Hey fellow Hombres , its been awhile since I’ve really sat down and churned out a decent information filled trip report , as I sit here , sorting and resizing photos and trying to gather my thoughts , I would like to thank everyone on here who contributes trip reports, because they do take some time and effort if there worth anything.
This was my 1st trip to panama, and before I had only been to the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica for our hobby. So my perspectives come with those prior spots.
Basic Info:
Airport – (PTY) A smaller airport located about twenty-thirty minutes outside the main city in an area called Tocumen. The airport is modern and clean and overall very efficient, it has one main restaurant serving pretty good food , you make a right after immigration when your leaving. It also has many duty free stores for major electronics and clothing, although I didn’t stop in any, the selection looked vast for an airport of its size. Its main airline is COPA, which PTY is its hub also. That would be a good airline for most to use to reach panama. I flew American Airlines out of Miami direct. Immigration entering was a breeze. At the time of this report there is no visa to buy when entering or departure tax, I heard they use to have these , but assume there built into the airline tickets now. I arrived 1.5 hours before my flight and got checked in fine, I don’t recommend cutting it any closer then that.
The Veneto now longer has a shuttle, I asked many people at the airport about it , everyone looked at me like I was from mars. Taxis were quoted at $30.00 first , I offered $20.00 they said $25.00 , I said no , then I met a guy from el Salvador on business and we split a cab for $15.00 each , since we were on two different side of the city , I though what the hell , better then $20.00 solo , you can get a cab for $20.00 if you ask enough , someone will take that price. Damn taxi mafia.
Time Zone- Panama city is on Eastern Standard Time (New york/Miami)
Climate - Hot and sometimes rainy , bring an umbrella and plenty of shorts.
Currency- Panama uses (USD) no need to worry about changing your money , that use to use a Bolivar , that was pegged to the dollar , but I didn’t see any paper money , only some coins in it.
Safety - I felt pretty safe along Ave.Agrentina / Ave.Espana , the main hotel / gringo zones , they have a bunch of tourist police wearing yellow drab uniforms in the area. I didn’t get offered drugs and only had a few isolated beggars bug me. At night I recommend a taxi unless traveling with a group and staying in the general tourist area. From what I saw, it can get run down pretty quick if you wander to far.
Main Trip Report:
Once getting outbound from the airport the drive is one of those most scenic I have seen into a major city. You go over many bridges over tidal flats of the Pacific Ocean and can see straight out into the ocean, if you look out left, as you approach the city it is truly mind bending, the amount of development and the construction in progress is amazing. I must have counted twenty plus cranes before I stopped counting upon entering the city. There is truly a lot of money down here and the buildings, I assume are all post Noriega 1990+. The taxi dropped off the guy I split the cab with in an eastern part of town, then we headed west into main gringo zone ,The streets are paved great and amazingly most traffic lights worked and the people obeyed them . Amazing for Central American drivers!
Veneto link - http://www.venetopanama.com/
I stayed at the Wyndham Veneto hotel and casino; I don’t know the exact cost since I used an old American airlines travel voucher up to pay for the flight and hotel, two nights and air from Miami came to a little over $600.00. I heard from other guest that it can be had for about $100.00 per night. Not bad for an American style hotel with a great casino in the middle of it all. My room was on the 10th floor and had a great view, below are some pics of the room and hotel, the room had digital safes which I like , only problem with mine was that it wasn’t bolted down.
The reception is on the 1st floor to the left as you come in. The 1st floor also has a steak house , sushi bar , and regular restaurant to the right where breakfast is served. Breakfast was included and quite good, good selection and custom manned omelet station. The hours are 6:00-10:30am. As soon as you walk into the hotel there is also a set of escalators that bring you up to the casino level and a bank of 3 elevators. I like the fact you must also swipe your card to use the elevators. So back to the trip report, I checked in and went up stairs and cleaned up. After, I headed downstairs to the Mezzanine level and went to down some beers at the V bar. The casino is pretty big and includes every casino game and also has a poker room. I tried 3 different Panamanian beers, The first one was Atlas , light and smooth , but weak , beer flavored water, sort of like miller lite. Next was Balboa , pretty strong and good taste , similar to a Budweiser. Then there was a green bottled beer called panama simply, it was sort of skunk, close to Heineken. Panama has some pretty good domestic beers for us beer guys. $2.00 per beer at V Bar , 2 for 1 before 7pm In the casino as it got later, it got stocked full of pretty women available , I would estimate about 20-30 girls around 10ish on a Friday night. They were also very passive and not aggressive; you have to almost approach them, which is dangerous in itself as not every girl is working, you can usually tell the ones , but I could also see a mistake being made.
