With only a few days left, our scouting trip to Panama ended. We still had four days in Boquete then on to Panama City with one extra day for more exploring and then home. Whew!
Friday – Exploring Boquete, Panama
I had another physical therapy appointment at 8:00 AM with the same routine. I loved all she did and felt some relief. Afterwards, we returned to the Kotowa coffee shop for a latte and apple cake.
Then we ventured to the Tigo shop, the phone company for Panama and learned about our options and gathered lots of information for the future. I will keep my AT&T phone number for a while because it works there easily, but Lin plans on changing as soon as we move. We would save about half each month when I change to Tigo—that’s amazing! So glad to get this checked off our list!
Afterwards we drove up to the Hotel Central Boquete, Av. Central, Bajo Boquete, Panama to meet the local writing group. Yes, Lin googled writing groups and found that Boquete has one that meets every Friday from 1:30 – 3:30 PM. I so enjoyed meeting my fellow writers. We sat outside on a patio, enjoying the beautiful lush green and flowers and writing samples from members. There were four of us face-to-face and four on Zoom. We critiqued three pieces and started a fourth, but I had to go because Lin was waiting for me.
Friday – More Adventure
At that point, we decided to be adventurous and drove up the mountain, thinking we might find a road that looped back to our hotel. On the way, we stopped for “fresas y crema”—strawberries and cream. I had seen it advertised at various places the whole time we were in Boquete, and this was a great place to stop. By the way—it was delicious! Then the rain came, so we waited, hoping it would stop but NO! We decided to go back to Palmira.
From there we drove towards David to Ferreteria Ivan to the neighborhood behind the store, but the storm ended our search and we turned around. What a big storm—six inches in 2 ½ hours!
We lucked out when we finally got back to our hotel for a parking space under the carport, but we both got soaked at the end of the walk way! That evening, we snacked in our room for dinner.
Then we went to Jason’s, our tour guide, basketball game. His uncle and cousin saw us arrive and waved us over to sit with them. Ruth and John came also. And we cheered them on!
Lin called the rain storm that night “my day of baptism by fire” for rain in the tropics! He said it would never get worse than that! Thank God!
Saturday
We slept in the next morning and lazed around, but we did get our cribbage games in.
Then we drove to the San Francisco Plaza on the road to David and looked around at the businesses there. We returned to the neighborhood behind Ivan’s but didn’t care for what we saw. Then it was back to Palmira on windy roads. Coming back, we cruised around the neighborhood across the street from the country club and found some amazing places.
In our driving around, we stopped off at John and Ruth’s place and squeezed in an extra visit with Ruth! John had returned to the states to visit his son.
At 4:00 PM, I went to a speaker meeting for my recovery and met a new bunch of people—so welcoming! They invited me to go out to dinner with them, but Lin was waiting, so I said next time!
Sunday
The whole purpose of spending these extra days in Boquete—to explore on the neighborhoods Jason showed us on the tour. And we found others we liked too.
We decided to go up the mountain and found Villas Montenegro. From there we returned to the Mirador Café for a latte on a rainy morning. We paid $1 each to explore the garden below. We had been there with Jason on our first day but didn’t have the time to look around. Lin loved it. I struggled with the path walking down but made it. We enjoyed the beauty of it and the rain.
Afterwards we had a late breakfast at the Boquete Sandwich shop and had strawberry pancakes—Wow! Delicious! Lin had on his Philadelphia Eagles’ hat, and we met a couple—he was the Eagles’ fan too!
From there, we ventured up to Jaramillo Central and enjoyed the beautiful views of Boquete. After our wanderings, we returned to the Sandwich Shop for their delicious carrot cake and mint lemonade.
Sugared up, we continued our touring and went to the Volcancito and Santa Lucia neighborhoods, two that have moved to the top of our list to live in.
We ate dinner at Big Daddy’s, and they had live band. I noticed a group of young people there and talked to them. They were young medical students with Volunteers Around the World and were volunteering at clinics at different villages! Amazing young people!
Afterwards, we returned to the hotel so I could finish my blog.
A busy day!
Monday
We got up at 6:30 AM and ate breakfast. We had to talk to the hotel clerk about our early departure the next day.
Again, I had physical therapy, same routine—I loved it! Again, I met Lin at Kotowa for a latte and sweets and played our regular cribbage games.
Then we walked the streets of Boquete, looking at shops and found several jewels—places we could buy things we might need. We also found a couple souvenir shops we liked.
Because it was our last day, we returned to the Sandwich Shop for lunch and “limonada con mint” to tell them goodbye. Again Lin’s Eagles’ hat made connections. We met a newlywed couple who met at the victory parade when the Eagles’ won the Super Bowl a couple years ago.
When we left, we both got hugs from Kimberly and I got a hug from Ernesto, the manager and he gave us our meal free!
For dinner, we returned to the Smurf Restaurant and had spaghetti and shrimp! What a delicious combination! Our last night in Boquete!
Tuesday – Flew to Panama City
We got up at 5:30 AM and had breakfast. We returned our rental car to Cowboy Cars. Anna drove us back to the airport and I enjoyed talking to her in Spanish as much as possible. I talked a lot about the different shopping stores in David, so she drove by several to show them to us. Lin and I never made it to the PriceMart on this trip.
We flew Copa Airlines and didn’t get to sit together but it is a short trip to Panama City. Yoel, our faithful Uber driver, picked us up and drove us back to the Magnolia Inn in Casco Viejo. When we arrived there, our room wasn’t ready, so we stored our suitcases in a closet and ate at the Grand Deli Gourmet.
When we got back to the hotel, Lin grabbed the wrong blue backpack, so he quickly ran back and got his! Whew! That could have been bad. Lin napped, but the caffeine we had hyped me up.
For dinner we returned to our favorite pizza place in Casco Viejo, Calicanto Trattoria. After dinner, we walked around the square to the Central Hotel Panama for dessert. I had Crème Brulé and honey ice cream. We enjoyed listening to a solo guitarist.
Then we went home early to bed because of our busy travel day.
Wednesday
For some reason, we woke early! We had breakfast at our favorite breakfast place, Celikateses, that featured gluten-free food, even though neither of us are gluten-free now. We found it before and loved their menu and location.
Afterwards, we decided to do another free walking tour of Casco Viejo that began at our hotel because it was a different guide than the first one. Wow! He featured different places and information than the first one.
We ate lunch at Al Alma Restaurant, another favorite restaurant off the square in Casco Viejo. Afterwards, we rested because my foot hurt with all the walking.
For dinner, we ate at Restaurante El Nacional, the first place we ate a few weeks ago. We had learned about the size of the meals, so we split it yet enjoyed a delicious Panamanian dessert afterwards.
Back in our room, we got ready for our travel day the next day and charged all our devices.
Thursday – Flew Home from Panama
Once again, we got up early, and Yoel took us to the airport. We flew to Houston and had a nice layover so we didn’t have to worry about going through customs. But that airport, coming on an international flight, is a race track! With my bad leg, the walking almost did me in!
As we were walking, I noticed a “Global Entry” sign and remembered that Lin and I had applied for that. OMG! That saved us so much. When we went through customs, they directed us to a different line because of it. Then we didn’t even have to show them our card because of facial recognition. So, we just marched on through without having to declare anything or open our suitcases—what a deal!
We arrived in Albuqueruque about 6:00 PM, and I was exhausted.
Finally,
Our scouting trip served its purpose totally and we had fun along the way! I’ll keep you posted on our future adventure!
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