Our time in Panama was polar, split between the preparations of our impending cross into South America and the enjoyment of city life in a country that offers many unanticipated lessons about our own. As we lifted into the air on our way to Colombia on Monday morning, sprawling green hills beneath us met the … Read more
The Darien Gap: Vehicle Shipping, Panama Side
September 3rd, 2013 | Posted by in Border Crossings | Colombia | Darien Gap | How To | Panama | The Places We've Been - (6 Comments)By now you have theoretically decided on a shipping company or agent and set up a date to load your vehicle into its container (read this post for more info on preparation – if you are waaayyy behind, here is an explanation of what the Darien Gap is). What follows is a step by step … Read more
Craft Beer in Panama City
September 2nd, 2013 | Posted by in Food | Panama | The Places We've Been - (0 Comments)As long as we’ve been traveling together, we’ve enjoyed getting to know our destinations through the local beer. For many years this meant visiting craft breweries or purchasing area brews at restaurants or grocery stores. In Raleigh, where we lived before departing on this journey, the metropolitan area has so many craft breweries that visiting … Read more
Our Favorite Not-so-Panamanian Restaurants in Panama City
September 1st, 2013 | Posted by in Food | Panama | The Places We've Been - (4 Comments)Food is a fantastic way to explore a new culture. We don’t claim to be foodies in any sense of the word and seldom seek out the most exquisite or famous flavors of a city (unless you count pizza and beer), but we do enjoy experiencing authentic food and especially love a good típico breakfast. … Read more
The Darien Gap: Preparing
August 31st, 2013 | Posted by in Border Crossings | Colombia | Darien Gap | Panama | The Places We've Been - (8 Comments)If you missed our latest post detailing what exactly the Darien Gap is and why we keep talking about it, be sure to check it out here. For the past year or so we’ve periodically sat down at a computer, done a bit of searching for articles and websites (Drive the Americas is a particularly … Read more
The Darien Gap: An Introduction
August 30th, 2013 | Posted by in About | Border Crossings | Colombia | Darien Gap | Panama | The Places We've Been - (18 Comments)We’ve been talking about the Darien Gap with increasing frequency over the last month or two. It has existed vaguely in our awareness for a couple of years, but we intentionally delayed any real focus on it so as to avoid unnecessary stress. That luxury has slowly slipped away now as we’ve driven closer and … Read more
Soberanía National Park
August 29th, 2013 | Posted by in Panama | Parks | The Places We've Been - (2 Comments)Twenty-five kilometers north of Panama City, bordering the eastern flank of the Canal, is Soberanía National Park. Founded in 1980, the park’s 55,000 acres of humid tropical forest are a welcome respite from the ten-car-horns-a-minute hustle and bustle of the city just twenty minutes away. Home to an estimated 525 species of bird, Soberanía is … Read more
A Day in the Life: Panama City, Panama
August 28th, 2013 | Posted by in A Day in the Life | Panama | The Places We've Been - (0 Comments)This is an installment in an ongoing post series detailing a typical day in one of our destinations. Not everything in this schedule might happen on any given day, but it should give you a good idea of our usual activities. 6:00AM – The building starts to come to life. Our walls are seemingly pretty thick, … Read more
Amador Causeway
August 26th, 2013 | Posted by in Panama | Sports | The Places We've Been | Video - (1 Comments)Jutting six kilometers into the Pacific Ocean, the Amador Causeway is situated at the southwest tip of Panama City. Built from rocks excavated during the creation of the Panama Canal, the structure connects the mainland with four small islands via a two-lane road. Its original purpose was as a breakwater to protect the entrance to … Read more
Everyday Essentials: Panama City
August 25th, 2013 | Posted by in Everyday Essentials | Panama | The Places We've Been - (0 Comments)This is a series detailing some of what appear at first to be more mundane details of a place, but will hopefully be illuminating as insights into the grind behind the “glamour.” As I sit down to categorize and write about this month’s day-to-day tasks, a common theme has begun to emerge: I don’t really … Read more