Sugar and Spice: Panama Adventure: We arrive in Style!

So so sorry for the long absence. Ekk. It's been two months. Does anyone remember little old me?

I have been inspired to start (and finish) our honeymoon recaps by the new year, and the fact that a year ago today I wrote this, and eight months ago today, I was here:

On our fabulous adventure honeymoon in PANAMA!! For those of you who want a bit more than beach and sun, I can't recommend Panama enough. Located just south of Costa Rica; it's just like Costa Rica, but with better roads and they take the American dollar (bonus). Panama really is a beautiful country with such a diverse environment.

So hold on,here we go....

We left on Tuesday after our wedding so we were bright eyed and beaming as our adventure began:

Unfortunately, right before the trip we finally bought a new camera. I took it out of the package, threw, scratch that, recycled the User Manual, and left for our trip. Tip 1: read your camera manual. Now over half of our honeymoon pics have an incorrect date and time stamp on them. Super lame. Moving on.

Tip #2: Save your miles and go First Class!!!

Here's our first glimpse of the Panama Canal:

And unfortunately that's the only glimpse you'll get- we went to the canal on our last day in Panama and we had no more room on our memory card. Tip #3: bring a back up Memory Card.

Because we were rolling first class style, we had a taxi waiting for us upon arrival to take us to our hotel, the Canal House, a small (and beyond awesome) modern three bedroom B&B.

While we had booked the smallest room, Mr. Peep quickly upgraded us to the Killer Suite. So amazing that Daniel Craig stayed in the same room when he was filming 007!! Umm, yeah, I said we arrived in style!

Tip #4: Take every chance you get to tell people that you are on your honeymoon!!

Another view of our room from our upstairs den:

Mr. Peep checking out our balcony:

The bubbly Mr. Peep ordered as he was upgrading our room:

After our bubbly and a long nap (tip #5: don't be afraid to nap- a lot- your adventure will wait for you), we headed to dinner. Everything we read recommended Manolo Caracol, and located just two blocks from our hotel, we couldn't resist. I think it was $20 each for 12 courses!!! (plus wine, of course). Ridiculously AWESOME. I'll spare you the 80 pictures of the evening that we took (I told you we needed an extra memory card), and just show a few:

Can you tell Mr. Peep was already in Vacation Mode. I promise he doesn't usually unbutton his shirt so much.

The first of many great cups of coffee:

The next day, we woke up early and explored our neighborhood. I am not going to lie the neighborhood was in transition, so it was a bit run down, but still beautiful.

Tip #6: Don't be afraid of an up and coming neighborhood, but at the same time, be aware of your surroundings.

But really, the culture and vibe of the neighborhood was great:

Can you tell I loved the doorways?

I loved all the colors and people:

The massively changing skyline of Panama City:

The amount of high rises that were being built was astonishing.

Tip #7: Don't always listen to your husband.

It was hot and muggy, but Mr. Peep wouldn't let me wear shorts because he didn't want to look too touristy!! I was sweating like an overweight ninja and I stuck out like a swore thumb.

After another nap and a quick change into a much more weather friendly outfit, we went to check out Old Panama- or Panama Viejo.

This was Panama City until the Pirates of the Caribbean, yes they did exist, burnt it down.

That night, our dinner didn't measure up to Manolo, but we did get a great introduction into the Caribbean Rum!

The Canal House had a library with an Honor Bar. So Mr. Peep created his own little rum tasting, while I pretended to be interested and watched old re-runs of the OC (total guilty pleasure and a perfect honeymoon activity).

Here's the winning rum: