Keith's Panamanian Travel Ramble

The wanderings of Andrea and Keith around Panama

Posts tagged ‘Panama’

29 Million Gallons in 10 Minutes

Hi Travellers,

Thanks to all of you out there who keep coming back for more of this blog.  We are closing in on 5,000 visits!  I’m flattered!

I think when most people think of Panama, they think of the Panama Canal, so when you visit this place, one of the “absolute mandatory must dos” is a visit to the canal and the best place to do that is at the Miraflores Visitor Center.  This is a great place to begin to understand the dramatic impact of the canal, both to Panama and to the world .  At the visitor center you will be shown a short video highlighting some history of the building of the canal as well as an overview of how it works and a glimpse of the vision of the new canal when the new locks eventually open.  The visitor center also has an interesting little museum.  My favorite parat is a full size simulator of a ships bridge where you actually drive the ship through the canal, or in my case crash it and sink it right in the middle of the canal!  Outside, right beside the Miraflores locks, is open air covered seating where you can watch ships actually passing through the locks.  There is also a nice restaurant that overlooks the locks.  It is not too pricy and the food is good.  Try to get a table next to the window.

While you watch ships passing through the locks a running commentary is provided that explains all kinds of things like largest of the two locks at Miraflores takes 29 million gallons of water to fill it and that is all done by gravity in 10 minutes!  Even today that’s a pretty impressive feat but this thing was opened for business in 1914!  There are new locks under construction that will let the larger ships that will not fit in the locks, to transit the canal.  These locks are scheduled to open in 2014 to coincide with the 100 year anniversary of the canal but many say that timeline will be impossible to meet and that it may be 2016 before the new locks are working (sorry, the project manager in me just won’t die).

There are three sets of locks that make up the Panama Canal.  When ships enter the canal they are lifted 26 meters (85 feet) to the level of Gatun Lake.  After they pass through Gatun Lake, they are lowered back down to sea level to complete the transit.  Ships are charged a transit fee based on their size, weight, and country of registration.  If ships are registered in Panama, there is significant money to save in transit fees.  In Canada, Paul Martin fell amuck of the Panamanian registry for a number of his Canadian Steamship ships.  As Prime Minister, he took a lot of heat for not having them all registered in Canada and not some which were registered in Panama.

My brother recently took a cruise through the canal on the smallest of the Holland America fleet, the Statendam.  They were told that the ship paid a reservation fee of $US 50,000 to guarantee them a time to transit the canal and the real transit costs were an extra $US 225,000.  Now these numbers will probably seem a bit rich but when you consider a freighter needing to come from Asia to the east coast of the US.  The canal will save days of sailing time. If they had to go around the tip of South America, you would have greater costs like fuel and wages and the scheduled time would be that much greater.  Even at rates that seem so high, it is an automatic no brainer to pay the fees and transit the canal.

Anyways, Miraflores is the place to start to see the canal.  If you want to see more, there are locks at Colon, on the Caribbean and a second set of locks not too far from Miraflores, on the Pacific side.  Don’t come to Panama without checking this out!

The Beauty of the Gamboa Rainforest Resort

Howdy Fellow Travel Fans,

When I hear the name Gamboa Rainforest Resort, it congers up all kind of images of the tropics, dense jungle, exotic animals, and the Panama Canal.  What it doesn’t so much bring to mind are things like a luxurious and beautiful environment, a remote location or a great base for tours; all of which it also is!

I have known about the Gamboa Rainforest Resort for years as an RCI timeshare resort.  I have tried many times to book in but they never seems to have any  availability, even a year or so in advance.  Our first time in Panama, I had to go and check this place out.  What could be the draw?  Why is it always full?

This resort is located close to a place called Gamboa which is a small town where the Chagress river flows into lake Gatun, which is part of the canal.  Before the canal existed , three miles further up the Chagres river was the town of Las Cruces, where 19th century travelers and cargo disembarked from river barges to take the overland Las Cruces trail by mule, to cross the isthmus.  Gamboa was built around 1911 and eventually became the base for the canal company dredging operation in 1936.

