The new Santa Maria Hotel & Golf Resort is a welcome addition to Panama City’s hotel landscape. Panama City is Central America’s most cosmopolitan capital and a fast-growing vacation destination. If you like luxury hotels with authentic local touches, you’ve struck gold. A Hotel With Indigenous Flair The hotel’s common areas are adorned with bold masks and colorful paintings made by indigenous artists. The 182 uncluttered rooms … [Read more...]
Sheraton Bay Point Resort: Florida’s Tranquil Retreat in Panama City Beach
Tucked away in tranquility overlooking the serene saltwater tidal estuary of St. Andrew's Bay flanked by Florida's most popular State Park and 7 mile barrier Shell Island in the distance, Sheraton Bay Point Resort is also just a shuttle bus away from the bustling beach front strip of Panama City Beach. Originally built and operated under different brands, Sheraton took over the Bay Point Resort in 2015 with a $30 million overhaul … [Read more...]
A Remington and a Volvo
At 9, I thought it was crazy. My dad was going to squeeze Mom and all six of us kids into a boxy, top heavy, narrow Volvo station wagon, and we were going to drive for three months from our home in Paraguay to Kansas where my father grew up. This trip had been his dream since coming to Paraguay in 1951 to found and manage a Mennonite leprosy mission. “Is there really a road that goes all the way from Paraguay to the States?” I asked. Dad … [Read more...]
Where’s the Steering Wheel? Driving Off the Map
Many years ago, I was a passenger in a ’57 Chevy driven by a maniacal friend. The steering wheel came off in his hands while he was making a turn—and he laughed. Though it seemed unlikely then (particularly because I thought survival was dubious), that wheelessness was a benchmark for unusual driving experiences to come, many of which produced the same sensation of bewilderment, shock and terror. Filter in the unsettling elements of … [Read more...]
Penang – An Embodiment of Creative Disruption
George Town, Penang Much like the street art and street (“hawker”) food that seem to serve as the first definition of modern day Penang, the city is one that is best experienced through the senses. Though the city is still trying to create an identity for itself after it was stripped of such comfort during WWII, it is using vibrant, creative solutions to tell its history, share its beauty and humor, and redevelop itself as Malaysia’s thriving … [Read more...]
A Most Unusual Walk in Panama City
It’s tough to walk a mile in the shoes of someone who’s been shot. But it’s worth the walk anyway, to learn about how people gone bad can find their way to good. In the Central American country of Panama, Panama City’s Casco Viejo neighborhood is a great place to do it. I’m walking with former bad boy Samuel Palacio through Casco Viejo, a historic district in Panama City that has long been riddled with crime, much of it gang related. Samuel … [Read more...]
Planning a Sea, Sun and Sand Vacation in Panama City Beach
I have been fortunate to have visited Florida a number of times - sunshine, warm temperatures and the fact the state is ground zero for tropical fruit in the lower 48 has always appealed to me. My first Florida experience was perhaps not the norm - during college we transported a solar car we built in California to the East Coast for a race and then ultimately down to Florida. Camping in July in the middle of the Everglades surrounded by clouds … [Read more...]
Boston Logan’s Global Reach Takes Off with Turkish Airlines
May 2014 nonstop service to Istanbul brings easy connections to Middle East, India and Africa BOSTON – Boston will be more firmly connected to the global economy next May when Turkish Airlines begins offering the first nonstop service from Boston Logan International Airport to Istanbul, Turkey with convenient connections to 237 global destinations, including cities in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, and more countries compared to any … [Read more...]
Panama Canal, Miraflores Locks – February 2013
The first ship passed through the Panama Canal in 1914, the USA transferred ownership to the Panamanians in 1999. Today the canal is being widened to accomodate larger ships on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the canal. The wider locks are set to be completed by 2014, appropriately the century mark after the canal opened. Miraflores locks on the Pacific side is located about 25 minutes outside of Panama City. This viewing platform and … [Read more...]
Old Florida charm in Panama City Beach
Panama City Beach in the Florida panhandle is one of those places that remind you of a combination of other places, a blend of kitschy charm found in Myrtle Beach, Atlantic City and Key West. It’s a place unto its own, though, and one where you’ll soon find, by dialect and design, a place apart from what you might usually think of as the Sunshine State. South Florida, more a mindset than geographical location, is arguably from the middle of … [Read more...]