sleeping on a plane would be easy but Mother nature, as she sometimes does,  had slightly different plans. There was so much turbulence on this flight that at one point I remember, thinking to myself. “I hope the pilot  doesn’t have any student loans.” I recently watched the show yellow jackets, and in hindsight that may have been unwise. My anxiety was through the roof.

We arrived here too early to check into our hotel, Casa Diez, but they went above and beyond to accommodate us until we could check in. Someone came over and opened the laundry room area so we could house our luggage until check in. The sun was coming up over the pool area and as tired as were were, the beauty was inescapable. This was my first shot, in Panama. 

He then walked us over to their sister hotel, and showed us to their restrooms, and  communal kitchen where we could lounge on the couch and grab ourselves some coffee.and where we could get coffee. He, Jonathan, was the gift that kept on giving. He also, understanding the time we had left to kill, let us know that there was a free walking tour that was about to start at 9 AM, an easy yes for us. So after availing ourselves of the comforts we walked around on the cute café and Castle Viejo and had breakfast and came back in time with the tour. Our first meal in Panama was tamales, coffee and shakes. We were tired, but at a minimum we were going to be fully carbed for this walking tour which was soon to start. 

It turned out to be a very ‘learn wide’ day. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable about the history of Panama and was not remotely shy about his admiration and love for president Jimmy Carter, the unspoken winner of the day. We learned about hats, the guna women, how geisha coffee was made, Bilbao and how to spot fake Panamanian money. (Spoiler: look for the tilde over the U). The tour lasted approximately 3 hours.

As we wrapped the tour the tour guide also told us where to get authentic Panamanian food and recommended this very local friendly eatery and had a delicious lunch of fish, white rice, potato salad, and soup. We spent $14 between us. Unbeknownst to us, it would not be the last time we were going to be at this place. 

By the time this wrapped up, we were able to check into our hotel. It was definitely our style indoor/outdoor ambience with a lot of charming details. Some people enjoy staying in a place that reminds them of home but we actually enjoy leaning into difference, for us it’s part of the fun and the adventure. When does exposed brick not win? There was a kitchenette in the room, something we tend to look for, so before heading out to dinner we went to the local “Chinitos” as they called, to stock up with some extra bottles of water, some snacks, and a bottle of wine.

Another appeal of booking this particular hotel was the location and how close to everything it was. We walked approximately 3 minutes to the waterfront  to have an authentic Panamanian dinner, at a restaurant called Diablicos.. This was the meal of champions, and set the food tone for the rest of the trip.. We ordered a meal slated for three people, but we are food people so the fact that it was only  two of us was neither here nor there because we finished the entire thing. It was a medley of ceviche, and other seafood with some plantain chips to seal the presentation.

Day 1 was in the books and it was all nothing but good vibes. The three minute walk back to our hotel was welcomed. We were knocked out before our heads hit the pillow.

Day 2 – Food Cycle

As a matter of practice I tend to go out of my way to not have to wake up early while I’m on vacation, but this excursion warranted it. We(really Julie) booked a cooking class for that morning that involved us going to 2 markets to get all the ingredients prior to making the meal back at the restaurant. We met at the restaurant and from there, Chef Jorge,  explained what the day would look like and then we headed off to the market. It was oddly reminiscent of the previous day’s walking tour. I was still getting my bearings.

Along the way Chef Jorge explained some things about the neighborhoods we were walking through and told us a bit more about himself, where he was born etc. Much to my chagrin there was no time for pictures, which he was clear about, but its didn’t stop my shutter finger from twitchy..  

We visited the meat market and the fish market in two separate places, both incredibly grand. There was every kind of meat we could think of inside, all of which was caught daily and brought back to be sold in this market. It also is apparently a favorite place for the local to go eat.Unbeknownst to us at the time it was the place that the guide the day before had recommended 

So I mean you were making tamales and caramelized plantain and carimañolas.

We learned that the most important thing in your cooking is achiote and from that you make achiote oil, which is the big ingredient in the making of your tamale. After buying culantro, onions, banana leaf fish, and meat we headed back to the restaurant to start preparing our meal.

We had some complimentary drinks that were delicious and started our meal prep.My first job was slice the Seabass for our ceviche, while Julie did the heavy lifting of cutting the onions.Then we took turns grinding the corn for the massa. The chef has the chicken on the fire and we’ve prepped our caramilhones. At this point, we had our ceviche in the lemon juice for some time, stuff the chicken and the last of tamales we wrapped. This entire activity took roughly 3 1/2 to 4 hours, which worked out well because it ended around lunchtime and we were able to eat everything that we had made. It was delicious. 10 out of 10 would recommend it, the food, history and culture, all in one. Learning wide daily at this point.