Gamboa is in the old canal zone and is only a short 30 minute drive from the outskirts of Panama City.  Is well worth a day trip.  On the way you will pass the zoo at the summit of a small mountain you cross on the way to Gamboa.  It’s worth a stop as they have lots of native Panamanian specimens including the Harpy Eagle, which is the national bird of Panama and the largest most spectacular eagle.  It has a wingspan of over seven feet.

At the end of the small car and rail bridge crossing the Chagress river, turn right and travel down a local road with bamboo growing on both sides.  It is beautiful with the muted light filtered through the vegetation that arches over the road.  Pass the Iguana Crossing sign and once through the security gate (just say restaurant) where you can go straight or up the hill.  If you go straight, you will come to a beautiful old open air restaurant covered by a huge palapa roof that is built out over the Chagress river.  It is an incredible spot!  You won’t find one with better atmosphere.

If you go up the hill, you will pass by a number of two-story canal style homes before arriving at the resort.  When you enter the lobby of the resort you are immediately struck with the stunning vistas of the Chagress river visible through the massive floor to ceiling windows that offer vistas of jungle and the Chagress river.  It is an old resort that has been carefully maintained.  If you walk down the outside deck of the hotel, you will come to a ballroom with a beautifully painted oval sunken ceiling.  It is a real showplace.  The views of the Chagress from the deck are amazing.  You feel that you are really out in the jungle.

The Gamboa Rainforest Resort has a good choice of tours available that leave from the resort so it becomes a great base for a number of tours.  There is a onsite tour that involves riding up a chair lift to a platform that provides beautiful vistas of the valley and canal.  There is also a butterfly house down by the river that is a great spot to visit with a camera.

Even if you aren’t staying here, pay it a visit.  It is an amazing place with beautiful vistas right out in the jungle.  It shouldn’t be missed.

The Monster Deck at Rio Mar

Hi Travellers,

When we first visited Panama, now five years ago, we went on a little real estate tour out of our base in Coronado.  One of the properties we were most impressed with was a resort, then under construction, called Rio Mar.  The plan was to build three 22 story towers with two suites per floor, a pool complex with a restaurant, a spa complex, a low-rise beach front apartment building and around a half-dozen million dollar individual beach front homes.

At that time, there was nothing actually built but the first tower, which had just completed.  We looked at a couple of units and found the finishing was excellent.  The resort appealed to us because of its’ beach front location and reasonably small footprint.  At that time the plan was to have the whole place built out in under 10 years, which would mean less construction mess than one of the larger resorts that probably will be under construction for the next 50 years.  Also, of interest to us was the financing to build the project.  It was equity financed by a Canadian group who were taking an active part in the build out.  The units we saw were in the $US 300,000 to $US 400,000 range.

As we have re-visited Panama over the years we have kept track of this resort, still thinking that we might pick off a suite in the low-rise beach front building which would have put us 30 meters from the Pacific.

This time, we found several of the million dollar houses either finished or under construction, the low-rise building was pretty much complete and beginning to be occupied, the pool and restaurant were open as was the spa complex but they had yet to start on the second tower.  We were told that because the resort was already occupied that they had to go back and re-think the way they would build the second tower to minimize the noise and mess to the rest of the resort.  This, being done, and with the sales being over 50%, the plan was to begin construction later this year.

We checked out the small restaurant that is located poolside.  They have inside air-conditioned seating as well as outdoor shaded lounges that you can eat from.  It’s not a fancy dinner restaurant but rather a lunch and snack place with good food and service.  It’s worth a try if you are in the area.

We decided to have a look at some of the units in the low-rise beach front building.  We saw a very adequate three bedroom unit selling for around $US 650,000 as well as a nice two-story penthouse with a couple of balconies, one of which was about the size of a good-sized Safeway store that was listed for just over a million.  It was quite breezy that day and I couldn’t help but wonder how much furniture you would need to equip that monster deck and that with the wind blowing as strongly as it was, how often you would have to drag all that furniture back out of the corner that the wind had blown it into.  Oh well.  If I had to…

I think that one of the most distracting things though, was that there will be a brand new Marriott Resort building right next door, just on the other side of the river!  This ensures a construction mess for a couple or more years at least and with the prevailing breezes coming from that direction, I would need a ride around street sweeper to keep my monster deck clean!  Hmmm!

