CarrieandJonathan

More Writings Online

2010-03-22T05:54:21Z

Some of you may remember that I started publishing (nearly) everything I've written (since I was 13) online, on September 27 last year (my 30th birthday).

All my letters to God, my frustrations with girls, my poems, etc.

They are posted here:

http://www.strive4impact.com/chronicle.

It's been fantastic to get people's feedback on my writings, how what they have read has helped them and how people have framed a couple of my poems and put them on their walls.

I'm flattered, and glad the words have found new meaning in your life.

Just as a reminder, if you haven't been reading there or don't know what I'm talking about, I'm posting my writings 1/day from now until whenever I run out of writings (at least 2 years from now).

If you're interested, you can read more at http://www.strive4impact.com/chronicle.

Videos of Our Quito Apartment: Ecuador

2010-02-27T00:47:12Z

The three things we don't like about our apartment in Quito:

It's a bit noisy
It doesn't have an oven
It doesn't have a washer and a dryer.

Otherwise, we LOVE this place.

So, we've made 2 videos to show our apartment in Quito. Hope you enjoy! (And if you want, there's room for you to come and visit - Hint! Hint!)

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This is the first video I made of the apartment. it didn't show the apartment as well as I wanted to with me in front of the computer, but I learned a bit in making this video, so that's good.

Torpedos de Ruidoso: Our earplugs

2010-02-24T21:08:03Z

Funny story: just three weeks ago in Panama City, we thought ruidoso (in Spanish) meant quiet or quietness...

We thought it meant quiet because earplugs are called torpedos de ruidoso.

So when we were in Panama City we thanked the Hotel Santana staff member for moving us to a room that was more ruidoso (thinking we were saying we appreciated a quieter room).

The lady laughed and left our more "ruidoso" room.

I'll come back to that in a minute.

While we've been traveling, we've noticed central and South America are pretty noisy places.

]]> Maybe it's cultural, or maybe it's the fact that we've been in big cities, but even being above the town in a less populated area in Boquete, there was always a dog barking at night and a rooster getting started at 3AM or earlier.

Being in a large city here in Quito, some of the noises are different - there's always construction, always honking horns, and always a car alarm going off somewhere.

We're also pretty close to the airport so we get the sounds of airplanes pretty frequently.

One thing to note: there are still roosters, even in the big city.

Which is why we are SO glad for our torpedos de Ruidoso - literally translated means torpedoes of noise (NOT torpedoes of quiet).

These are otherwise known as ear plugs.

When we were thanking the lady in Panama City, we were actually thanking her for moving us to a louder room (even though we intended to say thanks for a quieter room).

I can only assume that she figured it out and her laugh was at our feeble attempts at Spanish.

Oh, if she could hear us now.

Back to the earplugs...

Carrie was smart. Before we left in October 2009, she bought a box of 200 sets of earplugs from Amazon.

We've used them nearly every night here in Quito, on buses and in hotels all over central America, and in airplanes.

We've shared many of our sets of earplugs with fellow travelers, who have often thanked us profusely the next day.

If you're even remotely a light sleeper, you will want ear plugs while you are traveling. We recommend that if you're going to be traveling for any length of time, you buy a bunch of earplugs in advance.

They're MUCH cheaper that way (we forgot them in Antigua and paid $3 for 2 sets, as opposed to $25 including shipping for 200 sets), and you can get some quality earplugs that will really block out noise effectively.

And for those keeping track:
ruido (roo ee doh) = noise
tranquila (train kee luh) = quiet

A Friendly Reminder

2010-02-23T01:49:50Z

Adam sent this to me today and I wanted to re-share it.

It's a friendly reminder in the form of a very powerful ad.

Pictures of Quito From Our Balcony

2010-02-22T12:44:22Z

Pictures of Quito from our balcony

We got a new camera (which I love) for Christmas from our parents and families.

There's a problem with the lens (has a black smudge somewhere inside) which mysteriously appeared one day in Panama and hasn't gone away.

I need to get in touch with Nikon to see what they can do about it (since it's under warranty).

With us being in South America, I don't know what they will do, but hopefully they will replace it or have a place to repair it here in Quito. (Wishful thinking?)

]]> Despite this, I've still been able to get some GREAT pictures, and wanted to share some of the pictures I've taken of Quito and Pichincha from the balcony of our apartment.

None of these have been touched by Photoshop in any way, other than to add the watermark in the bottom right.

