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Looking back on Panama

It’s been a couple of weeks since the Panama trip, and I thought I’d write down thoughts about the Panama thing. Overall, we had a good vacation, and would go back to Panama. Next time we’ll stay closer to where we will be going, and I think we’d rent a car.

The country

Panama is a great place for a winter trip. Unlike Florida, the Bahamas, and even the northern Caribbean, you are guaranteed hot weather. You simply are not going to be looking at the ocean or pool and have any doubts about getting in. Plus, Panama has two seasons, one wet and one dry, and the dry season runs from December to April. Plenty points for weather.

The Pacific coast is nice enough, but it really can’t compare to the Caribbean for quality of beaches. Interestingly, where we were, on the Gulf of Panama, the ocean was exceptionally calm. Apparently the Caribbean coast, especially in the province of Bocas del Toro, has exquisite beaches, but these areas were not easily accessible to us by the pre-packaged tours that suit our young family at this point.

I was somewhat surprised at how mountainous the country is. I suppose I expected that a place with a canal through it must be pretty flat, but part of the awe that the Panama Canal inspires is how it weaves its way through the hills that surround it. A trip up into the mountains is very much worth it, not only for the spectacular views or the lush greenery, but also for the 5-10 degree relief from the heat of the coast. Yes, heat is good on a winter trip, but when you are exploring on foot a break is nice too.

Certainly, we didn’t get enough of the rainforest on our Embera excursion. I think there’s a lot more to experience in that regard, and that will probably be high on the list of things to do next time. The canal is worth a closer look, I am disappointed that we didn’t see very much of it while we were there.

A little reading shows that Panama is the second most industrialised country in central America (after El Salvador), and the current building boom (which is a bit of an understatement) means that there is lots of work in that country. It would be naive to say that there is no poverty, but it isn’t as evident in the way it is in places like Jamaica, Cuba, or even Mexico. While bars on most windows offer evidence that crime is still a problem, as a tourist I felt pretty safe and not like a target. That said, I would certainly exercise extreme caution in Panama City, or any built up urban area.

The main roads that we travelled are in fairly good condition, and although some of the back roads were a bit rough, I will definitely rent a car next time we go to do some of the excursions at our own pace. The Anton Valley trip in particular, would have been a lot better on our own. Panamanian drivers are better than those in most other Latin American and Caribbean countries that I’ve been to. Think I’d rent a GPS though.

Playa Blanca Hotel and Resort

Playa Blanca is a pleasant, clean resort with good food, pools, and a nice enough beach. It is well maintained, and as with pretty much all the Panamanians we met, the staff were very warm and friendly people. I enjoyed the free wifi in the lobby area at the front desk, and I think Sylvia enjoyed the fact that it wasn’t everywhere. They only real strike against the place is how far it is from the airport and pretty much anywhere you might want to go.

You have to love the check-in. As you get off the bus, you are asked your room number, given two key cards and something to sign, and a blue band is attached to your wrist. Done. Sure beats standing in line for 30+ minutes trying to restrain kids who, having just endured a day of travel, want to get out and about. Of course, finding your room amongst the 6 or 7 buildings can be a trick, especially in the dark, and you have to do this on your own.

There are two pools, one with a swim-up bar (why is the water always so warm near these?) and continuous boom-chicka-boom music, and another quieter and more secluded one with three levels of varying depth. It was in the latter that we spent most of our time. The multiple levels were great for the kids, as they could swim and be thrown into the air by their father in the deep one, or play games in either of the shallower ones. By about lunchtime, the many coconut trees surrounding the pool cast a decent amount of shade at one end, but I would have liked more cabanas. Of course, given the fact that people are allowed to towel-reserve the shady spots all day so they can use them for an hour in the afternoon, more might be pointless. Yes, this is a pet peeve of mine.

The visitors to the resort seemed to be mostly Canadian, maybe 50/50 Quebecois and English. There were few Europeans to be found (yay!), and only the occasional (detectable) American. There were a fair number of Colombians and Panamanians, which was rather nice. It was interesting to talk to some of the locals and find out things about Panama that way. Apparently locals can pay $50 per day to use the resort (minus room).

There were two restaurants, the standard buffet, and an a la cart restaurant called El Velero. Actually, there was alleged to be another one, a sushi place, but we were unable to find it. I think it may have been closed for the renovation that was under way in one section. The buffet was pretty good, a nice variety of generally standard fare with a bit of local banana and fish dishes thrown in here and there. The fruit, in particular the pineapple, was excellent. Once I discovered the pickled habanero peppers on the salad bar, I was all set - Panamanian food (in this area at least) is not as spicy as I prefer.

