Patty and Rudy love sharing good food and wine in good company, meeting people from all over the world, traveling and learning about new cultures, going to the theater, playing tennis or swimming at their sports club. Rudy’s hobby is painting, Patty’s is cooking. New comers to their family: Negrito, Cappuccino and Milka...3 cats that were born in the back garden during their absence;-)

The B&B “Arcos de Bella Vista”, is operated in a colonial house, one of the few remaining houses in Panama City from the colonial times built by an Italian Florentine architect in 1940, it offers a spacious 2 bedroom suite with en-suite private bathroom inter-communicating to both rooms, in a residential and exclusive green area in the heart of Panama city, called BELLA VISTA (next to Marbella, the Banking area and the Avenida Balboa…yet being an oasis of peace and tranquility, a wonderful place to relax.), where you will find restaurants, bars, supermarkets, night clubs, a park and the famous “malecon” (waterfront promenade) all at few minutes away.
"Patty's Casitas" condo rental is located in Panama city’s hottest new destination called AMADOR on the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, where the Pacific breezes of the ocean meets the tropical rain forest.

Rudy, the native Panamanian, will be showing you around, and Patty will join you whenever she can. They believe that if friends come to visit, it’s important to show them the country itself because it is also a part of them and at the same time you’ll be learning about another culture and way of life. This is why in their company you will have tours combined also with discovering the everyday life activities of Panama´s residents: preparing a Panamanian dinner, attending cultural events, strolling through the streets and stopping for coffee in the famous Colonial Casco Viejo area. Patty and Rudy will give you information about local traditions, tell you about their favorite museums and share their experiences, just as good friends do. And also give you advice with real estate investment as they both

“By giving you a real touch of Panama, not only from the cultural point of view but from the human side as well, we want to make you feel that you have come to visit friends. And by the end of the trip, we’ll be friends indeed.”

Itinerary 2:

PANAMA CITY … UP CLOSE WITH PATTY & RUDY
Guests of InTouch Travel stay in selected deluxe or first-class hotels nearby.

Meet Panama:

Day 1
After picking you up at your hotel, we will first visit one of the engineering wonders of the world, the Panama Canal and observe 90,000-ton vessels rise and drop more than 50 feet as they make their way over Panama from one ocean to another. We will then have lunch in one of our favourite restaurants overlooking the Gatun lake in the Soberania Park immersed in the tropical Rain-forest and if we are lucky, we will observe turtles, alligators and other tropical birds from the deck of the restaurant, a few meters away from our table.
In the afternoon, we will stroll through Casco Viejo, the Colonial part of Panama City, a true cultural gem, declared World Heritage in 1997 by UNESCO and by the United Nations for Education, Science and Culture as a site of world interest having being the oldest and richest city on the Pacific coast of the Americas. We will see la Plaza de Francia dedicated to the French who started and died in the construction of the canal, the presidential palace, historical churches and houses with great historical value and artistic beauty, the golden altar and others. We will take a break for a nice refreshing ice-cream…..sorry I´m half Italian and need my “gelato”! We will also visit a friend artist if he is not in one of his trips around the world.
Afterward, I will drive you to your hotel to freshen up and relax or to any other location of your choice.
Day 2:
By 9 AM I will pick you up at your hotel and go for some shopping to the fish market and the supermarket to get the ingredients for our dinner. Coming back home we will prepare the “cevice” (Panama’s best appetizer made of fresh fish marinated in lemon juice with onions, coriander and some hot peppers if you like them). Afterwards we will visit a friend’s art gallery and see Latin American art. For lunch we will reach a restaurant at the famous Amador Causeway (a palm tree road which was made with the excavations of the canal, connecting the mainland to three islands on the Pacific ocean at the entrance of the panama Canal) where we will have local foods with a view at Panama´s bay and its skyline. This area was leased for over 100 years by the US Government to administrate and protect the Panama Canal and was housing for top U.S. Generals, Colonels, and high ranking officers.
The afternoon hours are going to be for you to use at your pleasure, perhaps you would like to go shopping, spend some time at a special place or even relax at your hotel´ swimming pool seeping a nice cuba libre;-). We will meet around 7:00 PM to have dinner at our place and afterwards, we will join a cultural event of that day.

