After the destruction of the original town, the inhabitants of Panama rebuilt a couple of miles away at what is now known as Casco Viejo (Old Town), but confusingly sometimes called Casco Antiguo (Ancient Town). Like most old downtowns, it had run down and was full of bars and prostitutes up until just a few…
I really enjoy history and seeing ruins on my travels. Panama has plenty of history and you don’t have to go far to find it in Panama. Panama Viejo (Old Panama) is also called Casco Antiguo by some. This was the original Spanish settlement established in 1519 as the first permanent European settlement on the…
Panama was created as a country due to Columbia not doing a deal with American companies to build a canal across the same route that the French had tried and failed to do so 1881-1888. We supported a declaration of independence, sent our fleet to prevent the Columbian Navy from landing, and recognized the country…
Hey, everyone. Sorry for the break in action, but I was laid low last week by first a cold and then some bad chicken salad. If you want to start this series from the beginning, start here. I think there is a rule that you can’t go to Panama without seeing the famous locks. Especially…
Since the friend of mine whom we were staying with lives in Panama, I figured he knew what the best sites to see would be. And because I can’t get my wife to do anything like scuba diving or zip-lining, I was stuck with sight-seeing. We started the first full day with a boat trip…
One of my claims to fame during my military career is that I was in a team of three that established inter-agency Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq. I am quite proud of this achievement and have kept up with my Department of State comrade. Greg now is on assignment to the U.S. Embassy in Panama and…
Hey gang, I’m going on deployment soon, so this will be my last post for a while (this is Andy btw). I wanted to go over how to get some free points on your Credit cards if you’re in a rut. With many bloggers declaring the end of manufactured spending, which it truly is, credit…
We would only be in Maui for two and a half days so we didn’t really plan a lot. Plus, we had done our really adventurous Maui adventure of circling the whole island (and taking the Road to Hana twice – don’t ask!) about four years ago with our daughter. So we were much more in the…
Sorry for the break in the story. Work and shoveling snow got in the way. Anyway, back to our tale of going D.C. to Maui for a long weekend mileage run on Alaska. I got a deal on the Marriott at Wailea and I’ll explain how the hotel was and how I scored that deal….
OK, I’m not going to lie. Knowing you are going to fly for the next 20 hours is a lot easier when you know ahead of time that you have been upgraded to First for the three legs awaiting you. Another nice thing is that when you fly First Class on a long flight you…
