Episode 5 part 2

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On Christmas Eve , the expats in the gated community in Anton , where we were living at the time, invited us to join them for dinner.

About 16 of us headed into Penonome, which is the nearest town to Anton. We were going to their favourite Chinese restaurant.

The food was recommended but we were warned about the size of the portions, LARGE.

We started with vegetable spring rolls, 2 but cut into 4 which Anita and I shared, followed by vegetable fried rice , pork chow mein and chicken chop suey. Each dish could have served 4 people but they were obviously used to people taking home what they couldn't eat as at the end of the meal they came out with piles of the polystyrene boxes for that purpose . As Anita said to me it was strange ordering Chinese in Latin American Spanish.

All this good food plus a couple of glasses of wine and a couple of beers came to $39.00 .

At about 1.5 or 1.6 to the pound, great value.

At the end of the evening we returned to the community and headed to the communal pool and brought drinks and they let off fireworks. Perfect evening .

Christmas morning, after messages to family, Anita headed off to the communal pool for a swim. But next door neighbors called out to wish her a Merry Christmas and said why not use their pool and visit them. So i was called to join and the next few hours were very much enjoyed at their place with drinks and nibbles .

Then it was time to get ready for our dinner at La Fogata, Fallaron.

We had hired a taxi , via the restaurant but at the Chinese the previous night he arrived at Anton a day early and the above mentioned neighbors had rung the restaurant trying to contact us. I had to contact La Fogata via Facebook as i had no phone signal and explained that we had said we wanted Christmas Day and not Christmas Eve and got them to explain to the driver in Spanish.

So bets were on whether he would turn up on Christmas Day.

But he did and we AND HE, breathed a sigh of relief .

Outside view of La Fogata.

Our table.

When we got to La Fogata it was beautifully decorated and had a huge gorgeous Christmas tree.

Yes you are allowed to call it Christmas , unlike the UK (  a holiday tree ) 

I opted for the fish special instead of my usual sexy lobster meal and Anita had the Panamanian dinner. This consisted of chicken and coriander soup with garlic bread , followed by potato salad, then the main meal of ham ( gammon ) which had been seared  and had some sort of spice to it ( maybe cinnamon )  with salad and chips. The meal was finished with a flan ( more of a crime brûlée type cheesecake ) or fruit cake . Then coffee complimented the meal. We also had a bottle of very good Argentinian Malnec Reserve and some water . The whole thing came to about $80.00 plus the cab was $30 return and he waited for us whilst we had dinner, not bad at all.

The journey back was quite magical in the taxi, relaxing and looking at the carpet of stars and the houses lit up withChristmas  lights. Plus the lorries which are always decked out like the Coca Cola advert. Brilliant.

Panama Adventure 5 part 1

Christmas and New Year in Panama

One of the things we did before leaving North Cyprus was to find out if our favourite restaurant in Fallaron, Panama was going to be open on Christmas Day.

This was the one that I posted pictures of a lobster meal in a previous story.

We made a tentative booking .

Christmas is a very important time for Panamanians. Being predominantly a Catholic nation , it is a very important religious festival and the churches are elaborately decorated and most houses have nativity scenes amongst their lights and decorations .

Anton Post Office is in the same square as Anton church , so when we went to check out post, yes we do get post there , we stopped to admire it.

The church had a decorative archway  along the walkway into the church and a life sized nativity outside. 

A few days before Christmas we were delighted to hear one evening some local  children in an organized group walking around our gated estate singing Christmas carols in Spanish. Most were dressed in Nativity clothes.

When we came outside to listen they realized we were English and sang a couple of Carols in English. At the end they even gave us a Christmas greeting card printed in English. Apparently they were collecting donations for the local school but I have to say there was absolutely no pressure to give anything . They were just happy to entertain you.

It was quite special.

Panama episode4

We managed to hire a car from Rob,a Canadian , as we booked 2 weeks in another area in December.

The place was Las Lajas, Chiriqui Province.

