Panama City is known for its night life, Boquete Panama is not. David Panama just 30 minutes away is a great place to party at night. Last week I was headed to Panama City to pick up my daughter Ashley. I decided to spend Saturday night in David and do some exploring.
I checked into the Puerto de Sol hotel near the Parque Cervantes, the central park in David.
It is a nice location and nice facility. Rooms are simple and the $34.50 rate is although not the lowest in David very reasonable. Dinner was not high on my agenda so I took a long power nap and prepared for an evening of dance decadence.
At about 9 pm I walked to Cervantes Park and noticed a group of people sitting above the Hotel Iris, I climbed the stairs and sat on the ever so narrow balcony and enjoyed a beer, still $.80. I met a local truck driver and we discussed politics and the changes happening in David, He bought a round, I bought a round and soon it was time to find someplace with more energy.
My first stop was the Opium Disco across from Super 99, the queue was long and it would have taken adding the ages of any three other people in the line to arrive at my age, so the Opium was soon forsaken. If you are in the 20 something age group, it does seem like the place to be in David.
My next and long stop of the evening was Pirates in the Fiesta Casino. Panamanian night life starts at 11 pm and Pirates was no exception. The boxing finally went off the televisions, the disco and the dancing started at about 11pm. Pirates was a blast, music, a floor show, yes really and at about 1 pm a live band. The disco was fun, the girls and men dancing on the bar was fun. The live music was not my favorite, so off I went back toward the hotel, walking the quiet streets.
As I approached the Hotel I spied a few people sitting quietly in front of a bar, that was enough to motivate a nightcap at Sandy Restaurant and Bar, where a Ron Abuelo was still $1.25. The owner of the bar came outside to talk, he lives in Los Molinos and arrived in Panama from India via Iraq. Sandy was fun and by the time I left I was hungry,
Fortunately positioned between Sandy and the Hotel there was a Pio Pio, the omnipresent fast food of champions in Panama. Fried Chicken at 2AM seemed so wrong that it was right.
I think chicken is the 7×24 food of Panama, forget the egg mcmuffin, try a fried breast after a long night of decedent partying. I think my age is declining with each year I have lived in Panama.
