How do I begin to capture a three-and-a-half week trip in one blog entry? Well first off, here's a brief summary of our itinerary, with links to my hotel reviews on TripAdvisor:
1-night stopover in Miami (hotel wasn't memorable enough to warrant a review)
During my previous travels I have blogged as I went along, which provided a natural framework for capturing my experiences. But while it's one thing to blog during a five-month around-the-world trip, or a four-month assignment in Hong Kong, I've learned that blogging, and the thought behind it, has a way of dominating my travels. Much like always carrying a camera, I find myself on the alert for stories to tell, thinking how I will shape this experience or that encounter into a witty anecdote, before the experience is even over.
This was also Dave's and my first big trip together, and I wanted to enjoy our time together, not hole up on a computer composing posts and editing photos. (And by the way, for the curious among you, we happily turned out to be very compatible travel companions.) So this time around I decided to be more in the moment and save the blogging for afterward.
The trip was fantastic - Panama is so diverse, and our experiences were many and varied. From relaxing in a hammock with a rum drink in hand in Bocas Del Toro, to exploring mountainside coffee plantations in Boquete, to enjoying late-night salsa music in Panama City, we did it all. I suppose the easiest approach to capturing the trip is the "highlights reel" method, so here you go - the good, the bad and the ugly:
First class rocks (mostly).We used frequent flyer miles to fly business class to Panama, and for one segment we lucked out and got seats in full-on, ridiculously spacious, lay-down-in-your-flat-bed first class, fresh-baked-chocolate-chip-cookies international first class (on a Boeing 777, if that means anything to you). We were so giddy it was practically embarrassing.
Bag down!Unfortunately, flying premium class didn't stop American Airlines from losing Dave's bag somewhere along the way. It took a couple days for them to get the bag to Panama, and another couple days to find a way to get it up to Bocas del Toro, where we were at that point. Thankfully, we'd packed the basics in a carry-on bag, and picked up some cheap swim trunks for Dave at a Panama City mall, so all was okay.
Muy Poquito country. Slightly smaller than South Carolina, and shaped like a sideways S, Panama is a small but diverse country. Flying in, you could literally look in one direction and see the Caribbean coast, and in the other and see the Pacific coast. Where else can you see two oceans at the same time?
Ay, caramba!Dave's addiction to over-the-top Latin television started with the morning shows on our stopover in Miami, and continued throughout the trip. I'm just waiting to see Spanish soap operas show up on our Tivo now that we're back.
A billion points of light. Bocas del Toro was exactly what we needed to kick off the trip - pure relaxation in a beautiful setting. There are lots of moments from that week that I'll cherish, but a standout was waking in the middle of the night, stepping out on our porch, and seeing billions of stars in the sky above us (thanks to no light noise), and shimmering phosphorescense in the water below - like a second sky. Such a sweet moment. We also greatly enjoyed watching the hummingbirds play on our porch every day.
Yum, seafood!Panama means "where fish abound" in Native American language, and we lived up to this namesake with our consumption. We were dedicated to the dual causes of eating as much lobster as possible (primarily on the Caribbean coast) and exploring as many ceviches as possible (this is a core Panamanian dish, and one that we greatly enjoyed).
Picture-perfect Zapatillas.We took a day trip to visit Dolphin Bay, a chocolate farm, and the twin islands of Zapatillas. That was the first time in my life when I've seen the stereotypical white sand and turquoise blue waters of the Caribbean, and it was utterly gorgeous. It's also the first time I've really enjoyed snorkeling (thanks to crystal clear waters, shallow-water coral and calm seas), and now Dave and I are both hooked.
Bite me.We did a pretty good job at fending off the bugs most of the trip, but we slipped up in a big way on the day we went to Red Frog Beach. We were thinking fun in the sun, so we slathered on the sunscreen, but we didn't anticipate the chitras (aka sand fleas), and a couple days later we were suffering the aftermath. Chitra bites are hell incarnate - you itch so bad, you give serious thought to the pleasure that would come from scratching your flesh right off your body. We got hit by a few mosquitoes during the trip as well, and compare to the chitra bites, mosquito bites are like an amusingly pleasant tickle.
