David is also conveniently located for day trips to visit Puerto Armuelles, Boquete, Volcan or Boca Chica, etc.
Sometimes even if you live in Chiriqui, you may want to stay the night in David. Those of us who live in Chiriqui, will go to David for all those items you cannot find anywhere else. Often, all those saved up errands turns into a very long day.
For example, if you are like us, you don’t drive to David very often. When we are in Seattle, we can run most of our errands in our own neighborhood. We don’t drive very much. Or, when we do drive, we take very short trips. We live a similar lifestyle in Puerto Armuelles. We can find almost everything we need, throughout the year, in Puerto. Everything from a very good grocery store, fresh fish and produce direct from the fisherman, or the farmer, to at least a half dozen building supply stores, to printing, copying, office supplies, etc.
We only go to David for things for some meetings or we sometimes need to buy parts for one of our cars that are not available at the frontera (Paso Canoas). There are also oversized (Architectural blueprint size) printers available in David. Full size plan sets are required for building permits in Panama.
There are 2 places to get oversized copies. Oficentro, a block east of the Central Park or Librereria Daisy, about two blocks north of Oficentro. (We are big fans of Oficentro. It sells a big assortment of art supplies, office supplies, jewelry, hair accessories and more.)
One of our David errands is PriceSmart. PriceSmart is Panama’s Costco.
We go there for various items, such as huge bag of dog food, Ghirardelli brownie mixes, frozen pizza, printer ink, Serrano ham, fresh mozzarella cheese, and more. When we go to PriceSmart, particularly if we are hungry and tired at the end of the day of errand running, we often come home with things that we really didn’t need. This is especially true because our family of 4 is more of cranky shopping committee at the end of a David trip, than a focused couple or single shopper.
PriceSmart is located on the highway Inter-Americana, 2 of kilometers south of the central part of David.
Occasionally, we have decided to spend the night in David after a long day of errands.
When we do our PriceSmart shopping trip that next morning we find we both don’t buy too much and don’t forget crucial items. The savings we gain from not over-shopping at Price Smart after a overly long day in David covers our hotel stay. So, a simple overnight stay in David can be good for family relations, even for one’s marriage. Amazing!
Plus you may find yourself needing to stay over night, or driving back the next day. Sometimes a meeting with a lawyer or notary in David, proves to be a 2-day thing.
The papers that were supposed to be available for signing quickly are not available. Or, the person running the agency where the papers are needed, suddenly remembers that there is one more “critical” document that needs to be signed in triplicate in order for a certain legal, bureaucratic process to move forward.
“Don’t worry: I’ll have the papers ready for you first thing in the morning”, says the smiling notary, or secretary, lawyer, etc.
We have all heard this on more than one occasion.
For those of us, who do not like to drive, the idea of driving all the way back home to Puerto Armuelles (1-1/4 hours, one way) only to turn around and do the trip again the very next morning, is well worth the $50, or $60 for a comfortable hotel. (Puerto Del Sol is an affordable & comfortable hotel in David)
The small capital city of our province does not provide much of an attraction for those of us living elsewhere in Chiriqui. However, it is occasionally necessary to make the trip to David.
By taking an extra half day to complete all of our tasks in David, we find we are much less stressed and tired. The trip is then even be enjoyable, or at least comfortable.
