On November 4th, we packed up from the Balboa Inn (a nice place- we would definitely stay here again) and had a taxi take us to the domestic airport so that we could get our rental car. I waited in front of the airport with our pile of luggage while Guillermo took care of the details of the car inside. He came out after a while and then a guy drove up with our nice decent size (he gave us an upgrade!!!!) Toyota Corolla. Everything fit just fine in that car with room to spare! So, as it turns out, it's a good thing we decided to rent a car instead of fly because the airport in David (where we were going to fly to) was CLOSED because the runway was flooded!!! And we had been hearing about all the rains in the Chiriqui province where David is, but we were surprised anyway to hear that it had affected the runway like that.
Our drive to David was very nice, and it was what we wanted - to be able to see the countryside. The normal 6 or 7 hour drive took a little longer because several little towns were holding parades, and the Pan American Highway was either shut down in their town, or reduced to one lane each way. Here are some pictures of one town's parade. It looks like the parade goes for miles!
That town was one of the few that enjoyed a rain-free parade. It rained 80% of the trip. And the closer we got to David, the worse the rains were. Matter of fact, we passed several rivers along the way which were muddy and raging and there was this really sad sight at one river. A truck was passing really slowly in the opposite direction along the bridge over that river and we wondered what the deal was with that. But then we saw a clothesline with clothes that were about a foot from the water reaching them, and then looking to the right of that and seeing a little house totally surrounded by water, with the water halfway up its walls. It was such a sad sight, and we wondered if the people had gotten out in time.
By the time we got to David, it was POURING rain. We drove all the way up to Boquete in rain. We had a rough time that evening, because we were tired, we were hungry and it was getting dark. We checked several hotels without luck. We drove around all over Boquete and everything was full. Turns out this first week of November (which we found out when we were in Panama City) is a BIG holiday time for Panama, so everything everywhere is full of Panamanians vacationing. We finally found someone who recommended some stone cabins close to downtown (at this time we were out in the outskirts of town looking for places) which she had called and they said they had a room available. So, we felt very relieved to be able to have a place to lay our heads - it seemed very iffy there for a while. We settled into the HUGE place (no internet) and then went to a Crepe restaurant for dinner and it was absolutely delicious!!!
November 5th, we had a granola bar and a banana in our room, and then went out to look for a place that we might be able to stay longer term. We drove everywhere, some places looking promising and some places totally out once we talked with them. We found another hotel to stay at, that had a promise of being a long term place so we wanted to stay there one night to see what it was like. After having lunch, we went back to that hotel (Los Pinos) and tried the internet and absolutely no luck at all. We decided to go to an internet cafe to get information about other places for rent around town, but didn't have much luck finding any. We continued driving around and we kept finding places but there was always something, either they were too expensive for what you would get, or they were already full, or they didn't do monthly rentals or SOMEthing. When it was getting too dark to see anymore, we decided to quit and go have dinner. WONDERFUL dinner at a Peruvian restaurant called Machu Pichu - and we both were able to enjoy a Pisco Sour (a mixed drink) with some coupons we had gotten from the Boquete visitor center. They were delicious!!
Back at Los Pinos, we came to the realization that the place wouldn't work out. There were too many things wrong with the interior, although the balcony was lovely and the outside and the grounds were really beautiful.
We went to sleep eager to leave the next morning.
Today, November 6th, we had our usual granola bar and banana in the room and then headed out again. We went to some realty offices but they told us they only do rentals for 6 month periods. We drove to some places that had been recommended to us, one of which included a place called Valle Escondido. Now that place is beautiful but we felt for sure that it would be WAY out of our price range. After talking with the people there, and looking at two places that were available, we thought, hmm, MAYbe we should consider it. We decided to sleep on it and went back to the very first hotel we had stopped at the first day we drove in which had no vacancy that night, nor the next (but they told us they would have vacancy for this night). They showed us a little roundhouse and it was really cute so we took it for tonight. This little roundhouse is available for long term rental, also, so now we have to make a decision. But we are not going to make a decision until at least tomorrow morning. There are several pluses already about this place (Isla Verde) and one is their internet. It works just perfectly!!!! :-)
So, we were able to be on the internet for about 2 hours when it quit working - and we never got it back. We decided to drive around a little, and we drove out to the Pasteleria Alemana and bought several pastries and some empanadas and took them home.
The internet still wasn't working so, again, we went to that internet cafe downtown, and had a long chat with Fernando. When we were done with that, we walked back to our hotel, and for dinner had the empanadas, some of the pastries, an orange and a glass of wine. Very enjoyable.
On the map, it looks like a long way from Panama City to David, but I guess it is not as far as i thought it was. That flood must have been wild to see. I've only seen TV pictures of that kind of flood. I'm glad you were not caught up in e high water.
ReplyDeleteFrom Panama City to David it should take about 6 - 7 hours, but it took us longer because the Pan American highway was shut down in some towns or reduced to one lane because of parades. The rain also slowed us down. I wish we had been going as slow as that truck on the bridge, because we didn't see the flooding that well until we were passing right by it.
ReplyDelete