David

Well, the plan was to spend a day or two in David and then drive up into the mountains to spend a couple of days in Boquete. After that, Bocas del Toro was to be our beach destination for a few days before we reversed course to Panama City in time to catch our November 1 ride home with Aeromexico.

The best laid plans.....

Unfortunately, the long hours seated in the car were not doing Brenda's herniated disc any good at all. By the time we arrived in David, she was quite happy to be able to remain upright for a while and so, after we dropped our bags off into our room, we wandered around David and lucked into the street vendor's four o'clock fresh fruit sell off. After buying a huge pineapple for $1.50 and an equally gigantic papaya for $1.00, at just around 4:30 it seemed all the vendors were yelling out prices that were too ridiculous to ignore; four baby pineapples for $1.00. Two heads of iceberg lettuce for $1.00, bags of peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and everything else, all reduced to $1.00.

I have a severe weakness for these tropical pineapples and could not resist buying four of the babies to complement the big one and the papaya I was already carrying. We also bought tomatoes and peppers and a wonderful fresh baguette that was actually more like a brioche loaf.

We strolled through the streets in search of a restaurant that could accomodate our diets but found absolutely nothing. Frustrated, we went back to the hotel and ate some of our purchases. The brioche filled with perfectly ripe tomato slices and some yellow pepper were all I needed.

With the lack of available dining choices it was then we decided there was no point in spending any more time in David and we went about looking for a plan B that didn't involve too much driving.

We figured a week at the beach would be a good end to the vacation and we managed to find a seaside rental near Las Tablas, about a four hour drive from David. Sadly, had we known David was to be such a bust, we could have driven to Las Tablas in just ninety minutes from Santiago. On the plus side, it's much closer to Panama City than Bocas del Toro, so the ride back to catch our flight home will also only take us about three and a half hours as opposed to the nine and a half hours from Bocas.

On the way to the shore we stopped off and picked up some groceries so we can cook for ourselves if there are no vegan options available. On top of the provisions, I stocked up on a dozen $0.58 cans of beer, six Panama lager and six Balboas. The taste test as I type this blog makes the Balboa the hands down winner.

Here I sit in a rocking chair on our porch overlooking the Pacific Ocean,beer in hand, with the rhythmic and soothing sound of the surf breaking on the beach playing in the background. Beside me, lounging in a hammock, is my lovely wife who is sipping on a passion fruit flavored vodka cooler.

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