About an hour out of the city we turned onto a road that led to the famous Coronado Resort. Almost immediately the road turned to gravel and the signs to the resort were obscure at best. We meandered down along the oceanfront homes which seemed quite nice and eventually found the resort from the back way. The gate guard didn't speak any English but he eventually let us in even though we didn't have reservations. We found the restaurant and sat down for breakfast. It was buffet style and we made plates. As we began to eat the waiter came over and asked for our room number or member number, neither of which we had. They let us eat anyway but explained in broken English that the resort facilities were only for guests and members. From what we saw the resort was nice but aging a bit and the access was not up to resort standards that we are used to in Hawaii. I imagine as a guest, it would be a lovely get-a-way.
We left Coronado and headed west again making good time. Passed many small towns with older buildings and gas stations. There were no sparkling mini marts at the fuel stops. Just over half way to our destination we drove through the town of Santiago and from there to the city of David the road turned to a two lane undivided highway. We were still making good time on the lightly traveled road and when we saw how far ahead of schedule we were we decided to turn off into another beach resort we saw advertised on a billboard.
We didn't go to the resort but instead pulled into a little parking area next to a small building that was a bar and restaurant. From the car we could see smooth sandy beach perhaps eighty to one-hundred yards from the building to the ocean. We stretched our legs and started walking towards the water. The beach stretched out in both directions as far as we could see with no one insight except two or three people that were so far away we couldn't tell if they were male or female. We were almost half way to the water when I looked back and there was dog trotting towards me. It was like he knew I liked dogs and that I missed my puppy back home and was coming to keep me company for awhile. Which he did. He walked with us out to the ocean and kept coming up to get pettings. John threw a stick into the water and told the dog to go get it. After a little coaxing the dog trotted out to where the stick had washed in with the waves, sniffed it, then walked into ankle deep water and lay down.
I wanted to take the dog with us, he looked so skinny and he was so friendly. In the picture of me and the dog you can get an idea of how wide and deserted the beach was. We meandered back to the car and I picked up a few shells along the way. When we returned to the car the dog wandered away and we resumed our journey. The drive to David didn't take long and we stopped and called our friend and arranged a rondezvous. She told us it was raining. We looked around a new shopping center at the intersection of the road that turned up to Boquete then began the climb to the highlands. We could see the rain clouds as we pulled out of parking lot and soon we were under them. It rained most of climb and was still drizzling when we pulled into the small quaint town that had attracted so many retires.
We dined under an open gazebo on the river next to a large fireplace and caught up on old times. After dinner we followed our friends up to their house about fifteen minutes out of town up the side of a mountain. They had built a nice house powered by diverting water through a 2" pvc pipe from a stream on their property into a small hydro wheel. After traveling all day I was ready for bed and I slept well.
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