We Made It To Our Airbnb in Pedasí, Panama! (With Passport Update)

We finally finished the 7-day hellscape that was our move from Cuenca to Quito, Ecuador, and then to Panama City and Pedasí, Panama. Although we are finally safe and sound in our Airbnb in Pedasí, Panama, we are definitely going to chill for the next couple of days and recharge.

But we are looking forward to the next month here. Beach life is sounding good for the next month.

Quite a bit has happened since we touched down in Panama City, Panama. So we figured that we would sum up our time there, and then talk about how we got to our latest long-stay Airbnb.

Panama City, Panama – More Business Than Pleasure

Rhonda and I were scheduled to stay 4 nights at our shared Airbnb in Panama City, Panama. And we were thankful for that because it gave us time to deal with some of the repercussions of our passport saga back in Quito, Ecuador.

But first, a little about our Airbnb in Panama City.

It was a good Airbnb for a single person, but we were glad we weren’t staying more than 4 nights. It was just too cramped with all of our luggage! We shared the Airbnb in a high-rise condo building with the owner, and we had our own bedroom (very small) and bathroom to use. We also had free use of the kitchen, living room, and balcony.

We paid $31.95/night, including fees, for our stay. This was a really good deal considering our location in the El Cangrejo neighborhood of Panama City. And it was perfect considering the things we ended up having to do there. But accommodation costs are definitely more expensive in Panama than in other countries we have stayed in.

Our paths didn’t cross with the owner all that much, which was kind of a shame. We do like to get to know our Airbnb hosts when we are living near each other but with her 5:30 am – 3:30 pm work schedule, and then social life after that, we only had a few opportunities to really talk in person.

That said, she was a very responsible host and always communicated quickly and proactively via WhatsApp. But we are old-school and prefer the personal touch.

Since our Airbnb was a person’s personal living space I didn’t take any photos out of respect to her privacy. But I did capture a photo from her balcony!

The bulk of our time in Panama City was recovering from the exhaustion of the days leading up to our arrival there. We did explore a bit, but when we felt up to it we would just explore the local shopping areas (the malls in Panama City are HUGE), eat at some of the more interesting restaurants, and research how to best resolve my passport issue. And on top of all of that, Rhonda caught a minor stomach bug.

So we just kept things slow and simple in Panama City. More business than pleasure.

But we did make a major passport breakthrough.

It turns out that The US Embassy in Panama City has very clear instructions for people like me who need to replace their 1-year emergency passport with a 10-year official one while in Panama.

I just needed to:

1. Fill out form DS5504 for a replacement passport
2. Attach a recent passport photo to form DS5504 (I had several extra from Quito, Ecuador)
3. Include an approval letter provided by the embassy that issued the emergency passport (the Quito, Ecuador US Embassy gave me one)
4. Submit my emergency passport
5. Mail everything to the US Embassy in Panama City using DHL

The process was actually fairly easy, except for that last step. And the whole passport application process (except for DHL shipping) was free of charge.

After a few attempts, I finally found a DHL Express office in Panama City that was staffed by someone knowledgeable and would help me send my package to the embassy. It took some pantomiming on my part with the woman who helped me, but I was able to send everything out the day before we left Panama City for Pedasí. DHL document shipping cost – $20 USD.

And I just found out today that the package arrived at the embassy safely!

Now the US Embassy in Panama City takes care of the rest.

They ship my materials back to the USA to be processed, and then they will contact me by email when it is ready to be picked up.

This might sound risky from a timing perspective, but US citizens are allowed 6 months in Panama without a special visa. So there is plenty of time for the passport to be processed.

And according to the US Embassy website, the turnaround time might be quicker than if we did this on US soil!

Weird.

So all in all, it was a productive stay in Panama City, even if we didn’t do as much sightseeing as we would have liked. And we know we will be back before flying to our next destination, so there wasn’t a lot of sightseeing urgency, to be honest.

But after 4 nights in Panama City, it was finally time to leave for our Airbnb in Pedasí, Panama.

[For those who want to read the entire series of posts about my passport SNAFU, CLICK HERE.]

Getting from Panama City to Our Airbnb in Pedasí, Panama

First, we woke up bright and early and summoned an Uber ($6.55 USD with tip) to take us to the Gran Terminal Nacional De Transporte and hop on a bus to Las Tablas, Panama.

At the bus station, we bought our tickets to Las Tablas for an 8 am bus ($9.70 USD each), stowed our luggage on the bus, and sped off.

Here was our route.

The ride took 5 hours and dropped us off at the Expreso Santa Librada bus station in Las Tablas at 1 pm.

We were immediately approached by a taxi driver, which we hired ($1.50 USD) to take us to the Terminal Las Tablas – Pedasi bus station on the other side of town.

We were lucky that just as we arrived at Terminal Las Tablas – Pedasi, a collectivo van was getting ready to depart for Pedasí!

The collectivo driver packed us and our luggage in like sardines with 10 other people and we sped away.

This was our route. The drive took 45 minutes and cost us $2.50 USD each.

Normally the collectivo goes directly to the Pedasi Bus Terminal, but apparently, the driver was dropping passengers off at specific locations along our route if it wasn’t out of the way.

So we were able to be dropped off at our Airbnb at an environmental conservation NGO (Pro Eco Azuero) at about 2 pm.

We were met by the staff who checked us in. It will be nice to finally settle in somewhere for a month!

Welcome to our Airbnb in Pedasí!

As usual, we found our long-stay Airbnb following the detailed methods we describe in our post: A TTT Guide to Long-Term Airbnb Stays – How to Get a Cheap Apartment that Doesn’t Drive You Crazy.

Our Airbnb is on a campus of sorts, where we have our own private room and bathroom. We share the educational facility with staff and students during the day. But we have the place entirely to ourselves after 5 pm, and on weekends.

Our room is pretty straightforward with a comfortable bed, nightstand, chair, and AC. Out of frame are benches and shelves for us to store our luggage, and hooks to hang things.

Our bathroom is pretty standard, aside from an unenclosed shower area.

And we have a shared kitchen. We plan on keeping lunches simple during the weekdays so we don’t interfere with the staff. But since we have the place to ourselves after 5 pm, we can cook whatever we want for dinner without worry.

We also can use the hammocks, chairs, and workspaces outside if we wish.

So for all of this, including utilities and blazing-fast internet, we are paying $23.56 USD per night (with the 29% long-stay discount). This is actually a bargain in this part of Panama, where accommodation is significantly more expensive than in other countries we have visited.

When the director of the facility returns from a conference next week, we’d like to figure out how to volunteer with them in some capacity. Not only do they educate the community about local environmental issues, but they also do research on local mangrove ecosystems and do mangrove forest replantings!

So this is our base of operations for the next 28 nights.

We are so happy to be in slow-travel mode again! We are looking forward to exploring Pedasí and seeing how it compares to Taganga, Colombia, the other beach town we stayed at.

The comparison should be interesting!

Until next time…

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