Finally after some gentle prodding from a friend who said “you’ve been leaving Granada for days, where is Panama?” I am moving on with my vacation blogging to Panama City.

We stayed at the Playa Bonita Resort & Spa outside of Panama City. It was a lovely setting on a private beach. It’s an all-inclusive resort which means all your meals and most drinks are included. When we checked in they banded our wrists with a bright blue non-removable “bracelet,” for identification since there were some guests who were not on the all-inclusive plan. It felt more like we were being admitted to a hospital ward or a prison. I mean, seriously, they were ugly! Some people were lucky enough to have them put the band on rather loosely and were able to slide it off when they were tired of wearing it. Mine was not loose enough to get off so I was stuck with it. I did at least make them move it from my right wrist to my left so I could at least wear all the pretty bracelets I had brought with me.

The hotel was very nice and the grounds were gorgeous and well cared for.

We got lots of exercise walking to our room and down to the lobby since our room was on the 4th floor all the way out on the end of one of the hotel’s wings. The jungle started right behind the hotel. (And this is where our “nature” walk took place that will be coming as an entry soon.)

From our balcony we could see the ships on the horizon lining up for entry into the Panama Canal.

These lovely butterflies loved to hang out early in the morning on the tree in front of our balcony.

I thought I had taken more photos of the grounds but I guess I really didn’t. And, there are two reasons for that. The first reason is that is was so humid that every time I took the camera outside the lens would fog up and pretty much stay that way. The second reason is that except for the day the photos in this entry were taken (and was also the day of the nature walk) we had tropical downpours complete with horrendous thunder and lightning for hours and hours each day. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it. If you look at my header above you can see the skyline of Panama City and how dark the sky is with the approaching storm of the day. The hotel had beautiful pools but I never got the chance to swim and it was way too hot (and humid) to sit out tanning poolside.

Another wife and I took a walk along the beach. Not a great beach for swimming, but a wonderful beach for shelling!

Can you see the little crab in the middle of the photo? These little crabs were all over the place, scurrying around with their shells on their backs. Before I realized this I picked up one of the shells up thinking to add such a perfect specimen to my collection only to be rudely pinched by its inhabitant! Scared the life out of me and I quickly dropped it back to the sand. Once we knew what to look for we realized they were hundreds of them. At times it looked like they were having a relay race, but when we got close to them they withdrew into their shells. We spent a good deal of time watching them and trying to get good photos of them. I guess it doesn’t take much to entertain us!

There’s one in this photo too, can you find him?

And here is the best close-up I managed to get.

I brought back quite a few of these pretty pink shells.

We walked all the way down to the end of the beach. Look how far away the hotel is!

This oyster catcher was looking for a meal. I did not have my telephoto lens with me so I hope you can make him out.

On our way back we noticed this “sand art” created by digging crabs. The beach was peppered with these interesting holes. We never saw the crabs that were making them but someone else told us they were small and red and made it pretty impossible to spread a blanket on the beach!

Hermit crabs! So cool to see them in their “natural” habitat. Those shells looked amazing! I would be in my glories there! I can’t wait to see the rest of the photos of your vacation there.

Jess, they were pretty entertaining. And so many of them! We had to be careful where we walked. Don’t worry, lots more photos to come. Sloths, the Panama Canal, colorful birds, coffee farms and more!