The originals have MUCH more clarity, but I've resized these (and the resizing program makes them grainy) for faster loading on the web.

Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I've enjoyed taking them.

Cuatro Rosas

2010-02-19T21:53:10Z

Every Friday in our Spanish classes, Jonathan and I have to try to decipher the words to a song in Spanish by a guy from Colombia.

It's a listening and comprehension exercise.

For those of you who know Jonathan even remotely well, you already know that listening to a song over and over and over (seriously about 15 times) is as close to torture as it gets for him.

He's been singing this song ever since.

I just thought I'd share it with you, so that if you hear him singing a song in "some weirder foreign language", you'll know what it is.

I'm a visual person. He's strongly auditory.

He is much better at this activity than I am. I don't think it would matter what language a song were in, he'd still be better at it than me.

Spanish Doesn't Come Naturally, That's For Sure

2010-02-19T00:13:03Z

Learning a new language is not natural.

In the category of *language*, I would include HTML, Spanish, business language, and geometry.

This is about my efforts at learning the language of Spanish.

I was super frustrated in Spanish class this past Wednesday. It felt like high school pre-calculus all over again.

I just don't get Spanish yet...

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Carrie and I have just completed our second week of official Spanish classes here in Ecuador.

Prior to these two weeks (say in the last 2 months), I have been talking with many people about going to Spanish classes.

Nearly everyone I have talked with knows that Carrie and I also speak German.

As a result, I usually hear something like this in response:

"Oh, you won't have a problem with that. Language comes so naturally to you."

That message, and the feeling I had in class on Wednesday, are so completely incongruent.

I'm not saying I'm good at Spanish yet. But it seems to me to be almost the equivalent of telling the Olympic athlete that they are a "natural" at their sport.

It's like telling the pro athlete who's spent 10 years of their life in the gym and on the playing field that they just had a "natural" talent for playing sports.

It's like telling the concert pianist that they must just have a "natural" ability for knowing where to put their fingers (after they've spent years developing and honing their craft).

Sure, there's some aspect of "nature" to the things people choose to get good at.

In my nature, I am patient. That's always been part of who I am and want to be.
In my nature, I am persistent. That's always been part of who I am and want to be.

But I tell myself "I am patient" and "I am persistent" every day. Those are affirmations that I repeat to myself all the time. I told myself those things before I even understood affirmations.

Patience and persistence are in my nature.

I probably got those qualities from my mom's patience and my dad's persistence.

But beyond the most basic "nature" level of things, what does it really take to learn a language, or to become a "natural" at anything?

People often ask how we make money online. When I start to explain it, many say, "Oh, that really comes naturally to you. I could never do something like that. I usually break stuff on my computer (or) I'm not good at computer stuff."

People NOW think I'm really good at computer stuff.

But that's because they're seeing the end result, which is us traveling around the planet while working using the Internet.

At age 18, I was afraid of computers.

That was 12 years ago.

Quite literally, I was afraid to even push the power button, for fear I would break something.

Then I went to college, where I had high speed Internet access.

In 1999, I worked at a radio station where I wanted to contribute to the overall mission of the radio station, so I learned Adobe Flash in order to create Flash presentations.

Let me be clear... it was mentally VERY hard for me.

I HATED the process of learning Flash.

I learned it on my own, because I didn't know there was a tutorial. Even so, when I viewed the tutorial (later), it wasn't very good.

And, it's not like there was a YouTube (or even a Google) to type in the phrase "How to use Macromedia (now Adobe) Flash."

But I did it so I could build a cool presentation. (The first version of the presentation actually crashed people's computers.)

I'm not good at Flash anymore, because I haven't done anything with it since 1999.

It's advanced, and I'm not (yet, and may never be at Flash).

It's also advanced, and I haven't (advanced my skills).

And here's a surprise for some people. I'm not actually all that good at computer stuff.

People close to me will be the first to tell you that I often do things the hard way when it comes to learning something new or even doing basic things with computers and the Internet.

The reason I got good at reading HTML code is because I heard I could make money online, had an idea, and learned how to build thousands of web pages, many of them still online, which look mediocre and don't work 100% correctly. But they provide good information and help people nonetheless, so I make some money from them still today.

That process took 2+ years of 1-2 hours/day, with the bulk of time being spent over 4 months.

