An Evening in Gamboa
Panama Travelog #5
Gamboa Reserve, Panama - Sun, 22 Dec 2024. 7:30pm.
This afternoon after landing in Panamá City (the one in Panamá, not Florida, US) and renting a car we drove around Panamá City and then north into the mountains along the spine of the country to the Gamboa Reserve. It was a drive of 45km that took about an hour due to some traffic getting around the edge of Panama City. At numerous points on the drive- basically every time I had to turn left or right- I was glad for Apple CarPlay in our otherwise bare-bones car as road signs in Panama vary between small and positioned almost too late, to nonexistent. But we got to Gamboa Resort, our place to stay for the night, adequately well before sunset, which was my goal. I don't want to drive unfamiliar roads, in a foreign country, with piss-poor signage, after dark.
We checked in to the hotel and went to our room. Here's a walkthrough video:
Link: watch video on YouTube
It's a nice, modestly-sized room with a balcony and hammock overlooking the Chagres River. (In the video I may mistakenly refer to it as Gamboa Lake. That's because there is a marina nearby. The Chagres River feeds Lake Gatun a bit further down.)
It could have been a nice evening overall but a stain was put on it by what happened next. As we went out to bring in another bag, we found our room keys didn't work anymore. Both had worked 10 minutes prior, when we arrived. Now neither worked. So we trekked to the front desk, waited in line to get new keys, and trekked back. The new keys also didn't work. So Hawk trekked back to the front desk (I stayed put with the suitcase) to get a third set. These also didn't work.
Fortunately at this point the hotel already figured out that they should sent a maintenance technician. I mean, when a guest needs to replace keys three times in 10 minutes because none of them are working, that tells you the problem isn't merely a bad key (or six) but a bad lock. The technician pried the plastic cover off the door's electronic lock, exposing a data jack underneath, and connected his laptop via what looked like a proprietary cable. In a few minutes he had the door rebooted or something, because our keys worked.
We had been thinking about using the resort's pool but felt too much time was burned up by fighting with the busted lock. Instead we decided to get dinner as it was after 6:30pm already and we hadn't had a proper meal in almost 24 hours.
"Maybe after dinner," we agreed about using the pool- but by then it was full dark and the pools seemed to have closed.
Maybe tomorrow morning.
Gamboa Reserve, Panama - Sun, 22 Dec 2024. 7:30pm.
This afternoon after landing in Panamá City (the one in Panamá, not Florida, US) and renting a car we drove around Panamá City and then north into the mountains along the spine of the country to the Gamboa Reserve. It was a drive of 45km that took about an hour due to some traffic getting around the edge of Panama City. At numerous points on the drive- basically every time I had to turn left or right- I was glad for Apple CarPlay in our otherwise bare-bones car as road signs in Panama vary between small and positioned almost too late, to nonexistent. But we got to Gamboa Resort, our place to stay for the night, adequately well before sunset, which was my goal. I don't want to drive unfamiliar roads, in a foreign country, with piss-poor signage, after dark.
We checked in to the hotel and went to our room. Here's a walkthrough video:
Click to viewLink: watch video on YouTube
It's a nice, modestly-sized room with a balcony and hammock overlooking the Chagres River. (In the video I may mistakenly refer to it as Gamboa Lake. That's because there is a marina nearby. The Chagres River feeds Lake Gatun a bit further down.)
It could have been a nice evening overall but a stain was put on it by what happened next. As we went out to bring in another bag, we found our room keys didn't work anymore. Both had worked 10 minutes prior, when we arrived. Now neither worked. So we trekked to the front desk, waited in line to get new keys, and trekked back. The new keys also didn't work. So Hawk trekked back to the front desk (I stayed put with the suitcase) to get a third set. These also didn't work.
Fortunately at this point the hotel already figured out that they should sent a maintenance technician. I mean, when a guest needs to replace keys three times in 10 minutes because none of them are working, that tells you the problem isn't merely a bad key (or six) but a bad lock. The technician pried the plastic cover off the door's electronic lock, exposing a data jack underneath, and connected his laptop via what looked like a proprietary cable. In a few minutes he had the door rebooted or something, because our keys worked.
We had been thinking about using the resort's pool but felt too much time was burned up by fighting with the busted lock. Instead we decided to get dinner as it was after 6:30pm already and we hadn't had a proper meal in almost 24 hours.
"Maybe after dinner," we agreed about using the pool- but by then it was full dark and the pools seemed to have closed.
Maybe tomorrow morning.