It was some 240 kilometres along the Pan-American Highway from Anton where our rental was. A straight road , so easy to find. But the road is in a terrible state with LARGE cracks across both carriageways. Even the big American trucks slowed down to navigate through some parts . They are repairing and widening parts of it but it was still a nightmare.

Once we arrived at our B & B we breathed a sigh of relief. 

We stayed at Residence Las Lajas, a small establishment run by a married couple, Paolo and Ramona.

Paolo is Italian and Ramona from Romania. Little English was spoken as Paolo only speaks Italian and Spanish and Ramona speaks Romanian, Italian,Spanish and a little English. 

So Anita's Italian was put to good use.

They work very hard and treated us like family rather than customers .

We were treated to a very good breakfast every day ( included ) and a few evening meals . Although the menu was mainly fish of some description they did make an effort to make Anita s non fish meal. The portions were so HUGE though.

One day I had a surf and turf which was King prawns and other seafood with pasta. It was a challenge to finish it but I managed it, just.

So we were more than happy with our accommodation but the views in this area were truly breathtaking . It was so lush and green and the beaches are to die for. 

No high rise hotels in this region. Small hotels and beach bars.

We visited Nelly's , a surf bar that also had cabins to rent. One lunch time we had very tasty freshly cooked burgers  , not the flat tasteless processed ones you sometimes get fobbed off with.

As our B & B had no pool we had discounted entry to Las Lamas Playa hotel which was on the beach. We had day passes for $7.50 which allowed us to use the pool, sun loungers, Bohos and free towels. 

It had a great Latin feel to it and direct access to the beach . Again with spectacular views.

With many areas in Panama you drive along countryside roads such as Las Lajas, then hit a junction and you are at the beach . 

The beach here is wide and golden and runs for miles. You can venture a long way out on shallow water.

One day at the beach the local lifeguards were training and part of their rescue was CPR. I really wanted to help them but....."

Being a Catholic country they celebrate Christian festivals in a big way. We were there for Mother's Day and we heard children singing in the school , a special mass on the church  and lots of music coming from the cantinas and people's houses. They hold a fiesta at the drop of a hat which is not a bad thing. Although you might see a cowboy drunk in charge of a horse!! 

About an hours drive away is David, the capital of the province and a little further Boquete. This did not feel like Panama. Maybe this was due to the large ex pat community. But it was definItely off our list.

One interesting spot we found was a place called Nancito. It was up a mountain but was a very pretty village with a museum. The museum houses some ancient pottery and in the grounds there are large rocks with ancient carvings.  One of the ladies that looked after the museum showed us around but unfortunately was all in Spanish. But at least it was free.

So great views , wonderful climate and tasty food.

Across the road from where we were staying was an Italian restaurant called  Naturelemente . They had a wide selection of dishes from pizzas , pastas to specials of the day.

We went there a few times and twice had wonderful wholesome soups. One day 3 courses with drinks came to under $40.

The Panamanian waitress taught me a phrase which was " Bueno Bueno " which means very good.

In fact all the food we had there was Bueno Bueno.

Another FIND was an Italian ice cream parlour called Chiriquicream . It was to die for, and again so cheap. Plus decent coffee. I forgot to mention the ice cream is homemade. Making their ownmagna and ice cream sandwiches.

My mouth is watering just thinking about it,

Two more things to mention.

The first is the 2 earthquakes we had. One was not too bad but the second was at 4 a.m. At 6.7 was very strong and shook us out of bed. We stumbled out of the room . It only lasted for about 30 seconds but was very frightening . Apparently we were only about 60 kilometres from the epicentre .

We sat out on the terrace for a time to make sure it was safe. Strange that the indigenous tribe living next door seemed untroubled by it all in the corrugated tin homes.

The last event there was an off road trip in a 4 X 4 to a thermal spring but it had lost it's water. Maybe because of the earthquake .

All in all Las Lajas Chiriqui is at the top of our list to re visit.