At the end of that 4 months, Carrie taught me something that would have shortened the time from 4 months to 4 weeks - had I asked her for help, and explained what I was doing, at any time during the project.

Lessons learned?
1. How to build web pages.
2. Ask for help from someone knowledgeable. Your wife (or someone else) might know better than you do.

Anything that anyone has gotten good at has only happened because they have spent hundreds or thousands of hours, (and likely hundreds, or thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars,) getting good at it.

Think about what you're good at. I guarantee you that you have spent lots of time and money on it.

And I can also guarantee that along the way, you have had help from people more experienced than you.

These people are known as mentors and teachers.

If you're lucky, they also become your friends.

For me...

Computer stuff:
The short list includes Ned Gillardino, Carrie, my dad, my brother Adam, my brother Brian, my mom (in teaching, I've learned a lot), and my sister Deanna.

Internet marketing:
Kevin Gianni, Dave Taylor, Joel Comm, Mark Widawer, Shawn Collins, Jim Edwards, John Reese, and more than 50 others. Some of these people are now very good friends of mine.

Sales and marketing and personal development/goal setting,
Patrick Shaw, Kevin Fanter, Michael Wright, Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Robert Kiyosaki, Napoleon Hill (deceased), Tim Ferriss, Mind Power News, and more than 100 others whom I've read books by, become personally acquainted with, and/or become friends with and been mentored by.

Now, in studying Spanish, I'm very much on my journey.

My mentors here have been my sister-in-law Laura, Robert at the turtle project, Pimsleur Spanish, (some other weird dude I listened to in the car (multiple times) 2 years ago,) and Maribel (our teacher here in Ecuador).

So far, I've spent over $800, and more hours than I can easily count, on my Spanish education and development.

There's a joke that goes like this:

What are the three ways you can get to Carnegie Hall?

1. Practice
2. Practice
3. Practice

I don't know any other way to develop a talent, or to have something come "naturally" to you, than through patience, persistence, and practice, practice, practice.

The funny thing is that most often, the things that come "naturally" are the things we've worked the hardest at and spent the most time on.

I don't get Spanish yet.

But I'm going to work at it until I do.

And for those of you who read this post at a time (hopefully in the near future) when it seems that I speak Spanish *naturally*, you should know that I speak Spanish as a result of:

- thousands of hours and thousands of dollars spent,
- working through frustrations,
- being patient and persistent,
- practice, practice, practice.

And in about another 15 years, I'll also be an *overnight* success.

But that's another topic for another post.

Happy Valentine's Day from Quito, Ecuador

2010-02-14T23:12:41Z

Carrie and I started dating on February 14, 2002, three days after we met.

So Valentine's Day is very special for us.

We like to celebrate Valentine's Day by cooking each other dinner.

We'll be making chicken parmesan and having pasta with homemade sauce, followed by a dessert of no-bake cookies.

Yummy!

For lunch, we went out to a little Italian cafe' close by here and ate like a king and queen for less than $14 (including tax + tip).

The place was all decorated in Valentine's Day decor... made it a really fun lunch date.

It's also carneval (Car nuh vahl) here in Quito (and all over Ecuador - and the world really), so we got sprayed with a little water from the back of a pickup truck on the way to the store today.

Teleferiqo, a gondola to 13,340 ft. in Quito, Ecuador

2010-02-13T23:16:27Z

A Morning at 13,340 ft.

Today Jonathan and I met up with our friends Alex and Kyra (whom we met at the language school). We decided that it would be a great day to go up Pichincha Volcano via the Teleferiqo.

El TelefériQo comes from teleférico (gondola) and Quito.

The TelefériQo takes you from the west of Quito up the mountain.

]]> Alex and Kyra wanted to get there early to avoid the crowds, so we met at 9:00am.

At the base of the Teleferiqo is a little amusement park that we didn't visit, but it looked like it would be very quaint and a fun place to go sometime.

Tickets are $8.50 for foreigners, but that's also the same price for the express lane.

Luckily for us, we got there early enough that there was simply no one there, and we were able to walk right on to the gondola (even if Jonathan did get in trouble for stepping off his yellow circle to take this picture.)

The ride up was quite nice, and the view of the city is amazing.

At the top there's a little chapel with beautiful stained glass windows, a bunch of trails, and a cafeteria where you can get tea and coffee.

We decided that we would walk about 200 meters further up the mountain, but that since the very top was shrouded in clouds, we wouldn't go the whole way (which was likely another 2-3 hour hike).