Someone we were talking to, not at Rio Mar, believes that the stretch of beach communities beginning at Punta Chame and stretching west to Playa Blanco is going to be the next Cancun!  You can see that development has increased, particularly over the last few years.  Many of the big resort hotels are already here or planning to be here and there is lots of construction at the beach front as you driver westward from our apartment in Gorgona.  It makes sense to me that with the favorable pricing of property, solid infrastructure, wonderful climate, and growing tourist numbers discovering Panama, that it will only be a matter of time so if you are a property speculator, this might be the place to consider!

The Chaos of Carnival Traffic

Hi Travellers,

Panama is renowned for heavy traffic jambs, unpredictable drivers and decrepit vehicles.  This becomes particularly interesting during Carnival, when many of the residents of Panama City head inland to celebrate the festivities at their favorite center.  Every Carnival, the City gets a practical exercise in evacuation!  The traffic out of the city is bumper to tailgate, often as far inland as Coronado, which is normally over an hour drive at the best of times.  Complicate this with breakdowns that may or may not pull off the traveling lane of the highway.  And then there are the accidents.  When they happen they seem to be bad ones.  In our short time here we have encountered a number of them; all pretty ugly.  Trucks pulling container chassis that lose their containers on a curve, cars rolling over on straight stretches of the highway and stuff that just seems to run off the road for some reason.  One day we met seven ambulances coming toward us from the other direction.  Eventually we found a bus, on our side of the road, with the front end caved in and the windshield on the passenger side pushed out.  The accident is one thing but then you should see the extra chaos caused by recovery operations that happen right in the middle of an extremely busy highway with nothing slowing down.  On the positive side, traffic here does seem to pay better attention to emergency vehicles than at home.  When ambulances are trying to make their way through busy traffic to an accident, each lane of traffic just moves a bit further apart to allow the emergency vehicle to pass between them as if in a third lane.

In 1990, Panama became the second Latin American country (Costa Rica is the other) to abolish their military in favor of an arrangement with the Americans.  Panama re organized their military forces into a group of forces called the Panamanian Public Forces (PPF).  The PPF includes the National Border Service, National Police, National Maritime Service, Judicial and Technical Police (PTJ) for investigatory activities, National Air Service, and an armed Institutional Protection Service or SPI for protection of public buildings. The PPF is also capable of performing limited military duties.  On occasions like Carnival, many of these organizations come together to aid in keeping the traffic moving.

 

 

 

As we drove the opposite direction from the Carnival traffic, in empty traffic lanes, we could see the practicality of how the country handles this situation.  First, every high traffic entrance to a small town or commercial center is coned off to prevent left turns into the area or out of the area where a lane of traffic would have to be crossed.  Also, every two kilometers there was a uniformed police person (of some kind) standing at the side of the road.  Most of them with a motorcycle or car.  They park the bike or car so they are able to be seen by the passing traffic so there is a highly visible police presence.  As we drove toward town, there was a place where a couple of the two kilometer spots were empty.  We looked for a doughnut shop but as we went a bit further, we found those police at an accident site.  This system ensures the quickest response to problems by drawing the closest couple of members from either side of the incident.  It works well!

 

Even when traffic is at normal levels, there is a high police presence maintained on the Pan-American.  Every few kilometers you will find a police person, usually with a motorcycle, and a radar gun, checking traffic.  They don’t hide, like at home, they are out in the open and a single member will be checking both directions of traffic.  As we were told, you can expect to show your driver’s license and passport and then you will be shown the back of the radar gun with the measured speed.  Bribes don’t work very well any more since the current government has stepped up its anti corruption activities and police can lose their jobs if someone complains about having to pay a bribe.

