Beach day

Today was our last full day and Vicente had planned an outing to take us to a beach club about an hour away from the city in Coronado. We hit the road driving over the Bridge of the Americas. On our way, we stopped at a super nice rest stop (like European ones) as well as a famous and very busy dairy stand, Queso Chela for a rice milk drink. We learned that cows are let out of trucks at the side of road during daytime because there is a 1 hour limit for them to be in the truck. The stand was also a place to buy lottery tickets and fruit from different vendors. The first stop at our destination was the club house and the pool, with beautiful warm water and lounge chairs in the ankle high shallow area. Lunch at the club was a Panamanian chicken soup called sancocho which was delicious. After a short pool break, we hopped on a shuttle to the beach, passing some fancy houses on the way that are primarily used for weekend retreat. A beautiful beachside bar with cabanas on the black super soft sand greeted us. The water was as warm as a bath if a little murky. 

On the drive back, we swung by Vicente's families old home here and made a brief pit stop back at Queso Chela to meet Vicente's daughter, who was heading out of town. We had a smooth drive over the new Centenario bridge until we hit bad traffic, even coming to a standstill for awhile. For our last meal, we headed to Diablicos for traditional Panamanian food. The food was only so so but the room was wonderfully decorated with devil masks and there was entertainment of folk musjc and dancers doing traditional dances in full costume. It was a nice way to end our last evening.