Road or riverbed?I was fortunate in that Dave did all the driving in Panama, but being a passenger had its fair share of "fun" too. Some roads were in great condition, but sections of the Interamerican highway had us dodging potholes so big they had micro-climates, and in smaller communities we had many opportunities to debate where we were on a legitimate dirt road, or if some sadistic monster had declared a dry riverbed a road.
Ninja maids.We stumbled into the mountain town of Boquete on Dec. 30 with no reservation, naively thinking we could get a hotel with no problem at the last minute. Turns out that's a bit more challenging than we anticipated, but fortunately we lucked into a last-minute cancellation at the Coffee Estate Inn. The Inn was fantastic in every way, but the service especially was like nothing I've ever seen. Any time we left the room, no matter how briefly, we'd come back to find it fully refreshed and tidied. We started to joke that "ninja maids" must be hiding in the ceiling.
Monkey business. Our next stop was the Pacific Bay Resort, which is located 20 minutes past the middle of nowhere. Accessible only by boat, the resort is on a huge swath of wild forestland, where we saw iguanas, hermit crabs, parrots, deer and - best of all - howler monkeys. Dave got a little wild himself, and went skinny dipping (on my dare, I admit).
Un poquito pool.After leaving Pacific Bay Resort and driving through the Azuero peninsula - known as the heartland of Panama - we ended up in Pedasi at Villa Romano. Perched on an oceanside cliff, Villa Romano feels like an Italian villa dropped onto the Panamanian coast. The setting and villa were beautiful, and nearly everything about the place was perfect - but we couldn't help laughing at the hotel's very tiny pool. So tiny that we made up a little song about it: "Un poquito pool."
Boogie days.Probably our favorite day of the trip was when we went to Playa Venao, a surfer beach about a half hour from Pedasi. We went boogie boarding (a first for both of us), watched the surfers, and enjoyed delicious fresh seafood and cold cervezas. We'd both like to come back here someday and explore more of the beaches along the southern end of the Azuero peninsula.
Caliente Salsa!We wrapped up our trip with a week in Panama City, where we did the typical tourist things (walking tours, Panama Canal, etc.), and explored the city's great restaurants and night life. A highlight was salsa night at Platea bar in Casco Viejo, where we got to witness the amazing transformation of schleppy guys into love gods when they hit the dance floor. I suspect salsa lessons may be in our future.
Home sweet home.Thanks to the combination of mild homesickness and slightly-less-mild travel sickness, by the end of the week in Panama City we were both ready to head home. Though we suffered some delays on our long trip home, all our bags made it with us (even the one Dave took to dragging behind him, in his state of tired delirium).
This week it's back to work for me and back to school for Dave, as he heads into his final semester, senior thesis project, and ultimately the hunt for a "real" job. Hopefully we can hold on to at least a bit of the relaxation (and tans) we took away from this trip in the busy months ahead.
To see all 715 of my photos from the trip, click here, or for the slightly more manageable highlights version (232 photos), click here. You can find Dave's photos here, and all of my trip videos are on YouTube.
In researching our upcoming trip to Panama (late Dec. 2009 through mid-January 2010), I've been surprised to find much less information available online than most of the places I've traveled to. So I thought I'd put out a call for help.
Currently, we're planning to spend about a week in Bocas del Toro, about a week with a rental car road tripping along the Pacific coast from David to Panama City, and our last week in Panama City, which we've read is the most cosmopolitan city in Central America.
In Bocas we'll be focused on relaxing in hammocks with rum drinks. But for the rest of the trip, we'd love tips for great locales, sites and hotels to visit along the Pacific coast, and activities and restaurants in Panama City (which we've learned Panamanians refer to just as "Panama").
Not sure yet if I'll blog while we're there, or just recap afterward - I do want to make sure to fully relax and not feel pressured to report out in real time. But sooner or later I'll definitely be sharing our experiences and photos from the trip (which will hopefully help fill the dearth of info on Panama, esp. the Pacific coast area).
