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This is a tutorial on the use of PowerPoint or the Viewer:

You have “Double-clicked on the downloaded file which has started properly, enabling you to get this far.

You must move the mouse a bit for the cursor to appear.

If you move your cursor to the lower-left corner of the screen, you will see a faint “tool-bar” which allows you to go back, forward, pause, and some other actions when you click on one of the four “buttons”.

The slides are set to automatically advance every 15 seconds, but you can simply click your mouse and you will go to the next slide.

You must click your mouse to move on from this slide which will not “auto-advance”.

To go back a slide, use the left arrow “tool-bar” button at the lower left.

To pause to read a longer text, click on the “square” or third button from the left and a menu will appear with “Pause” as an option. When ready, simply click your mouse or click on the “right-arrow” button.

When you are through, hit the “Esc” key and the program will end.

I hope all of this works easily for you.

Initial Thoughts on Panama City

Panama City is a thoroughly modern, high-rise, business-center city of ~1.25MM people, about 1/3 – 1/2 of the total population of Panama. The pace of the city is breathtaking. They are building high-rise condos like in Miami Florida only much faster…..everybody’s dream/retirement home on the ocean. Outside of P.C. and even on the outskirts of P.C. things are much different, less opulent; but there is obviously a lot of optimism and potential across this country. There is a can-do attitude expressed here, and they are certainly taking advantage of the current great flow of credit around the world to offer luxury retirement and second-home facilities to all who want to come here.

Even ‘The Donald’ is building a ‘super-luxurious’ condominium tower right on the beach; and has plans to dredge the bay out for a marina to be attached. All of this will continue and prosper unless any economic ‘events’ occur which dry up the huge amount of global liquidity in the markets. In that event, Panama City will look much like Bangkok did right after the S.E. Asian currency crisis, with dozens of high-rise buildings sitting empty, silent cranes on their roofs and construction stopped.

They have some of the most creative policies I’ve ever read to lure the American, their main target with 72% of the total resident retirees.

They give lifetime ½ priced movie pass to all Americans retiring here.

You can ‘buy’ Panamanian residency by making an investment is any of several government-sponsored re forestation projects (which I’d suspect qualify for EU carbon-credits also). I think there is a 20-year reduction or elimination of property taxes for retirees and tax free pension and other incentives.

We met up with Alan & Alice in Miami after terrible connections through LAX. We wanted to 'enter Panama' together, which caused our schedules to be difficult. At the Panama International Airport, Tucomen (PTY), we easily went through customs, purchased the $5 'Tourist Card', and got a taxi to our hotel: 'Country Inns & Suites - Amador'. This hotel is right on the canal and is highly recommended for the views; pay a few bucks more and get the 'canal-side' room for the view as seen above. This is the 'Bridge of the Americas', connecting the Inter American Highway over the canal.

And here we are at late evening ...a show-stopper. The bridge is lit up at night and is simply spectacular. There is a TGI-Friday attached to the hotel for a convenient but un-inspiring dining experience.

The main drawback to this hotel location is that it is on the causeway, Amador, which is not a walk-able distance from the City. This means a taxi ride for everything; but...you're on vacation so who cares? This location is quiet and beautiful, and right on the causeway to the canal which has a 'boardwalk' alongside for a beautiful run, walk or bicycle ride.

On our first day, we decided to 'wing-it' and took a taxi into the Casco Viejo (Old Compound) area, dropping us off in Independence Square, where independence was declared from Colombia in 1903. This is the Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion, which was begun in 1688 but took over 100 years to complete.

It took us awhile to get our bearings, but we headed out to walk around by heading North towards the Presidential Palace, where we were abruptly stopped by a guard. We turned West and wound up meandering past Plaza Bolivar and on to a promenade that passed along the waterfront. We passed the Theatro National, a beautiful place to visit for only $1.

This area has many fine restaurants in it, though we didn't make an opportunity to eat here. It is well suited for tourists, and luckily for us we were practically alone on this Sunday. The weather was very cooperative and we had a great time walking through the Casco Viejo area.

Another view of Independence Square with some of the old buildings, and a bunch of school kids 'hanging out'. This is an active place, with several nice old buildings surrounding the square. It is a neat, small place to start a walking tour, however, walking just a couple of blocks away from the square to the East would take you into a 'barrio' district where it would be dangerous in the daytime, and downright scary at night. This area is great for tourists, but one must keep their eyes open and be sensitive to surroundings. The neighborhood changes abruptly.

Moving around the Casco to the Western beach side you come to the waterfront which has this brick-paved promenade. It ends where a beautiful bougainvillea-covered walkway over the breakwater begins (the low brush covered area between the buildings in the picture). The tile-roofed building dead ahead in this picture is the home of the Minister of Tourism, Ruben Blades, a famous Salsa singer & writer; and a movie actor, killer view. Litter control has a way to go with the beach here being covered with old tires, bottles and cans, and anything else that doesn't rot or sink. Can you just imagine the value of the old building to the left?

This is looking back from the South-Western end of the promenade, towards the East, with the heart of modern Panama City in the background. The buildings show a bit hazy, as is normal in the tropics unless there has just been a clearing rain.

