Beautiful Playa Santa Clara in Panama

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.

Stroke of good luck on the way to Santa Clara, Panama.

Sunday was my departure day from El Valle and I had decided to head to the beach for a few days on the Pacific Coast. After looking at all the towns nearby, I decided on Playa Santa Clara, about an hour or 2 from El Valle on the Interamerican Highway. The owner of Residencial El Valle gave me directions on getting a public bus, where to get off and find the second bus, it sounded easy enough. After waiting at the bus stop for 45 minutes with my friends from the Netherlands, who were allowed to get on a bus for Panama City, I was very frustrated. There was some reason every bus could not take me where I wanted to go. I went back to my hotel, hot and bothered lugging my suitcase and backpack. Then a stroke of good fortune! 

The driver of a private bus overheard where I wanted to go and asked his group if they would take me with them, and they very kindly said yes!! The group was a wedding party finishing up their celebrations of the nuptials of Mike from Boston and Carolina, originally from Venezuela. What a great group of people, they were so friendly and took me all the way to Santa Clara in style.  I am so thankful to them for helping me out.

The wedding party bus, nice and big.  I sat next to Graciela, also from Venezuela, who spoke English well and I hope to be friends with on facebook.

They dropped me off at Las Sirenas in Santa Clara, a family on the bus was going to spend a few days there before heading back to their home in Tucson. I met the mother, black and white dress, on the beach the next day!

A lovely place to stay, great location on the ocean and beautiful villas. I wanted to stay here but there was no restaurant nearby, the family brought their own food as there are full kitchens in the villas.  The woman in the white sundress is the bride's sister who lives in Panama, and the one who invited me to join them and found me a seat with another sister, Graciela.

The bride and groom, Mike and Carolina from Brookline, MA.  Small world!

I stayed at XS Memories, right off of the Interamerican Hwy, on the non ocean side. It was the most expensive place I stayed at the entire time I was in Panama, and the worst in terms of upkeep, ambience, and attitude. $55 per night for one person, no breakfast. It's saving grace was it had a restaurant on the premises and wifi. 

The door to my room.

Low quality sheets, inexpensive beach towels for towels, plastic chairs everywhere and low budget feel. There were no bugs, some hot water and the air conditioning worked.

One of the outdoor areas where I used the wifi.

The bigger picture.

View outside my door and window.

I found it very disturbing to see the many, many large birds in small cages that received no attention while I was there. 

The sports bar area.

This is where I got the taxi the next morning to the beach. But first I bought some good oranges from this roadside vendor on the Interamerican Highway.

Square trees in El Valle, Panama

One of the El Valle attractions listed in the Lonely Planet book on Panama is the square trees. By the way, every single person I met was also using the Lonely Planet guide to Panama. So after lunch Malcolm, Laurie and I hiked through the woods to see them.

A good lunch on this outdoor patio near the town center.

Square Trees this way.

And this is them! Well, there were really only 2 of them and they were kinda square, it reminded me of the Plymouth Rock. Lots of hype, not much substance, but I enjoyed the walk there.

Best juice ever! Maracuya is passion fruit... delicious.

My only proof of the windy conditions, duck feathers standing up.

Around town on market day, Sunday.

This is their big artisan's market, but it's not at all like the one in Otavalo, Ecuador. 

The bus stop where I tried in vain to catch a bus out of town.

Young love.

Great pastries filled with guayava.

This type of furniture was all over town, even in my hotel room.

Panama City here we are!

Panama City is a very modern thriving high rise city, one of the most contemporary in Latin America. We arrived late at night on Monday, March 16th, and after some set backs found a hotel recommended by our taxi driver. All that research I did to find the perfect place and we didn't even use it. Luna's Castle was our choice, but we erroneously panicked when we saw it in the dark, and behaved badly by not canceling our reservations and just going to another part of the city. Luna's very nicely pointed out our bad behavior, and I would say they are a first class act and we should have stayed there.

Ian and Andrew have been birding and were met up with Ethan a few days later, after his delays at Atlanta. A good thing we are all flexible when it comes to changing plans!

Today Ian and I are heading to El Valle, a village nestled in a dormant volcano crater, higher in the mountains and cooler than Panama City. Ian became sick yesterday, so the other 2 went birding this morning at 5am and Ian and I are headed to the mountains on a bus in an hour.

View of Panama City from the Causeway, a string of Islands that juts out at the entrance to the Panama Canal.

Hotel Latino was our first night hotel, not very nice but it was safe. The restaurant attached to it worked well for food and internet.

The traffic and congestion in Panama City was too much for me, so after the first night I headed out to the Canal area. Diablo Rojo buses are prevalent all over Panama, most gringos don't get on them...

Andrew and Ian having lunch the first day. Really great fruit salad!

Intrepid birders with everything they own on their backs. Way heavy!!

A much nicer place to stay, Hostal Amador in the Balboa area. My room, and after ian got sick and came back, his room, too.

A new friend I met at the Hostal Amador, we went for a beer at the canal. He works as a line handler for boats going through the canal, and is from Michigan.

The Hostal Amador Familiar

View of the entrance to the Panama Canal.

A freighter going to the locks.