"Lost" in the middle of Panama?

Dude, did you forget about the blog? It sure seems like you did...

Sorry to all our active readers, I've dropped the ball for a bit; but I hope to bring you back up to speed on our progress through Panama.
Our last day in Playa Blanco we enjoyed a fabulous sunrise come up over the ocean...

Our last pool day at PB also had some new visitors that we hadn't seen before...

Sha did some laundry during the afternoon and we enjoyed a last home-cooked dinner and a movie before we packed to make the move to Chitre the following day. Moving day was December 23, also "let your hair down" sister-in-law Debra's birthday.

We took Internacional Route 1 and 2 for the near two-hour trip from Playa Blanco to Chitre.  We arrived in Chitre at Hotel Los Guayacanes in early afternoon, unloaded the car and settled in to our second floor room overlooking the small pond in the center of the complex of four buildings. After moving into our room we wanted to head out and survey the local area. Those plans were put on hold due to what we found after coming out our room...

As disappointing as the flat tire was to see in our parking lot; it was a welcome sight versus having happened on the road somewhere on our way here. The hotel manager happened to be passing by our building and saw our predicament and offered to help. He ended up communicating with our  rental car after we experienced difficulties and even had one of the grounds keepers come and help change the spare tire. Well...the plan was set and as I got the spare out (helping without getting in the way) I realized it was flat also! With the flat tire removed, we needed to attach the spare. As our hotel helper was completing attaching the lug nuts of the spare, the last one seemed stuck halfway on...couldn't loosen or tighten it. Trying to complete the tire change, the final attempt snapped off the lug nut! We were thankful for our manager for communicating all of this in Spanish to our rental contact; and we also set up a time to meet the following morning to fix our problem. We drove a short way down the street outside the hotel to a gas station to fill up the spare (on 3 lug nuts!) so we could be sure to get the car to the repairs the next day. We found an outdoor BBQ place on the way home and had dinner there before going home (with spare holding air!).

Our breakfast is included during our two-week stay in Chitre and we enjoyed our first one on Christmas Eve and then took a walk around the hotel property before we took the car in for its needed repair. Had a video call with mom and dad to wish dad a happy birthday and hear about the family plan for the day's celebration.

Our tire repair was surprisingly pain-free,  and despite being Christmas Eve, we had our car back in working order by early afternoon. We then took to the streets to see what there was to see. The small streets were busy as people were out and about and we were able to buy a bag of Christmas tangerines off a street vendor for a $1 as we drove down the street heading to the big white church. We had dinner that night at our hotel.

December 26 we wanted to checkout a couple of nearby beaches after having enjoyed the pool after breakfast. We reconnected with the WWW to guide us there. We drove through a multitude of small neighborhoods on our way to the coast. We then hit a dirt road that had that "should we keep going" feeling. This time we should've turned around (and we had to as the pictures show). 

We are not even sure what we ran into...certainly wasn't a beach, and even though WWW said to continue on to the beach; we told her to pound dirt and we turned around. Redirection finally had us in the right place. To say that the first "beach" and then the second were disappointing would be an understatement. Low tide exposed a stretch of 200 meters of muddy/marshy muck that didn't hold any appeal for either of us to get out of the car. Well that was a waste of gas!  On the return, we stopped in a small town called Parita that at least salvaged the exploration trip.

The headless guy is called a "muñecos" and is filled with firecrackers, lit and beaten at midnight New Year's that help drive away the evil from the previous year. We had dinner that night at Estambul, a Turkish restaurant where we had a sampler platter of the local dishes. We both enjoyed the new tastes and spices in the dishes.

We stayed local for the next three days, enjoying the monotony of 87 and sunny with morning walks around our neighborhood, relaxing by the pool and finding a few restaurants around town. Worried about the condition of the beaches in this area, we reluctantly tried again and headed out to Playa El Uverito which is outside of Las Tablas; about 40 minutes south of us. Faith in the Panamanian coastline was restored as we drove along this coast.

We found a cool seaside restaurant called Rincon Del Faro (Corner of the Lighthouse) for lunch.

New Year's Eve we felt the need to explore again and headed for Playa el Rompio early in the afternoon. Feeling good about what we found, we continued driving along the shore and came across a gem by the ocean where we worked through our beginning Spanish to order a couple of beers and some lunch.

Upon returning to our hotel, we received a phone call on the room phone...weird I know. We had met a couple (Lucy and Daniel) a few days earlier and had breakfast with them a couple of times who left for their home in Panama City but returned for New Year's; and wanted to have dinner with us (I was right Bowsie!). We joined them a few hours later here at the hotel for a wonderful dinner.

For the previous few days, the hotel has been prepping the pool area for a New Year's Eve party (sounded like something we would enjoy until we found out the party started at 11 PM). So, after dinner we headed to our room with our set of 12 grapes and some wine to enjoy the College Bowl games and the countdown to midnight. There was no need to check a watch when it was 11 PM as the music was heard far and wide as the party started. The continuous fireworks signaled the stroke of midnight and was happening across the visible area. The party finally shutdown at 5 AM; and I think we both managed to sleep for periods of times before the DJ screaming woke us back up. Surprisingly, we didn't miss the next morning's breakfast which shuts down at 10 AM. 

​We headed into town to resupply for the football games and were encountering masses of people buying beer and ice for their coolers. We then saw hundreds of people carrying their coolers to the town square near the big white church (where we bought the Christmas tangerines)! Every corner had people with coolers. We were driving around to find out what was going on when we ran into a float.

We continued to drive around the area and finally ran into blocked off streets around the church and then headed home to try and figure out what was happening on New Year's Day. The Internet revealed it was the Fiesta in the Plaza Square and is basically a party in preparation of Carnivale, 40 days prior to Easter. Party-goers pack into the Plaza Square, water tanker trucks line the exterior of the area and everyone--including the floats and bands get sprayed with water as they party. We found earlier exhibits of what happens...

Unfortunately we will not be in Panama for Carnivale; which means we will need to come next year for the festivities!

Sha and I wish you all the best in 2023 and hope you have all that you and your family need.

​Pura Vida!