The time of our lives!
Ok, it´s been so long I don´t even know where to start!
We left Panama City and headed west along the interamericana highway and stoped for a few hours in a small town called Penonomé. It was a really cute little town with a beautiful central plaza we walked around a bit and took a few pictures but then it started to rain so we made our way to a little artesan´s market and took shelter there looking at all the beautiful handicrafts. Mom got a really cute Panama hat and we bought a few other souveniers but we didn´t let ourselves buy much because we don´t want our packs to get to heavy this early in the trip! It was still pouring when we were done shopping, so we sat for half an hour or so and visited with the lady working there. She was very nice and animated, and Mom even tried out her spanish a bit! (She´s really understanding a lot now and starting to talk more and more).
The rain wasn´t letting up, so we pulled out our rainjackets and braved the weather to get to the bus station and catch our next bus. We then headed to another small town right on the interamericana called Aguadulce which means sweetwater. It´s got its name from a freshwater well nearby. It was dark when we arrived there (and still raining) so we checked into a hotel and watched our first bit of TV since the trip began. After taking in an HBO movie the rain had stopped and we ventured out to find some dinner in this little town that is famous for its jumbo shrimp. There was a cute little resturant named Manolo´s really close to our place so we went there and had a GREAT meal. We enjoyed a dish of mixed seafood...including a few things that we didn´t recognize, but it tasted great and the shrimp were delicious. We also had some shrimp fried rice...there was a pretty big chinese influence in the food in this town.
The next morning we got up early to beat the rain and caught a taxi to the ´beach´just outside of town were we read that there were some tidepools and slat flats and a neat restaraunt....but we found it less than impressive. We are glad that we went though because it was different from anything we have seen and we got to see some locals coming back from their morning fishing trip and chat with some interesting old men who were sitting around (enjoying a 9am beer or two). We caught the local bus back into town and had another yummy lunch of sweet and sour shrimp and shrimp fried rice at a restaruant on the plaza, and then headed to our next destination: Santa Catalina. It took three buses to get there and we had about 10 warnings from people that we shouldn´t go because of all the rain we might have trouble with the road, so we thought that we would just stop and stay in a town if the rain got too bad, but luckily the weather was great and not only was the road paved all the way, but the scenery was breathtaking and the sun shined most of the way! Along the way we met up with an American girl Genny who we had intended to meet in Santa Catalina, so we were all able to take the last bus together. She was travelling with her mom too, but her mom headed home and she has a few weeks to kill before heading to Honduras to meet some friends so she´s traveling with us for a while.
Santa Catalina is AMAZING. It´s a beautiful little town that is still quite pristine (but unfortunately not for long because a few big hotel chains just bought up all the land there and are planning on building some resorts). We got checked into a hostel in the main town right away that was called Rolo´s and was quite cute and headed down to the water to dip our feet in. It was great and we were very extited to be at the beach. We wandered around and found a little restaruant that served us some delicious fish and we had our first fried plantains! I missed those!! We had a bit of an early night and got up the next morning and tried to see about taking a trip to a nearby island called Coiba that has a national park on it which is supposed to be very beautiful and full of wildlife, but the water was choppy and they weren´t sending any boats out, so we made our way along the rocks while the tide was out to what we found out was a much nicer beach over in the next cove. We played in the waves for a while and watched some surfers and then decided to check out a hotel on the beach that we could see from the water. IT WAS AWESOME! there were four little two room cabins that you could see the water from with some palm trees shading the grounds and a beautiful thatched roof sitting area/restaraunt that the owner and his dad built together. We found out the a room with three beds was only $30 a night so we quickly decided to go back to our hostal and gather our things and move to the beach. The owner, David is an Italian guy who has lived most of his life in Panama and was great. He kindly offered to take us back in his 4WD truck so get our bags because the tide was coming in and we wouldn´t have made it back over the rocks and the road was super muddy and would have been a half hour or more walk with our packs on.
There´s so much more to say about this place, but I´m running short on time so I will have to leave it until next time, but I will say that we spent three wonderful days enjoying the waves, in an absolutely beautiful place, in great company with David, his sister and some other people staying there, and some amazing food! David cooks up an italian meal (which I must say was delicious!!!) there every night since once the tide comes in its hard to get back into town where the other 3 or 4 restaurants are. We would have had to wade in water up to our necks at high tide to get the the road. We ended up staying one more night than intended there because we just couldn´t pull ourselves away from the wonderful setting. And it was still hard to leave when we finally did!
We´re now in a little mountain town called Boquette which is beautiful as well but we´re still missing Santa Catalina a little. We´re all scheming up ways to get back there someday!!
Ok I typed this fast and don´t have time to check it over so I hope it all makes sense! We´ll write more soon!! Hope all is well with all of you!