This picture begins to show how Panama City is developing; helter-skelter high-rise financial and condominium towers as fast as they can mix concrete. Most of those buildings are not yet finished and have operating cranes on their roofs. Many are condominium projects that are already being sold and traded by the real estate sales forces. This is the 'retirement' and 'second' home Mecca that Panama is selling to Americans and Europeans, and it is currently probably at 1/2 the price of 'back home'.

We're walking along the 'breakwater' around the point of Casco Viejo. This is near the tip of the point, and that is the causeway to the canal in the background. The left-most part being the outermost island, Isla Flamingo, one of three that you can see that were joined together by the causeway. Our hotel would be just to the right in this picture over on the causeway. The ships line up just on the other side of the islands to enter the canal, in fact you can just barely make some out left of Bron's head. This area is very beautiful and peaceful. You are just up over the water, a small surf breaks here and there on the rocks, the bougainvillea-covered walkway is just behind the camera, and as long as there aren't too many tourists, it is lovely.

Here we are looking back down the point of the Casco from the very tip. You can see the modern City in the lower right. The white building with blue awnings is the French Embassy, and the chicken topped obelisk and some plaques located along the wall were erected by the French to commemorate their failed attempt at building a sea-level canal. This effort cost about 22,000 lives lost to Malaria& Yellow Fever. Street peddlers here are selling Molas and other cultural art from the Kuna Indians from the Kuna Yala district over on the Atlantic coast south-east of Portobelo. The women make the Mola by finely stitching together several layers of finely-dyed cloth in brightly-colored natural and geometric patterns. These peddlers did not accost us like in many other third-world countries where the din can be deafening. This was a polite request to purchase their wares. A lovely area and quite safe during the day to walk around, and I understand quite the 'make-out' place at night.

Looking down the East side of the point, one has a good view of the French embassy, and several other French and Panamanian governmental buildings as well as some art galleries and a few of the better restaurants. There is a park down the steps to the left where are located some dungeons that are said to have housed many things over time, including the lower ones being used for prisoners who were left to drown during high tides. The truth of this is not well established, but its a good yarn.

Looking farther to the East side of the point, one sees the flow of the Casco Viejo district. The two towers are the Cathedral on Independence Square. The breakwater continues around left to the North, with buildings lining the old harbor area. The little park, with the flowering tree and the huge shade tree are quite pretty and peaceful. This could be a scene from anywhere in Mediterranean Europe or Portugal. The Casco area is really pleasant and the highlight for me of Panama City. Just to the left of this picture is where the still-impoverished 'barrio' area begins and runs for many blocks. One wouldn't want to mistakenly stroll that way at night.

These are the ruins of the Iglesia y Convento de Santo Domingo (church and convent of Saint Domingo), which are currently being restored. Originally built in 1756, the main doorway utilized a 'flat arch', the Arco Chato, which was part of the argument for building the canal in Panama vs. Nicaragua. The argument in 1903 was that with a flat, unsupported arch standing for hundreds of years, it was obvious that there was no earthquake danger in Panama. In 2003, the arch collapsed (since rebuilt) the day after a politician publicly announced during the 100 year celebration of the beginning of the canal building, that it would 'stand forever'.

We arranged for a day-trip to the Atlantic side of the canal to visit the Gatun Locks, Portebelo, and Colon. The Gatun Locks are much better for viewing the activities of a ship's transit as the viewing stands are more conveniently placed. This is a magnificent testimony to human engineering prowess and construction. They were completed in 1913, and still function today, though certainly some of the technology has been upgraded along the way. This is the main lock and the control building. As you can see, the lock 'upstream' to the left is at 'lake level', and the one to the right is still at 'sea level'. A ship will be coming through from the Pacific to the Atlantic soon.

Here we see one ship just heading out of the locks from the Atlantic into Lake Gatun ('Athens Star' right) and on to the Miraflores Locks to get to the Pacific; and one coming from the lake (distant on the left) heading for the Atlantic. These are both 'PanaMax' ships, being as wide as the Locks will allow. The locks are 110' wide, so a PanaMax ship cannot be over 106' abeam, allowing only 24" on each side between the hull and the Locks. The ships are guided through the locks by the electric 'Mules', small railway-like engines that run along the track seen parallel to the locks on each side. They keep the ship from hitting the sides, and stop it; the ships move forward on their own steam.

The water has been filled into the lock on the right, making it level with the lake. Now the gates are opening to allow the approaching ship (from the left) to move towards the Atlantic.

An interesting note on the drive over to visit these Gatun Locks: On the road, as you approach Colon where Panama has created the 'Duty Free Zone' which is basically a tax-free exchange zone at the wholesale level, you see billboard after billboard advertising all of the shops and brands that are represented; and the billboards might be too racy even by American standards...quite the show.

Hopefully this gives you a sense of just how big a 'PanaMax' ship is compared to the Locks. You can just make out, due to 'overexposure', two 'Mules' working the far, or port, side of this ship; they have the little yellow 'bumpers' and look sort of like a small grey and white tank. Approximately 25 - 30 ships per day go through the locks; the process, including waiting time in the causeway leading to the locks, is about 24 hours. The transit from sea to sea is about 10 - 12 hours. Each PanaMax ship, if fully loaded, carries the equivalent number of containers as 25 MILES of train cars loaded with containers. The statistics of the tonnage going through this canal are huge.

