We stayed at a great place in Panama City called La Estancia. It’s located on Ancon Hill in the Quarry Heights area, which was a quarry used in the construction of the canal. Later it was the headquarters for the US military forces in Panama, and after 1947, for all the forces in Central and South America.

The area is beautiful. Below us were some of the buildings built in the early 1900’s, many of which have been renovated and turned into homes, as well as some newer large homes. Above, except for a road and the communication towers on top of the hill, is forest and nature preserve (which will be the subject of a future post).

We walked down beautiful tree lined streets.

One of the old homes, renovated and looking good.

Another older home.

This one looks quite a bit newer, and huge!

Another very new and modern looking huge home.

Looking up, you can see the large flag flying at the top of the hill.

There was no shortage of amazing trees in this neighborhood.

A very interesting old home with renovations in the very beginning stages. We saw a deer behind this house.

A similar home that has been renovated and looks really beautiful.

Lovely side yard to the home above.

As you can imagine, this is a very expensive and exclusive area. It’s right in the city and you an easily hear the city noises, but it’s like an oasis in the country.

As you walk further up the hill there are a number of other more square three story buildings on the side of the hill. Most of them are homes, but one is a very comfortable hotel. The website has some photos, and I took a few of our room.

A cheerful and comfortable bedroom.

A bit of storage space.

The bathroom looks like our Florida tile.

The terazzo floor and the style of trim also looks like FLorida.

Our Florida house even had a ceiling just like this!

It was interesting how much this looked like our Florida house. It must have been built around the same time with a very similar style. It was comfortable and had light bulbs in the lamps, waste baskets, and all those other details we complained about in our last hotel. The staff is bilingual and excellent. They also have a variety of things for guests – information about the area, tour arrangements, take out menus, local art for sale, a library of books, drinks and fruit on hand and most fun of all, bird feeders and bananas hanging outside that attract tons of birds and monkeys! There will be more posts and photos.