Day 11 - Tues 23 Dec

Got up at 4.30 this morning for our flight to Panama so those early nights did some good! Uneventful flight, only 1hr 30 which was nice so we landed in Panama City before 10am! Got the car and headed out of the airport and almost instantly discovered what crazy drivers the Panamanians are (made us very glad of the full insurance we took out) - they use their horn to do almost anything, will zoom across 3 lanes of traffic and there are are hardly any traffic lights at busy junctions! Needless to say we got a bit lost to start with but managed to eventually get on the right road.

We stopped off at Miraflores Locks which is one of the set of locks on the Panama Canal. They have a museum and exhibiton explaining how the Canal was constructed and all the various locks that take the vessels up and over Panama down to the other side - all quite amazing really - and it takes 8-10 hours to get a vessel through. Sadly there were none going through when we were there but we saw plenty of footage so got the drift.

We arrived at our destination, the Coronado Beach Bed & Breakfast at around 3pm. It´s a huge one storey house which has a lovely pool out the back and about 6 rooms that all face the pool. The owners Mark and Marcie were very welcoming with two cold beers on offer as soon as we arrived (how could they tell!?) and their sons Mark and Lowell seemed keen to let us know where to go and what to do etc. I was in my element when I then discovered a dog, Mango and 3 cats Frisky, Marmalade and a third elusive cat whose name I never discovered. That was me hooked! Was nice to unpack our gear for a whole 5 days in a lovely big spacious room before getting some food and crashing out early.

Day 12 - Wed 24 Dec

Woke up at 6.30 looking forward to a run after a day of travelling. Walked the 2 minutes down to the beach which is a vast white & black sand beach. Ran for half an hour which was hard work on the sand but beats the treadmill...

Got back and had our breakfast served outside our room - fresh coffee and a plate of fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, toast and sauted potatoes, fantastic! We had a chat with some of the other guests, specifically Kirby and his mum Anne. Turns out they´ve known the owners for years so again had some good info and Kirby seemed very sociable.

After breakfast we drove up to El Valle which is a little town a few km inland boasting some natural waterfalls and hot springs. We got to the waterfall and had a little kid take us round to show the photo opportunities so Tim managed to get a conversation going with him. Went to the hot springs afterwards but unfortunately we were spolit by the hot springs in Papallacta, Ecuador as these were nowhere near the same standard! Still, Tim smeared ´healing´mud on his face and we lounged in the one tepid pool so well worth the $1 entrance fee.

After that we drove down the Pacific coast looking for some little coastal towns or places to stop for a drink but we couldn´t really find much apart from one beachside restaurant in a town called Santa Clara fairly near us. When we got back we spoke to the owner Mark who explained that this coastline didn´t really have beachside towns - there is no coast road only the Inter-American highway so each town had a strip of shops and a few eateries just off the highway and then the beach was nearly all residential - mostly populated by very rich families building uge beach-side mansions.

We started wondering what to do for dinner as it was Christmas Eve and looked like most things were shut when it turned out Mark& Marcie had some friends round and were cooking a turkey dinner for us guests as well! There were only 3 sets of guests at this stage, myself and Tim, Kirby and Anne and then a family from Montana, Dan & Wendy and their two daughters, one of whom is currently a volunteer in the Peace Corps up in the north of Panama so she had some stories! We had a lovely dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, various corn dishes, stuffing and cranberry jelly, very nice! Was a lovely social evening and we managed to stay up until 10.30pm!

Day 13 - Thurs 25 Dec

Christmas Day! Woke up at 6.30 again and went for our half hour beach run followed by a swim in the sea - very pleasant way to start Christmas morning! After we got back Tim and I opened a couple of little pressies we´d bought and then we all had breakfast together round the same table which was nice. Kirby´s dad David had arrived late that morning and said he´d taken wrong turn into Panama City and everyone had thought he was Santa Claus! (he is very tall and has white hair and a beard...)