This is the fantail of the same ship as the previous couple of slides, and you see that the crew are the same 'tourists' as we are; here they are taking pictures of the locks from their perspective, and they took pictures of each other as they passed through the gates and under the control buildings with the names on them. The Gatun Locks are much more impressive than the Miraflores Locks, but there is a museum and other displays at the Miraflores Locks that really need to be visited to get a good view of the history of the locks, the statistics, a 'simulator' show based on a ship going through the locks that almost makes you wobble on your feet, and an absolute killer insect display.

(Picture Courtesy of Alice!)

Here is a shot of the entrance area to Portobelo Bay, East-Southeast of Colon and the Gatun Locks. This bay became the main shipping port for the wealth being plundered and removed from South America, Mexico and Central America by the Spanish. This is also the land of the mightiest English, French and Dutch 'pirates' of legend. Portobelo became the main 'plunder port' after Sir Frances Drake razed the port of Nombre de Dios and killed most of its inhabitants in 1596. The Spanish who created the settlements and extracted the wealth weren't any saints either, enslaving the people and killing them without a thought; and they gave them the gift of contagious diseases from Europe.

On the way to the 'city center' of Portobelo, which is a tiny town, we stopped at a local restaurant along the road on the bay-side. This outdoors place was very cute, and the food was quite good. Here we are enjoying our 'daily beer' under the palapa-roofed dining area. Sitting at the head of the table is Roberto, our guide for this day's tour. This place definitely reminded Bron and me of a similar establishment on Moorea near Tahiti, what with all of the local 'stuff' hanging down and in piles around the room. A one-restaurant display of local artifacts and flotsam. Here we were introduced to the local 'ceviche', or citrus-pickled fish and octopus; a mainstay and delicious.

A view along the bay-facing wall of the main Portobelo fort 'Fuerte san Jeronimo'. The bay of Portobelo is stunning, narrow entrance, wide bay, surrounded by mountains. There were several forts built around Portobelo beginning in 1601. These forts were constructed of cut-coral blocks, which is clearly evident on close inspections. Coral is tough, light and easily cut with a saw. Much of the coral for these and the other forts was taken for construction of the Panama Canal by the Americans.

As can be seen here, these were substantial construction projects for their day.

Another view along the outer wall of 'Fuerte san Jeronimo', but the real object are the boats in the foreground. The one turned over is sort of modern, but the other two are the traditional hollowed-out log boats of the region; still in use today. My guess is that some of the local fishermen use these just in the bay to do daily personal fishing.

This picture helps establish the size of this fort, which extends from behind where the camera is to the walled-point in the upper center of the picture.

Portobelo today has about 4,000 inhabitants, and is still a sleepy, quiet low-energy town. There are a few rooms available for the intrepid adventurer, but few amenities attract the tourist dollars. There are a couple of dive shops, but they are not well advertised nor do they look to be too enthusiastic about their businesses. This is a 'Jimmy Buffett' song-town perhaps more of a 'Margaritaville' than a 'Portobelo'.

This is the entrance to 'Fuerte San Jeronimo', and the date on the arch is 1758, probably when it was finished. These cultural ruins are open, without control or cost, to the public. This is a wonderful thing; and the locals use them probably more than the tourists. When we entered, there were a couple of kids practicing their soccer in the main enclosure, it being a lovely, flat grassy field.

The risk, of course, is that this open and free atmosphere will lead to vandalism and eventual destruction of the beauty and history of these monuments to the history of Panama.

The main canon battery, pointing out to protect the bay from sea invasion. The cannons are all still, more or less, in place though not mounted on their slides. A couple are simply laying about in the yard sinking slowly into the dirt. In the foreground, you see a few of the huge blocks cut out of the coral and stacked and mortared to form the walls and buildings.

Here are the four of us out at the furthest battlement of the fort. It seems that, as I get older, I take fewer pictures of 'things and places' and more and more of people. I'm looking more for memories of my friends and loved ones than of the things I've seen. This probably makes for a more boring presentation of our travels, but, oh well! I think it is just a natural part of the ageing process, and I'm not a very good photographer anyway.

A scene across the walls of the old fort, to the local neighbors of modern Portobelo. I couldn't resist the juxtaposition of the flock of vultures standing on the walls, looking over at the 'new' buildings, appearing to be waiting for a feast. I wonder if they are direct descendants of the vultures who got fed regularly by the occupying Spaniards, or marauding English during the many years of plundering? The 'new' housing reflects, especially when considering the state of Panama City, on the difference that appears to be cultural between the Caribbean and Pacific sides of the Isthmus of Panama. It appeared to me that the Atlantic side was more laid-back and 'manana'-oriented than the Pacific.

This is the old 'Royal Customs House' (Real Aduana de Portobelo) originally built in 1630 to serve as the King's 'counting house' where all of the wealth plundered from the America's was counted, inventoried and stored awaiting a galleon to take it to Spain and add to the King's coffers.

The building has been rebuilt several times after being destroyed variously by invaders and an earthquake. It now houses a small museum consisting mainly of replicas of old weaponry, and some rather bizarre items such as an old Underwood typewriter. There are many nice photographs of the town, forts and main buildings for the history buff.