Afterwards we headed back to our hotel to just veg out before our next activity later that evening. We came back to our hotel took a dip in the pool, relaxed, had an afternoon glass of wine and then an then headed down the block, literally about 400 feet from our hotel, to pick up our bikes. This is also something we love to do, but since the debacle in Malta a few years ago where we took regular bikes, it has been seared into my memory about every bike ride, we must have assisted bikes.

So we met our tour guide in Viejo…and we And we began our ride. We rode our bikes through the old part of town which was a lot easier than I thought it would be and she took us to an old mural that she said encapsulated a lot of the history of Panama City it took some pictures and then began the part of the ride that was on a bike path along the water. it was a beautiful scene as you can see all of the new Panama City across the water, She made several stops but a lot of four beautiful picturesque views and we all had the opportunity to take some pictures. one of our last stops was in front of the large Panama City sign and we wrapped at the fish market where we had some complimentary ceviche. This tour lasted anywhere between one and a half to two and a half hours. 

We dropped our bikes off and made the 400 ft walk back to our hotel to try to hatch a plan for dinner.We tried to mediate our trip between a healthy amount of planning versus happenstance so we did not have an idea as to where we wanted to eat but we figured we’d  wander through the old part of town and stumble across something that would catch our eye, and that’s exactly what happened. We came to learn later that it was not the cheapest meal in the world, it was $25 per person, but it was absolutely delicious.

DAY 3 – SAN BLAS ISLANDS

Delicious No I know I see I’m not a morning person that I hate waking up early so I really have to set my mind up to be open to this 5:00 pick up time.  today was the days really were looking forward to very much we were going to San Blas Islands  for the day. it was a roughly two and a half hour ride from our hotel to the point where we needed to pick up the boat,  this was one of those mornings we’re going to the mini market was to our advantage because there would be no other option for breakfast.  we get in the van with approximately six other people, who are later come to find out we’re spending the night at Sunglass Island we were the only day trippers on board. I did settle in pretty well enjoying watching the sun come up over the countryside, the early wake up not withstanding I do enjoy being able to go off the beaten path while I’m on away.  I put my headphones in with my hand pan music playing and fell right back to sleep maybe an hour later.  I would wake up again when we stopped to get coffee  and use the restroom. 

 This was a heavily trafficked route because  there were several stops and at one point we have to show our passports, much like our trip to Arizona the route and a certain portion of it were actually on land that belonged to the native goona people of Adam so it was like visiting a different country, of sorts.  otherwise the journey was pleasant and mostly uneventful we finally got on our boat of which there were several others and began our journey on the water. The capacity of each boat there was probably about 20 to 25 people and we each had two operators one at the front, using many hand signal to direct the motor operator the at the back of the boat. I’m not entirely sure why this pairing was necessary it was never spoken to directly but I would imagine there are varying water depths and many islands so he probably needed to direct him based on the depth of the war that he can see ahead that the motor operator could not see from the back.

 We also had one UNA native woman on the boat with us. The journey starts off like a canal like experience but we eventually make a turn and we are on the ocean it was Majestic and overwhelming and almost like something out of a cartoon all these tiny islands with little houses on that I’d never seen anything like it before. At what point we made a stop that seemed to be some kind of laundry delivery to a native Luna woman at one of the houses on the water. The island or something you felt like you would see on television or in a cartoon the water was pristine varying shades of blue and teal and we lucked out by having the most beautiful weather.  it didn’t take long for the early morning wake up to be completely worth it.

We landed at our first island stop where we grab some beers and were able to just Lounge on the beach,  it was MAGICAL. As somebody born and raised on an island sometimes it takes a little half for you to be impressed by other people’s beaches but this was by far and away one of the most beautiful places that I had ever been. the water was beautiful and calm and warm and it felt totally safe we could have stayed there easily all day. We didn’t however but after I taken an obnoxious amount of photographs as I usually do we got back onto the boat to go to our second stop which was actually a sort of swimming pool in the middle of the ocean.  this was one of those points about the depths of the water being different at different places I clearly our guys had it down to a science that they took us to what they were calling the swimming hole which involved them just stopping the boat at a certain point in the ocean and we just jumped off.

After frolicking here for a while and using my action camera for the first time,  we climb back aboard the boat and headed to our lunch Island.  this was larger than the one prior and also had over the water Bungalows that if people wanted to could rent out for a night. 

