For the last part of our honeymoon, we flew from the David Airport to the Panama City domestic airport, where we had arranged for a taxi to take us to our hotel. It was a short 15-minute drive back to the B&B where we were greeted by a very friendly bilingual staff and comfortable, though modest, accomodations. Our hotel, La Estancia, was really reasonably priced, so we were surprised by the level of service. They had even held our luggage in their storage room for the three days we were in Boquete so that we wouldn't have to bring it with us on the small prop plane.
This mural in the hotel lobby was cute and cheerful, two words that definitely describe the inn.
Our room was nothing fancy, but it was cozy and we were lucky enough to get our own bathroom. It looked out at trees filled with birds that chirped at us all day.
As soon as we settled in, we decided to take the quick hike up Cerro Ancon, the hill the hotel was situated on. It was a paved walk and not too difficult, but it offered all kinds of bird and bug sightings (sadly no monkeys, which I was hoping to see). At the top of the hill we were treated to amazing panoramic views of the city: old town, downtown, and the canal.
A toucan perched in a tree on the hill. We named him Sam.
At the top of the hill, overlooking the juncture between "Casco Viejo" (the old neighborhood) and the modern downtown Panama City. So many skyscrapers were being built that I can't imagine what it will look like even a year from now!
After about ten minutes at the top of Cerro Ancon, it started to rain. Just a little at first, but we learned our lesson about a little rain in Boquete and began to hightail it down the hill. Halfway down we got caught in a downpour and did our best to stay under trees as we ran back to the hotel. When we got there our clothes were soaked, and the storm was really starting to roll in. We walked into the common area and listened to the rain and thunder out the window.
As we stared through the open sliding doors at the lightning, Jeff spotted a movement in the trees. We moved out to the covered balcony to investigate. I was convinced it was just a squirrel, but as my eyes adjusted to the darkness I saw that it was, quite clearly, a sloth. I was so excited and motioned to some of the other guests in the room to come look. One of the desk workers came out to see what all the commotion was about. I excitedly told him "It's a sloth in the tree! Look, he's eating!" to which he replied, "Oh, him again." He laughed at my funny North American interests and headed back inside. I continued to watch as the perizoso (Spanish for sloth) reached one lazy paw out to grab leaves from the trees as he hung draped over the branch. His face was cute, like a little doll, but the rest of him was sort of unremarkable, long and shapeless like those monkey stuffed animals with the velcro hands. It was too dark to get any pictures, but he looked just like this:
Is it wrong if I say they all look alike to me?
Eventually the novelty wore off and we gave up our prime balcony locations to a couple of older women who were dying to see. We had planned to go out to dinner but the rain was INSANE by this point...I have honestly never seen rain this intense in my entire life. We decided it would be better to stay in, and pay someone else to go out in the rain to bring our dinner. The front desk helped us order a pizza and when it arrived we very generously tipped the motorcyclist (!) who brought it, and settled in with it and mini-bottles of wine from the honor bar at $1 each.
With a little travel, a lot of rain, and $1 wine, you too can look this crazy on your honeymoon.
Staying in with pizza may not sound especially exotic or luxurious, but let me tell you: after all the travel, hiking, and exploring we'd been doing, it totally hit the spot. This was one of my favorite nights in Panama, actually, because it was the first night we really felt like us, and not like the National Geographic development team. Oh, and Jeff saw this on our window:
which totally made his night. He has a thing for lizards. (Sorry, he corrected me: this is a gecko, not a lizard. I have no idea how they're different, but apparently it is an important distinction. My apologies to the gecko community.)
The next day we awoke early, to the sound of birds outside our window and a light drizzle of rain. We checked with the front desk and were assured the storm had passed, so we called a cab and ventured out to explore Casco Viejo.
We were following a walking tour of Casco Viejo outline in our travel guide. We asked the cab driver to drop us at our first stop, the Plaza de la Independencia, where we saw this beautiful old church:
and waited out a short rainshower in the historical museum, which was actually really interesting and gave us a lot of insight into the country's history and culture.
Next we hoofed it over to the Plaza Bolivar. This was a small square with a large statue of Simon Bolivar in the middle, and surrounded by old-fashioned-looking buildings:
Behind the whole thing was the Iglesia de San Francisco de Asisi, with this amazing artwork over the double doors:
and meandered the streets until I stopped Jeff at the sight of an ice cream shop sign in a window. Not just any ice cream: this was the French ice cream shop that was touted in our guidebook as the best ice cream in all of Panama. We obviously had to stop in.
And we were not disappointed! That dulce de leche ice cream was the smoothest, thickest, creamiest ice cream I've ever had. I'd give up my pinky finger to have some right now. I may give up my whole hand to have some every day. (Good thing it's a Panama boutique shoppe, and I won't have to live up to either of those bargains).
With a lot of difficult on the unnamed streets, we finally found our last destination: Plaza de Francia. This was an absolutely gorgeous square with an arcade that overlooked the Pacific Ocean, and old brick storefronts built into the curved wall beneath.
We spent some time perusing the art museums and taking in the view. I bought a necklace for $3 from a street vendor who swore it took his mother a month to make. We passed through the bougainvillea-covered archway and made our way back to our starting point, Plaza de la Independencia. Along the way we passed random cafes and galleries, streets too narrow for a car to pass through, and cute little parks:
Finally, exhausted, we hailed a cab and headed straight back to our hotel, where we ordered Chinese food delivery (yes, really. Stop judging.) and enjoyed another peaceful night listening to the rain.
The next day, we hit up the Canal. Jeff was way more excited about this than I was, but I have to admit it was a truly amazing sight. Armed with the knowledge of its construction that we gleaned from the museum in Casco Viejo, I couldn't help but admire the feat of engineering (yes, really), that is still so amazingly active today.
We toured the full Canal museum and had lunch on the rooftop deck buffet restaurant. We were only there a couple of hours, but I really felt like we got the whole Canal experience...or at least, as much as you can without actually passing through in a boat, which we were unable to do.
As we left the museum we were approached by a hoard of taxi drivers offering to give us rides anywhere within the city. It was still early, so Jeff and I struck up a conversation with one of the less aggressive drivers and asked if he'd mind driving us to the artisan's market and ruins 45 minutes away in Panama Viejo (the old old neighborhood). He of course agreed, and gave us a tour of Panama City as he drove, telling us all about the history, different neighborhoods, and everpresent skyscrapers. When he dropped us off at the artisan's market he even offered to wait and drive us back, without charging us for the wait.
We spent about half an hour inside and bought a couple of trinkety tchotchkes to take home. But ultimately the aggressiveness of the sellers and the oppressive heat of the air conditioning-deficient building drove us out and into the park across the street.
Oh sorry, did I say park? I meant amazing culturally significant ruins. This was the site of the first Spanish colonization in Central America, and the capital of Panama until it was burned to the ground by pirates (pirates!) in the nineteenth century. The grounds were gorgeous, and we were even able to walk in and among the ruins.
The next morning we had to leave at 10:00 for our flight home. We got up for an early breakfast and as we sat on the balcony eating our toast and guayabana yogurt, we heard a rustling in the trees. We looked up to see scores of monkeys descending from the roof of the hotel into the branches around us! We watched them jump from branch to branch, eat their breakfast of bananas, and stretch out after their meal. They played together in the trees for almost an hour before quickly and unaminously returning to their home on the other side of the hill.
It was an amazing way to spend our last morning in Panama. We finally felt as though we had seen and done nearly everything we could, and we were ready to go home. As our plane took off from the Panama City International airport, we looked back down at the jungle, the canal, and the towering skyscrapers and breathed a contented, blissful sigh.