At my job these days, it’s all Windows 7 all the time. But if you don’t care about operating systems and features and other technical gobblygook, here’s the real reason you should care about Windows 7: the Michael Jackson Wallpaper and Theme.
Oh yeah, you read that right.
And if, by chance, you really do care about operating systems and other technical gobblygook, visit the Windows 7 Scout page for more info.
It’s been so long since I've regularly posted on my blog, I scarcely know how to do it anymore, but I thought I’d better get back in practice with our upcoming trip to Panama (December 2009/January 2010).
(As an aside, is it just me or does 2010 sound ridiculously futuristic? Aren’t we all supposed to be wearing space suits and driving flying cars by then?)
Anyway, since I started my current job (at Waggener Edstrom, doing PR for Microsoft) I haven’t traveled much, except pretty regular trips to Seattle. But last week they sent me to New Orleans for the annual Microsoft partner conference, and I brought Dave along as my own personal tour guide (since he lived there, up until Hurricane Katrina).
The first half of the week was mostly work for me, while Dave visited some of his old haunts and probably sweated off a few pounds from the crazy heat and humidity. But on Wednesday I shed my work shackles and was free to enjoy New Orleans’ many opportunities for indulgence.
While we did do some traditional tourist activities such as riding the streetcar, checking out grand old southern houses, walking along the Mississippi river and people-watching on Bourbon Street, our primary focus was food and drink. We’re huge foodies, so it was of critical importance to us that every single meal was top-notch. I’d say all in all we did pretty good, with a few surprises misses.
So for those of you who are interested in the foodie blow-by-blow, here you go:
Mr. B’s Bistro – wandering through the French Quarter our first night, Dave spied this place and remembered its reputation for great BBQ shrimp. We popped in and ordered the shrimp and soft-shell crab to share. I vaguely recall the crab being pleasant, but the BBQ shrimp will live forever in my memory. They serve huge shrimp, whole with shells and heads, swimming in a rich, buttery BBQ sauce with a kick to it. Quite possibly the best sauce I have ever tasted, and thankfully it’s served with fresh French bread to sop it all up, otherwise I might have embarrassed myself licking the bowl. Interestingly enough though, we returned here on our last night and shared the shrimp and a bowl of gumbo, and we both found the gumbo to be bland and boring. If you go here, be warned it’s definitely targeted at tourists – but everyone deserves to try Mr. B’s BBQ shrimp at least once in their lives!
Creole Skillet – we chose this location because of its proximity to the convention center, as I was still working, but ended up really liking it. I had a version of eggs Benedict with spicy crab and crawfish instead of ham. Yum! I suggest ordering this dish with cheese grits, and asking them to serve the Benedict over the grits, so the flavors all blend together.
7 on Fulton – Ugh, total mistake. This place was not my choice, and fortunately Dave was spared, since it was a work dinner. I didn’t realize until I got there that the restaurant was in a hotel, and if that wasn’t enough of a clue, the sparse crowd and sub-par service should have alerted me to what was ahead. Oddly, the restaurant seemed to be out of half of the dishes we requested (and even our desired bottle of wine), and then when the food was served it was completely mediocre. My crab, arugula and lemon curd salad was completely overpowered by the lemon flavor – I couldn’t even taste the crab. I don’t even remember my entrée, that’s how uninspired it was.
Herbsaint – in a word, WOW. Great service, truly fantastic food. I started with the lobster bisque, which was divine, and Dave had the gumbo, which was also great (but couldn’t hold a candle to the bisque). For my entrée I had rolled veal with fresh cappellini pasta, and honestly I had no idea pasta alone could taste so amazing. Of course, needless to say, such an experience comes with a hefty price tag.
Emeril’s Delmonico – the last of the work dinners for the week, and a huge disappointment given Emeril’s reputation. The restaurant itself is beautiful and the menu looked fantastic, but the food across the board was, in a word, boring. We sampled several appetizers, including BBQ shrimp, rabbit ravioli, spoon bread and mussels, and found nothing that really lit our fire. Same with the entrees and desserts – I found myself longing to be back at Herbaint. To top it off, the waitstuff had a somewhat bumbling nature about them, as if this was opening night and none of them had practiced. The icing on the lousy cake was when we were made to wait 20 minutes to get our check (that’s 20 minutes after every last bit of dessert had been eaten and coffee drunk), in spite of my multiple attempts to flag down a waiter. Apparently at Emeril’s when you have a group large enough for a built-in 20% tip, service is not a priority.