We have also noticed an increased number of police checks this trip.  Police will have a check stop set up on the highway where they work in pairs.  One enters some information from driver’s licenses into a cell phone app while the other nurses an automatic weapon or shotgun while carefully watching the occupants of the car.  If you are wanted they get you!

All in all, the way the police give such a visible presence here and check on vehicles from time to time makes for a high safety comfort level for anyone who might be a little nervous about safety here in Panama.

Pot Luck at Sueno Mar

Hi Travellers,

Out little community here at Sueno Mar in Gorgona is interesting and very friendly.  Today, we have been invited to a pot luck dinner which apparently happens quite often.  The occasion?  It’s Friday!  We have been instructed to bring something for everyone as well as whatever meat we want to eat for a social gathering of all the occupants of this place starting around 5PM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are two large bohios here, each with a very nice gas barbecue so the plan is for everyone to visit for some time then cook their own dinner and eat together.  Very civilized!  It is an interesting crowd here from literally all over the world.  There is a couple born in Holland who have spent their last 20 years living in Australia and have just moved to Panama, there is an Argentine family who moved to Panama several years ago and live in Panama City.  There is a couple from Quebec, a couple from Kelowna, a couple from Cranbrook, a family from the US and us.

I threw in a few photos of the group.  They are so diverse that someone out there may recognize someone.  What a great way to conduct a vacation!  We like small places because it gives you a chance to meet people and find out what they are up to.  That is possible in larger places but it just seems easier at a small resort.

Carnival… WOW!

Hi Travellers,

Nobody gets in the way of the Carnival celebrations which are a country-wide party that lasts a week here in Panama.  It’s way more extreme than the Calgary Stampede!  Businesses close, Panama City is abandoned, and music is everywhere as the worlds largest collection of sound systems comes together all over the country to blast pop, reggae and pop music to the masses

As with many festivals, Carnival stems from a Christian tradition and takes place 40 days before the Christian holy week. The name Carnival means “feast of the flesh” and is celebrated before the abstinence ordered by the Christian church.  Carnival dates back to the 19th century and is the most celebrated festival in the country.  All business and work stops while the streets are filled with masks, floats, parades, costumes, confetti, music and water.

 

 

It all begins with the selection of the Carnival Queen and her attendants who reign over the daily parades and official activities of the festival.  People are dancing and water trucks stand by spraying the active dancers down with cool water so the party is not disturbed by the tropical sun.  This is a practical Carnival tradition called mojaderas  which means getting drenched.  Water is a big part of Carnival where many people come armed with water balloons, small bags of water and squirt guns.  It’s like the worlds largest water fight!  Even the fire department gets in the act.

Each province carries out its own Carnival celebrations, trying to offer the public different attractions each year to draw people to their festival. The most popular place to party is in the small inland city of Las Tablas on the Azuero peninsula.

It is estimated that less than half of the population of Panama City remains in the city during Carnival, with most people opting for an extra long weekend at one of the smaller cities inland where the partying goes on pretty much 24 seven. As you drive through these smaller centers, you can hear the ear shattering pounding of base from massive speaker systems amplifying the music of some of the best bands in the country.  It’s an amazing party!

As a tourist, information about where specific events are and their start times are somewhat difficult to come by.  Staff at hotels should be a good source of information but we found varying stories of where to go and what time things happen.  This would be a great opportunity for the tourism industry to pull together to get guests in the country out and exposed to Carnival in a controlled way.  We followed some advice we were given about timings and a place only to find that the site was pretty much empty.  There was a strong police presence (a good thing) and you get a complementary frisking before you are allowed into the fenced festival area.  We walked around for a while and experienced the music and some of the dancing.  We were even approached by a young boy with a devilish smile and a squirt gun which he sparingly used on us.

This is also a great time to explore Panama City.  We found ourselves driving down empty streets that are normally heavily bogged down with traffic.  It is easy to get around while everyone is out-of-town but the downside is that many things are closed for the festivities.

