Panama Premier Rentals

Isla Contadora

We decided to take a vacation and head off to the Pearl Islands.  Grabbed the kids, packed a bag and headed into the city on Sunday.  We hadn't made any reservations at hotels figuring we'd be ok on a Sunday night.  The first 2 hotels we stopped at were booked (Plaza Paitilla and Decapolis) so we made a quick pit stop at the Bristol.  They had one room.  What the heck -  we're on vacation.  On Monday, we caught the 10am AirPanama 15 minute flight to Isla Contadora.  It's definitely a sleepy island.  We had made tentative reservations to stay at Hotel Contadora but when you step off the runway, the Hotel Punta Galeon is right there so we decided to try this hotel instead.  Apparently owned by Peruvians and rarely full, we stepped into our little hotel room - a double and a twin.  Neat, tidy and every room has an amazing view of the ocean.  We immediately rented a golf cart to explore the island.  Ended up on the other side at the Hotel Romantica restaurant.  We ordered our food and headed down to the beach below.

The sand on Isla Contadora is the softest white sand beach I think I've ever been to.  The tide was low...perfect for exploring the rocky areas.  We spent the rest of the day exploring, swimming at the hotel pool, playing at the park and relaxing, and thinking up stories about the pirates that invaded this area - a favorite activity of Max's.  At one point we ended up on what I believe is the only nude beach in Panama.  I tentatively looked around.  Ok good, there's no one here, I can take off my clothes.  Just kidding.  That's not really my thing.  But with the kids there, I just really didn't want to have to answer why grandpa doesn't have any swimming suit on. 

We stopped off on the island and jumped in to snorkel.  It was Max's first time and the fish we saw were gorgeous.  Lila decided to just swim it with me  Then we all loaded back up to head off to another beautiful island.  Lila was quick to find a sand dollar and other beautiful shells.  We walked across the beach and up through the mangroves.  Truly amazing.

That afternoon we took golf carting to a whole new dimension.  It was more like 4 wheeling, except with a golf cart and no helmuts and 4 people in the front seat and going 5 mph.  But we did take on some treacherous paths and there were times I was planning on how to safely make an exit.  Ok Coley you're in charge of Max and I'll jump with Lila.  But after Coley told me just to relax, I realized there was really no way we'd be able to survive if our brakes went out so I just went with it. 

On Hotel Contadora's beach we explored an old abandoned ferry (see photo below).  I wonder what that story was.  Max thought it had something to do with pirates.  We stopped at the airport and watched the 20 seater planes take off and land.  Back at the hotel, we played pool and foosball.  Drank our fair share of pina coladas which were very very good by the way. 

The next day we headed out.  The airplane even allowed us to board even though we had lost our boarding passes.  So laid back, just my style.

Time to get a drivers license

So we´ve lived here for 1.5 years and never got around to getting our drivers licenses.  If I was stopped, the police, for whatever reason...a smile or maybe an extra $5.00...would let me happily go along my way with a not so stern warning to get my drivers license.  I kept putting that on my To Do list but that list never really has a starting or ending point so at times, it would fall off, only to reappear when I received my not so stern warning.

Well my smile didn´t work this time.  The police stopped me in Anton (halfway between Rio Hato and Penonome) before Xmas.  They often have checkpoints there and it was Max´s last day of Kindergarten.  I was driving home from dropping him off ready to go for my daily horse back ride along the beach.  The cop asked me all the appropriate questions and upon realizing I had been in the country for a year and half without a drivers license, he promptly told me to pull over. 

For the next hour, I pleaded with him and begged his forgiveness so I could go on my way.  He wasn´t budging.  He told me I would have to call someone to come pick up me and the car.  No license, no driving.  Ugh.  Well unfortuantely my lawyer was unavailable, my husband didn´t have his license and my options were limited.  I finally thought to call the one of the employees of Buenaventura.  "Alejandro, it's me Allison.  I have a problem".  Within 15 minutes I had a driver and a ride home.

So the next thing was figuring out how to get our licenses.  The police in Anton told me I would have to take an exam in Spanish.  That wasn't going to work.  After a few phone calls, we headed down (with a driver of course) to Penonome, through Anton, to the drivers license office.

Very nice lady.  We needed the following:

1.  Proof of valid drivers license.  This is different from your actual driver license.

2.  Glucose Test.  Do not ask me why.  maybe to make sure you won't faint from low blood sugar after driving next to your typical panamanian taxi driver)

3.  Visa.

First off, down to the U.S. Embassy in the city to get proof that our licenses were valid U.S. drivers licenses.  That process took about 15 minutes, cost us, I don't know, maybe $40.00.  My husband then had to verify that the verification was real.  I don't really know the end part of this story...someting about going down to a Panamanian administration office.  In any case, that took 3 or 4 hours.  But back to my story.

Second, glucose test.  Very strange indeed.  We headed the next day back to Penonome to one of the gazillion clinics they have.  Coley took his glucose test first.  Fine.  Then I took mine.  I think the range is supposed to be something like 85 to 110.  Mine was at 125.  She pointed to the half eaten apple I had in my hand.  I also told her I had just eaten a cookie.  With a sly smile, she said "Let's just mark it down to 100".  Perfect.  $6.00 later we were on our way.

Headed back to the Drivers License Bureau.  Took a vision test, hearing test and answered a few questions, including what was our blood type.  That's a hard question.  For some reason I've never had to know my blood type but in Panama everyone knows their blood type.  Coley quickly jumped in to answer the question.  There was no way he was going to let us get this far only to be sent home to have to return another day.  I have no idea if his answer was right but as of right now I'm A positive.

So the process was actually much easier than we thought and still not sure why we didn't do this before.

Now, how do we deal with getting new U.S. licenses?  I'll worry about that another day.