I found a wingman at the V bar and headed to La Bodequita, it’s a nice spot full of beautiful women pretty close to the Veneto. The place has a posted cover of $10.00 before 11pm , $5.00 after , you get those amount towards your drinks , so its really not a cover , more like a minimum drink amount. The beers were cold here and about $3.00 , mixed drinks $5.00 I think. My new friend and myself got to La Bodequita a little early 11pm , this place really get rocking after midnight , I don’t recommend earlier then midnight arrival. Most girls are Columbian , I didn’t talk to any other then Columbians, this bar was stocked with just super hotties , I really loved it and would highly recommend it and I will return. Cab from Veneto is $3.00 , paid $5.00 for two people , yea I know whatever. So these two girls next to me and my friend are really shy , so I buy some drink and give a toast , still can barley get anything out of them , weird , let me put it this way , there is tons of girls in here , 10-1 ratio I say , and most are shy and un-aggressive , I don’t get it? I hung out and danced with this blond Columbian for about an hour after that, had a beer with her, she had big fake tits, my wingman left at 2am with her friend, so a few minutes later I go into negotiation mode, I tell her $80.00 for 2 hours, I don’t really like my chica TLN the 1st time , after if there good. Before I can start getting into conditions of my offer, she laughs and then says something to her friend I couldn’t hear with the music, did I mention this place is loud. The friend starts laughing, so I tell this girl I’ve only bought 1 beer for and danced and felt up for almost 2 hours to fuck off and I walk away. What a dumb bitch, I am sure she made $0.00 that night. And quite frankly $80.00 is the most I will pay for ST , do some get less , yes in other places I’ve gotten girls for as low as $50.00 TLN in costa rica. But in sheer honesty, I really wanted to fuck this girl and her nice tits , so I threw out my good bait , and she deserved $80.00. At this point I walk outside to have a smoke, new “old” bad habit of mine I just picked up last month in the Dominican republic, starting the gum soon, 7 years smoke free before! I am real tired and about to call it a night and head back. Outside there is a small bar and some seating areas , as I smoked , I met a nice girl from medellin, spoke to her for a few min about random stuff, she wasn’t my top pick , but after a few min, she grew on me and seemed like she would be tranquil and drama free , she asks for a $100.00 ,I say $80.00 2hours , BBBJ , she agrees and we head for the Veneto, This girl is 23, gave a great long BBBJ , and handled me well, she had nice tits and ass and a very pretty face. Got her # and wished her a goodnight after
Photo: Green - La Bodequita 01
Woke up with a nice hangover, had breakfast, then went back to bed.
Got back going around two and visited Wendys Gourmet Hamburgers Restaurant , Ordered the #2 Double cheese burger with onions , pickles , mayo , ketchup , side of French fries and a coke , $5.29
After lunch, I walked a few blocks and found a cab to the canal for $10.00, most quoted $20.00, but if you walk a few blocks out of tourist central, $10.00 will fly. The trip went through a little bit of a run down area, not to bad, but a different barrio for sure. The ride took about 15-20min. My destination was the Mira Flores lock and visitor center. It’s the final lock on the canal before the pacific ocean.
Miraflores Visitor Center link - http://www.pancanal.com/eng/anuncios/cvm/index.html
Admission is $8.00 for the museum and viewing deck , or $5.00 with out the museum. Locals free! It has a restaurant, small gift shop and small movie theater on the canal, I didn’t watch the movie since the museum portion closes @ 5pm , the rest is open till 11pm. I spent about 2 hours at the canal and it thought that was plenty. If you go to panama , you must visit the canal once. The fact it was made so long ago, with so little tech just blew my mind, the museum had some interesting pictures and info also, and yes they serve cold beer!
Snapped a few pictures on the way back in of the different barrio we had to pass, not a nice area , saw some extreme poverty. Don’t let the shiny high rises fool you , panama is still 3rd world.
I took it easy and laid down when I got back , the sun and humidity is brutal in panama, this coming from a Florida boy. But what do you expect from a country on the equator. I headed down to V bar and started drinking , hung out and had dinner at V bar , good hamburger , sorry no pics
, for $6.00, not bad , I thought I would get raped at the hotel , but not bad. Kept drinking with a nice guy from spain , he didn’t hobby , but was still heck of a guy to pound beers with. Around midnight I then went and called the Colombian from the night before , she finally picked up and gave me some b/s excuse about heading over , she wasn’t at the bar , it was quiet , so I said I would call her tomorrow , it was late so I gave her the benefit of the doubt and planned on calling her the next morning , my thoughts were why screw up a good lay instead of rolling the dice plus I was wiped out and not feeling the hunt. Some guys go for numbers, I go for attitude , if a girl looks good , and has a good attitude. This may come as a fact that I am not married and single now , so I don’t mind a little extra GFE that I can achieve on repeats. After the phone call the drinking continued with my Spanish friend,I met a cute Colombian outside the main hotel , she asked me to help get her in , I happily obliged, then we parted ways, I was just tired and in a drinking mood , who knows. Later that night I ran into this girl again and again, a little small talk , but not much talk about business matters. It got late and I crashed.
Sunday morning , woke up , hit the breakfast , got a late check out and packed , called my girl again from Friday night , no answer , plan B , at noon I head to the casino , I said what the hell , I saw some chicas there on Saturday at that time , why not today. I didn’t see much . but as I walked over to play some roulette before I left , low and behold it’s the Colombian from last night at that table. So I sat down , and made some money at roulette, usually I lose , Next thing me and this girl are riding up to my room with an hour to spare before I leave for the airport. She was a great girl and made my final hour in panama great one. She wanted to stay the day/night with me after, unfortunately I had to go. I got her email and will keep it touch, if I return, I would love to see her again.
Photo: White - Veneto Casino 02
The airport ride was good, used the same guy from my canal trip, he was on time, and no b/s $20.00 to airport, even stopped for smokes on the way. The airport is again really smooth. I got back to Miami called it a weekend. I told my cab friend, I would tell anyone who needed a good honest cabby about him. So if you want his info, drop me a message.
Any comments appreciated!
-Smuckin
how high is high
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