Newsletter #73

La Ermita

This little town is off the InterAmerican Highway a few miles, about 15 minutes from Coronado, and is a nice, attractive, and clean village. We found it because we got a new listing for a 10 acre parcel about a mile on the other side of the town. There are a lot of little towns like this hidden off the main roads, and they could be a good place to look for your dream retirement home, not too far from the city or the beaches, with basic services, very low crime rates, and lower land prices. I've added pictures of La Ermita to the 'Pictures' section.

El Valle

After leaving La Emerita, we drove to another location near San Carlos where we have just acquired a new listing to get GPS and altitude readings. It's on an unpaved road which Nora was told goes to El Valle, and we were curious to drive it. I'd been wanting to give the Jeep a decent off-road test for a long time. Most of the road had been freshly graded, but there were several stretches that we would not have been able to negotiate without a 4X4, so it made for an enjoyable drive, and took about a half hour. We exited onto the El Valle road a bit more than half way to El Valle.

Since it was past lunch time and we were both hungry, we decided to drive into El Valle for lunch. Usually, we eat at Don Pepe's in El Valle, but the last time, we were a bit disappointed in both the prices and quality of the food, the former up and the latter down.

We decided to try a different place, recommended by a friend, the Restaurante Santa Librada, next door to the Cable and Wireless cell phone tower. We each had a large bowl of excellent Sancocho and shared a serving of beef, pork, chicken, and fish, which was way too much for the two of us. From outside, the restaurant doesn't look very big, but there is room for probably 100 diners and it's clean, and at least at the hour when we arrived well after lunch time, service was very good. We recommend it highly.

After lunch, we drove to the Hotel Campestre which we heard had been demolished. The main part of the hotel has indeed been torn down and a new building is being built, but the outlying buildings are still intact, so it appears that only the main part is being rebuilt. I've added two new pictures to the El Valle page of the Pictures section.

Extreme Planet

Nora and I don't take frequent advantage of the good movies and low prices in local theaters, but decided to see 'Flags of Our Fathers' last week. Usually we go to Albrook Mall, but this time she wanted to take me to Extreme Planet, which is on Avenida Balboa just past the MultiCentro mall and across from the Plaza Paitilla Inn. Extreme Planet has VIP salons, which feature soft, very comfortable recliners, instead of ordinary theater seats and each row is higher than the one in front so big hairdos are no problem. Also, unlike the ordinary theaters, which sell popcorn, candy, and soft drinks, the concession outside the VIP Salon sells chicken wings, sushi, beer, wine, and hard liquor, all of which they will deliver to you inside the theater. Best of all, my ticket only cost $3.00 with jubilado discount and included a free cup of coffee at Dunkin' Donuts.

If you're in the City and want a first class movie-going experience, I highly recommend Extreme Planet.

You can check the movie schedules for most of the theaters in Panama at http://www.panacines.com/ Look under 'Búsqueda por película' to find a movie and where it's playing and times. 'Búsqueda por cine' lists which movies are playing at each theater.

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