Panama Road Trip

Over the December holidays, the kids were out of school for a month.  Chris and I decided rather than fly somewhere, we do a road trip and get to know Panama better - not just stay around the Pacific side or the city.  We decided on a five day road trip.
Christmas Shopping in the City:
Sunday night we spent the night in the city at our favorite hotel - The Finistere.  We totally love the layout of the all suite hotels: King bed for mom and dad, sofa bed for Kami, and oversized chair bed for Lincoln.  We did some Christmas shopping at the malls there.  The shopping was crazy!  Cars parked on the medians, double parked, and extremely hard to find a taxi for the drop off or pick up. But we did end up taking a cab from our hotel and back from the mall.

First Stop Santiago:
Monday we headed back home, dropped off our goods and headed to Santiago.  We found the hotel La Hacienda which had a water park for the kids and a casino for mom and dad.  Water park was closed and the casino was not Vegas.  But we still enjoyed the affordable room with two queens and a twin.  Perfect for us.  The restaurants in Santiago were great.  We ended up at a Mexican restaurant in the downtown part of town.

Kamila found her calling in Boquete!

Fabulous Boquete:
Tuesday we headed up to Boquete - the coffee plantations, the coffee factories and cooler weather found in the mountains of Panama.  We stayed at Oasis Hotel which had a super room for us!  Upstairs was the king bed and downstairs we had a sofa bed and asked for a twin roll-away for Lincoln.  We had our own kitchen and cable TV.

Artisans along the road selling dresses and jewelry

Wednesday we headed out to Bocas del Toro.  Heard about it. Read about it. Now I was going to experience it.  Chris was there a few years ago and really enjoyed it.  We were also going to hook up with our friends George and Melinda from the Souther Belle catamaran (read about our San Blas adventure).  They just arrived themselves and were planning on staying there for a while.
Driving from Boquete to Bocas was an adventure.  We strongly recommend driving in the morning.  The mountain roads were curvy, very windy and scenic.  The views were amazing!

Where's Kami in the cacao farm?

We should have worn our rainboots too in order to protect our toes from mud.

We stopped at a cocao (chocoloate) plantation in Cilico Creek on the way to Bocas and what a treat it was for the kids and us to learn the process of making chocolate - pure, unsweetened organic and dark as can be. The experience was fabulous! Imagine a world of Chocolate from its jungle origins. After hundreds of years of using cacao for traditional and health purposes, the Ngobe Indians of this region live on stilt homes on the Creek.  The guides walked us through the entire chocolate making process from seeing the trees and growing the cacao to harvesting, drying and processing and eating it. We bought chocolate bread and high quality, pure, organic chocolate bars. 


Wednesday night  in Bocas del Toro is packed with backpackers.  We stayed at the Bocas del Toro hotel which is in prime location. Hence its price.  But the rooms were comfy and we all had our own beds.  I recommend calling in advance so you have the view of the water and the rooms are limited.  Great lunch served in their restaurant.  Everything is walking distance - unless you feel adventurous like Chris and Lincoln who ended up touring the island on a golf cart while Kami and I did some local shopping.

Fabulous service and drinks!

This hotel has style!

In Bocas they have an ecosystem which shelters hundreds of species of fish, dolphins, parrots, monkeys, toucans, sloth, dart frogs and a 20 year old national marine park protecting endangered sea turtles and manatees. In this ecological archipelago there are 9 islands dotted with more than 250 keys of coral gardens, which are the rainforests of the ocean.  
For dinner we went to the Crab place located on another island.  Fun taking a water taxi over.
If we were feeling adventurous and our kids were over 21, we might have hit a few bars on main street.  We ended up passing them on our way back to the hotel... 

In case you can't find your way...

Lots of rain here, but we were lucky to have only sprinkles on Thursday morning for our catamaran sailing in search of dolphins.  This was a great sailing cruise with George and Melinda from Southern Belle, but we did not see dolphins.

We headed back home on the drive back... which was an adventure in the dark.  Note to self.  leave before 3 pm so you are not stuck in the mountains in pitch black, foggy darkness.


Last stop but not least was Las Lajas. The person at the desk was great! We arrived just after 9 pm but we had a great room and a beer after we arrived.  The bar was closed but they were nice enough to let us purchase one after hours. 

Great rooms, pool, beach and bar

Chiquita bananas!! All around Bocas

Chris working

This will surely be in our agenda to go back and visit again.  Great road trip and very educational!!