For lunch we had a simple salad with rice and a whole fish at a communal table getting to know some of the people that were around us,  which is always another fun part of traveling when you do these things we have people who came from Switzerland, Montreal, Vancouver and New Jersey. As much as an introvert as I see myself I do enjoy this aspect of traveling.

We spent the remainder of the day relaxing on this island, and meeting an incredibly cute dog. We just sat there listening to the waves roll in and out and Julie in a hammock, while I again, tried not to be a nuisance with my camera. We got back on the board the boat  roughly around 3:00-3:30 to make our way back to our car that would take us back on the 2-3 hour Drive to Panama City. 

We arrived back at the hotel at about 6:00 6:30 which gave us enough time to shower before dinner. This was weird cuz I was excited about too things one showering after a very long day and two we were going to go to the fish market Mercado de Mariscos as it’s called to have dinner that night,  we had heard nothing but great things about it and I was chomping at the bit. 

And you guys.. it was incredible once you get to the barrage of offers as you make your way in trying to make a selection of restaurant and you decide on one this was a Heavenly experience.  I had a whole red snapper with those stories covered in calamari and the most delicious kind of stew I’d ever had and Julie had a lobster. Not only was it absolutely delicious it wasn’t me that would easily cost us at least triple back in New York City. It was the perfect meal to top off and almost perfect day.

DAY 4 – ANCUN HILL, COCA COLA CAFFE, PANAMA CANAL MUSEUM

Yes!! Late morning wake up I finally get one in. We woke up roughly at about 9:00 got ready and found breakfast at the cutest little Bistro called Snack Shack. At this point in the trip I’m wondering if This blog should be a food block because I am completely getting knocked around by the audaciousness that is the food in Panama City. 

Julie had pancakes with passion fruit butter and yes it was as delicious as it sounds and I had avocado toast with shrimp pickled red onions and mango,  drenched in the most delectable sauce. So fully powered with delicious food we began our journey we hopped into an Uber that cost us roughly $4 to get to the base of Ancon Hill  and we proceeded upward  to get the beautiful Skyline View of the city. Now maybe it was on the New Yorker or not but people kept saying hike, which I associated with mountains and unpaved paths (wrongly) as it was a road that was very well paved and there were even houses along the path. It was beautiful, there were animals and lush vegetation everywhere.  and the entire walk took us maybe about 20 minutes to get to the top. 

After getting the photos I wanted we made our way back down got into another Uber to go back to the old part of town to have lunch at Cafe Coca-Cola. on our first they are walking tour guide talked about the significance of traffic Coca Cola and that it is the oldest Cafe in Central America I believe, don’t quote me. The menu gives a lot of history about the cafe and how it came to be there in Panama City which like many things was centered around the history related to the Panama Canal and the influx of foreign workers that it brought to Panama City.

All that wonderful history notwithstanding again another home run of a meal. 

We then walk over to the Panama Canal Museum.  I am sympathetic to the idea that we cannot possibly teach all of the world history in schools because that’s just impossible but the Panama Canal is pretty incredible. The wonderful thing about museums is that you don’t know how little you know until you go to one of them and that was definitely the case. Even as a caribbean-born and bred person I don’t remember learning that much about it even as a young child even though a lot of Caribbean history is wrapped up in the creation of the canal. for example I was that day years old to find out that the largest population of people that came from the Caribbean to build the canals were from Jamaica and Barbados, literally the country next door to where I grew up in Trinidad and Tobago. Now to make it even more interesting, while perusing the museum I also found that Trinidadians were also a part of the migrant influx into Panama. There were over a thousand Trinidadians that went to Panama during the construction of the canal. Insert mind blown Emoji here.

We learned about the treatment of these immigrants which was reminiscent of other times and history and the revolution that ensued because of the dispute of ownership or relative to the Panama Canal itself and the area around it. This is where we end up back and the admiration for Jimmy Carter because it was during his presidency, to the chagrin of many back in the United States, the Panama Canal and its operation was returned to the country of Panama. If you are following the news you know why this pin that was in the museum struck me at the moment. As the saying goes, sooner or later everything old is New Again.

We wrapped up this visit and headed back to our hotel giving ourselves the leisurely afternoon before Heading out to dinner.  I didn’t know that turned out to be meaningful because firstly, it was disappointing.When I travel I try to really get a taste for the place,  with a few exceptions I generally like to eat whatever local people are eating, Because for me that is all part of the experience. and while we do like to take one night to dress up and go  having ‘nice’ dinner  over the course of the last few trips we’ve come to realize that when we say nice dinner I’m thinking nice but local  but we invariably end up in a lot of places where nice means Americanized.  it may be me as a slightly  jaded, overexposed New Yorker that I am in search of difference when I travel.  

