It seems that road trips from Boquete Panama are becoming very frequent these days. My youngest daughter, Paige, aka Gumby, came to Panama to begin two months of her summer. She will leave with horse care experience, hopefully better health and some algebra too.

With a recommendation of a friend we decided to overnight in Panama not at Las Vegas, where I usually stay but at Torres de Alba across the street. I have stayed in Torres de Alba before, I always found it nice but over priced. The suites include a kitchen, well appointed bath, washer and dryer and living area.

We needed an extra bed and because of raves from friends I decide to try again. Torres de Alba is really two towers of one bedroom apartments. I made my reservation over a month ago. At that time I had to argue to get a Jubilado Discount. With a rack rate of $119 a night, I felt a 35% discount for the Sunday night was not too much to request. After an extended discussion and proof that I was indeed a resident jubilado they agreed to a rate of $89, above the $77.35 it should have been.

When I checked in on Sunday night the rate was on the reservation card. We asked about wireless Internet, they do not have it. For an additional $5.25 they offered a cable and list of IP settings for a computer with 24 access.

Our room number was 1072, logically we took the elevator to the 10th floor, wrong assumption. The desk clerk failed to explain, 10 meant tower 1, 7 means floor seven and 2 is the suite number on the floor. It took a little help to find our room.

Torres de Alba has an excellent energy saving plan, to have electricity you must insert your room key into a device in the room. I have a habit of leaving a television on when we go out, a way to alert potential intruders that the occupant is in and that it might be a bad time to try a break in. That did not work in Torres de Alba.

We spent the night listening to alarms and street noises. The checkout was uneventful until I received a bill for $102.00 for one night on a pre-negotiated, written rate of $89. They never disclosed an extra charge for extra people. Taxes are not a surprise the per head price was..

Torres de Alba is not on my list of recommended accommodations in Panama City. Next time, back to the Las Vegas, the Milan or Crystal Suites all better values, all more forthcoming with costs and all higher on my list.