Panama episode3

 We hired a car from Sarah for a week so that we could get all our cases to Anton near Penome where we were starting our     3 month rental.

It is in a gated community and has 3 bedrooms 2 showers , a kitchen area and a small lounge. There is a small garden but is not planted up. The houses are quite close together and the estate has a shared pool. The people are friendly enough but we are used to our own pool and our big garden.

But it is a base to start from.

Driving on the other side of the road takes getting used to. Stocked up with food at the supermarket and costs there are def cheaper. 

We decided to drive to El Valle de Anton, which is a little village in the mountains . The road is very twisty and lots of hair pin  bends. My driving put Anita's nerves to the limit. Eventually we arrived and went to a small cafe. Anita had Apple pie and ice cream, I had a smoothie which was a combo of exotic fruits Mmm simply heavenly. Then the return journey. Wish I could have been the passenger so I could have enjoyed the breathtaking views.

On Tuesday we decided to go to one of  our favorite restaurants  in Farallon called La Fogata.

Unfortunately as we started out it started raining heavily . I mean HEAVILY. You could not see 20 meters in front of you. Add in the fact it was pitch black . What do you do. We drove on , sometimes at 20 kilometers an hour with hazard lights flashing. Scary times. Other cars were speeding by. God knows how they could see. After an hour or so for what should have been a 25 min journey we arrived at our destination.

The food was awesome . My lobster and king prawns were delicious . Anita had steak which she said was cooked perfectly and tender as it should be.

The hosts were really pleased we had made the effort and we booked in for Christmas Day.

Fortunately the journey back to Anton was better.

The next day was an ex pat get together at Picasso. This time the weather was kind to us and we got there just before it got dark.

Not taking chances again. Any way saw lots of people including Rob, a Canadian who runs a car hire firm in Coronada. We decided to share a pizza between Anita and myself. She said it was very good. 

Now coming from a half Italian that is a compliment indeed.

Panama adventure2

The next few days we stayed at a Casita in Coronada where we had stayed on our last visit continuing to unwind. The lady, Sarah had renovated her pool and garden. This made me miss our garden in Cyprus. Because it is still the RAINY SEASON everything was lush and green. 

The sandy beach was about a 15 to 20 minute walk away. Litter free. As it was overcast the colours and shades were a photographers delight. As was the display given by the flock of birds that rivaled the air display team in Cyprus. They would form in a single line and fly so close to the water level taking turns to to scoop the surface of the water. This was a few feet  from the shoreline. We felt privaledged  to be there to share this.

We visited our favorite Italian restaurant twice as we had no car . Fortunately it was a short walk away.

I tried a smoothie which was a refreshing fruity drink. They do these well in Panama as there is such an abundance of exotic fruits.

The piña coladas are to die for. At least they know how to make them here.

The food was proper Italian cuisine and so flavoursome . The other bar / restaurant we re-visited was called Picasso . They are on my Facebook page. Sadly it was on a Thursday which for them is a dead day as their busy day of the week is a Wednesday. 

However the food was great as was the friendly service. We had one of their signature burgers. Very nice. They also do great pizzas which we had at a later date.

A lot of places are cash only, as was Picasso but the Italian we paid by credit card.

The next stage of of adventure was the start of our 3 month rental. Blog to follow.

Journey to Panama

It's never easy to know if you have made the right decision . You have a different perspective when you are on holiday. Sometimes you just have to " go for it " . You know you have got it right when people say " oh we would like to do that ."

There are many obstacles in the way

We had a bad start even before we left North Cyprus . Because we sold our beds we had a couple of days to kill . So stayed on a hotel in Catalkoy and had a 4.30 a.m. Pick up to take us to Larnaca. Went to pay our hotel bill and NONE of our 3 TRNC cards worked. So had to use our UK card.

Turned out it was a cyber attack on HSBC Turkey.

Not the best start.

The flights were O.K. Not great but then we arrived in Panama City only to find British lager loughts there.

We stayed there  2 nights as we had been up over 24 hours, given the fact that Panama is 7 hours BEHIND TRNC.

On the 3rd day we were picked by a very nice Panamanian named Oscar who chatted all of the 1 1/2 hours to make the journey go quickly and we stopped off at a local shop / small store and tasted Local savouries and a corn drink that had we been on our own would have driven quickly by. It was delicious. 

Our first taste of local fare and so cheap.