Let me apologize for not having more pictures of Carnival.  In the interior, traffic is heavy so you can’t stop and I was trying to shoot from a moving car.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.  You just never know when you will run across something so you need to be ready all the time. When we got to the festivities in Panama City, there really wasn’t anything happening.  Also, I was reluctant about hauling my camera around to a place where there was a high likelihood of getting nailed with large amounts of water.  We did take in a Panama show at one of the hotels that gave us lots of examples of what some of the characters and costumes of Carnival look like, so I have included them here.

The Safety and Risks of All Inclusivism at Royal Decameron

Hi Fellow Travellers,

Have you ever wondered about how to go to a new destination for the very first time?  People will make many choices.  On the one extreme, some will do extensive research and know exactly what they are getting into before they book their trip while at the other end of the spectrum there are those that look for something easy that they know will cover off their basic needs of travel, accommodation, and food.  These are the people who choose all-inclusive resorts.  While there are many reasons why people will make such a choice, there is both security and risk in that decision.

All inclusivism provides the necessities for your stay so if you are just trying to kick back and relax they are a great option.  On the risk side, you may be tempted not to leave the resort and experience the wonders of the country you chose to visit.  Sometimes these resorts are located in out-of-the-way places where it is more difficult to get into town or go anywhere.  I think that makes the risk higher because it is easier to just stay put at the resort.  Why go out and experience the local restaurants?  You already paid for your food at the resort!  I know places where the resort will actually tell guests asking about going somewhere that it is dangerous and that they should stay at the resort.  That recommendation makes resorts money and detracts from your stay.

Well, enough of my rant.  I guess you can tell we are not fans of all inclusivism.  Yes, they have there place, but not for us!

Today, we went to Farallon which is on the Pacific about a couple of hours west of Panama City.  Farallon is home to the best known all-inclusive in Panama, the Royal Decameron.  Farallon has  pretty much just this resort, which has grown exponentially over the years.  There are golf courses and a brand new international airport, Panama’s newest, which is nearing completion and will accommodate international charter flights.

On the history side, Farallon also is home to the now decrepit Noriega beach home where the Americans first came to get him.  If you ignore the no trespassing signs, you can see the shell of what was once an opulent multi story beach home that was one of the many Noriega properties in Panama.  This one still has the bullet holes in the walls that tell the story of the American invasion.  Local folklore spins the description of a highly secure compound with a small air strip, which is now being expanded into the new international.  There is a small island not too far off shore that has a large cross.  The story has it that Noriega had this built as a navigation aid to his Columbian drug friends who made deliveries to the small air strip here.  Be it true or not, this makes almost as good a story as the pirate stories associated with other parts of Panama.

So, back to the Decameron.  For years, this place has brought charters full of Canadians from eastern Canada.  It is also part time share but it is difficult to get into through RCI due to the location’s popularity.  We decided to have a look around so just walked in.  As I said, it is a huge resort and we met a number of people looking lost and scratching their heads.  There are three different lobbies.  There appears to be six or seven different restaurants.  We saw a couple and they were each the size of a gymnasium.  The grounds are very well-kept.  The pool was busy and looked to be in good condition.  The beach provides some nice views out to the Pacific.  I wondered what people who stayed there thought about it so checked it out on Trip Advisor.  I think I would summarize the ratings as about average.

Well, there you have it.  If you are looking for an all-inclusive in Panama, this one should know how to do it.  They have been here for years and with the new airport nearly finished, the travel time at the end of your flight to the resort will only be a few minutes.

The El Cano Archaeological Dig Site Visit

HI Travellers,

A short time before we left Canada, a friend sent me a link to a National Geographic article on an important archaeological dig here in Panama.  The article outlined the history of a site called El Cano and another closely associated place called Sitio Conte, about two miles away.  This area was inhabited between about 200AD through 1500AD and at its peak it is estimated that it contained up to 40,000 people.  These people were called Nata and they were the ones the Spanish met when they first conquered this area.  This was the time when the Mayan civilization was beginning to wind down.