And, even though we've all been living at over 10,000ft. for more than a week now, we still got a bit short of breath when walking around up there. (There are signs posted all over Pichincha which say "NO running".)

Like I said, the view of the city is great! We were able to see our apartment building!

We also noticed that there were horses for rent. We decided not to do that today, but maybe we will another day.

We did stop for coffee and some yummy deliciousness. There were some indigenous people preparing food and drinks at the start of the trails (which start at 13,340 feet).

We got some coffee from them, and it was absolutely fantastic! Even Jonathan really liked it (and that's saying something).

We also got something that is kind of like a tamale, but it's made with sweet corn and cheese.

I don't remember the name of it unfortunately, only that it tasted delicious.

I highly recommend that when (notice how I said "when" not "if") you're in Quito, Ecuador that you get up early one day and ride the Teleferiqo.

Getting to the Teleferiqo early was a very smart idea (as long lines had started to form by the time we came back down around noon).

There's plenty of hiking if that's your thing, or you can even bring a mountain bike up the gondola and ride it back down. (NOT something I have ANY interest in doing. Yikes.)

It might even be fun to pack a small picnic. If you do opt for a picnic, be sure to buy something from the indigenous people as well. It's cheap, delicious, and always better to give your money to them rather than to the Nescafe shop in the building at the top of the hill.

We had a really fun morning with Alex and Kyra, and highly recommend the Teleferiqo when you're in Quito, Ecuador.

Weird Food: Eating Cuy (Guinea Pig) in Quito, Ecuador

2010-02-12T23:21:37Z

On a Friday afternoon after Spanish class, Carrie and I paid $5 to take part in a tradition that is one of the 5 things you must do while in Ecuador.

These pictures are from the tradition of eating cuy, or guinea pig.

WARNING:This post contains some pretty graphic pictures of dead and cooking animals that still look like guinea pigs.

If you're okay with that, continue on.

I've got a video of this experience as well, so be sure to check that out below. Before the video though, here are a few of the pictures from us cooking and eating cuy.

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Contrary to the smile on my face, I'm mildly disgusted by this experience, but hey, I'll only eat cuy once, and as long as I'm here for the experience, I may as well enjoy it, right?

Cuy for Carrie?

Carrie is pretty much vegetarian (whenever it's an available option), so I was proud of her for trying a tiny piece of cuy, but I was a brave little toaster and tried more than that of it.

And how does cuy taste? A little like chicken, but more like a greasy and chewy meat...

The greasiness may have come from the oil marinade they used on them. Even taking that into account, cuy wasn't my favorite meal.

Alex, who is from England and was sitting next to me, kept trying all the other stuff (by other stuff I mean brain, eye, and ear), and so I did as well...

It wasn't about one-upmanship as much as the feeling of wanting to have the full cuy experience, so long as I was at it.

The indigenous people in Ecuador eat cuy more than the more Spanish influenced population...

But I think most people here eat cuy maybe once or twice a year... Something akin to eating the fruit cake (even if you don't like it, because) someone made for you.

Some people really like cuy, and a few probably eat it because they can find it for free in the wild.

But it seems that most people just eat cuy because it's what everyone does during certain times of the year or at certain holidays.

This is a meal and experience I am glad to have done once, and am not too likely to repeat...

(Random graffiti we coincidentally encountered about 2 hours after finishing our cuy)

Though the cuy wasn't my favorite, I really enjoyed making this video (below) so I hope you enjoy watching it!

Would love any thoughts/feedback on my video or anything else about our cuy experience in Quito!

Do You Have A Sixth Sense? Check This Out!

2010-02-12T04:34:29Z

Some of you know that I really love new and innovative technologies.

I watched this video tonight about a technology called Sixth Sense from a conference called TED (A conference which I would love to attend sometime).

From this video, I hope you will enjoy learning about how technology is making relevant and important information instant and useful in our daily lives.

There are very powerful applications for this technology today and into the future.

Ecuador Has Huge Cabbages

2010-02-06T03:10:20Z

An observation about cabbages in Quito, Ecuador.

They're HUGE!

Take a look:

Quito, Ecuador: Day 2

2010-02-05T20:16:49Z

Today we went to check out our Spanish school (Simon Bolivar), and practice getting there, since we weren't sure exactly how to do that.

