Monday, March 23rd, I spent a very pleasant day at the beach with Avichai, a 26 year old traveling man from Israel. I took a taxi to the beach from across the street of XS Memories and met Avi at lunch, we were nearly the only ones there. He has been traveling for 2 months throughout Central America on a motorcycle he bought in Costa Rica.
Las Veraneras, a lodging and bar/restaurant fried food place is right on Playa Santa Clara and very crowded on weekends with the best beach around (as expressed to me by Americans that had just bought property nearby). I didn't see any other beaches in Panama, but it's one of the prettiest I've ever seen. Las Veraneras tries to collect money from visitors, but I said I was going to eat at the restaurant and the fee was waived. I had french fries... the only non meat thing on the menu. Las Sirenas is located half a mile down the beach from here and is a lovely place to stay if you have your own food to prepare in the villas they rent out.
Avichai putting his motorcycle in a strategic place near the sand where we set up 'camp'.
View from the tables at Las Veraneras.
Playa Santa Clara. There were thatched cabanas on the beach to tie up hammocks that were for rent for $3 a day.
Avi has his own hammock as he sleeps on the beach many nights and insisted on setting it up for me to hang out in while he walked the beach.
Lovely beach and hardly anyone there!
I stayed here and watched our stuff while Avi went for a long walk.
The view from my hammock (that's my foot) as I read, napped and thoroughly enjoyed a beautiful day!
Whimbrel.
We exchange Facebook names.
Ian, Andrew and Ethan come to the beach after a 6 hour drive from Volcan in the west of Panama, not knowing I was there. Surprise! Then the 4 of us drove back to Panama City together.
Andrew and Ethan.
An amazing stack of pineapples on the Interamerican Highway. They are held together by magic, no netting or other device that we could see.
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Hi Amy! I live in NYC, but am originally from Western Mass. My husband and I lived in Panama from 2003-2004 and Playa Santa Clara is where we spent our every weekend, generally with a trek to the El Valle Sunday market added on. Because we were there for two years and moved back somewhat suddenly, we never really got a chance to capture our favorite places in photos as well as we would have liked to. When I came across these photos, I was immediately transported back--you did an amazing job of capturing the spirit of the place. I would really love to make prints of some of these shots and frame them as a more permanent reminder of our favorite beach. Do you ever sell prints of your work? Or hi-res digital files that I could print myself? Please let me know--I would love to have your beautiful work in my home.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Cody
cody.mcburnett@gmail.com