- Late, late arrival after a easy four-hour flight from Atlanta, but yay! Same time zone and no currency exchange required!
- Pickup rental car
- Warning: only do this if you are a a true stunt driving professional! Panamanians drive like crazy people and the roads are very complicated. I personally have my PhD in defensive driving after living in LA and Atlanta, so we took on the challenge! Do this at your own risk
- Check into inexpensive hotel in city just to crash for the night
- Check out of inexpensive hotel in the city and be totally surprised by the city skyline and in awe at just how wealthy this country really is! Apparently, it's called "the little Dubai" for a reason!
- Head over to the Miraflores Visitor Center and Observatory to watch the ships moving through the Panama Canal locks and learn about its history
- Check into Hotel Casa Antigua in Casco Viejo - the gorgeous Spanish Colonial district
- Tour all of the historic sites around Casco Viejo and be sure to check out the cathedrals' grand nativity scenes!
- Have lunch at a cute little café - there are so many to choose from!
- Experience Casco Viejo nightlife at rooftop bars and lounges (El Gato!) P.S. The party doesn't get started until after 11:00 PM. Dance your butt off to the reggatone music you know all the lyrics to and enjoy dancing around men who actually respect you and your space and are just there to dance and have fun! No weirdos here? I couldn't believe it!
- Do the Partial Transit Panama Canal Tour and take a boat through the Panama Canal, learning its history, how the French tricked people into building parts of it for them and so on... Crack up constantly because your tour guide is totally hilarious
- Enjoy a lunch buffet on the boat and keep going back for more! Also, take some bananas and apples for later
- Get a free ride back from the tour by your lawyer-turned-tour guide who was super sweet to even offer you the ride back to your hotel! Try some interesting new candy he gives you way too much of, which, like fruit cake, you give away because Central American candy is just always disappointing. But its the thought that counts!
- Re-experience Casco Viejo nightlife, this time, doing the Latin American time frame of going out very, very late. Find a bar with swinging chairs and explore all of the lights around the city! Dance, dance dance!
Sunday 12/24 – Christmas Eve! – Anton Valley
- Check out of Casa Antigua and head to Valle de Anton (Anton Valley) up the mountains
- Check in to Hotel y Restaurante Valle Verde
- Go for a hike, walk across suspension bridges, find waterfalls and swimming pools
- Drive by beautiful haciendas and mansions - there are some very wealthy people here!
- Visit the hot springs and do the mud facials
- Check out of Hotel y Restaurante Valle Verde
- Drive south to the beach at Playa Coronado
- Check into Arganama Guesthouse and be floored at how gorgeous it is! I want to stay here forever!
Tuesday 12/26 – Playa Coronado
- Continue to work on tan and be spoiled rotten with your own personal staff cooking for you and bringing you drinks poolside whenever you want
- Have them pack you a cooler full of food and beer and give you umbrellas and chairs and head to the beach. We are in the lap of luxury! We are so in love with our new Mamasita Yvonne y Papasita Jorge! Can I just be adopted?
- Check out of Arganama Guesthouse and head back to Panama City - it was so hard to say goodbye to Mamasita Yvonne y Papasita Jorge! We just loved them! #sadmoment
- Visit the Panama Viejo Ruins in the Old City - this is the town that Captain Morgan and his pirates pillaged and plundered and left asunder!
- Drop off the rental car since its not needed anymore and boy oh boy! You thought you had a PhD in defensive driving, but these people have you beat! Deal with the insurance claim because a coconut fell on your rental car.... Thanks American Express for taking care of that one!
- Check into Global Hotel Panama
- Walk the Cinta Costera beltway and take a picture at the #visitpanama sign
- Do a bit of shopping at the Multiplaza mall
- Check out the Calle Uruguay nightlife!
These city lights - just wow!
Thursday 12/28 – San Blas Day Trip (Ok, seriously, the BEST DAY EVER!)
- Wake up super, super early to meet your driver
- Join a caravan of Land Cruisers and 4 x 4 vehicles and spend 2.5 hours driving through the jungle at lightening speeds on the scariest roads you have ever been on - again, Panamanian drivers are certifiably insane!
- Pass the Guna Yalla territory checkpoints and head to the Port of Carti where you meet up with your Guna Yalla indigenous guides who speak better English than Panamanians and are so cute and boisterous and fun!
- Take another 45 minute boat ride past the Guna Yalla island homes out to the San Blas archipelago
- Be totally mesmerized by the incredible blue color of the water and secretly wish you'd booked a stay at one of the island huts or an overnight stay on the sailboats and catamarans you saw on AirBNB
- Mix and mingle with fellow travelers from Germany (so many Germans!), the UK, India, Japan, etc. and connect over a traditional Guna Yalla meal, and then play some volleyball
- Drink and be merry, continue island hopping around the archipelago, partying it up with your new friends, tell everyone you want to stay here forever and laugh it up when they take you all to a tiny little island with nothing but sand and booze!
- And then crash...
- Head back to Panama City, surprising yourself that you can find a way to sleep through that drive up and down mountains and through the jungles and then more sleep back at the hotel!
- Check out of the Global Hotel Panama
- Do the sunrise hike of Ancon Hill
- Check in to the Westin Hotel for a last luxurious, birthday hurrah!
- Think of yourself as wealthy if only for a day: buy pretty things, lay by the pool or the beach and have pina coladas and chocolate monkeys (so yum!) #daydrinking #cuzwerich
- Beach, spa, drinks all day. Treat yo' self!
Saturday 12/30
- Wake up early
- Fly out
- Sigh - its hard to go back. I hate leaving places I love! #instantsad #aftervacationblues #idontwanttogohome