There is a small display of old robes for the local 'Black Christ', a finely-carved statue of Christ with a cross, located in the church just across the street. This is the subject for the one 'town-party' every year on October 21st when the population grows to 20,000 people in a serious party mood.

This is the 'city harbor', with a view of the 'docks'. As you can see, this has not been 'developed', and is still a quaint, small, port-of-call for smaller 'world-cruisers' who are looking for an inexpensive place to anchor-up for awhile. At the dock are a couple of the local 'dive boats'. I've read that the diving is nice, but nothing spectacular; however, you get to do it inexpensively and in small groups in un-crowded waters.

The real picture here is the beauty of the bay itself. Huge, totally protected, deep-water (to some degree) and surrounded by beautiful jungle and mountains.

A shot of some of the cannons from the other fort at Portobelo, 'Fuerte Santiago', located on the road into town from the West. There is a 'castle' or 'watch tower' located just across the street (Mirador Peru). This fort is much smaller than the main one in town, but it is still worth a stroll around the grounds, which will only take a few minutes. Once again, the fort was built entirely of reef-coral for its durability, lightness and ease of use. This fort was built in 1739 in response to a pirate attack, and it has many small 'musket ports' where the defenders could shoot out at the attackers without being exposed themselves.

It's funny what survives time....here is Alan in front of a guard-tower at the Western corner of the fort. It would seem to me that this would be the type of structure that would crumble first in the long process of decay, and all the rest of them are gone, but here is this one still standing and the construction looks quite good to this day. A little deterioration on the roof, which is now covered with grass, but by-and-large this little 'shack' is still usable for its original purpose.

The next day, we did a local tour, with a guide named Carlos, of Panama City and its highlights. We went to visit the Miraflores Locks, pictured here, and though the locks themselves are a bit smaller and less impressive than those at Gatun, the Administrative building at Miraflores houses a four-story display that is well worth the entrance fee. I especially liked the 'simulator' which was a mock-up of a ship's bridge with full-coverage video of the process of moving through the locks. It was so real you found yourself swaying with the ship's rocking. The other wonderful display was a full-on room-full of insects in small groups mounted in dramatic niches. This showed the incredible variety and had a lot of information about each species. Simply beautiful.

Carlos took us back to Casco Viejo, which was even more fun that a couple of day ago because of his quick-witted narrative and stories about the place. It was a bit less hazy this day, so here is a slightly better picture of the main City and all of its construction. Note the right-side of the city, in the distance, you see even more towers going up. This is out towards 'Panama Viejo' and the International Airport. The growth is simply phenomenal.

Carlos also took us on a motor-tour of the new city, weaving through the crazy-traffic of downtown, pointing out the various towers and businesses that are growing there like weeds. This was actually quite fun and gave a neck-stretching view of all of this growth and business. Panama has more banks than a dog has fleas. Panama is catering to International Finance, in this world not a bad decision, so there are banks everywhere, which account for the non-condominium high-rise buildings.

The obligatory picture of 'us'. On our last day in Panama City, we had a quiet time, doing laundry at the coin-laundry at the hotel, then taking a taxi out to the end of the causeway and meandering around the last couple of islands that it hooks together. On the next-to last island, Perico, the Smithsonian has set up the Marine Exhibition Center, including a nature walk, small aquarium and some displays. We walked through it, and here we are sitting at the 'point' that looks over to the last island, Flamenco.

The causeway out here at the end is being developed with shopping, restaurants, eventually hotels and condominiums, and a world class marina. There is a duty-free shop with all sorts of items including booze; and many of the restaurants are open though many are still under construction. The marina will eventually enable docking of cruise ships which will further impact the deterioration of Colon, where they all now tie up for the tourists to take local tours before going through the canal.

While walking between the islands, I noticed a pelican walking up the causeway from the water. I assume it was injured to some extent, as it allowed me to walk right up for this picture.

An interesting note is that for our entire stay along the coastal regions of Panama, we saw not a single gull. Pelicans rule here; they are everywhere along the coast to the exclusion of gulls. You also see frigate birds up high, which are a beautiful bird, but no gulls...must not be enough garbage dumps to keep them interested.....

On June 1 we rented a mini-van at the domestic airport and drove West along the Pacific coast to a beach-resort area, Playa Santa Clara. Mostly, there are 'All-Inclusive' resorts along here, but I'd found a small 'hotel' with only 11 rooms, 'Las Sirenas' (The Sirens). This turned out to be a wonderful choice, especially room 11, which is right on the beach and has a patio open out to the sand and exposed to the prevailing winds. As you can see, Bron and I had a hard time adapting to this low-key environment of peaceful relaxation. We had a funny experience as we left the City; I took a wrong turn off the highway, and wound up going back towards the City. We had to go all the way back, about 5 miles, to the hotel to turn around as there were no easy off-and-on exits; we all needed to use the toilet anyway

Las Sirenas is off the highway a bit, and there is no town. It nestles among the 'getaway' homes of many rich people from Panama and elsewhere. There are 10,000 sq ft. homes being built along this beach. This is why it's such a delightful place to go; no crowds, and some nearby places to eat and that have a beer along the beach. For decent food, you only have to go a couple of kilometers along the highway to good restaurants. The scene above is just a typical 'highway shot' of the rolling, jungle-covered coastal plains of this area just west of Panama City and before getting to the next Province.

