A lot late in posting this. This was a trip taken in April of last year-2022.
Ohhhh nelly! As Keith Jackson used to say. Those of you College Football fans will know. Those of you not…..not so much. In order to convey the craziness that surrounds my household lately, I must use terms like the above and will leave it at that. Other terms are NSFW or appropriate at this venue. My now 17-year-old son has had health problems since he was three days old. However, the last six months have been trying for his mother, especially for all of us, including our daughter, who sometimes can probably feel a little left out. She has zero health issues, and most of the time, neither do I. However, my son had recently developed a heart condition or arrhythmia. He was checked out at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia by Dr. Janson. The good Dr. Janson, I can’t say enough nice things about him, including his taking the time to show us exactly what his heart was doing according to the ECG. Austin had an unsuccessful ablation late last year and is now on medicine to even out his rhythms. He is opting for another heart surgery sometime later this year, not wanting to be on medicine for the rest of his life.
Since this is a travel blog, I will get to the travel part shortly, but I wanted to give you a backstory of what was going on and a little about why we visited Panama recently – yes, the country, not Panama Beach. Panama’s primary focus is on hospitality and food, and we will experience both to the fullest. We were actually researching possible snowbirding in Panama after my daughter graduated high school (she is currently a sophomore), investigating the healthcare system, and talking with several doctors. I won’t go into too much of a rant, but the healthcare system in the U.S. is completely and utterly broken. Like many other things in this country, it only works for the wealthy. We are looking long-term into possibly moving overseas. This was the first step in information gathering. Unfortunately, the timing couldn’t have been worse. My son was diagnosed with a virus (NOT Covid-19), bronchitis shortly thereafter, and an ear infection as of the 19th of May.
I subscribed to a magazine on a whim a couple of years ago because I thought living in the Mediterranean would be awesome. Long story short, Panama was #1 on their list to retire, so I thought we should check it out. We went to a seminar by International Living magazine where we heard from ex-pats who currently live in Panama and a doctor who trained in the States but works for a hospital affiliated with John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Dr. Wong was a Panamanian by birth and spoke at length about the options in Panama. Long story short, all of my family wouldn’t qualify for private insurance in Panama, and we’re too young right now, but this was not the discouraging part. Mainly for my wife, the weather was just too hot and humid. The mountains have cooler climates, but Panama is a rainforest, and my wife’s Rheumatoid Arthritis does not pair well with rain. So I think we have ruled out moving to Panama. However, I wasn’t going to dampen our experience for the short time we were in Panama- 4 days.
We left on Friday early morning on a Delta flight out of JFK. We hired a car service to get us to the airport, which was cheaper than paying to leave the car parked there; plus, I hate driving in New York, especially all the way to Queens. Mike was the owner and driver who picked us up at 4:30 am, and everything was smooth sailing into Panama City’s Tocumen airport, including going through immigration and then customs. By this point, I could tell that the language barrier would be an issue from now on. I knew basically no Spanish, and my son, who took 4 freakin’ years of Spanish in school, wasn’t any help at all. Ahhh! The adventures of traveling. We got to our hotel and in our room and were pleasantly surprised by the room. Very nice and a little fancy. It was the Hilton Panama, located in the heart of the city. The seminar was taking place in the hotel, which was convenient. The kids could wander the hotel while we were at the seminar but were not to go outside except with us. The seminar lasted all day for two days, but we were determined to go on a tour or two while we were there. Especially to go see the Panama canal. The tour company that transported us from Tocumen Airport to our hotel was putting on other tours, so on one of the breaks from the conference, my wife and I sat down with Yarmei, and she booked us two tours. Sunday, we were set to go to see the old city Casco Viejo and the Amadour causeway; then, Monday, before our flight at 2:00 pm, we would go see the Panama canal and then straight to the airport. However, I received an email from Yaremi saying the canal would be closed or no ships were passing through that day so we just changed up the schedule; so we went to the canal on Sunday and the causeway on Monday before we went to the airport. When we originally landed in Panama, our driver didn’t really speak English. So when we booked our tour for the 2 days, we asked if the driver spoke English and she assured us he did.
Our driver’s name was Yuri, pronounced Juri. He spoke broken but good English, and he was extremely knowledgeable about all things Panama, including the history of his country in relation to the U.S. He picked us up on Sunday morning when our meeting was in a stretch where we didn’t care what the speakers had to say. We took off to the old city or Casco Viejo or Casco Antigua- whichever you prefer. We drove through a small part but parked in a public parking lot and walked the rest of the way as it was really a walking district. So this was in the middle of May, and now in New Jersey, where it’s been very cool and rainy. Panama, on the other hand, is HOT and humid all the time. So we roasted and sweated- which is normal when it’s 90 degrees with the sun out. We walked into several churches with staggering altars and beautiful Spanish architecture. Traveling tip: dive into a church in a hot and humid city because they are always cool, and in cooler climates, they are always cold. 80% of the population in Panama is Catholic. The Spanish were in control of Panama first, and then the French came into the country in 1897 to try to build the Panama Canal- which was unsuccessful thanks to mosquitos, yellow fever, and malaria. After walking around for several hours, we asked to get some refreshments, and coconut water was mentioned, so Yuri took us to a small market. In New York, they call it a bodega. They sold fresh coconuts they would cut into with a machete so you could drink the coconut water straight from the coconut. We bought two coconuts out of the refrigerator, 3-16oz. Gatorade, a liter of water, and came to $8.25. I forgot to mention Panama uses U.S. currency, and sometimes they give back change in a different currency called Balboas. The coconut water was unbelievably refreshing because it was ice cold. We continued to walk a little more, and we also tried Geisha coffee. A funny little side note Geisha coffee is only grown in the mountains of Panama and only in Panama, so it’s around $400 a pound currently. For a cup was $5- it was good but very different, unlike any coffee I’ve ever had. We finished our walking tour of Casco Viejo and zipped back to our hotel.
As I mentioned before, this was an information-gathering trip, so I won’t bore you will the details; however, we spoke to several speakers who currently live there and found out it just wasn’t in our best interest to move there part-time or full-time. But it was an adventure. What I have to say and what I remember was the wonderful people there and the delicious food. And really, what more could you ask for? We love to travel so much to experience the people and the food.
On our last day, our driver, Yuri, took us to the Amadour causeway, with beautiful views of the surrounding city and countryside, then finally off to the airport.
I guess it was always a pie-in-the-sky idea to move to Panama possibly, but we had a great time and met some great locals (including our waiter) and had some delicious food, and interacted with a very interesting culture. Next up is our trip to Hollywood and Disneyland in California in August.