The rain finally broke this morning, just as I stepped onto the balcony of my flat in Barrio San Mateo. The air smelled like wet concrete and guayacán blossom. I stood there for a minute, watching the puddles reflect a sky that was trying very hard to be blue. Day four in David, and the rhythm of this working city finally feels like mine.
I had a list. A short one, for once. The bank was first. Not the glamorous part of travel, I know, but this is the stuff that actually matters when you're planning to stay. I walked down to the Banco General branch near the Terronal Mall, the one with the big glass doors that slide open like they're welcoming you to the future. I was there to finalise the paperwork for my Friendly Nations visa — the account, the reference letter, the proof of income. The manager, a woman named Yelina, remembered me from Tuesday. She had my file ready, flagged with a yellow sticky note that read, in her handwriting, 'preparado.' Ready. That word did a lot for my confidence.
The whole thing took about forty minutes. Passport, cédula, proof of address — the water bill from my temporary rental did the trick. Yelina walked me through the Yappy app, which is basically Panama's answer to everything, and told me the minimum balance for the account was around fifty balboas, maybe less. I paid a small monthly fee, about two balboas, for the app and online banking. It felt like progress. Like I was no longer just a tourist with a visa stamp, but someone with a bank account and a plan.
From the bank, I headed to the public market. I needed lunch, and I knew exactly where to go: the fonda counter near the back, the one with the yellow plastic stools. I ordered a bowl of sancocho — the chicken and yuca stew that fixes everything — and a carimañola on the side. The sancocho was five balboas, the carimañola two. I sat there, sipping the broth, watching the market ladies slice plantains with terrifying speed. A man at the next stool was talking loudly about the Doleguita team, still basking in the glow of their World Series run, even after the loss to Canada. He said, "They made us proud, that's what matters." And he was right.
After lunch, I wandered over to the handicrafts market on Vía Boquete, the Nuevo Centro Artesanal. I wasn't looking for souvenirs, exactly, but I wanted to see the chaquira beadwork from the Ngäbe-Buglé communities. The colours are impossibly bright. Geometric patterns that look like they belonged on a 1980s arcade cabinet. I watched an older woman stringing a bracelet, her fingers moving like they had their own brain. She quoted me a price for a small piece — twenty balboas — and I didn't haggle. Some things are worth exactly what they ask.
By mid-afternoon, the heat had returned, sticky and thick. I ducked into Treetop Coffee, one of those air-conditioned sanctuaries near the mall, and ordered a cappuccino. Two-fifty, about three balboas with a tip. I sat by the window, watching the town move. A group of schoolkids in white shirts, a woman with a giant bag of oranges, a man on a bicycle with a speaker strapped to the rack, playing something that sounded like cumbia. David isn't pretty in the way Casco Viejo is pretty. It's genuine. Unpolished. The kind of city where you can still get a haircut for five balboas and a bowl of soup for three.
But I didn't come to David just for the banking and the soup. I came because this is the hub, the gateway to Chiriquí, and I wanted to see the mangroves. So at four, I made my way to the Pedregal waterfront, where a friend of a friend — a biologist named Ricardo — had offered to take me out in his lancha. The tide was turning, and the mangroves were waking up. We slipped through the narrow channels, the roots rising out of the water like gnarled fingers. Ricardo pointed out the different species — red, white, black — and told me about the proposal to expand the protected area around here, maybe sixty-six thousand hectares all told. He said it with a kind of quiet passion that made me want to volunteer on the spot.
We saw herons, white and elegant, standing motionless at the water's edge. An osprey circled, then dove, coming up with a fish that was almost too big for it. And there were the inevitable mosquitoes. I swatted one, and Ricardo laughed. "You're feeding them," he said. "They like the expat blood. Better cholesterol." I laughed, but I kept the repellent handy. The sun started to drop, turning the water the colour of a bruised peach. It was one of those moments you don't plan, the kind that just happen if you let them.
As we motored back, Ricardo told me about the turtle nesting at La Barqueta. Right now, he said, the black sands are hosting sea turtles that come up at night to lay their eggs. He also mentioned the humpback whales in the Gulf of Chiriquí, visible from the shore on a clear day, breaching and slapping their tails. "You should go, if you have time," he said, "before the rains get too heavy." I filed it away. The Pacific side of Chiriquí doesn't get the attention Boquete does, but it's got its own kind of magic.
Back on solid ground, I thanked Ricardo and promised to send him the photos I took on my phone. Then I walked quickly back toward my flat, because the sky had turned a threatening grey-green. The rain started just as I reached the door of my building, big cold drops that exploded on the pavement. I stood in the entrance for a while, watching the street turn into a river. A woman across the road was trying to hail a taxi, holding her purse over her head. A car splashed by, and she jumped back. I know better than to run in a Panamanian downpour. You just wait. It always lets up.
The rain did let up, just as I'd hoped. And tonight, there was something I'd been waiting for since I left Pedasí. The partial lunar eclipse. The forecast had been touch-and-go, but by nine o'clock, the clouds had broken into scalloped patches, and the moon was hanging there, silver and whole. I grabbed my coffee and walked over to Parque Cervantes, the central plaza, where a small crowd had gathered. There were families with kids, a couple of teenagers with a telescope that looked older than they were, and an elderly man with a folding chair who said, in Spanish, "I've seen three of these in my life. They don't get old."
We watched the shadow creep across the moon's face, a slow bite that turned the light from white to a dull copper. Someone pointed out that the eclipse would peak around midnight, but most of us didn't stay that long. It was enough to see the beginning. Enough to feel connected to something bigger than the traffic and the banking forms and the grocery list.
Standing there on the plaza, I thought about what I'd done these past four days. Opened a bank account. Got a SIM card. Ate a dozen carimañolas. Saw the mangroves from the water. Watched a little league team get the welcome home they deserved. And now, this. A lunar eclipse, over a city that's not on any postcard, but is starting to feel like home.
Tomorrow, I drive up to Boquete. I'll take the Pan-American Highway out of David, then the winding road into the mountains. But tonight, I'm in no hurry. I walked back to my flat slowly, through the quiet streets, the wet asphalt shining under the streetlights. The moon was still there, partly shadowed, watching over me like an old friend.
Everything I've talked about — the banking, the SIM, the mangroves, even the eclipse — is in the episode notes, with links to the people I mentioned. Check them if any of this sparks something. And as always, thanks for listening. Hasta la próxima, amigos.
The balcony door slid shut with a click. I turned off the light. The moon, still copper-edged, was rising over the rooftops of San Mateo. I lay in bed, listening to the rain start again, a soft patter on the tin roof of the building next door. It was the sound of a city settling in for the night. And somewhere in the distance, a rooster crowed. Out of spite, probably. But I smiled. That was David, saying goodnight.
I must have drifted off, because I dreamed of mangroves. Their roots were buildings, and I was walking through them, a whole city made of living wood. The water was clear, and the fish swam between the branches. A voice — Ricardo's, I think — said, "Slow down. You'll see more." And I woke up to the sound of rain, and the smell of coffee from the café downstairs. It was still dark. I checked my phone. 5:47. The eclipse was over. But the day was just beginning.
I got up, made a pot of coffee, and stood at the window. The city was waking. A bus groaned down the avenue, its brakes hissing. A vendor was setting up his cart, the clatter of metal on metal. I had one more day in David. One more day of banks and markets and rain. And then, the mountains. Boquete was waiting. But David, with its mangroves and its moon and its stubborn, honest heart, had already given me more than I came for.