We took an easy day-trip from Playa Santa Clara up to a little town, El Valle, built in the crater of an extinct volcano. There were many 'McMansions' up there for the weekend getaway of those seeking a cooler climate. Also, a nice little 'artisans' market where you could purchase the arts and crafts of Panama, including most of its indigenous tribal areas. If possible, visit El Valle on a Sunday, the best 'market day'; we were there on Saturday, and it was still pretty nice. We got a few trinkets. El Valle is quite pretty, but very small and not much of interest past the marketplace.

Here are Alan & Alice in the driveway at Las Sirenas. this gives and idea of how lovely the site is with lawn, palapa-covered sitting and barbeque areas, flowers, trees, etc. It fronts directly onto the beach, and a few hundred yards West along the beach are two small restaurants with cheap beers and mediocre food. Las Sirenas is off the highway a bit, and there is no town. It nestles among the 'getaway' homes of many rich people from Panama and elsewhere. There are 10,000 sq ft. homes being built along this beach. This is why it's such a delightful place to go; no crowds. For decent food, you only have to go a couple of kilometers along the highway to good restaurants. (Picture Courtesy of Alice)

A better angle, from the beach, of the hotel's grounds. That is our room, Number 11, to the right foreground. If you ever stay here, reserve your room far enough in advance and specify this room. There is our Ford Windstar, or Ford Wreck in the driveway. What a terrible car, bald front tires, the suspension was shot and bottomed out on every bump, the wheels did the 'shimmy' and I felt like a 'soccer mom', but the A/C worked and it got us there and back. Probably my 'overshooting' the parking spaces and hitting the curb here and there didn't help. (Picture Courtesy of Alice)

Here are Alan and I on the patio of Bron's and my room (#11). Who'd of thought that after 61 years we would still know and like each other enough to travel overseas. Travel is a hard thing to do, as small differences in how things are done, what to spend, dining out or in, inexpensive or 'the best', all of these things can grate while traveling. This worked out to be as pleasant as possible and to my mind the trip went perfectly. A truly outstanding time for me. (Picture Courtesy of Alice)

Here is a view of the 'crowded beach' looking East, back towards Panama City (which is about 120km away). That is our room, #11, to the bottom left with the archway onto our patio. Most of the beach going this direction is fronted by getaway or weekend homes of various proportions, but all of them large and expensive looking. Several were under construction or renovation while we were there.

On the morning we were to depart Santa Clara, I took this picture looking 'West' along the beach. You can just barely see the small outboard fishing boats about in the center, just white dots against the water. Right next door this way was an under-construction home of at least 10,000 ft., and further on were the two palapa-roofed restaurants. Playa Santa Clara is a lovely place to do little but read, relax and enjoy.

While in Boquete, we stayed at the Boquete Garden Inn, a lovely 10-room 'B&B' style place. It consists of a main office, with five 2-story 'duplexes', each with a room up and down. They are slightly different in configurations, so the prices vary a bit. We were in building #3, which I chose because it was closest to the small river that runs at the back of the property. This is a lovely little retreat, located several kilometers outside of town, past walking distance, but most visitors to Boquete will have their own rental car so this is no problem.

One of the amenities is a small outdoor palapa-roofed bar area next to the river. Here Alice took a picture of the rest of us as we enjoyed a few of our own cold beers in the afternoon. (Photo Courtesy of Alice.)

Here is one of the little 'garden delights' that populate the grounds of the Garden Inn. They have a full-time gardener who obviously has a good sense of presenting a delightful scene.

The Garden Inn provides free wireless Internet access, but only at the 'lounge' area just outside of the Administrative office. They also provide a 'Continental Breakfast' that is mostly fruit and decent coffee for free. A very delightful place.. (Photo Courtesy of Alice.)

A view of some of the grounds leading up to the outdoor bar area. ( Photo Courtesy of Alice.)

Here is the entrance to the Garden Inn with a view of the five 'duplex' room groupings. We were in the 'back-left' duplex, Number 3. (Photo Courtesy of Alice.)

On Sunday, June 3rd, Alan cooked us a superb breakfast of eggs, onions, potatoes and fresh 'killer papaya'. After this feast, we set off driving West to David, about 400km taking about 5 hours. This was a beautiful journey over road that was mostly in good shape; other than about 40km of 'road work' where the road went down to a single lane often and you were on the 'honor' system for entering the single lane....basically.....might makes right-of-way. We encountered rolling hills, flat plains and rugged mountains; everything green and lush with much jungle. We arrived in Boquete and found our lovely hotel and settled in for the night. The next day, we took a drive around one of the 'mountain loop' roads, up past coffee plantations and higher-still the vegetable gardens. The scenery was awesome jungle and steep mountains.

Here we are about as high as the road goes, in the vegetable farm area. It is too hot to raise vegetables in the lower elevations, so up here you get tomatoes, lettuce, cauliflower and others. Here it is cool enough from the altitude for them to grow well. They compete with the coffee plantations that are expanding as the world demand for a 'quick-fix' grows. We even met one English lady who was here to check up on her 'coffee farm'. The real-estate businesses are selling your 'retirement farm' to go with your 'retirement villa' in your 'retirement gated-community'. I hope it all works out for the 'retirees'. I'm always worried about what might happen when the country fills up with 'rich retired Americans' and the locals can no longer afford food or housing; what with Hugo Chavez's socialist movement just down the South American Continent a bit doing all of that nationalization of property....etc....

