Hello Panama City!

We are staying at the Hotel Coral Suites. It is humble ... but ... spacious and exceptional in many ways. Our total bill for four nights is only $242.38. That is less than $60 per night CAD. Sheesh .... we paid just a wee bit more than that for our lunch in Houston yesterday!!! And, we have a rooftop pool! We are going to need it! It is HOT here. 32 degrees celcius today but feels like 36 degrees!

Our first order of business for today is to get a few groceries and get our bearings for where we are situated! And the location is phenomenal! We wandered about this morning and came across oodles of restaurants and grocery stores and shopping!! It feels a lot like Cuba to us. Beautiful people ... rustic concrete ... nice cars. The old boy picked up a nice light white shirt ... and .... I got some gorgeous sterling silver hoop earrings for $28USD. I know they would be over a $100CAD in Canada. I'm just hoping they have no nickle in them. If they do ... I will be sad. There is not much English here so we are wishing we had polished up on our Spanish a bit more! We have no excuse with Spanish speaking family members! Maybe I'll have to be more committed to learning more of this beautiful language once we are home.

I also picked up a pair of flesh colored sandals for on the cruise. Cheap like borscht at Payless here! But the best of all so far today was our breakfast!! We stopped at the bakery just up the street. We ordered two coffees (one was a cappucino) and had Ranchero eggs and an omelette. They each came with two fresh baguettes and then the old boy got a pastry too! Oh ... I got a bottle of water too. Our entire bill was less than $10USD. They have daily specials for lunch and supper ... so ... we will definitely return! I was initially going to buy some eggs so we could have breakfast in our room ... but ... at that price and convenient location .... we will forgoe the cooking!

We had so much fun shopping and exploring until the heat caught up with us. We were eager to get back to the room to cool down and head to the pool. Before I got my ass whipped at Clever, I took a little video of your room to give you a sense of it, but it didn't want to load. I'll add some photos and try to include the video later from my phone once I have uploaded it. Also of note ... the room keys have no information on them at all. They are completely blank. I am assuming this is to reduce any kind of criminal activity ... in case you lose your keys.

So, I got brave while I was changing into my swim suit ... I used the bidet! I had no idea you had to let the water warm up!! At first is was so uncomfortably COLD ... until the old boy suggested I turn up the volume! He was right ... it wasn't horrible once the water warmed up, but, oh my, it was wet!! How is a person to sop up all that wet?? The cord on the blow dryer was not long enough.

Our time at the pool was fabulous! Some clouds threatened to move in some rain ... but ... it is so hot here the cover was welcome!! We met a lovely woman by the pool from Nova Scotia! We just hit if off with her so nicely! Her husband was not feeling well so he was sleeping. We lazed around the pool and enjoyed the laughter and languishing immensely. She invited us to join her and her friends for dinner. So we did!

We had a nice meal and are ready for bed. We are headed off to do some sight-seeing tomorrow around the old town. And ... given the heat ... I expect we'll be back at the pool by afternoon. Talk to you then.Leer más