We did the El Velero restaurant one night, and after the initial disappointment of the appetizers which were cold and not particularly good, we found the mains very good. My steak - ordered and served rare - was excellent, and the roasted or baked chicken was exceptional. After a few days of instant gratification at the buffet the wait does come as a bit of an adjustment, especially to my two kids.

Although Sunwing lists Playa Blanca as having a kids’ club, it’s more like an occasional babysitting service, and only if the right staff are in. The first day I was told “no kids club today”. They take the kids to a cabana where they play some games, have a piñata, then then eat candy and ice cream. Not really how I want my kids to spend much of their vacation.

Every day there were pool activities, but I found that in general there wasn’t much organised. Alex and I were very excited when they announced that they had “cricket”, but when we inquired we discovered that it was actually croquet, you go and ask and someone would set up the stakes and wickets, and you could play. There is a small games cabana, with a foosball table, air hockey, and a dilapidated ping pong table, but these were almost always in use, and when they weren’t you had to go find someone to give you the paddles/balls.

Unlike some resorts which have some small boats available for use, Playa Blanca has a local company that rents sailboards, a sunfish, and a catamaran, as well as mountain bikes and horse rides, and a few other “extreme” activities, like fishing. I didn’t think the prices were all that encouraging, and when I did decide to pony up to take out a sunfish, I was told that the sail was ripped.

Our room was fine, with two comfortable queen beds, and a coffeemaker. There was a TV in the room, but there were only about five channels, mostly Spanish, although the movies were often English with Spanish subtitles. It would have been nice to have been able to unwind with some cartoons for the kids before bed, but really, we didn’t miss TV much. Although we had paid extra for an ocean view, which was nice enough, in retrospect I would have preferred one of the rooms by the quiet pool (buildings 2, 3, and 4, I think). A ground floor room beside this pool would have been superb for us.

Sunwing and Aventuras 2000

Sunwing seems to take a bit of flak on the online travel forums, but we have always found it to be pretty good for what it is — budget travel. You pay them a (I think) reasonable price, they take care of getting you from Canada to your destination hotel and back again. Plus, they offer an orientation which, while tedious when you want to be sitting beside the pool drinking a piña colada, is usually very useful. It’s nice having a local rep you can call if things go wrong, or to get details about things in English.

That said, when we got off the plane at Tocumen I found the local Sunwing agents amusingly disorganised. None of them could agree on where we where supposed to stand, it almost seemed like it was the very first time this group had received a plane load of tourists. It got a bit worrying when some Sunwing agents — presumably, they had nothing to identify them — took our bags, put our room number on them, and loaded them into a big unmarked truck. It turns out that the buses don’t have enough room for all the bags so this is how they do it, but it certainly doesn’t inspire confidence.

Sunwing has some sort of partnership with the tour operator Aventuras 2000, and it was in their buses that we travelled between the airport and the hotel. The drive to the hotel, at night, was not fun. We were in the back of the bus which seemed to be going way too fast. The trip out was much better; even though it was longer, it went through Panama City which was a worthwhile sort of mini-tour of the city. There was a guide on the bus, and he gave information on various points of interest as we passed them. We learned that the Pacific Ocean was discovered by a Spaniard named Balboa — apparently until he arrived no one else had noticed it.

Our two excursions with Aventuras 2000 were okay, but involved a *lot* of driving. They can’t be blamed for where our hotel was, but I did feel that they were not very honest about travel times. They would give vague answers about how long it would be before we got places, and the times listed in their Playa Blanca-specific brochures were optimistic at best. It was a bit annoying when an extra hour each way was added to our Embera trip so that two extras could be picked up from the Gamboa Rainforest Resort. The only upshot of this was that we got to see the Gamboa, which is definitely where we will be staying next trip. Not only does it look like quite the posh place, it’s much closer to everything except a beach, and it’s walking distance from the canal and trails through the rain forest.

If I had the Anton Valley trip to do over again for the first time, I would see about hiring one of the cabs for the day. Doing it for a second time, I would probably rent a car — there’s a Hertz in the ‘plaza’ at the hotel. While the group tour was good enough, it was by necessity a bit rushed in parts, especially at the end when we had 20 minutes to shop at a local market. I think a local cabbie might have been able to give all the insights the French tour guide gave and more, with the benefit of not being on a time table. Of course, it’s always a good idea to make sure the hotel knows where you are going, and with whom.

Sylvia and I would have liked to have done a few more of the excursions, but given the amount of driving and the kids we settled for just the two.

Worth another look

Next year, I think we will look at doing a last minute. If the Gamboa in Panama comes up, we will definitely give it another look, as I think we only scratched the surface of what Panama has to offer. The country is beautiful, the weather is agreeable, and the people are very welcoming. While Playa Blanca was a nice enough place, next time I’d like to be closer to the places I want to see in Panama, and to have a few more things to do nearby.