After two days touring in bustling Panama City we picked up a rental car and set off on a 10-day jaunt along Panama’s western coast. We will finish up with another stop in Panama City, but until then we are touching down in some of the areas favored by U.S. and Canadian ex-pats and winter residents.

Our first stop was two nights at the Buenaventura Golf and Beach Resort. It’s about two hours from Panama City. While there was plenty of traffic leaving the city on a Monday morning the drive wasn’t too taxing. Google maps was pretty spot-on with directions, though nomenclature and signage issues did cause us to miss a couple turns. But overall, it went smoothly as we were able to quickly recover.

Leaving Panama City you cross a bridge that stretches across the western mouth of the canal as it opens into the Pacific Ocean. The Bridge of the Americas marks the divide between North and South America, which is kind of cool.

The main road one follows out of town heading north is Panama Rte. 1. It’s generally a decent road and passes through a number of small towns marked by the usual mix of American fast food joints like McDonalds, local eateries, gas stations and other retail. Traffic was moderate IMO. Really not a bad drive. Speed limits vary, so you have to pay attention because there are plenty of cops on motorcycles and they reportedly love to write tickets.

The Buenaventura resort is a mix of single family homes, condos, and a hotel operated by Marriott. That’s where we stayed for two nights. It is a nice property, comparable to other Marriott resorts we have visited with similar amenities. But here’s the thing: it could have been in any warm weather setting, be it Florida, California, Arizona, the Carolinas or Mexico. You name it. But the grounds were pretty and there were plenty of birds about.

Ditto for the housing stock, some of which appears to be owner occupied, others are rentals owned by investors. Once again, nothing new there. The resort is clearly growing with a lot of new construction and lots for sale. There is an airport nearby so it’s easily reached by foreign visitors.

The main reason for staying at Buenaventura was to satisfy our golf bug. The resort is home to a Jack Nicklaus designed course said to be one of the best in Panama, so we played one round with rental clubs. The course was nice, and well maintained except for the bunkers, many of which seemed washed out. I know because my ball landed in at least 10 of them. But overall we really enjoyed the course.

We also met our second ex-pat, a Canadian who has been coming to Panama for years and stays just outside of Buenaventura. He gave us some tips on sources for rentals, including other spots in the area popular with ex-pats. File that info for the future.

Our next destination was the small town of Pedasi, near the tip of the Azuero Peninsula, which juts out into the Pacific Ocean about midway up the country’s coast. It’s dotted with old colonial Spanish villages and offers a laid back vibe. En route we stopped at two of those villages.

The first, Nata, was founded by the Spanish in 1522 and named after a powerful local chieftain at the time. The town square is dominated by the Basilica Menor Santiago de Nata. It was erected the same year as the town’s founding and thus is the oldest surviving church in all of the Americas. There were extensive renovations in the 1990s but you still feel the history.

Next was a brief stop in Parita. There isn’t much to the town except for some colonial-era buildings and once again, a church. The church is adjacent to a square that’s notable because it has never been altered. People inside were filling yellow balloons in preparation for a festival.

Finally we arrived in Pedasi and while we’ve only been here for half a day we are already smitten. The town is rustic but the first beach we visited, just down the road from our inn, the Hotel Casa Lajagua, was dominated by local fishermen bringing the boats in for the day, and a simple beach bar. Nothing fancy.

We will explore further but if our first dinner, at a Peruvian restaurant a short walk from our hotel is any indication, we are going to like it here. The catch of the day was amberjack, a fish we seldom see at home. I guarantee it was pulled from the ocean earlier that day and it was superb. Best of all, the meal, including one drink each, cost $50 including tip. Can’t beat that.