Coop’s Place – this is a little dive bar on the edge of the French Quarter that Dave had remembered having good all-around Cajun food. He was right – we shared a sampler plate with gumbo, Jambalaya, fried chicken, red beans and rice and shrimp etoufee. My favorite of all of it was the red beans and rice, the best I had the whole trip.
Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville – normally stopping for drinks at a chain bar wouldn’t warrant a mention, but it must be said, this was quite possibly the best margarita I’ve ever had. So much so, we went back again the next day. The atmosphere is super-cheesy, but the bar staff are friendly and the drinks are strong and tasty.
French Market Restaurant & Bar – we stopped in here for the happy hour special – unlimited 50-cent oysters. So good we ended up eating three dozen between us. I think this is the first time I’ve ever truly had my fill of oysters.
K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen – K-Paul’s is one of those landmark NOLA restaurants everyone should go to, not only because it’s delish, but also because K-Paul was one of the stalwarts who fed the locals and the troops during the Hurricane Katrina recovery. Long after Emeril fled the city, K-Paul was there cooking up food on the sidewalk in front of his restaurant for anyone who wanted it. We had a great meal there, though the food was so rich and decadent we ended up going back to our hotel to sleep right after, instead of hitting Bourbon Street. Between the two of us we had gumbo, shrimp bisque, fried green tomatoes with shrimp remoulade, stuffed soft-shell crab with mouth-watering filling, and beef filet in a rich brown sauce that takes a week to make. All were amazing, but the tomato & shrimp appetizer was so good we returned for a rerun of just that dish a few days later. And to top it off, Dave got to meet K-Paul and thank him for his service during Katrina!
Café DuMonde – who can go to New Orleans without having beignets at Café Dumonde? It’s an institution for a reason. Cafeteria-like service and faltering air conditioning can’t ruin the delicious beignets, a cross between cake and donut, drowning in a pile of powdered sugar. Yum!
Fiorella’s Cafe – this place is actually an Italian restaurant, but after scouring Chowhound, we learned they are rumored to have the best fried chicken in town. We picked some up after breakfast at Café Dumonde and took it back to our hotel room for an impromptu picnic while we waited out a big thunderstorm, and it definitely lived up to its reputation!
Dante’s Kitchen – We got out of the French Quarter for dinner one night, heading uptown to this cute restaurant just a couple blocks off the streetcar line. We enjoyed checking out the grand old houses along the way, and the restaurant itself is in a converted Victorian. The food was great, and priced slightly more down to earth than what we’d been seeing in the French Quarter. Afterward we took the streetcar halfway back and headed to Bon Temp Roulez to hear some live music (the Soul Rebels).
Lil Dizzy’sCafe – This stop was the result of another of my missions – this time to find the best mac and cheese in New Orleans. Lil Dizzy’s got mostly great reviews on Chow Hound, and everyone raved about their mac and cheese. We went to their newer location, at the Wyndham hotel, but sadly we were sorely disappointed. The restaurant had no character at all, and the mac and cheese was soupy and had a strange underlying flavor (I believe it may have been mayo). The fried chicken we also had there was okay, but overall this place was a let-down.
Green Goddess Café – For our last meal in New Orleans (not counting the airport), we stopped in at this casual little café that got rave reviews online. You know a restaurant is serious about its food when their web page features their manifesto. The vibe was very laid-back Portland, and the food was great – a total fusion of different flavors and cultures from around the world. We both had Vietnamese iced coffee, and Dave had a tasty frittata while I had pulled pork and tangy slaw over a jalapeño pancake. Excellent!
If you made it this far in the blog entry, you must love food as much as we do (or perhaps you’re planning a trip to New Orleans yourself). Either way, I hope you enjoyed it even a fraction as much as we did!
