The drive down was different from the all night dark run from Panama City up to David when we first arrived. This drive was through lush mountains on decent roads with little traffic and we were able to avoid David, Panama's 2nd largest city. Yippee!!
Within 2 hours we had arrived to a totally different world. Here it was 90 with a nice breeze but still very lush in vegetation. And, the most beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean and stunning beach!
We had been told by Rick that the rooms were generous but we didn't expect HOW generous they were!! It sleeps 5 with 2 Queen beds and a single all for ONLY $70 in the low season, which it still is until December 15.
Our room wasn't ready when we got there so we brought in all of our luggage and put it in Rick's room and off to lunch on the veranda we went! The view of the grounds and beach beyond was luscious and we couldn't wait to get our feet wet!
The beaches here are massive! When it's low tide you literally have to walk 400' easy! And then you can walk out another 200' before it's waste high. Warm beautiful water with soft rolling waves - ahhh!
We took a long walk on the beach and enjoyed every warm moment. It was quite a change from the unfortunate cool, rainy, windy weather we had in Boquete.
Mike & Rick decided to drive down the road to see what was down closer to the inlet while I took a long luxurious hot shower and afterwards read my book with a cold glass of vino blanco next to the pool in the shade. When the guys got back and got cleaned up it was time to have a small bite to eat and head to our rooms for the night.
Saturday morning dawned warm, sunny and bright with light glistening off the water like diamonds. A hearty cup of coffee on the veranda with my book started the day off in a lazy mode. Checkout was not until 11am so we decided to enjoy the beach with the goal of leaving by 10:30am.
Mike & I took another long leisure walk on the beach all the while he was giving me some Spanish lessons. A great place to multitask!
We bid our adieu and headed further southeast before we turned due south from Divisa. But before getting there we went through Santiago, where we stopped and had lunch at Panamanian fast food. Not such a good idea. After heading south, we went through some pretty nice towns that we thought we quite cosmopolitan - Chitre and Chitra! We definitely want to try and make it back up that far while here in Pedasi to check it out.
The last substantial town we went through was Las Tablas and it had quite a bit of activity going on there too. That's an easy bus ride up the road from where we are now - Pedasi. A small fishing village way down the peninsula with glorious Pacific Ocean beaches all along the coast.
We drove right up to our "new" home here with great easy directions. We were NOT disappointed with what we saw. A beautiful new home with an attached apartment. The home is actually a 3 bedroom 2 bath but they have "locked off" 2 bedrooms and one bath. One of the bedrooms is being used as a living room so our unit has a large one bedroom, nice sized bathroom with walkin shower, ample custom kitchen, large living room and a private covered patio with views of the cows.
For a Look-See of our place, click the link: http://www.vrbo.com/433551
It's a short 5 minute walk and your right in the center of town. Cute shops, restaurants and bars, a few small B&Bs, a nice town square with the beautiful catholic church, and coffee & pastry shops. Rick is staying at Casa Margarita that has only 5 rooms but a very nice restaurant, where we ate last night. It's owned by a Pennsylvania couple, Susan & Jack, who lives here only 6 months of the year and we met them last night after dinner and had a great conversation.
Our hosts here, Christine & Wayne and their pups, Melvin & Fisher, greeted us with open arms. So after a little chatting, we realized that they are from the same area of Connecticut that I lived in for many years! That's 2 couples now that I've met here that lived in the same area of CT that I did. A very small world indeed!
Today, Rick, Mike & me went exploring down the coast. We found some gorgeous beaches with nice bar/restaurants and just sat back and enjoyed the view! We also stopped at another resort that our previous hosts are going to vacation at later this month when we'll catch up with them. The place is right on a beautiful beach but is tucked into the jungle with monkeys frolicking through the trees, gorgeous red tailed parrots sitting in the trees and emus and chickens roaming around the grounds. A very sweet, special place !!
Coming back into town, we explored the closer beaches and booked a boat trip for snorkeling over to Isla Iguana tomorrow morning. The boat is not a glamorous tourist boat but a local gentleman and his nephew. This should be an adventure!!
Dinner at Smiley's in town, the local expat hangout. A visit with their parrot and home for showers and some Sunday night football.
It's an early morning tomorrow so Ciao for now!
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