We arranged to go on a 'Zip Line' ride over the forest canopy for June 5th. We began downtown at their offices, where we piled in the back of a 2-Ton 4-Wheel-drive pickup truck and sat on side-benches with a plastic tarp covering us from any weather. In this rig, we lumbered off up the road to the mountains where soon we turned off the pavement onto a dirt track where we began to heave and pitch like on a 'bull ride'. We were laughing so hard at the situation and the thought of how many folks would end this adventure right there. Soon the climb got much steeper and we were reduced to a 'compound-low' crawl up a dirt-and-rock road. Many, many laughs later, we came to a small high-elevation valley with a small, but very new lodge with a lovely deck and patio and all of the amenities.

Here we are after they 'geared' us up to get ready for our 'Zip-Line' adventure.

After getting 'geared up', we were taken to a 'practice' cable where one of the four young staff members demonstrated proper technique and safety while another gave us a well-thought-out lecture on the process and the many safety issues and techniques. The 'Zip Line' crew were all young men who were going to University and did this on the side to pay their tuition. They were all bright, athletic, well educated and spoke from workable to excellent English.

After the 'training session', they took us along a path up to the 'starting' platform. the path was a regular nature walk, and the young staff were excellent nature guides as well; giving us little side lectures on the flora and fauna of this region and pointing out special plants along the way.

Here is the beautiful view down towards the town of Boquete from the launch platform for the Zip Line ride. This Zip Line is just over 3 kilometers on 12 stations, so it is quite a nice ride. I must admit that I had pictured in my mind, back in Boise, more of a skiing-type chair-lift experience with leisurely gawking at the trees, birds and butterflies; snapping pictures and generally observing nature. What it really was is a hair-raising thrill ride attached to a wire-cable being pulled by gravity at high-speeds over a canyon that you hardly even look at you are so focused on the landing platform and trying to neither stop short or splat into the tree trunk. Though I was absolutely wrong in my thoughtless pre-conception, the reality was totally awesome and I'd do it again in a second!

Here are the four of us, perched immediately next to the launch platform. That is Boquete way down and back in the valley. You can see clouds between the town and our altitude, to get a feel for how high we had come up from the town, which is one of the higher towns in Panama. Then next event is the launch down the Zip Line and into an hour of pure fun and excitement.

First off is Alice, buckled up, attached, right hand straight back on the wire for a brake, legs up and crossed, and above all else, watch the guide on the target platform! Other than slowing a bit much, Alice did a perfect first-shot at this. It was only later that she admitted that she has always had a fear of heights so to take this on was quite a courageous endeavor...and she did perfectly....

And Bron is off...after much whining about how 'do they let klutzy people do this?', she also did a perfect job of zipping on down to the platform in high style.

Here are the four of us on one of the earlier platforms. You can see Boquete in the background, way down in the valley, between Alice & Alan. Notice the smiles on all faces!!!

Here is Bron, coming in for a landing on one of the platforms. She showed almost perfect style and followed the safety precautions precisely. In fact, I was probably the worst for following the rules because I got carried away with the speed of the ride and would forget to 'break' in a timely fashion and had to be 'blocked' from smooshing into the tree trunk a couple of times. I was too pumped on the 'flying' experience to watch the guide who was signaling me to brake or die. As you can see, our ride went both over the trees, and in several places, right through them so when you weren't staring terrified at the guide, you actually had a great look around.

In one place, the cable was resting against a huge horizontal bough of a tree, but of course when you were 'zipping' along the cable swayed down with your weight and you were well under the limb.

The heavy gloves had about 3/8" thick leather liners for gripping the wire to act as your braking system. I was the problem child, as the heavier you are, the more momentum you develop and the harder you must break; and with my loss of focus due to excitement; you can see the picture....

Alice comes in for a perfect landing. She was amazing in that she could do this through all 12 stations while having a lifelong fear of heights. It was mind boggling when we all found out. She said it wasn't while doing the ride, but when on the tiny little platforms so high above the ground that it hit her. Looking at her here, she is smiling and seems comfortable; though the picture changed a bit at the next-to last station. That was at the end of one of the longest and fastest cable sections; and the landing platform was the smallest one of the entire ride.

Alice came flying in at a perfect speed, and wrapped her arms and legs around the guide on the platform and clutched him for dear life until she felt stable and stood up.

Luckily, these guides were really nice kids, and they were all considered, by the ladies, to be 'way cute' also; makes one wonder about the real fear issue on this last platform a bit....

Here is Alan, coming in for a landing on one of the platforms.

He was, by the 2nd or 3rd platform, acting like an 'old pro' at this ride. He simply took off, looked around on the ride, and glided into the next platform like he was born to it.

It did look a bit silly when he put on his 'hard hat' over his ball cap, but then....

I'm not at all sure what the hard hat was for; if you dropped off of anything, it certainly wasn't going to save you. The only thing I could figure was for idiots like me who might smash into the tree on the 'down-line' platform because they were going too fast and forgot to brake.

