April 13th-14th, 2011

Leaving El Valle we took the bus going to the Interamericana Hwy. We were, very easily, able to get this bus waiting on the main street in town. It took us about an hour to get to the Hwy. On the Hwy. we flagged down another bus going to towards our destination of Playa Blanca on the Pacific Ocean. We had changed our minds about going to Santa Clara (or so we thought, at the time). Our bus was lovely -- airconditioned, with plenty of leg room for Gerald. After 45 minutes we had gone as far as we could and got off in a small town where we had to catch a cab to take us to Playa Blanca. We had read that Playa Blanca was a small fishing village with some building occurring as Playa Blanc has been recast as one of the hottest beach destinations in Panama as it is one of the most beautiful beaches along the Pacific coast of Panama.

As we drove along the road closer and closer to the beach, we began encountering gates with security guards. We began to see many landscaped properties next to highrise resort-like, condo-like buildings. Not what we had envisioned for our beach holiday. After a short conversation with the cab driver, with mixed understandings, he drove us to another area called Farallon, which is also called Playa Blanca. Hence, the confusion, we think. The driver drove us to the only hostel in the town on the beach. When we tried to order coffee, they did not have any, only beer and alcohol. Next door, to this hostel was a bar called Woody,s. We decided to have a coffee and some food there and strategize our next move. In Woody,s the waitress, was from London, Ontario. In the bar/restaurant, there were many indicators of Canadians having been here. We found out that these Canadians stayed at the all-inclusive Royal Decameron Beach Resort & Casino down the road and came to Woody,s as part of the all-inclusive deal. In speaking with the waitress she told us that Santa Clara had even less to offer in terms of places to stay than Playa Blanca. It was discouraging to find this out as our options of staying in Playa Blancthat meant that we could stay in the first place we had seen (not) or we could stay at the Decameron for $120.00 each, per night and enjoy the benefits of the all-inclusive deal. This option did not appeal to us either.


Cabanas Las Veranera


So, once again, we put on our knapsacks, in the sweltering heat, and decided to risk going to Santa Clara and finding another option for our beach holiday. This meant catching a local bus (van) on the road, going to the Interamericana Hwy. again and then proceeding to the road for Santa Clara on another bus with knapsacks in tow. Did I mention the sweltering heat. After the second bus, it was a $2.00 cab ride to the Restaurante y Cabanas Las Veranera, where we hoped to stay if all went well. As it turned out, the place was beautiful, on the Ocean and very quiet and peaceful. We stayed in this setting near the fishing village for a couple of days taking in the sun, water, and beaufiul beach. We think we were the only ones staying in this place although, people did come to eat in the restaurant and enjoy the beach in front of the restaurant.