Itinerary 3:

Day 3
Panama is a rather small country (77,381 sq. km. / 29,762 sq. mi.) and the major attractions are all in Panama City and its surroundings. Just a short drive you’ll find beaches, mountains, lakes, tropical rain-forests, tax free shopping, history, ruins, bird watching, jungle trekking, deep-sea fishing, diving, snorkeling, marine and biodiversity exhibition centers, ...therefore on our days off, we enjoy exploring the surroundings. We would like to share one of these days with you but you will be the one choosing where we go! We would like to invite you for breakfast at our home to have a Panamanian start with carimañolas, empanadas, tortillas, papaya and more. After that, here are the options:

Option A: We could drive to the Caribbean side of Panama to visit Portobello and Isla Grande (3 hours’ drive on a bit of bumpy road!). Portobello, UNESCO World Heritage Site, probably Spain’s most important port in the new world. The widest remains of ruins from the fortifications that were used to defend Panama from pirates, like Sir Henry Morgan, who roamed the Caribbean and were attracted by this immense wealth, as all the gold from South America looted by the Conquistadors, left from there for Europe. It was perhaps the most heavily fortified, of the Spanish control points, along the coasts of the Americas.
We will then drive for 40 min. to reach a typical Antillean island community called Isla Grande within a ten-minute ride on a cayuco (water taxi) where we will have lunch at one of the open-air restaurants to taste some good Caribbean-style seafood preparation, crab, octopus or fried fish, served with coconut rice or patacones (deep-fried green plantains). We will spend the rest of the day seeing the site, snorkelling and relaxing in its spectacular setting...so don’t forget your swim gear! The island has about 300 inhabitants that make their living from fishing, growing coconuts and visitors that come to enjoy its natural beauty. There are no roads and the town spreads along its palm fingered beachfront full of tropical flowers which can be covered within 25 min., making it an extremely peaceful place.

Option B: visit a paradisiacal place at 600 meters above sea level full of eco-touristik attractions called “El valle de Anton”, named after the Spaniard explorer Anton Martin. It’s a 1 and ½ hour drive from Panama City with the Pan-American Highway. El Valle is located on top of the extinguished second largest volcano crater in the world which erupted three million years ago. A fertile volcanic valley filled with bright flowers, square trees and golden frogs which we will see at the tropical zoo, together with plants and exotic flowers, monkeys, tapirs, and foreign species of birds and mammals. On Sundays, there is the Indian market where local artisans and Indians living in the vicinities bring their handicrafts, plants, vegetables products, the famous carved soap stones, ceramic, trays, wood furniture, bamboo cages and the national flower: the Holy Spirit. We will have lunch in a nice restaurant. We can then walk up to the hieroglyphs and to the thermal source and then head back to the city.

Option C: You might want to meet the Embera Indians one of the indigenous communities of Panama. We will drive to the Chagres river where an Embera will be waiting for us to embark on a cayuca (little boat) to drive us to the water fall (a bit of walking through the jungle so water shoes are needed) have a swim and then drive to the community where the chief will tell us about his village and customs. We’ll have a typical lunch (fresh fried fish with patacones), watch their traditional dances and stroll around the village, learn about their medicine plants that they use to cure themselves. We will then head back to the city and maybe go to our place for a coffee break with Panamanian treats! Afterwards, I can take you to the area of your choice.

Option D: We could drive to Fort San Lorenzo, passing by Ft. Sherman, which used to be one of the world’s best military jungle survival schools that trained U.S. and Latin American personnel in jungle warfare and survival techniques. Fort San Lorenzo, one of the two main forts build in the late 16th century, meant to protect the final part of the trail known as “Camino de Cruces”, the trails that the Spaniards had developed across the Panamanian isthmus to carry the gold to Europe. We can then visit the Gatun Locks (different from the Mira Flores ones as the boats are a lot closer), show you Colon and if you are interested we can see the free zone and then have lunch at Washington Hotel .... one of the oldest....and then I’ll drop you off at the train station where you’ll ride across the Isthmus on the historic newly restored Panama Canal railroad in a refurbished air-conditioned passenger cars. The passenger line goes alongside locks, across tropical jungle and through Panama's most historic areas. I will have to leave you earlier as my car doesn’t go as fast as the train! I’ll pick you up on arrival and take you where you want to go or go to our place for a coffee and Panamanian treats! You decide!