Dee and Shelley
We left Panama City and headed west along the interamericana highway and stoped for a few hours in a small town called Penonomé. It was a really cute little town with a beautiful central plaza we walked around a bit and took a few pictures but then it started to rain so we made our way to a little artesan´s market and took shelter there looking at all the beautiful handicrafts. Mom got a really cute Panama hat and we bought a few other souveniers but we didn´t let ourselves buy much because we don´t want our packs to get to heavy this early in the trip! It was still pouring when we were done shopping, so we sat for half an hour or so and visited with the lady working there. She was very nice and animated, and Mom even tried out her spanish a bit! (She´s really understanding a lot now and starting to talk more and more).
The rain wasn´t letting up, so we pulled out our rainjackets and braved the weather to get to the bus station and catch our next bus. We then headed to another small town right on the interamericana called Aguadulce which means sweetwater. It´s got its name from a freshwater well nearby. It was dark when we arrived there (and still raining) so we checked into a hotel and watched our first bit of TV since the trip began. After taking in an HBO movie the rain had stopped and we ventured out to find some dinner in this little town that is famous for its jumbo shrimp. There was a cute little resturant named Manolo´s really close to our place so we went there and had a GREAT meal. We enjoyed a dish of mixed seafood...including a few things that we didn´t recognize, but it tasted great and the shrimp were delicious. We also had some shrimp fried rice...there was a pretty big chinese influence in the food in this town.
The next morning we got up early to beat the rain and caught a taxi to the ´beach´just outside of town were we read that there were some tidepools and slat flats and a neat restaraunt....but we found it less than impressive. We are glad that we went though because it was different from anything we have seen and we got to see some locals coming back from their morning fishing trip and chat with some interesting old men who were sitting around (enjoying a 9am beer or two). We caught the local bus back into town and had another yummy lunch of sweet and sour shrimp and shrimp fried rice at a restaruant on the plaza, and then headed to our next destination: Santa Catalina. It took three buses to get there and we had about 10 warnings from people that we shouldn´t go because of all the rain we might have trouble with the road, so we thought that we would just stop and stay in a town if the rain got too bad, but luckily the weather was great and not only was the road paved all the way, but the scenery was breathtaking and the sun shined most of the way! Along the way we met up with an American girl Genny who we had intended to meet in Santa Catalina, so we were all able to take the last bus together. She was travelling with her mom too, but her mom headed home and she has a few weeks to kill before heading to Honduras to meet some friends so she´s traveling with us for a while.
Santa Catalina is AMAZING. It´s a beautiful little town that is still quite pristine (but unfortunately not for long because a few big hotel chains just bought up all the land there and are planning on building some resorts). We got checked into a hostel in the main town right away that was called Rolo´s and was quite cute and headed down to the water to dip our feet in. It was great and we were very extited to be at the beach. We wandered around and found a little restaruant that served us some delicious fish and we had our first fried plantains! I missed those!! We had a bit of an early night and got up the next morning and tried to see about taking a trip to a nearby island called Coiba that has a national park on it which is supposed to be very beautiful and full of wildlife, but the water was choppy and they weren´t sending any boats out, so we made our way along the rocks while the tide was out to what we found out was a much nicer beach over in the next cove. We played in the waves for a while and watched some surfers and then decided to check out a hotel on the beach that we could see from the water. IT WAS AWESOME! there were four little two room cabins that you could see the water from with some palm trees shading the grounds and a beautiful thatched roof sitting area/restaraunt that the owner and his dad built together. We found out the a room with three beds was only $30 a night so we quickly decided to go back to our hostal and gather our things and move to the beach. The owner, David is an Italian guy who has lived most of his life in Panama and was great. He kindly offered to take us back in his 4WD truck so get our bags because the tide was coming in and we wouldn´t have made it back over the rocks and the road was super muddy and would have been a half hour or more walk with our packs on.
There´s so much more to say about this place, but I´m running short on time so I will have to leave it until next time, but I will say that we spent three wonderful days enjoying the waves, in an absolutely beautiful place, in great company with David, his sister and some other people staying there, and some amazing food! David cooks up an italian meal (which I must say was delicious!!!) there every night since once the tide comes in its hard to get back into town where the other 3 or 4 restaurants are. We would have had to wade in water up to our necks at high tide to get the the road. We ended up staying one more night than intended there because we just couldn´t pull ourselves away from the wonderful setting. And it was still hard to leave when we finally did!
We´re now in a little mountain town called Boquette which is beautiful as well but we´re still missing Santa Catalina a little. We´re all scheming up ways to get back there someday!!
Ok I typed this fast and don´t have time to check it over so I hope it all makes sense! We´ll write more soon!! Hope all is well with all of you!
Dee and Shelley
posted by Dee @ 8:50 a.m.
3 Comments:
At 9:28 a.m.,
Dee said…
I almost forgot to say that David gave Genny and I a quick surfing lesson and it was so much fun! I even managed to stand up a little bit! I think I might be hooked, I really want to learn now!
At 2:59 a.m.,
Anonymous said…
hey girl,
when do you come back?
At 6:51 a.m.,
Dee said…
Not sure who asked...but we are back on the evening of Dec 1..its a thursday
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