We had to spend a few days in the city, of course, to wet our whistles. What follows are some random observations from the trip.

Flew down and back on Continental, through Houston to PTY. Remind me to grab a non-stop flight on another airline next time...even if it does originate out a LAX.

Stayed one night in the Veneto Hotel-Casino. I was anticipating checking in to a hotel that was just infested with beautiful working girls. The place was totally deserted when we checked in about mid-afternoon. Even so, there were "guards" with walkie-talkies on every floor to make sure the girls stayed out of the hotel. I asked the guy on my floor what was going on, and he said there had been some unfortunate incidents with the girls and so they were not letting them roam the floors. He then offered to get me a girl if I wanted one. So...still guest friendly, just not as wild as reported in some internet accounts.

Since the Veneto was lacking in prospects, I took a walk a few doors down to the Oasis massage place to give that a sniff. The mamasan was looking fine, but her stable was just not my type so I decided to have some lunch, take a siesta and then take a look at plan C in the early evening.

Plan C was to visit the Golden Time massage "saloon", just a short cab ride from the Veneto. We got there just a few minutes before opening time, around 7 PM. The GT is located in a strip mall, just a small storefront between a jewelry store and an electronics place (or something). There were a few fine young ladies waiting out front, waiting for someone to unlock the door. What that was, of course, was nothing more than a street-clothes line up. So me and the cabbie took the opportunity to evaluate each of the chicas. We rated the girls based on age, conformance with the height-weight chart, presentation of the rack and so on. Quite an amusing pastime on a warm Panama evening.

The place opened up, and I went in and paid the $94.50 entry fee, all in US dollars, which is the coin of the realm. I was directed into a waiting room, and a mamasan offered me a drink and brought me a pen and paper to take notes during the line-up. By and by, the girls were brought in one by one. There were quite a few nice ones on duty that night, believe me. The entry fee covered all services, which were outstanding.

I got back to the Veneto say about 8:30, there was not a chica to be found in the casino, so I hit the rack. The next morning I heard the place finally got hopping around midnight or so, complete with a raft of working girls.

Then we went fishing for a week around the Panamanian out-islands.

On the return we stayed at the Marriot hotel-casino. We arrived at mid afternoon, and there were no working girls to be seen. Around 6:30, I made a beeline back to Golden Time for another visit. The second time was just as sweet as the first. Both times were indeed Golden.

Back at the Marriot, things were starting to heat up. There is a bar "complex" located just across the street called "Habana" Club.
There is a small cigar shop on the left side of the photograph, which opens into a small bar at the back of the shop, and another adjacent bar/pool room next to that. After dark, the place becomes infested with chicas of all shapes, sizes and nationalities. The entire patio along the storefront is just packed.

My fishing buddy picked up a gorgeous $200 lady in the cigar bar, and they walked back into the hotel through the casino entrance no problema. I was asleep by 10, but got similar reports that the action got better with time. It looks like the MO is to keep the girls away from the hotel until all a the respectable folks are asleep, then it's party time.

Bottom line: fantastic trip, hotels were great and lots of pretty girls are available for the night owls.

Note: having technical difficulties loading some photos due to file size.