Summer Days in Panama City, Panama - 8-13-2012

El Cangrejo, Panama City, Panama

I've been back in Panama City, Panama for four days now. I came back to see about arranging a sailing charter to the San Blas Islands, an unspoiled archipelago inhabitated by the Kuna People. The Kuna eschew electricity and running water, but do put tourists up in simple cabins...that lack electricity and running water. I wanted to cruise around the islands on a sailboat for a few days because I'd prefer to island hop and find secret snorkel spots over posting up on a single island for a few days and use a bucket for toilet. Call me pretentious.

I've contacted five sailing companies and it looks like I'm out of luck. Who knew that returning nearly two weeks before I leave the country wouldn't be enough notice to get a shared charter going? Oh well...there's always next trip.



El Cangrejo, Panama City, Panama

Since it looks like I won't be able to line up a shared charter, I've instead been exploring Panama City with people I've met at the hostel. A couple days ago, I took a woman from Michigan through Casco Viejo. Yesterday, I explored Calle Uruguay and the Bella Vista district alone and found a set of stairs going up several hundred feet to a quiet and beautiful neighborhood tucked away in the hills just inland from the Cinta Costera. Today, I took an Australian woman on my walk from the previous day, and then we explored the El Congrejo district together for several hours. I had a great time both days playing tour guide for my new friends and finding a new district today. She and I even had lunch at an upscale lunch place on Calle Uruguay called The Market, was decorated with such California sophistication that we could have been in the Ferry Building in San Francisco or in Newport Beach.

I'm coming to really like Panama City. It's much more energetic, vibrant and wealthy (in parts) than San Jose, Costa Rica...the only other Latin American capital city I've explored to this point. Calle Uruguay's lounges and upscale bars, Bella Vista's tree lined avenues and cute restaurnts and shops, and El Congrejo's relentless energy and hectic activity offer living proof that Panama City has a true city life. I could totally live here, and I think spending my last seven days in-country exploring Panama City would be an excellent use of my time.

Review of La Vela Latina in Playa Samara - 5-16-2012

La Vela Latina in Playa Samara, Costa Rica

La Vela Latina is an upscale, loungy beach bar in Playa Samara, Costa Rica. It was my favorite place to eat and one of my favorite places to grab a beer alone or with new friends from Casa Brian. Several rows of dark wood tables surrounded by low riding plastic Adirondak chairs provide ample seating on the sand. Just watch out for high tide because the tide sometimes laps up to the outermost chairs. Multiple large trees with thick canopies provide shade for the beach seating. Dogs commonly wander through the beach seating, and sometimes inside too. Relax though, they're friendly and are accustomed to tourists petting and feeding them. La Vela's front opens up creating a nearly seamless transition from beach seating to the dark wood floor, tables and chairs of the bar area proper.



La Vela Latina in Playa Samara, Costa Rica

Even on a pleasant afternoon where tourists and expats alike sit outside and throw back Imperials to the pounding surf, you can usually find a table to yourself. There's plenty of seating inside too. If you can, get the first row of tables next to the wooden rail that separates the outside seating from the inside. Most of those chairs lean back nicely and rock a bit. Add in the downbeat trip hop or mellow reggae La Vela usually plays and you've got a relaxing spot to watch the waves, grab a bite or wait out an afternoon thunderstorm. I've done all three there and loved it.



La Vela Latina in Playa Samara, Costa Rica

Of all the restaurants in town, I found La Vela's to be the most tasty, but also the most expensive. The menu is standard tourist fare including hamburgers, nachos, wraps, a steak, and plenty of exotic mixed and blended drinks. La Vela's burgers were too expensive (gor next door to El Ancla for nearly identical burgers for cheaper) and the nachos are more generous at Coco's Mexican Restaurant, but La Vela's Popcorn Chicken was awesome at $8.25 and includes a pile of French fries and a mixed green salad. Give it a try. La Vela runs 2-for-1 mixed drink specials every night of the week from 5PM to 7PM. Every Saturday around 5PM, La Vela also offers free sushi that you can eat off of bikini (and sushi) clad women.

From the beach at Samara's main street and looking into town, the easiest way to find La Vela Latina is to walk up the main street and take the first right. Walk to the end of this street past the tourist kiosk and Super Samara market (both on your left) all the way to the end of the street where it turns left. Instead of following the street left, turn right into the gravel parking lot for Locanada and La Vela Latina. La Vela is the restaurant on the right (and is also the one that does not have the sign that says "Locanda"). You can also find La Vela Latina by walking along the beach to the left (if facing towards the ocean and away from town). Walk past the first two beach bars on the left (Gusto Beach and Lo Que Hay). You'll shortly come upon three beach bars in a row. La Vela is the middle one. At night, look for its burning tiki torches. During the day, look for the sign advertising sushi.

Clement Part 2 - 5-5-2012



Sunset from Barracuda in Playa Samara, Costa Rica

The sun touches the horizon and sinks beneath it. Purple and navy replace soft orange and lavender.

“Where do you live in Paris,” I ask. Clement smiles sweetly as she describes home. She lives in a picturesque quarter of Paris – a flower shop in the ground floor of her apartment building and a bakery next door. A grocer 100m from her front door means she doesn't need to leave her little city within a city. “There is a park 300 meters away from my apartment. It is very nice. In the summer, children run, people eat...”

“And sleep?” I tease.

She smiles again. “Yes, and sleep.”

The sky is dark now, the sun gone and Samara's lights blinking alive. I ask about the boyfriend she mentioned offhandedly at La Vela Latina the previous night.

“How did you meet your boyfriend?”

“I met him in New Caledonia. He was the friend of a coworker. We were friends for one month, just friends, and then we decided we like each other.” She sips her beer.

Clement fell in love with a New Caledonian local who was 20 years older than her with two kids aged 18 and 25. Clement and he professed their love for each other when they were in New Caledonia. “It's complicated,” she tells me softly. “He says he will come to France but I don't think so. His children are in New Caledonia. When we talked yesterday, we talked only about what we did in the day. I tell him I love him and he does not know what he wants. How can you be 50 and not know what you want?”

She continues, “there is another woman who is trying to come back to him. I don't like her, I am very jealous. I call and she pick up the phone and she treats me like his friend.” It's complicated,” Clement tells me again, softly.

She stares out at the night, her voice barely above a whisper.“I am on this trip for myself, not for him. So I do what I wish. I want to dive, so I go dive.” She is going to visit a few other spots in Costa Rica before moving onto Panama, Nicaragua, Belize and perhaps someplace else. She has two months before going back to France, two months to find closure on her trip.

She tells me more and I listen. The talks quietly of her love for her boyfriend, their past and the confusion of their future. She tells me about the diving she wants to do and I wonder if she'll find peace or an escape if she just visits enough beaches. When she stops speaking, we sit in silence together for a long while, sipping in our beers and the burgeoning night before departing.

Four Great Places to a Get Drink in Hollywood on a Sunday Night

The portion of Sunset Boulevard around Highland Avenue used to be so seedy. I drove through here a couple years before the entertainment complex at Hollywood and Highland went up and remember plenty of wig shops, graffiti, and homeless people. Aggressive redevelopment anchored by the Kodak Theater has helped push out the neighborhood's grittier elements, replacing them with gaudy, overwrought tourist attractions like the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, and not one but two wax museums. But no place in the world tries to be more things to more people than Hollywood, and its bars are no different. To enjoy this once-forgotten, now fresh again part of Sunset Boulevard sans the crowds, visit on a Sunday and stop in at these four completely different bars.


Boardner's - Sunset & Cherokee at 1652 N. Cherokee Avenue, Los Angeles, CA. Phone: (323) 462-9621



Boardners in Hollywood, California

Boardners in Hollywood, California

Boardner's has been in business since 1942. Enter and walk down the tight passage between the dark grey granite bar on your right and the booths on your left. The black ceiling, black leather booths, black metal chairs with black cushions, subdued lighting and ornate lamps make you feel like you're in some Raymond Chandler detective story. Red neon signs advertise Oscar's kitchen, open until 9:30PM. Try the build-your-own B52 burger if you're hungry or the chicken quesadilla for something tasty and light. Food is half off all day Sundays. Down a narrow hall at the back is Club B52 and the outdoor patio. Sit on one of several couches, talk with locals under disco lights, or just listen to chill music while admiring the massive candelabrum dripping wax into a water fountain. Enjoy the $14 Caribou Lov (Malibu Rum, pineapple juice, and Bacardi 151) on a warm summer night, or spring for a $650 bottle of Dom Perignon Rose to celebrate your movie script getting picked up.

Full Bar
Food (half priced all day Sundays and 4pm to 8pm Monday through Friday)
Open Monday through Thursday 5:30pm to 2am. Open Friday through Sunday 4pm to 2am


The Power House - 1714 North Highland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA. Phone: (323) 463-9438




Power House in Hollywood, California

Power House in Hollywood, California

A welcome oasis in a desert of velvet ropes, manufactured glitz, and pretentious wannabes. Christmas lights hang all year around just inside the entrance. The Sunday night crowd is mostly 30-and-40 somethings wearing old jeans, witty T-shirts, and worn flannel. It's dark, so try not to stumble on a concrete floor so old the top layer has been worn through in places. Look up and count the missing ceiling tiles. Pull up a stool and enjoy $3 Pabst Blue Ribbon on tap at the kitchy Formica bar with fake wood grain. The green vinyl booths look new enough, but the brick wall they're against looks like it was built when Greta Garbo first strutted down Sunset. Throw darts at one of two dart machines in the back while listening to the juke box and munching on the bar's freshly made popcorn. For just a second, I'm back in Pittsburgh.

Full Bar
Popcorn
Darts


Hollywood Happy Ending - 7038 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA. Phone: (323) 469-7038



Hollywood Happy Ending

Hollywood Happy Ending

Two words: college bar. Beer company and sports team pennants are strung from post to post at this brightly lit bar and restaurant. The attractive, preppy, barely post-fraternity and sorority crowd gets loud, lively, and flirty. One of those machines with a controllable, drop-down claw is at the back, but it's filled with water and live lobsters instead of teddy bears. Try your luck for $2. Don't like cheap cans of PBR? The bartenders pick a hot blonde from the crowd to spin the Wheel of Specials hourly so $5 Irish car bombs are just a lucky turn away. Enjoy a full food and drink menu. There's even a popcorn machine.

Live music lovers will definitely want to come Sundays for the Frank and Todd Show. I saw these two amazingly talented acoustic cover artists mash-up The Momma's and The Poppa's California Dreamin' with Kanye West's Heartless and never heard a bar crowd cheer so loud at the end. When they closed the show with a fully beat boxed version of It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time, I knew I found the band for my someday wedding. Frank and Todd play every Sunday night from 9:30PM until midnight.

Full Bar
Food
Nightly Events
Open Monday through Saturday 11am to 1am. Open Sunday 11am to midnight.


The Woods - 1533 North La Brea, Los Angeles, CA. Phone: (323) 876-6612



The Woods in Hollywood, California

The Woods in Hollywood, California

Formerly the tiki-bar Lava Lounge, the owners redecorated this cozy bar into part Minnesota hunting lodge and part forest. The small vestibule just after the entrance is lined with wallpaper depicting fishing, hunting, and other summer outdoor scenes. Step into the bar proper and look up. The black painted ceiling is pierced with twinkling pinhole stars. Did you find Orion, or were you distracted by the elk antler chandeliers? The big frosted glass window behind the bar is painted to look like a field of thin, dead trees against a white winter sky. Dark brown seats against a wall of sawn wood blocks face small tables carved to look like cut tree trunks. A DJ spins chill out music in a black corner, only soft blue and red light from his mixing board betraying his hidden redoubt. It was summer when I walked in, but Grey Goose straight up sounds real good right now. In fact, make it a double. Winter's here.

Full Bar
Open seven days a week 8pm to 2am

Special thanks to local resident and my guide, Paul Fontana.

Four Can't Miss Bars in Echo Park

Echo Park is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, CA just north of downtown, off the 101 freeway. Los Angeles' film industry was centered in Echo Park before World War I, and the neighborhood served as the backdrop for many silent films. The film Mi Vida Loca explored Latina gang life in Echo Park in the 1990s. Several new apartment and condominium buildings were built in the northern portion of Echo Park as spillover from the late 1990s and early 2000s renaissance downtown.

But don't let the new wine bar fool you. Gentrification hasn't sterilized this neighborhood yet. Today, working class Latinos and Millennial generation hipsters (and yes, some plaid clad Gen Xers too) frequent shadowy dive bars serving $3 Pabst, eat at ethnic restaurants in operation for generations, and nod their heads at live music venues tucked away in the shadows, safe from the judgmental eyes of pretentious Westsiders.




The Short Stop

Only a pink neon COCKTAILS sign advertises this former cop bar turned gay bar turned hipster haven. The shadowy back room houses a pool table, a collection of police badges, and dark leather booths for quiet conversation. The narrow bar quenches the thirst of straight twenty-something "actors" and "actresses" financing edgy entertainment industry lives with Mom and Dad's green. Come for Super Soul Sundays from 10pm to 2am to dance on a packed floor to Motown oldies and 80's favorites. Ignore the worn wooden sign declaring "DANCING IZ EVIL." Groups of skinny-jeaned, pirate-mustachioed hipsters get their nicotine fix on the outdoor porch. Come early for a seat at the bar because Sunday nights also feature crowds four deep trying to get a drink.

No cover
Full bar 5pm to 2am
Super Soul Sundays 10pm to 2am
Sunset & Sutherland at 1455 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. Phone: (213) 482-4942


The Little Joy
The kind of bar I would run if I were a tagger. Enjoy two beers on tap, play on a worn pool table, cut shadowy deals in the few booths hidden in corners, or chat up the pretty blond in the black dress with leggings underneath as you both stand around because furniture is so sparse. Surprisingly well-lit for a dive, but how else could you enjoy all the graffiti, sketches, and street art four walls can handle? Bring cash because they don't take credit cards. Cheap drinks and a DJ spinning funk offer comfort to patrons who didn't want to deal with the line at The Short Stop. More diverse crowd than the hipster-only Short Stop. Makes up with real what it lacks in hip.

No cover
Cash only
Full bar
Sunset & Portia at 1477 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. Phone: (213) 250-3417






The Gold Room
Well-lit with tiled floors, leather booths, and a largely well-dressed, young, female clientele. Sometimes the entire staff wears tuxedos. Fiber optic lighting at the bar cycles through a rainbow of colors. And was that a neon palm tree? What is this, Miami? Sit at the polished granite bar and get all the free roasted peanuts you can eat, if you don't mind shelling them yourself. Mirrored wall next to the booths and behind the bar make this small spot seem larger. Loud, eclectic jukebox plays mariachi, bachata, classic rock and metal. A good reprieve from the local dive bar routine.

Full bar
Food
1558 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. Phone: (213) 482-5259


El Prado
Westside class without the arrogance. Long and wide light brown bar with plenty of stools offer ample opportunity to meet locals. Modern art, mellow lighting, and light colored wood paneling lend this wine and beer bar a chill atmosphere. Staff spins LPs from a sizable collection next to the wine bottles. Wine and beer selection hand written in white wax pen on the mirror wall behind the bar instead of in a menu is a nice touch. Enjoy olives, walnuts or pecans for $3, or spring for the cheese plate for $7. Impress a first date by ordering a glass of an obscure New Zealand Pinot Noir she's never heard of for $7. Or commiserate with a friend over a $3 glass of the finest Portuguese boxed wine you've ever cried into.

Wine and beer only
Food
Open 7 days a week, 6pm to 2am
1805 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. Phone: (213) 483-8609

Special Bonus:
Taco Zone Truck
The only taco truck I've seen on Yelp with a 4.5 star rating and over 150 reviews. Didn't stop them from getting firebombed(!) in mid-2009, though. Jealous competitors? Thankfully, Taco Zone is back as of early July 2009. Enjoy steaming, flavorful, tacos, burritos, and quesadillas. Taco Zone even set up a few chairs, just for you. At 2:30AM, how could you possibly go wrong with three chicken tacos for $1.25 each, and a full salsa bar? Go for the dark orange salsa if you like hot. Tacos served open face on soft tortillas the way they're supposed to be done, and not in crunchy shells like at corporate behemoth Taco Bell. Walk across the parking lot to Vons and wash down your late night taco with a Snickers bar.

Food
Open well past 2AM.
Parked at Alvarado and Montana, on the street next to the Vons supermarket parking lot and near a car wash.

Special thanks to Echo Park resident and my guide, Nima Samadi, who took me on an amazing five hour bar crawl and taco fest one Sunday night and Monday morning.

Three Hours in Los Feliz - Part I

Los Feliz is a Los Angeles neighborhood just east of Hollywood, south of Griffith Park, and west of Silver Lake. Los Feliz once housed movie studios, including Walt Disney's first studio in Los Angeles, and movie royalty including Cecil B. DeMille and his family. Today, Los Feliz's apartments and Victorian, Queen Anne, and Mission Revival homes house twenty-something singles, thirty-somethings just starting families, and retirees. Residents enjoy an eclectic neighborhood of trendy boutiques, sidewalk cafes with hardly an empty seat to be found, and classy old bars that hearken to a previous era. The Village is the heart of this bohemian neighborhood and is bordered by Vermont Avenue on the west, Hillhurst Avenue on the east, Los Feliz Boulevard on the north, and Sunset Drive on the south. This article covers a walking tour of the Village along Vermont Avenue.

I started at Franklin Avenue and walked south on the east side of Vermont Avenue. I first passed the Electric Lotus, an Indian and Punjabi restaurant with outdoor seating (1870 N. Vermont Avenue at the corner of Vermont & Franklin. phone: 323-953-0040). Peeking in to the shadowed interior, I could see candle lit tables covered in white linen and surrounded by dark brown chairs. I also glimpsed stautes and painting depicting Hindu gods. Next door is Psycho Babble, a coffee house with outdoor seating and a wall painting showing the Tower of Babel.

Further down, I passed Palermo Italian Restaurant (1858 N. Vermont Avenue. phone: 323-663-1178). The interior is separated into sections by faux archways and columns. A skylight opens above one section, natural light flooding in. Patrons sit on overstuffed leather seats in booths, or at tables surrounded by metal chairs. Red linen covers all the tables. Beautifully detailed wall paintings depict the Italian coast. Palermo is open every day except Tuesday.

Fred62 is difficult to miss with its bright green exterior, orange awnings, and sidewalk tables (1850 N. Vermont Avenue. phone: 323-667-0062). The extensive menu features an extensive selection of colorfully named breakfast omelettes, sandwiches, pancakes and cereals. Try the Dime Bag if you're hungry or the Fred McMurray if you're not. Lunch and dinner also offer many choices of sandwiches, burgers, pastas, salads and entrees. The Manhandler is a classic Sloppy Joe, the Hippy Sandwich goes meatless, and the Noo-Deli Noodles are almost Pad Thai. Wash it all down with fruit juice, shakes, sodas, beer, wine, or even champagne and finish up with Red Velvet Cake (the best kept secret in Los Feliz). Fred62 is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The Los Feliz Theaters are at 1820 N. Vermont Avenue (phone: 323-664-2169). The theater marquee announces that the theater has been here since 1934. Today, its three screens show first-run and independent movies.

Skylight Books (1818 N. Vermont Avenue. phone: 323-660-1175; web: www.skylightbooks.com) is one of the last major independent bookstores in Los Angeles. They specialize in literary fiction, books on film and theater, alternative literature, and Los Angeles and regional culture and history. Skylight has nearly nightly readings by authors and I have found numerous autographed books on the shelves. Stop in, call, or visit their website for a calendar of events. Oh, and there's a living fifteen-foot tall tree in the middle of the store under which you can sit and read.





Figaro Bistro (1804 & 1802 N. Vermont Avenue. phone: 323-662-1587; web: figarobistrot.com) takes up two storefronts and has ample sidewalk seating that was nearly full when I visited. The interior provides leather booths and table seating on a red and beige tiled floor and can be a pleasant oasis from the noise outside. Dressy waiters take lunch orders of croque monsieur (toasted bread, French ham, Swiss cheese topped with bechamel sauce), pastramis et mozzarella (sliced pastrami beef with tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and mustard), salad de mangue et crevettes (mixed green salad served with beet, heart of palm, hard boiled eggs, sliced tomato and feta cheese) and other sandwiches, salads, pizzas, soups, and entrees. Come for dinner for richer French fare like Cote Beouf pour deux (grilled boneless Rib eye steak served with French fries, green beans, and cognac). Figaro Bistro is open Sunday through Thursday from 8:30AM to 10:30PM and on Friday and Saturday from 8:30AM to 11:00PM.

Y-Que Trading Post (1770 N. Vermont Avenue. web: yque.com) sells ironic t-shirts, action figures including ones of Jesus and Edgar Allan Poe, vintage lunch boxes (I knew I should have kept my Pac-Man one from 2nd grade), incense, and ruffled panties. The 20-something to and 30-something hipster crowd soaked up the humor and barely noticed the well-pierced cashier dancing to 80's era Madonna music booming over the speakers.

The Dresden Restaurant (1760 N. Vermont Avenue. phone: 323-665-4294, web: www.thedresden.com) has operated since 1954. Its lounge has been shown in Swingers, That Thing You Do and other movies. Caricature sketches of famous Los Angelinos line the lounge's stone walls. Marty and Elayne perform Monday through Saturday from 9:00PM to 1:15PM. Don't forget to try the Blood and Sand, the Dresden's signature drink. Next door, the dining room holds only cozy white leather booths -- no tables -- surrounded by dark reddish-brown walls highlighted by something like mother-of-pearl. The menu is small, but offers seafood, pasta, beef, and Italian specialities. Dinner served 4:30PM to 11:00PM Monday through Satuday and 4:30PM to 9:30PM on Sundays.

Half Off Clothing (1748 N. Vermont Avenue. phone: 323-665-1626) at the corner of Vermont and Kingswell sells new T-shirts, button down shirts, jeans, and accessories for men and women. They stock independent designers. I saw a lot of Dragonfly, Chaser of Los Angeles, Kinetix, Zoo York, D-Soul, and Helmet Off The Wall. Ask friendly associate Joseph for help.