The rest of the gear was excellent. This operation focused heavily on safety. You were never un-strapped from either the Zip Line or a 'safety line' at each platform. They were fanatical about that and did it automatically and unobtrusively. They accomplished complete control by having three harness lines which allowed them to leave you with what you were already attached to, move one line to one safety cable, another to the guide, and then move the third line to the new zip-line cable, and then buckle the other two back to the zip line when you were ready .

Bron, with a face-full of focus and determination, comes in for another perfect landing.

This was about 2/3 of the way through the 12 stations and Bron was by now simply 'honing' her skills and getting it down perfectly.

I, on the other hand, almost killed the poor guide at this platform as I came burning into it at nearly full speed, trying too late to brake and not look quite like such a fool by smashing into the tree.

Alan makes another perfect landing, and you can see from the relaxed smile on his face and lack of strain, that he has it down pat and is ready to begin giving lessons.

Here is Alice, coming for the 'home' landing, smile on her face and completely relaxed as this platform is at ground level and as big as all outdoors. The 'platform horrors' are over, no more heights forever...

A couple of 'distance shots': Top is Bron on the long cable to station 11 with the cloud as the background. Bottom is Alan just behind the gnarled limbs of the old tree in center picture. This is to give some idea of the size and length of these cables between platforms...

And, unless we get a bit cocky, here is one of our guides doing a bit of a 'show off' by gliding the long span, arms and hands free of the cable (a big no-no for us) smiling down on us mere mortals...

After it was all over, we had the gear removed, and a beer to calm our over-stimulated nervous systems, we took a full-smiles picture back down in the little meadow with the trout ponds to celebrate our terrifyingly fun adventure on the 'Zip Line' of Boquete, Panama.

The ride was completed with our fears, bad vision, lack of focus and simple age saying this is not what to do, and we had as much fun doing this as anything we did on this entire trip. Even Alice would do it over again if presented the opportunity.

This is a definite recommendation to do here or somewhere else that you might find yourself where there is a Zip Line ride. Ensure that the guides are well trained and focused on safety, and let'er rip.

Before leaving this wonderful adventure, we needed a picture of the whole crew; so here they are. The four guides, and their friend who attends to the lodge and its services including the all-important beers.

The following day, 6/6, we left Boquete to drive to Playa Las Lajas, about which I had some trepidation because the advertisement had disappeared from the owner-rental web site. On turning off the highway to the playa, the road immediately showed much 'deferred maintenance'. 15 bumpy kilometers later, we luckily spotted a sign to 'Hostal Las Lajas' behind the weeds, and turned down a washed-out dirt road with puddles 40' across. 5km and many puddles later, at the absolute end of the road, no sign for our ‘Hostal'; but there was a building that looked sort-of like the Internet picture. We turned in, and we were 'home'. This was NOT the best place we stayed, but we laughed a lot, checked in, which amounted to handing the guy who spoke no English $50, and went to our rooms. This balcony was shared by the rooms....and all was well for us that day.

The much-retouched Internet pictures and description of 'where the river meets the ocean across miles of white sand beach' wasn't quite accurate. Basically, the property was located behind a brackish-water slew which had a few alligators in it, and it was quite a ways from the 'white sand beach' which was really quite muddy and brown from the river silt. The waves broke looking for the world like cafe-au-lait rather than clean ocean waves. Oh well! We were all together, safe, and we had a cold beer to enjoy on the stunning balcony of this three-room hotel. The downstairs was a 'great-room' with kitchen and a TV, so if all else failed, we would watch a movie later and go to bed.

A bit later, we re-forded the puddle-plagued road back to the 'main road', and bumped our way back towards the highway to the 'townlet' where hoped for a restaurant. None that I would eat in, so we went to a market and bought some pasta, sauce, and sauce fix-up vegetables and such.

Before returning down the swamp-road, we stopped at the only open-air bar near the beach, and had a couple of beers. Here we encountered a stunning rain, lightening and thunder storm for which we just sat and enjoyed from right here. What a fun afternoon. When the storm stopped, we forded our way back to the 'hotel' and to the balcony to prepare ourselves for dinner. We went down, and began cooking what would turn out to be a delicious meal that we all enjoyed more for the circumstances.

Here are Alan and I in the kitchen, sipping on a bit of wine while cooking up a wonderful pasta dinner.

The kid who greeted us earlier, who we guess was about 22 and spoke no English, was none-the-less a really nice guy named Eduardo. He wasn't of much help with anything, but he loved Salsa music and played it loud and continuously. He was really friendly and wanted to be helpful, but he wasn't really too savvy about anything there, so we just worked around him. When dinner was ready, we sat him down with us at table and he ate like he was starving, which he may well have been. We gave him what few leftovers we had, and I'll bet they were eaten within minutes of our leaving the next morning.

With all the Salsa music, or perhaps all the wine, we just couldn't resist dancing a bit while waiting for the least-hot stove in the world to get the water boiling to cook the pasta and sauce.

It is amazing how, when a few people are thrown together in less-than optimal circumstances, they can band together and have the best of times in the worst of places.

This night was probably the most actively fun one we had on the trip, with dancing, cooking, eating and laughing at our strange and remote circumstances and place; and perhaps we had a bit more wine than normal also.

It's a rare night when I will voluntarily dance, but here it is, living proof. Our meal turned out to be excellent. We gave Eduardo the largest portion, then gave him the only remaining 'seconds' portion and watched him eat like a hungry dog.