Sharing some photos from our 4th of July trip to the St. Paul rodeo with our friends Bill and Jen. We managed to have a fun time of it, but after seeing how the animals are treated, I definitely will not be going back!
So how's that trip to Argentina coming along, you may be wondering? Well, funny you should ask...
After further research and careful consideration, we ending up taking Argentina off the table (for this trip only; definitely still want to get there some day). It came down to a combo of cost (we couldn't get there on my existing frequent flier miles, at least not on the same airline), and temperature (December/January is apparently not a great time to visit, unless you're looking to go far south to see glaciers).
Discussion ensued, and we decided to consider various countries in Central America, where we knew we could stretch our economy-weakened dollars further, and go the distance on frequent flier miles alone.
Mexico quickly rose to the top of the list, and we were soon dreaming of road-tripping down the Baja peninsula, just us, a rental car and the open highway, sandwiched between days in hammocks with tequila drinks and ocean views as far as the eye can see.
But still, we were open to other options, so I decided to post an inquiry on Lonely Planet's Thorntree forum to see how people felt about Baja vs. the Yucatan peninsula. And oh, did I get an earful:
Hello, my thoughts are thus: You can do a road trip from Tijuana to Cabo, but your car is going to get car-jacked, and then later, you're going to get killed.Still, you will die with a tan, so good times.But I would lean towards the Yucatan. Not to be overly-sarcastic, but can I recommend maybe investing in a newspaper subscription?They've run a variety of articles on the problems in the border towns, which involve the deaths of 6,000 people last year.The U.S. state department just put out a travel advisory for the entire north of Mexico.These are good details to know.
I'm generally not one to put too much weight on US state department travel alerts, since I've done plenty of travel in places they deemed dangerous, but the sarcastic gentleman had a point. My research says it's not as dangerous as most Americans make it out to be, but really, is it worth the risk?
So we started looking further south, and eventually landed on Panama. Rumor has it it's the Costa Rica of 20 years ago, before the tourists and surfers took over and prices skyrocketed. Not to mention, my Mom has been there and loved it.
Which brings us to today: We are officially booked to go to Panama for 3 1/2 weeks, leaving December 21. We're planning a mix of lazy days in hammocks overlooking the Caribbean ocean, road tripping along the Pacific coast, and soaking up the atmosphere in Panama City.
I'm sure I'll be writing more as the trip gets closer, but in the meantime, here's a photo I found online for inspiration:
So we (Dave & me, that is) are pondering a possible trip to South America next winter... current contenders include Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, but I'd love to hear suggestions if anyone has them. It would be in the December/January time-frame, so weather is a factor, since that's the peak of summer for the far southern part of the continent. We're looking for culture, history, food & drink, a sprinkling of nature/adventure, and a portion of the trip spent on a beach in a hammock.
I know, I know... 17 months between posts is a bit long. Sadly, I just haven't made time to blog (or to do any serious traveling) since going back to work in June '07. Just a brief update for anyone who might still be checking up on me here - this week I am starting a new job at Waggener Edstrom, a much larger PR agency than where I was last. I'll leave it at that, as there's no place for boring work details on a travel blog. But if anyone's curious for more details, feel free to drop me a line.
And FYI, this technically counts as a travel post, as I am in Seattle today and tomorrow for my first two days in the new job. I didn't bring my camera, but feel free to imagine the stereotypical Seattle space needle shot.
As many of you know by now, after eight glorious months of traveling, volunteering and being a lazy bum, this week I returned to the working world. I am now an account director at a small PR and marketing firm in the Portland Pearl district, working on a non-profit account that I'm very excited about.
Many of you have asked if I plan to keep blogging. As when I worked before, I may blog occasionally when I travel for work, but mostly I'll blog when I'm on vacation or sabbatical. For those of you who've been loyal followers, I'll try to give you a heads up when I take a big trip.
In the meantime, here's a little tidbit from my commute this morning to tide you over. After parking my car in one of the exorbitantly priced lots near my office, I noticed a tiny horse tied to one of the old horse-tie rings that line the sides of the street in this neighborhood. Too cute!
