Adventures continue – right up to the very end! As I mentioned before, I never know what it going to happen in a day in the life here. Here’s what I had planned and expected today: Sleep in, wander around this master community a bit, check out the breakfast buffet (they must have one, if they had a dinner buffet last night?), leave about 10:00 to Coronado, find a great hotel in a glamorous community that I had read so much about, have a good dinner close by, relax for the rest of the day. I had no reason not to expect all this! Well, here is what actually happened:
The first part went pretty much like I expected. I didn’t sleep in though, in fact I woke up about 3:30 and could not go back to sleep. I checked out that humongous pool – they actually had boats to take you across to the other side! Then, I went to the buffet, and sure enough – it was there and they actually had a great selection. I got there around 8:30, and it was super crowded. My stomach was grumbling at that point, as I have not eaten that late on the whole trip. It amazes me how I can stuff myself so much just 12 hours earlier and do nothing but lie down in the evening and yet I’m starving by morning time. After the buffet then, I packed up and headed out just before 10:00. So far so good! I had read so much about all the good things about the community of Coronado; it being the most glamorous place in all of Panama. But that is not as I found it whatsoever! First of all, the road off of Highway 1 heading into the town is really bad with no shoulder and just potholes everywhere. Then it seems like the entire town is a gated community. There was a guard shack with poles and I had to explain again that I did not have a reservation, but I just told him where I was looking to go and he let me through. That part was much easier than last night at least. But then as I tried to ride around the streets in this town to get a sense for it, the roads got even worse - absolutely horrible. Just potholes everywhere, and then off the main road are just dirt roads. It's a really strange community. Indeed, there are multi-million dollar homes mainly up against the beach, but even away from the beach a bit, but then some of these homes are right next to either empty ugly lots or dilapidated homes that look like you're in a slum. I've never seen such diversity of an environment of such nice homes and new expensive cars, but having to drive over dirt roads to get to them. There were a lot of Razors riding around as a result. And there are no restaurants around either. No infrastructure at all. No stores, no schools, post office - nothing like that. It just seems like it's all high-end residential and maybe some hotels - it's kind of hard to tell the difference as you're driving around. So, I just got out of this town, because it didn’t look like there was any beach access, at least easy beach access, and it seems like way too much work to try to find a restaurant anywhere close by to a hotel. So I headed back out looking for someplace closer on Highway 1 so I wouldn't have to backtrack so much tomorrow morning. I don't really need a lot of stuff in a hotel, I would just like for it to be convenient for food first of all, then air conditioning, away from bars or noisy roads, hot water would be nice that does not electrocute you, and TV with English MTV would be nice to go to sleep, too - I haven't had that in quite a while now unfortunately. But that's not a requirement since I can stream that on YouTube too, as long as there is Wi-Fi, which there always is nowadays. Bonus if they have hangers for me to hang up my laundry too, but not a requirement. Anyway, Coronado is in my opinion not at all what it is all hyped up to be. This was one of the hardest communities to get to, given the quality of the road to get in, and then, with all the dirt roads. I was getting flashbacks of the Nicoya peninsula. Honestly, I don't know why anybody would want to invest a large amount of money into a nice home in this area, but I guess I don't know what to compare it to though either. What a very unusual neighborhood.
As I looked for other hotels on Booking and Google, I ended up going to the next beach community over from Coronado – Gorgona. There was one wonderfully-rated hotel right on the beach – the best in the whole area, so I thought I would splurge again and do it right. When I got there, the place looked like a dump, and I didn’t see any restaurants nearby. When I asked about food, they said every place was closed because it was Sunday. I forgot about that, but had experienced that before too. He suggested I go back to Coronado. Crap. I really didn’t want to go back there. Honest to God, I would have paid $300 for a night at a nearby Motel 6 or Super 8 with a Denny’s next to it at this point. I passed by one place on Hwy 1 that looked kind-of dumpy, and I usually don’t like hotels right on the main highway because you just hear semi air brakes all night long, but I went back to try that because it was close to some modern American restaurant choices. It was getting late at this point, backtracking and just not finding anything suitable. So I checked into this Hotel and Camping spot they called it. It was not rated very high on Google, but I’m a simple person though – not expecting much, right? Guess what? The room I got was way away from the road (I can’t hear any car noises at all), had AC, hot water, lots of tables for my stuff, lots of electrical plugs (never take that for granted anymore, with all the concrete walls in hotels here), and hangers! But no TV. That’s fine though. It was really all I needed. I dumped my bags and for the second or third time this trip, went back out with the bike unloaded. Wow – that’s so fun to ride! It feels like a hot shot carbon fiber bike without that weight!! Anyway, I had planned on going about 2 km to a supermarket, but then stopped at just a convenience store before that to get some more granola bars, and then a cup of fruit and a couple of apples. And then, right across the street, was a Burger King, advertising their Impossible Whopper Burger. Tempting. But then, next to the Burger King was a Cinnabon store! Okay, I’m going over there now with that combination. It took me about 10 minutes though to find a break in the 4-lane highway to cross the road though. I can tell I’m getting close to the big city with all the traffic now. I ended up not getting a Cinnabon though. I got two. Well, one classic one for dessert tonight, then a pecan caramel one for breakfast in the morning. Then I got my Whopper combo, and did my best trying to get all that back on the side of the road in their paper bags, because I forgot to take a fabric shopping bag or empty pannier with me. Success though – I made it back with no casualties!
Tomorrow will effectively be my last day of riding on this trip. About 55 miles to Casco Viejo – Panama City’s old town. I’ll be there for 2-3 nights to do some sighseeing, then will move again just a couple miles mainly for logistics sake – being close to a bike shop where I can get a box for my bike. I have researched extensively about riding over the Bridge of the Americas – where Hwy 1 effectively links South America to North America over the Panama Canal. I have Google Street Viewed the whole length and read tons of forums on the subject. I have determined though that I am going to get a ride across it though, because I just don’t feel it is safe in a bicycle. I have been so lucky so far on this trip, why temp fate? Not the most profound way for me to complete the cycling portion, but safe and secure at least. Although, I’m sure there will be some twists in tomorrow as well!
Sunrise from my room and patio balcony this morning.
Yes, you can see the headwind today too, but I'm not going to complain about that with everything else that went on. But mainly, if you look carefully, there's a Burger King and Cinnabon right next to each other. You don't even see that in the malls in the US that often!
At a convenience store (across the street from the Burger King shopping center). These are the first electric car charging stations I have seen on the trip. I haven't even seen any electric cars yet. And so why have these at a convenience store, and not a big shopping center?