Paolo told us that there is a government-sponsored bus that runs down a main road (6. de Diciembre). This bus costs only $0.25 per person, per ride. However, it only stops at designated stops.

There are other busses that run a similar route and will stop anywhere, but those are a bit more confusing if you don't know exactly where you're going. And they take longer.

So, when we got to the bus stop, we hopped up on the platform (directly from the road) thinking that we paid on the bus. We were wrong.

The bus security guard came up to us and said that we needed to go through the turn styles, and pay there. Oops. He escorted us back to the booth and watched very carefully that we did as we were told.

The challenge though, is that we didn't know where the bus would stop, and where the closest stop to our school would be. We were just hoping that we would recognize street names as we drove past them.

At one point, we thought we'd gone too far, so we got off. After we left the bus stop, and checked our map (given to us by Javier yesterday), we realized that we were only about half way there.

So we had to get back on the bus, and pay again.

The next time we got off the bus, we were at the right place. Exactly. The bus stopped right at the street we needed!

So we started walking to the school. We got a few blocks and realized we'd gone the wrong way. No big deal, but we were already late meeting Pablo there.

Apparently being late is a bigger deal in Ecuador that it was anywhere in Central America. But, Pablo loaned us his cell phone, and we settled up on the groceries he bought us yesterday.

Once at the school, Sophia showed us around and gave us a welcome packet. We'll start classes on Monday.

Arriving in Quito, Ecuador and checking in to our apartment

2010-02-04T20:06:00Z

Last night, Jonathan and I arranged for a taxi to come pick us up at 5:30am. We were told that we needed to get to the airport (Panama City Tocuman International) 3 hours before our flight. We thought that that sounded early, so we opted for 2 ½ hours early.

We were too early.

Check in took approximately 6 minutes, and security took even less. So, we were left with plenty of time to wander the airport.

We went to a small café (the only one we saw in the airport) for a cappuccino. We each ordered one. We thought that they were on the expensive side ($2.50 / 8 oz.), but thought that since we were in Panama home to excellent coffee, that we would go ahead and enjoy a last cup of Panamanian coffee.

Unfortunately, the coffee was not good. Not good at all. It was a waste of $5.

Then we went and boarded our plane. To Costa Rica. Yes, we had to fly from Panama to Costa Rica before flying to Ecuador.

(There is no way by land from Panama to South America. The highway doesn't go through an area called The Darien Gap. The Darien Gap is home to a vast jungle, and many indigenous people of Panama. There are several reasons why there is no road connecting Panama with Colombia. One reason is the jungle. Apparently the jungle can overgrow the highway faster than they can build it. Another reason is drug trafficking. The Panamanians didn't want an easy way for drugs to come into Panama from Colombia.)

Traveling through Costa Rica was no problem at all. We didn't have to stop for customs or anything. I was expecting the same process there as what happens even just passing through the United States.

When we went to pick up our bags from baggage claim, we noticed that they had dogs. The dogs weren't just there smelling the bags.

Oh no, they were walking over everyone's bag as it went around the conveyor belt.

As we left, we were hoping that the representative from our Spanish School would be there to pick us up, as transportation from the airport is included in the price. But, we hadn't confirmed it, so we weren't sure

Luckily, Xavier was there holding a sign with our names. We gave him the address for the apartment that we found.

Javier dropped us off at Finlandia 443 30 minutes early. We waited outside for Paolo to show up. But, he was already there.

When Paolo came down, he said that he wasn't expecting us until 5 because he thought our plane arrived at 3. So, we weren't just 30 minutes early, we were 2 ½ hours early. That's unheard of here!

He was willing to let us come up and see the apartment anyway. It's great! It's on the 8th floor, and has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, a big kitchen, and a balcony overlooking a large park...all for $20 / day ($600 / month). Awesome!

Paolo was nice enough to take us to the grocery store so we could get set up. Unfortunately, we'd forgotten to bring our money with us, so he even bought us a few groceries (we paid him back the next day). He's a really nice guy.

Our first day in Quito was really good. We're looking forward to spending the next month here, learning Spanish and exploring Ecuador.

Anyone have any suggestions for what we should see / do in Ecuador?

Hotel Santana: A review of Hotel Santana in Santa Ana, Panama City, Panama

2010-02-04T02:22:08Z

We spent two nights at Hotel Santana in Santa Ana, Panama City, Panama.
Here is our review of the hotel.

I remember hearing something about Manuel Noriega when I was a child.

