The orange taxi arrived at 8:30 am exactly. I’m never ready, so he had to wait a few minutes while I packed the last of my things. The flight was at noon so I had plenty of time with only a 15-20 minute ride to the airport. The cost was $23, but I gave him a few extra bucks as a tip.

I had him drop me off at the terminal for American Airlines. What I didn’t know was that American Eagle was responsible for the first leg of my trip to Los Angeles and I had to go to the commuter terminal. American Eagle was mentioned on my Priceline itinerary, but it wasn’t very clear. The delay was only 10-15 minutes as I simply had to walk downstairs and outside to take a free shuttle to my correct location.

Since I was so early, I was able to catch an 11:00 flight. I asked the lady at the check-in counter if she knew if I got mileage credit for Priceline purchases. She had no idea, but told me she would check. She forgot, so I checked with her again shortly before the flight. I did get the miles.

The flight to Los Angeles was short. I spent more time waiting in the airport before and after. The next leg to Miami was the longest leg of the flight at just over 4 hours. We arrived in Miami around 9pm and it was practically empty. I played around on the lap top and made a few phone calls waiting to board the flight. Boarding took place over 30 minutes late. There were barely 20 passengers on the 737, so I grabbed a seat with plenty of leg room and stretched out for the 2.5 hour flight. Despite our late boarding, we arrived a bit ahead of our scheduled 2:00am landing.

I got delayed at customs because I hadn’t purchased a tourist card beforehand from American Airlines. The Lonely Planet web site mentioned the need of a tourist card, but the day I called American, they put me on hold for a long time and I ended up forgetting about it. I think I probably would have been notified if it wasn’t for my San Diego to LAX leg, since my first leg was a commuter flight they probably didn’t have their employees familiar with the travel requirement. Anyways, the delay ended up costing me about 20 minutes, but I still wasn’t too happy about it considering the middle of the night landing.

I didn’t have a taxi scheduled so I ended up taking one of the airport taxi’s out front. The driver gave me the option of the long route or the short route with toll charges. I opted for the short route which ended up setting me back $27.50. It seemed kind of high for the 20 minute ride, but I didn’t have the information beforehand to argue with him nor many other options so I didn’t concern myself much. I would find out later that this was a standard rate.

The streets were almost completely empty at 2:30am. In other Latin America countries you don’t see a lot of traffic at this time at night, but this almost seemed desolate. There was a little more traffic when we entered the city, but it was still practically empty with no sign of anything, not even gas stations, open.

I was a little concerned about being able to get around and finding anything open, but we finally ended up passing a club I had read about called “Le Palace”, and it ended up being on the same street, hardly a quarter block away, from the Costa del Sol apartment-hotel where I was staying. I quickly checked in and put some stuff away, and was back out of the door by 3am.

There were a couple taxi guys waiting outside the hotel, and several more waiting in front of Le Palace. There was also a guy that worked the entrance that invited me in. Le Palace doesn’t charge a cover, so I just walked in and did a quick survey of the surroundings.

My impressions were a little mixed. The club was very dark, making it difficult to get a good view of the ladies, but this ended up being because there was a show going on. I also didn’t like that there was what looked like an overabundance of waiters. The final negative was that none of the ladies seemed to care much about me coming in, I guess I’m used to feeling like some kind of celebrity when I walk into a prostitution bar or brothel.

On the other hand, the quality of the ladies in looks seemed to be very high. It appeared as though the majority of them were Colombian. Almost all of them were wearing white bras, panties, garters, and stockings that glowed under the black light in the place. There outfits highly accentuated their voluptuous curves, with the majority of them having large breasts on curvy bodies. The longer I stayed, the more I appreciated the Playmate like appearance of the ladies, it was just too bad they weren’t all lusting over me.

Le Palace has a nice stage and regular shows with full props and technical lighting. Technically, the settings were excellent and the shows seemed interesting at first, but I started to notice that the ladies weren’t that into the performance as they could have been, but it was still great eye candy.

Eventually a Columbian ended up claiming me. She had a little bit more makeup than I would prefer, but she was still a solid beauty with shoulder length brown hair and overly large breasts atop a nice curvy body. She told me it was her first day working at Le Palace and her second week in Panama. I bought her several drinks at $13 each and one lap dance for $10. She really had me worked up with some excellent massages and a great attitude, but the cost was significantly higher than I was ready to spend. Le Palace ladies will charge $200 US if asked, plus you have to pay the house a $130 “multa”, or bar fine. Considering her attitude and looks, it would be a remarkable deal in the US, but this wasn’t the US and I knew I could find the same or better in other parts of Latin America for much less. It was painful, but I left with a third leg and $68 poorer when the place closed at 4:30am. I was ready to call it a night, but a taxi driver got a hold of me and saved the day. I knew I would end up paying a premium tonight, but it was no big deal since it was just the first night anyways.

After I got more money from my room, Alexandrio the cab driver took me to a massage parlor which ended up being Royal Elegance. Only one slightly larger than I would prefer lady was available at 5:00am, but she had a cute face so I ended up taking her out. I had to pay the house $60 for the privilege and my driver $20 for the ride despite his earlier promises of giving me a better deal. We also got into an argument with my guest, privately asking her for money for bringing her business. The guy was a total leech.

Photos: Marisela 01 02 03 04 05 06

Marisela and I were both annoyed going into the hotel, but we soon relaxed into each others arms upon entering the room. She was happy to pose for a few photos before we fell onto the bed in each other's arms.

Vladimir
vladrasputin@hotmail.com

Vladimir. Sounds like you are off to a great start.

CP

Vladimir
Good photos of Panama. You really did the tour, didn't you? Will you go back to Panama city?
DG

I probably will, but I wouldn't say Panama is the best for sex. I think it's biggest advantage is it's relative safety. I believe it's safer than most of the rest of Central and South America. I believe the crime rate is low except for Colon and the border areas. I walked around alone a lot at night, something I would unlikely do anywhere else.

For actual high quality service, most of South America is better. Central America is about the same.