After dinner, we cleaned up, though we could probably have asked Eduardo, and I got out a DVD that I had brought along, 'The Pursuit of Happyness', and we settled down for a good 'tear-jerker' movie.

After it was over, we all went to bed and slept soundly with the sound of the cafe-au-lait sea gently rumbling in the background.

This was the one place where we didn't drink the water while on this trip. Panama is one of a select few countries in the world where the water is generally potable, but here near a slew, was the one place we didn't feel it would be safe.

The morning of the 7th, the day we returned to Panama City, I got up and went about looking at the property again. It looked better without much light. You couldn't see all of the dirt and brown water. I took a cold shower, it being the case that you either took a cold shower or no shower at all as there is only one faucet in the shower stall and it ain't 'hot'. But, after you get in, it isn't so bad, or at least you rationalize it that way. I think the human can rationalize anything that happens.

Here it is: 'Hostal Playa Las Lajas', even though the sign on the gate to the yard says something like 'Mirabella' or some such. You could hear all sorts of birds and monkeys in the morning and evening, so that was sort of cool. Even though it is a dump, down at the end of a road that looks more like a canal, with no actual 'service staff', no hot water, nothing close by, plenty of bugs, no beach that you would walk to or use, and obviously some challenges, we had a great if short stay here. Though without any qualms, we DO NOT recommend this as a stop on a Panama vacation. .

When I came back from my stroll around the 'grounds' and my fruitless search for a live alligator, I went to open the screen door to the balcony and what did I see near where one would normally put their hand?

Oops!

Not the best of roommates for the unobservant.

At first I thought this little critter was dead, but then he hustled off across the screen door and I paid even more attention.

None of us needed a bad encounter with this on the day before we were scheduled to fly home for a zillion hours in and out of airports.

And here is Eduardo, taken through the screen door with the scorpion just out of focus to the left. Right after this I knocked it off the screen door and Eduardo attacked it like a warrior and beat it to death with his flip-flop, then tossed it over the balcony where someone might easily walk and step on it and get an 'after-death' sting. Oh well! We hit the road for Panama City this morning, 6/7.

After our hilarious experiences in Playa Las Lajas, and communicating across many verbal barriers with Eduardo, it was pleasant to return to a nice hotel with a superior view and take it easy before leaving for the long flight home. We took this 'farewell' picture on 6/8, our last day, and are near the end of this travelogue. Panama is a great vacation spot, we'd do it again, but next time we will NOT go to Playa Las Lajas even if we did have a lot of fun and laugh uproariously while there....

Panama is a good vacation choice!

One quickly gets the sense that this is a happy and free society. There are places where the poverty is worse, or an ‘indigenous tribal area’ where the culture is a little more reclusive, but overall people seemed friendly, outgoing, ambitious and happy. The scenery is spectacular, typical tropical lush vegetation, beautiful beaches, rugged mountains and many racing rivers. For the ‘Adventure or Eco’ tourist, Panama is a Mecca. For those of us who are more sedate in our tourism, there are ample beach and mountain areas with superlative views and light activities for entertainment. There are some historical-cultural sites such as the old Caribbean forts, the canal and ‘old Panama City’, though this is not Panama’s strongest suit.

It is a place where many people from around the world, notably America, are going to retire ‘on the cheap’. It has great promise, but it also has some risk. The infrastructure is very familiar, but not in great condition by our standards; and in any area outside of main cities and resorts is deplorable. There are issues with the stability and consistency of its politics. Often the locals talked of ‘bad mayors’ or ‘bad representatives’ skimming money and doing nothing for their constituency (Well duh! All politics are the same!). There is the threat of the growing tendency in South America to follow the currently-popular leftist-socialist leanings of Venezuela and Hugo Chavez; and don’t discount that the ‘Chavez’ movement could lead to actual revolution in countries like Panama, where there are huge disparities in wealth and education. In Panama, 80% of the wealth is controlled by about a couple of dozen old families and new drug-king-pins. The vast build-out of high-rise condominium towers and gated retirement communities further accentuates the economic disparities and puts them ‘in the face’ of the overwhelmingly poor general population; fertile ground indeed for revolutionary thoughts. On the positive side, Panama is closely aligned with Costa Rica, and the US strongly supports both countries. With control of the canal, the entire world is concerned that Panama remains stable and the canal remains open to world trade. The whole world, however, doesn’t care if it is a democracy or a dictatorship, only that the canal is open and available to business. The US, which accounts for about 70% of canal traffic, of course wants the country to develop along the lines of a capitalist democracy. I hope that if things turn a different direction politically, that we keep our involvement limited to economics don’t get all charged up like in Iraq.

Those with retirement investments, and many are betting their entire bankroll in Panama, I hope the government doesn’t change direction and look at nationalizing foreign investment; an occurrence all too familiar in the general geo-political neighborhood. This is the main risk, but it is one that is impossible to calculate with any certainty.

I’d go back!

That my final and best evaluation. However, I would not invest in a retirement or vacation home there; renting is just fine with me. I would recommend Panama as a vacation spot to anyone, with some reservations on certain areas depending on the ‘adventure quotient’ of the person thinking of going.

Go Panama!