Category News from Your Man

Rene reports that the new Pacific side cruise ship pier and terminal will be ready for use soon. Your Man in Panama can take you there!

On March 23^rd, my wife and I headed to the Republic of Panama for a long anticipated visit.  Without any hesitation, we asked Rene to meet us at the airport upon our arrival from Atlanta.  What a wonderful sight it was to see his smiling face after we cleared customs.

Rene shared with us that one of his helpers was ill, so feeling experienced this being our second trip to Panama, we said, “Don’t worry, we will take a standard taxi to Allbrook Airport for our trip to David tomorrow”.  Reluctantly, he agreed.  We felt confident as our hotel was 10 minutes from the Aeroperlas Regional airport.

To shorten the story, we had trouble communicating and almost missed our flight because the taxi driver thought we wanted to go to the big airport, Tocumen International!

On our return home fr...

Rene picked us up at the airport … what a great site to see a friendly, smiling face, particularly after the amazing hassle in Miami (note to self:  no more flights through Miami!).  Off to lunch we went through the teeming city.  The sights seemed a little like a bustling Miami for a moment, yet mysterious all the while.  The Caribbean Sea grabbed my attention as we approached the water and proceeded across an earthen causeway.  Ah, a busy marina, with shops, bars and restaurants to be sampled and enjoyed.  Unbelievable food, gorgeous view … and the price — a steal.  Grilled prawns, rice and Atlas beer.  Yumm, my new favorite restaurant.  Rene knows the best places!

Want to sample a basic Panamanian dish made in your own kitchen?  It’s not hard at all as the everday cuisine is simple, but delicious —

real comfort food!   The key to its goodness is the availability in Panama of the  freshest ingredients  imaginable.  Here is a version of a

national favorite:

ARROZ CON POLLO:

* 1 chicken, cut up
* 3 cloves garlic (less if preferred)
* 1 sweet pepper
* 2 onions
* 1 tomato
* 1 & 1/2 cups of rice
* 3 cups of water
* a pinch of saffron
* salt & pepper to taste

Saute chopped onions, sweet pepper, tomato, and garlic in a little bit of oil.  Add water, saffron, chicken and washed rice.  Bring to a

boil over high heat, then cover and cook over a low flame until done, stirring once or twice during cooking.  Will take approximately

50 minutes — make ...

Yesterday we finagled an invitation to visit a Vermont gentleman that has built his tropical dream home with his own hands (with help from his Panamanian neighbors) on property whose beauty is unmatched.  The centerpiece of this location is a ficus tree over 50 feet tall with a diameter of 12 feet!

The ficas tree it seems begins by growing around a “host” tree like a vine, then killing the donor in the process.  Over time, the host rots away, leaving the ficus with a hole in its trunk where the donor once lived.  Amazing!  (No, this is not a metaphor for Uncle Sam!)

Looking to the east, one can see the Pacific Ocean, the out islands; about 50 miles total.  To the west, mountains cloaked in clouds rise proudly.  Coffee trees, avocado, banana, almond, berries … paradise.

Places so sta...

The Republic of Panama has made another “Best Places to Retire” list.  The latest appeared in the Forbes Magazine for October 15, 2009.  Read the article here:  www.forbes.com.

Rene picked us up at our hotel right on time and took us on an interesting drive through nice, clean neighborhoods in Panama City on our way to the airport.  Low tech bag check concentrated on knives and scissors, of which we had none.  Next, we learned that our flight had been cancelled!  As we pondered private charter, the Aeroperles Airline supervisor arranged a passage to David or us.  Panama City to Bocas del Toro to David;  we were told we would arrive just an hour and one-half late.  Not bad.

The flight to Bocas del Toro was nice and smooth, providing a fantastic view of that area.  Made up of a number of small islands, Bocas is an eco-tourist’s paradise (and for the rest of us, too!)...

Thanks to Rene!

This morning my wife and I awoke at 4:00 AM Eastern time to fly to Panama City, Panama.  It is a beautiful large urban city, a lot like a smaller Miami.

We went to a small island in the bay which had a marina. Rene took us to the most wonderful water/marina front restaurant. Unbelievably fresh and fantastic prawns … I had a smoked prawn shish-ka-bob. The prawns were so fresh they were sweet and the vegetables were the best tasting I ever have put in my mouth!  I had two Panamanian beers (Atlas Lager), my wife enjoyed a Chilean red wine and three of us ate at an amazing place … for $40.00!

Next, we went to the Panama Canal and watched a couple of ships make it through the channel (locks). The Eighth Wonder of the World and it (The Canal) deserves the designation...

On November 7, 2009 Rene arranged for his assistant driver to pick up my wife at the Tocumen Airport and bring her to Albrook so that she could catch the last flight from Panama City to David.

Her flight into Panama City was an hour late which left less than 40 minutes from the time that she got out of customs before her connecting flight departed for David.

Not only did the driver make it to Albrook in less than 30 minutes, while still  driving safely, but he called ahead to Aeroperlas to alert them that they had a late arriving passenger.

When she arrived at Albrook, 10 minutes before the scheduled departure, she was greeted with cheers by the Aeroperlas staff.

Rene and his drivers are the best!

Phil

Panama has a great variety of world-class attractions all in close proximity
Panama is small country, yet it has a great variety of attractions- exotic tropical rainforests, beautiful mountain refuges, Caribbean-style beaches, a 1000 islands, seven living Indian cultures, a Miami-style sophisticated capital city, scads of Spanish colonial historical sites, golf, diving, sport fishing, not to mention that 8th wonder of the world and engineering marvel, the Panama Canal. It is hard to think of any other destination in the world that has such a variety of attractions so close by and so easy to get to.

Panama is safe
Panama is one of the safest countries in Latin American for tourists. Tourism crime especially is low...