Hi everyone! We are officially done with the first quarter of school. Quarter 1 finished two weeks ago and concluded with parent teacher conferences. These were my first parent teacher conferences and I would say they went pretty well! Immediately following the conferences was a week with no school. When Dan and I found out there was a week off in October, we knew we wanted to plan a trip. We had heard amazing things about Panama especially Bocas del Toro and started planning our itinerary.
On Friday, October 15th, conferences were finished by noon so Dan and I took the 2:30 pm bus into San Jose (the capital of Costa Rica). Dan had found a great stay close to the airport with a beautiful room. It was more like a little cabin. We stayed there for the night and then the following morning we packed up again and made our way to the airport. Our flight was scheduled for 11:30 am. It was only an hour journey over to Panama City which was the perfect amount of time for a “Squid Game” episode.
Going through customs and immigration was fairly easy. Since we are vaccinated, we didn’t need to present a negative COVID test. We prearranged transportation to our hostel in the San Francisco area of Panama City. Once we got into our room and put our backpacks down, we went out for some food. We found a place called “Anti-Burger” with great burgers and veggie burgers. The curly fries were the best part though.
Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to freshen up. We were in the mood to go out and see the night life of Panama City. Dan did some research and found an area called Casco Viejo. Well, it turns out Casco Viejo was the center of nightlife! We took an Uber to Casacasco, a fancy rooftop bar. We enjoyed our first drinks of the night and then walked around Casco Viejo. Casco Viejo is the oldest part of Panama City. The buildings are very old and beautiful. We had more drinks at a cute bar by the water with fun swinging chairs and then we ended the night at the Bluemoon Taphouse which was filled with people and live music! We loved wandering around Casco Viejo at night, I would highly recommend!
The next day we got a little bit of a later start. First, we went to the bus station to purchase our tickets for the following day. Afterwards, we took an Uber to the Panama Canal! Going to Panama City, I of course wanted to see the canal; however, I didn’t realize how freaking cool it is until we went! We were able to see one small boat and two huge ships go through the locks. It was incredible to see the water levels change and how those enormous ships are able to fit through. It was fun waving to the workers aboard the ships as they passed by. If you are ever in Panama City, I highly recommend visiting the canal.
Later in the day, we went to the Amador Causeway. Again, Dan found this spot and it was so much fun! I got ice cream and then we rented a bicycle cart for two and biked along the causeway along with hundreds of others. This place was SO busy!
As we were about to head back to our hostel, we found a carnival at the causeway! We looked around and immediately knew that we needed to ride the pirate ship ride and one more. We got the tickets and had a blast going on the carnival rides. It was the perfect end to our night. That and the Domino’s pizza we got on the way home to watch the final episode of “Squid Game”.
Monday, October 18th was our final day in Panama City. We wanted to check out Panama Viejo which is an area of the city with a lot of old ruins; however, we found out once we got there that they are closed on Mondays. It was a bit of a bummer but we got to see some by walking around the park. Then, we headed to the Albrook Mall which is the biggest mall I’ve ever stepped foot in. We waited for a few hours until 5:30 pm which is when our overnight bus was leaving for Bocas del Toro.
Well, this is the end of part 1. Panama City was absolutely incredible and I would definitely go back someday. Stay tuned for part 2 when we head to the islands of Bocas del Toros! As always, thank you so much for reading and supporting me.
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