So we actually came to an agreement at the table that would probably ditch this as a tradition going forward. It was an easy decision.

Day 5 – THE PANAMA CANAL and MONKEY BUSINESS

Another tally mark in the wind column for me if this was another lesion in the morning. We walked over to our local Mini Super and had breakfast at the Fonda. I had something that was reminiscent of fried bake along with an empanada and chorizo. Julie had a tamale with nothing inside and an empanada as well but she was less induced about her meal But we take it in stride it’s all part of the experience.

 We hopped in our Uber, that seemed to always be 2 minutes away, I made our way to the Panama Canal.  with all this context that I gotten from the museum the day before I was so incredibly curious to now see it in real life.  we take the roughly 10-15 minutes picturesque Drive up to the canal Where regretted by a giant billboard of Morgan Freeman as the voice and narrator of the IMAX presentation of the Panama Canal. I had good vibes.

That was this particular day we did not see the canal in action per se but we did manage to watch a cruise ship go through the canal,  and I remember what I had read yesterday at the Museum about how sometimes there is less than a foot on either side as large ships past the canal and watching that Coral princess move through the canal confirm that,  I’m not a math person and definitely not an engineer but it was incredible to watch, I was in awe. 

The canal itself had really wonderful presentations around the types of ships that move through the canal and the lock system that allows the canal to function. We found out that we were standing at the point of the canal that held the Miraflores locks. 

After taking in all of the specific new Canal information we headed over to the IMAX theater Got our classes and grabbed a seat. The teacher and me really love the idea of learning all this history via this audio visual Medium as well.  It showed the French coming in trying to find a way while falling prey to the disease, the US coming along and picking up where the French left off and the evolution of the building of the canal. It was right around here in the presentation, I fell asleep. 

I’m gonna blame Morgan Freeman. 

The next hour felt like something out of the Amazing Race. We are booked a boat ride with the hopes of seeing some monkeys and had a roughly about an hour in between getting back to Casco Viejo and walking back to our hotel to be picked up.  we got back to the restaurant and decided to have lunch where we had had dinner on our initial night as it was very close to our hotel I remember it was delicious.  you somehow ended up short on time though and had to pay for our meal and order it simultaneously and ended up carrying bits of it out of the restaurant in a napkin. We made it on time and got on board to head to our Panama Canal monkey and Wildlife boat Safari tour.  Julie had high sloth hopes.

Our guide or Nestor showed up and a bus and we were driven to the Waterfront roughly 20 minutes away to board. 

The boat was very similar to the one that we took on sandblast Island and as we began going down the canal we were able to drive  in a way that gave us an up close and personal view of some of the ships waiting to cross the canal,  and ask them again pointed out that some ships can wait for up to 30 days to cross.  we made our way to the first stop where we met four other boats and a large amount of monkeys,  understandable since they were many treats including grapes and bananas. 

These monkeys clearly knew the ropes because they were climbing everywhere getting onto the boat off of the boat and taking graves right out of the hands of humans.  this was definitely more of a Julie activity than in my activity because apparently I’m a walking ball of nerves around things like this but it was interesting  to see animals living in the wild like that. We saw white face monkeys as well as how their monkeys which seem to have a particular annoyance at boats being revved.

There is always something wonderful about being on the water just being able to be on blackboard and feel the Caribbean air hit your face was one of the calming. We wrapped up this to 2 to 3 hour tour,  got back on the bus and headed back toward our hotel. 

We Decided for dinner that night that we would go to the restaurant that hosted our cooking class.  we realize that even though we had been to the restaurant, we had eaten our food, not theirs, it being a well-known and celebrated restaurant made the decision easy. 

I again had a whole fish smothered in something absolutely delicious with a salad and rice. At this point in our trip I am starting to think that I’m eating my body weight in Seafood and all of it delicious.  So if Seafood and flavor is your jam, do not miss Panama City. 

We head back to our hotel with the understanding that  tomorrow was going to be our last day in Panama City, but we were going to spend New Years eve here and were determined to have a blast, and that we did.

Day 6 – A DAY OF CATAMARAN RELAXATION

For our last day we booked an all inclusive Catamaran Tour from Panama City. A day on the water. So as usual we hopped into a ‘2 minutes away’ Uber to take us to the catamaran pickup, it was about 20 minutes outside of Casco Viejo. It was a smooth process. We got there and representatives from the company were there to check our IDs and we were able to use the restrooms and most importantly, by breakfast. I actually had a donut shumai, a cup of coffee and a bacon and cheese bread that morning, no judging and it was all delicious. 

