Money Money No Infraction ... followed by commentary

                        Money , Money No Infraction

     Time to head to the beaches again.  The highway from the mountain town of Boquete is a new four lane road.  Very nice, very scenic.  In no time we were in David and connected to the Interamerican Highway, headed back towards Panama City.  We were heading to the beaches about two hours this side of Panama City.  We planned for a 4-5 hour ride.  The Interamerican from David is a one lane in each direction concrete washboard.  And it's full of potholes.  Along with the trucks, buses  and cars we played dodge'em for two hours, everyone weaving from the breakdown lane to the oncoming lane to avoid blowing out a tire.  The buses make frequent stops, so that's another dodge'em  scene.  WHEW! 

     Panama doesn't have an army any more so Joe figures that accounts for the large number of police.  Some are uniformed, much like our city cops.  They saunter around the town streets schmoozing with the locals.  Then there are the guys in the green uniforms, boots and flack jackets.  They get to carry AK47's or kind of gun that I imagine an AK 47 looks like.  Some of those guys look like they're about 16 and the guns are too big for them.  There are quite a few motorcycle uniformed police lurking under overpasses with speed guns pointed at passing cars.  Another group of police wear green  flack jackets and carry pistols.

     Needless to say we watched for speed postings along the Interamerican Highway very carefully as it varied from 40km/hr to 100km/hr seemingly rather randomly.  As we got nearer the beaches on the other side of Santiago, the highway got better and became four lanes. We still had to watch for the occasional pothole and buses making frequent stops.  Those bus drivers are extremely aggressive, pulling out from their stops without regard for the following traffic.  I guess the police don't care about that.

     Beyond Santiago the beach areas begin.  There's Playa Blanca, Playa Farallon, Playa Santa Clara, Playa El Palmar and so on to Playa Coronado, the most popular beach  (according to The Lonely Planet Guide). None were well marked but we made our way off the highway and headed towards first beach, Playa Blanca and ran into a gated community and no beach access.  Then we tried Playa Santa Clara, a with the same results.  We decided to head to Playa Coronado but somehow overshot the turnoff and ended at a sign that said "Playa Gorgona".  We tried that and damn, if there was no beach access, in fact we couldn't even find the beach., and certainly no hotels, hostels, no nothing!

     Since Playa Gorgona was the last of the beaches on the map we turned around to find Playa Coronado. We drove a ways, asked,  turned around, drove, asked, turned around, asked, ended way beyond, turned around AGAIN.  Well, that time I picked the wrong place to turn around. Across the highway came running one of those police in the green uniforms, boots, and flack jackets, whistling for me to pull over.  Pad and pen in hand he describes my infraction by drawing it.  He wants my license and the rental car info. Barely looking at them, he ask for my passport.  I comply.  He opened it saying "Money, money, no infraction" waving my passport and the pad he's holding. Again "Money, money , no infraction'"  Huh?  Really?  Joe hands me $20, saying "He wants money and he'll let us go.  Just give it to him."  I do, and he flips his infraction pad closed, hands me back my passport, license, and car papers and starts to walk away.  "Wait, Wait." I yell.  He turned around looking rather surprised.  "Playa Coronado?" I ask.  He points in the direction we were heading, and says "5 kilometers  Reys."  We know Reys.  It's a big chain store with a big red sign.

       By now it's dark. Once again we backtrack, find Reys and head down the unmarked bumpy side street.  At least there were a couple of restaurants so that was hopeful.  We passed through a manned gate.  Continuing down the road we encountered a few people enjoying an evening stroll but there was no sign of a beach town. We stopped at what looked like it could be a high rise condo or a high rise hotel.  There were very few people.  Joe went in and reported back that there was no beach access in Coronado Beach any more. Most of the area had been bought up for condos.  We were to learn that is what has happened in most of these beach communities. Bought up by Columbians, it is whispered.

     Lucky for us this establishment was a newly opened Wyndam Hotel.Joe asked if I wanted to take a look at a room.  No.  Just book it.  We had no options but to take a room for the night, and in fact we stayed the next night as well, for lack of a better plan.  Our room faced the ocean but in front of this hotel were two towering condominium buildings.  At night we counted a total of eleven lighted units..  In either direction were more white high-rise buildings.  The beach access was down the street and between a ten foot wall and  a chain link fence enclosing a narrow trash-strewn path.


I forgot to mention the razor wire.

  The Coronado Beach is a dark sand beach stretching far in both directions.  We took a walk and found no public access points.

       Coronado Beach was lined with fairly new large homes, but we didn't see any other hotel so we have no idea where those fancy hotels are, and clearly there are no longer any average hotels or b&b's described in our guidebooks.  It was VERY hot so we spent quite a lot of time in the ocean that morning.

      At this point we had canceled our plans on the Azuero Peninsula after finding that not to our liking.  We had canceled our plans to go to Bocas Del Toro because we had heard how buggy it could be, so we still had a week left.  That much time in Coronado Beach was unappealing so we decided enough is enough.  Time to go home.  I was on "hold" with American Airlines for nearly half an hour because of the impeding snowstorm in the Northeast, but my perseverance paid off.  By using Advantage miles for this trip we were able to make a no hassle, no cost switch.  The next day we were on our way home.

                                      Commentary:  I Can't Resist

     Joe and I are pretty adept travelers.  We've driven and toured through Belize, Costa Rica, and Ecuador.  In all those places we got lost, had car issues, and got frustrated at times.  But we always found lovely beaches, reasonably inexpensive but nice lodging, and lots of interesting sights, interesting people, and interesting animal life.  In Panama we marveled at the Panama Canal, archeology, coffee plantations, and scenery.  But the foreign influence has created an in-your-face double economy. The minimum wage is $1.50 an hour so who can afford the $10 hamburgers? Much land is scraped clear of vegetation to build gated communities for ex-pats.  Time and again Joe and I saw acres of barren red soil with signs saying COMING SOON. The wildlife has all been chased away, and much of it is eaten by the indigenous people on reservations. (So we were told.)  If a traveler goes way out into the wilderness near the Columbian border he can find wildlife, and much more.  We were told that area is very unsafe more reasons other than wildlife.

      High priced hotels are replacing friendly, inexpensive hostels and bed-and-breakfast lodging. The tall space-age looking buildings of Panama City, mostly unoccupied, are referred to as the Cocaine Towers.  There is a pensionado program for foreign pensioners that provides for discounts on home owner taxes, travel, restaurants, taxies, and buses, theaters and the like.  There's a very favorable health coverage plan.  In fact there is a very complete heath care package for the first thirty days for foreign travelers.  We met foreigners who were there just for good, inexpensive health care.  All this is good except the government doesn't reimburse the locals for that loss of revenue when they honor the discounts.  Why should the foreign residents get the breaks when the locals are the ones with less money?  Hmmm  Think about that.

     What we found while traveling throughout Panama was the foreign influence has made travel in Panama  expensive. The US dollar is the national currency.  Most restaurants have US pricing, the hotels have US pricing and tours often have US pricing. While we found some interesting things to see and do, we found these to be far more expensive than equivalent activities, meals and hotels in any of our other travels to Central and South American countries.