It was an interesting story of looting, persistence, gold, and ancient chiefs with an archaeological history dating back to the early 1900s and brings to mind the Indiana Jones series of movies.  The most current work was begun in 2005 and is being led by a young archaeologist, Julia Mayo who is associated with the  Smithsonian Institute.

So, in an attempt to add a little history to this otherwise entertaining blog, we decided to check it out and let you know what we found.

A notable sign that the Panama government is recognizing the importance of this site is the construction of a brand new road, that starts from just outside El Cano and ends at the gate of the fenced archaeological site.  Previously, the road was a rutted mud road that was impassable during the rainy season without four-wheel drive.

The fenced site at El Cano has several unearthed burial mounds, a small museum, the remnants of an ancient temple, a covered excavation that has several sets of visible bones, and a National Geographic excavation that is now under way.  On the surface there is not much to see but just to be there and walk around the site evokes such a feeling of ancient history.

We took our friend Octav with us, which turned out to be a very good idea as our guide only spoke Spanish.  Octav was able to translate the information for us to make the visit to the small museum much more interesting.  While we were there, a small group of visitors was being guided through the site by Julia Mayo the responsible archaeologist.

We learned that an American archaeologist  visited the El Cano site in about 1924 and removed a series of statues from the temple area, leaving only the bases and taking them to the US where they still reside.  The current work is yielding large amounts of gold and a rich collection of burial paraphernalia that is being moved to Panama City for storage due to the remoteness of the dig site and concerns for security.  The Nata Chiefs that are here were buried with all of their immediate family, who were killed when the king died, with the exception of one son.

This is a place worth the trip.  Just go 27K west of Penonome on the Pan-American highway and look for the signs to the town of El Cano and the archaeological site.  When you arrive at the town, the road splits.  Stay on the road to the left of the church.  The site is about three kilometers down the road.  The entrance fee is $1 for adults and $0.25 for kids.

The Surprise at Vista Mar

Howdy Fellow Travellers,

Today we invested the day enjoying the beach and the pool at our little Panamanian hide away in Gorgona.  The day disappeared quickly and soon it became time to go and pick up our friend Octav, who is staying at the Bayview Resort, and head out for dinner.  We found him in the restaurant talking with a woman from Switzerland.

We headed for a restaurant at a resort that we knew from previous trips.  Vista Mar, meaning Sea Vista, is a large resort with several towers, a couple of villa complexes, some private homes, and a golf course.  It is west of but not far from Coronado.

On our first trip we visited this place on a real estate tour.  We rented a villa here the last time we were here.  That experience was, shall I say dry!  The first nine holes had been built for some time but the second nine were under construction while we were there.  There were daily water outages, sometimes for the whole day.  Hopefully someone would remember to turn the water back on at the end of the construction day but sometimes, they didn’t.  It was a frustrating experience.  I was there with three women, trouble enough on its own but when they don’t have water it can get downright ugly!  It really wasn’t that bad, they were pretty good sports about it but it was problematic.

Our little villa complex had its own pool which had no shade.  Down on the beach, the resort had a very nice restaurant as well as a small well landscaped pool area.  There was sun and shade and a very nice little waterfall.  It was a really pleasant place to wile away an afternoon.

We were not sure that the restaurant would be open as most restaurants here seem to close one day of the week due to the staff being required to work all weekend.  When we arrived, we were pleased to find they were open.  Before we went in for dinner, we walked down to the beach where we found a surprise.  The beautiful little landscaped pool was gone and had been replaced by a huge commercial looking infinity pool thing that looked like it would hold 500 people!   Deck chairs were lined up side by side just like a huge resort.  The vegetation was gone in favor of a wall to wall concrete deck.  There was actually a concrete wall with astro turf on it.  Imagine!  They had also built a couple of wooden walkways for people to wander on.  The charm was gone!  The intimacy was gone!  The pool contained a huge statue of a fat woman that should be gone, if you ask me!  It was disappointing to see such a perfect little Panamanian space replaced by a commercial monstrosity that seemed to belong more in Florida than here in Panama.