After breakfast Tim & I set off for Panama City thinking it would be empty as it was Christmas and looked like we were right as the traffic was fine. We drove to the old town, Casa Viejo and it was quite an experience as there were some pretty poor areas - Lonely Planet describes it as ´high density slums´- appalling looking buildings with people hanging out of every door and window and a lot of rubbish around. But then just a few streets down you come to the main square of the old town which is absolutely gorgeous - huge colonial buildings and squares - some of the new James Bond film was shot here and you can see why. Then we stopped for lunch in a cafe and had a cheese & tomato sandwich and chips for our Christmas lunch - yum!

Headed back to the b&b around 3pm a little apprehensive about what to do for a meal so we spoke to Dan and he was up for a BBQ and so after a little milling around it seems like Mark & Marcie were up for it too, so we headed to the 24 supermarket to stock up on food and beer which was nice to do as we´d contributed nothing to the Xmas eve meal so felt better about stocking up for this.

Mark (jnr) and Lowell let off some fireworks on the lanw which was pretty fun to watch and then we had a lovely meal round a big outside table with plenty of chat.

After dinner Tim & I were introduced to the very American game of Beer Pong (or at least I´ve never heard of it in the UK!) - the idea is that two teams of either 1 or 2 people stand at either end of a table and in front of them are 6 or 10 cups arranged in a triangle with a small amount of beer in them. The opposite team has to try and throw a ping pong ball into one of the cups and if they get it in then the other team drinks. There are various rules about how many cups have to be drunk etc so got a bit foggy towards the end but was good fun. Tim & I actually managed to stay up until 12.30 so were very chuffed with that - all in all a very nice Christmas!

Day 14 - Fri 26 Dec

Woke up at 7 with a slight Boxing Day hangover! Didn´t attempt a run but we had a quick swim which soon cleared the head.

After breakfast we set off up to the Caribbean coast to check that side out. It took about 3.5 hours to drive from Panama City directly north to Colon and then turning right along the coast. The roads here were pretty grotty but there was a coast road which was lovely and there were little towns dotted along this coast so had a lot more character than the Pacific coast. We got to La Guayra finally and parked up before waiting for a little outboard to take us across the water to Isle Grande - an island just off the north coast. One of the slightly scary-looking locals spotted Tim´s Rangers top and started having some sort of conversation about football which was quite amusing - just shows that football does really seem to be a universal language!

Isle Grande was very pretty, but it was very cloudy and raining on and off the whole afternoon so I´m sure we didn´t see it at its best. We set up camp under a tree on one of the lovely sandy beaches and did some snorkelling and had a bit of lunch whilst avoiding the rain!

We headed back early afternoon and stopped in Portobelo to check out the ruins and the famous Church of the Black Christ where they have a massive pilgrimage each year and tens of thousands of people come to the church to see the statue. Francis Drake was also buried at sea just off the coast of this town.

We got back pretty tired to headed to a recommended Mexican restauarant in San Carlos before crashing early.

Day 15 - Sat 27 Dec

Woke up at 6.30 this morning and Tim went for the beach run whilst I refrained - my back wasn´t too happy with all the driving yesterday so did some stretching and a bit of self-physio (amazing how quickly hamstrings can shorten).

We decided no driving today so had a nice relaxing breakfast and said goodbye to Dan & family. Owner Mark & Mango were going for a walk on the beach to go and see where Lowell was surfing so we joined them - Mango had great fun leaping in and out of the surf!

After a look at the surfers Tim and I carried on walking round the beach for another ooh hour and a bit right down to Playa Gorgona which was lovely.

After some lunch we then relaxed on the beach for the afternoon - it was fairly cloudy so comfortable enough to sit on the beach - and mulled over our Costa Rica Lonely Planet.

For dinner we walked to the nearest restauarant which was a lovely Italian - I had the best spaghetti frutti du mare I´ve had in a long time! We got back and found Kirby, Anne and David had returned from their trip to a coffee plantation and had brought us back a bag, very sweet! We had a few beers with them and played some Beer Pong (although a lot more sedate than the Xmas tournament!) and swapped emails etc. Nice evening.