I remember thinking he was in Nicaragua.

"Noriega" sort of sounds like "Nicaragua", especially to a 9 year old.

Why do I bring it up in a review of Hotel Santana in Panama?

The United States invaded Panama in 1989. To some of you, this isn't news. To me, (and I imagine to many people in the US under the age of about 33,) this is surprising news.

The United States invaded a country as close as Panama?

]]> And within my lifetime?

And wasn't the US in Panama managing the canal anyway?

You can read the whole history of it here on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Panama), but yes, the United States invaded Panama.

The invasion was short (and was done under other pretenses, A.K.A. "Operation Just Cause", but) resolved an issue many around the world feared:

The Panama Canal could or would be held captive by a government not necessarily aligned with the ideals for which the canal was designed and built.

When the United States invaded Panama, the primary staging ground for the invasion was the Santa Ana neighborhood.

Below you can see the old officer's club, which is now pretty much just an abandoned piece of prime real estate, that hasn't been developed, or really touched (other than by graffiti and skateboard wheels) as it's a something of a memorial now.

The cost of the invasion:
- About 20,000 people lost their homes and became refugees as a result of urban warfare
- Has been estimated to be between 1.5 and 2 billion dollars
- 23+ Americans and 1000+ (still unknown) Panamanians dead

Our friend Dan (an American living in Playa Coronado, Panama) told us (when we stayed with him in November 2009) that when he was stationed here at the Panama canal (before the changeover in 1999 to give Panama control of the canal), United States Military personnel weren't allowed to go into the Santa Ana neighborhood.

People in Santa Ana and Chorillo (another neighborhood) were simply still too angry about what had happened, and it was feared that the people of Santa Ana might not take too kindly to Americans coming into their neighborhood again, even just to buy a beer or some groceries.

When we reserved Hotel Santana, I didn't put those two things ("Santa Ana", and "Hotel Santana") together.

The fact was pointed out to me by our taxi driver, on the way from the bus station to Hotel Santana.

Our taxi driver told us "Es un barrio MAAALO", (it's a BAAAD neighborhood).

Normally we shrug this off, because most taxis will tell you something bad about the hotel you've reserved.

(This is often done in an effort to get you to go to a hotel where they earn a little under the table commission for bringing you there.)

Then he told me that Santa Ana was where America launched the invasion.

(Riiight. The invasion. Forgot all about that. All I could think was, Oops! Shouldn't have reserved a hotel here! and hope this wouldn't be a BIG oops!)

Driving into the barrio, I realize that the taxi driver was right... Santa Ana is not the nicest neighborhood.

But Hotel Santana comes recommended pretty highly on TripAdvisor, has a nice website, and definitely for the price, Hotel Santana seemed like a good deal.

I don't know if the Santa Ana neighborhood ever was nice (i.e. pre-invasion), but it certainly is one of the rougher parts of town.

To be fair, we haven't gone walking much in the neighborhood, and probably won't before leaving here.

We're only in Panama City for 2 days and there are quite a few interesting things to see within the city, and definitely within an hour of the city.

Despite the neighborhood's rough outward appearance, we actually like Hotel Santana.

$29/night gets you an air conditioned room with a TV (with cable), a private bathroom with a hot shower, a lobby with WiFi (bring your own computer/Internet device) and a really secure building. There is security posted just inside the (always locked) door at all times.

Hotel Santana offers you no view (because many of the rooms don't even have windows), but if you're only in Panama City for a day or two, there are plenty of places to be out and about where you can enjoy a nice view.

Just 10 blocks walking from here is the main part of Casco Antiguo.

Our only complaints about Hotel Santana:

The hotel center is an atrium, and all the walls are plaster/tile.

It's well-lit (which is good), but even in a room on the far end of the hotel from the front desk, you get lots of light in your room at night, and can hear people speaking when they're checking in or checking out.

If that's our only real complaint, it's probably pretty good here.

Yes, there are nicer hotels in Panama City, and places you could spend a LOT more money. But if you're okay not being in a "great" hotel, opting instead for the "good enough" category, we think Hotel Santana might be your choice.

For $29/night, we've found Hotel Santana to be a good place to stay.

Plus, it gave me a great excuse to brush up on my history of the Panama - United states relationship, and to see a really interesting (albeit less pretty) part of Panama City.

(Hotel Santana's Website - clicking will open a new window)