We were seated in the restaurant outside on the deck.  It was in the early stages of sunset and the view of the ocean was exceptional.  The overhead fan along with the gentle breeze from the Pacific made for a most pleasant and comfortable environment.  Dinner was grilled shrimp in a coconut sauce, roast pork, and I had the Sea Bass.  Everything was perfectly prepared and served by attentive wait staff.  We lingered over dinner enjoying good food, good conversation and a perfect environment.  Dinner for three including wine and desert, just over $100.  It is a little more expensive here but still less than home.  If you want a nice dinner in special surroundings, head to Vista Mar.  Just drive up to the security gate and tell them you are going to the restaurant.

Sueno Mar on Malibu Beach

Hi Travellers,

We are finally at the beach, where we will be for the rest of our trip!  Temperatures are higher here, around the low 30s, but there is a gentle constant breeze off the Pacific that blows through our spacious 113 square meter two bedroom two bathroom condo.   We are in the community of Gorgona at a small apartment complex called Sueno Mar which means Sunny Sea and it is right on Malibu Beach, one of the nicest in Panama.  This place has grown dramatically since we last had a close look, several years ago.  The main drag is paved but many of the other roads are very rough gravel with pot holes that would break an axle.  I think this is the local protection against speeding.

The beautiful beach is a mixture of black and grey sand so it has a constantly changing appearance.  You can walk for miles on this beach where if you walk eastbound, toward Panama City, you will see that the beach is lined by a mixture of beautifully kept private homes along with some empty lots and derelict properties.  There is even a high-rise tower, called the Biltmore.  It is not a hotel but private apartments.  If you chooses to walk westbound on the beach you will eventually get to the Gorgona Fish Market and the town itself.  If you continue, you will come to the community of Coronado.

With the exception of Sunday, when the locals appear from other places, it is pretty quiet on this beach.  During the day you will see the odd person walking, mostly early in the morning or around sunset.  Occasionally, a quad will appear from somewhere on its way to Gorgona transporting three or four people but for the most part it is very quiet.  Local fishing boats from Gorgona pass both directions across the front of Sueno Mar on their way to and from their fishing grounds.

Sueno Mar was built a couple of years ago and still has some units for sale.  There are six two bedroom units and nine one bedrooms all overlooking the ocean.  There is on site management and security gates, a couple of large bohios on the beach side each with their own barbecue and a lushly landscaped and beautifully kept pool area.  We got upgraded when we arrived, to our delight, to a two bedroom unit.  It is on the third floor so has an unobstructed view of the Pacific from the wall to wall windows across the expanse of our living room.  The kitchen is well equipped with everything you might need to survive here, including an ice and cold water dispensing fridge and freezer, micro wave oven, six burner gas stove, dishwasher, washer and dryer, air conditioning, large screen TV to play as many Spanish-speaking stations as you wish to listen to, and the always necessary WiFi which is supplied from the cable company so is truly high-speed.  Oh, and there is a honkin’ big Karaoke machine that I have to learn to run before Carnival starts next week.  It will be my pay back to compete with the loud music that locals tend to play at that time!  You need a truck to move the speaker around, I swear!  Because our unit is on the third floor, it also has vaulted ceilings that I would estimate go up to about 4M with seven, yes I counted them, seven ceiling fans to keep the air moving.  The unit runs the full depth of the building with the two bedrooms at the back with a mountain view.  When you open all the windows, you get a great breeze that blows right through the whole place.  We have not yet felt the need to run the air conditioning as the breezes keep the unit comfortable.  I have put a link to the Sueno Mar Website in the right column under Businesses We Support.  You can get prices there for rentals and for buying.

For dinner tonight, we headed back into Coronado to the Malibu Restaurant.  It is before you reach the security gate on your left just past the stores at the entrance to Coronado.  We came here on purpose because they serve a great Cashew Corvino.  That’s right, a piece of grilled sea bass liberally loaded up with fresh cashews.  Yum Yum!  It was as good as in the past but a bit pricier.  It was up to $10.50.