A friend organized a car for us so we decided to head to the beach area for a break.

Is this a safety concern on the highway?

In Panama city most people don’t have cars as taxis are plentiful and cheap, while parking is almost non existent. The road system out of the city is a well maintained 4 lane highway all the way out to the beach areas, with lots of signage along the way promoting project developments off the main road. Its hard to imagine that they will all be developed and sold. I love all the fruit stalls along the way.
We stopped in Coronado to see the building development since 2011, when Brett was last on the Pacific Coast. He was surprised at how much more construction and development there had been since 2011. Some developers bring in a huge team of people to build subdivisions of homes so the area is complete before anyone moves in. Amazing. Not sure if the houses are all sold.

We ended up staying in Playa Blanca for a few nights. Great views from our room and a long beach to walk along. Love it when you arrive and your hotel room has this cabinet.

In Pedasi we rented a place to see the beach area past Las Tablas. There are so many beaches in the area to check out so it was great having a car.

The pool overlooking Playa Los Destiladeros

Playa Los Destiladeros

The local parrot, nicknamed Pancho by the locals. So beautiful and very friendly. He’s smart as he stops at people’s houses for food.

Pedasi is a small village of about 2000 people who seem to be either cattle farmers or fishermen.

Pedasi Square

The town is very cute with a square where people get together in the evenings. The statue in the square is of one of the past Panama presidents who came from Pedasi and promoted the area. She still lives in Panama.

Packed into a bar to watch a futböl game and met some great people.

On our first Saturday in town we went out to one of the local beaches to find a huge fishing competition on. No wonder no one was in town. Huge fish were being brought in from the local fishing boats. This tuna was 128lbs once they got him on the scale. If only…..

We took the advise of a friend and organized private intensive spanish lessons while in Pedasi at Buena Vida Language School. Yes Brett and I were back in school again. Its tough to learn a language as you get older! Feeling much more comfortable.
We went out to the famous surfing beach of Playa Venao.  Billabong has actually hosted 2 international surfing competitions here so great promotion for the area.

Love the signs down near the beach.

The tide was out in the bay when we arrived and it was hard to imagine this as a surfing mecca. By the end of the day when the tide was back in you could see why it was. The waves were high and crashing constantly. There were so many surfers out riding the waves. We played in the surf and got pounded by the crashing waves.

The car would not start one morning on our way back and so we got the help of a few men to jump start the car.  Still wouldn’t start so ended up calling the rental company.

The car was installed with a GPS satellite security system to turn it off and as it had not been returned by the supposed contract date so they had engaged it. Wow, technology. Mix up on the dates.

Well we had fun in Panama and saw the coast but its time to get back to the boat to see the East Coast of the US.