Now there was a lot of rain in Panama but we had been so fortunate on this trip that it really had not interrupted anything that we were doing and this day would prove to be about the same. It was a beautiful Crystal Clear Sky morning,  weather designed for you to spend the day on the Pacific Ocean. We boarded bare feet and took our seats on one of the net beds of the catamaran.  this was my maiden catamaran voyage,  and I think they’re up there right next to the toaster in terms of wonderful inventions. being able to hover over the water and look straight down at the ocean from a feeling of safety Was an unexpected wonderful surprise.

Now this being all inclusive they were unlimited drinks and snacks and a wonderful selection of music. On this trip we made two stops. The first was at a swimming hole in the Pacific Ocean with some of the most pristine teal blue waters and spent roughly about 45 minutes swimming, or floating in my case. I do not trust my swimming skills in bottomless water, especially after 2 or more drinks.The water was warm and refreshing and the surrounding ambience was something out of the movie.

When you grow up on a Caribbean island, you can end up a bit beach jaded but this was spectacular. I could have easily spent another hour out there. I felt like a Pisces. 

After getting back on board we half dried off, had another drink , or two, and set sail for Taboga Island.

I was looking forward to this a little bit because the name sounded so familiar to the island of my youth Tobago, my childhood kind of came rushing back. Sun kissed and getting off the boat in toboga we walked up the ramp to take the iconic toboga pictures.  it was so relaxing and wonderful because we knew we had lunch on the boat so we headed straight for the beach.  there weren’t many people there that day so it was easy to rent two chairs and umbrella and just sit staring out at the ocean.  there was so much water front that there was no need to haggle for space.  We bought drinks, Julie took a dip and we just sat there. That moment, like the day itself embodied vacation.

We passing the wonderfulness of it until it was time for us to get back aboard the boat which we did and halfway through our journey the skies opened.

It was torrential.  as he would say in my youth the rain fell a bucket a drop.  we did manage to make it back to the covered jetty unscathed and boarded the boat.  

The rain lasted probably around 30 minutes or so and the skies turn blue again.  at this point we were heading back towards the starting point that this was our last stop of the day.  we enjoyed our delicious lunch and the rain cleared up soon after so we sat outside again for our last chance of that pacific air and Caribbean music. 

We disembarked and hailed our “2 minute away’ Uber and felt nothing but gratitude for an absolutely beautiful day and feeling grateful that this is how we got to spend the last day of 2024. 

We went back to the hotel, relaxed for a bit, ate our remaining snacks and got everything in order for our 4:30 am flight back to New York the next morning. All that was left was our last Panamanian meal. 

This may be where our New York disposition might not have served us very well. We figured it’s New Years eve so there were going to be any number of open restaurants open for this celebratory occasion. Right?

Wrong. 

We’re actually resolved to have our last meal at the Mercado de Mariscos because we loved it so much and when we got there and all the chairs were up we were a little dumbfounded,  it was the canary in the coal mine.  Back into the Uber we went and back to Casco Viejo where we walked around for quite a bit to find a lot of the same circumstance. A lot of restaurants were closed. 

At first it seems strange but apparently I’ve been living in New York for a very long time because my childhood memories came rushing back and actually this night, referred to as ‘Old years Night’ was tradition laden with activities things like cleaning your house from top to bottom, going to church or eating black eyed peas were the things that were prioritized on this day, not going out. 

We eventually found a high-end Hotel but still had a couple of seats off to the quarter just outside the kitchen, a travel adventure to the end. We had the most delicious sancocho, two drinks and main courses overlooking the Panama City skyline.  We walked back to our hotel waiting for the new year to ring in with the last of the wine in our fridge. 

We fell asleep and didn’t make it to midnight but we did finish the wine.

We left with more than just souvenirs. Panama had shown us its vibrant culture, rich history, and breathtaking beauty, all wrapped up in a week that felt simultaneously too short and wonderfully complete.

So here’s to Panama, a new year, and to the adventures that await. May our passports gather more stamps, and may our minds always be open to the wonders and lessons of the world. Until next time, adiós Panama – thanks for the memories, the laughs, and yes, even the “2 minutes away” Ubers.

PS – I did not hire an editor so I’ve forgiven myself for any and all errors you may find in this blog, I hope you have the same forgiving spirit 🙂