Almost 75 years since Richard Halliburton swam the Panama Canal for a 38-cent toll, the world wonder remains a rite of passage with a difference: Instead of a waypoint to somewhere else, Panama’s capital city teems with fascinations, as I discovered when the captain announced our canal transit was delayed.

Nothing prepared me for the high density and intensity of the city, likened by realtors to Miami’s South Beach without the attitude problem or the next Hong Kong. Gone, the gun-toting G.l.s of yesteryear. Phrases like “ex-pat revolution” and “retirement economy” pepper casual conversations. Amador, the staging area for yachts entering the canal’s Pacific side, is a trendy address of boutique bars and eateries, whose palm-lined promenade was built with 18 million yards of canal-excavated rock.

Downtown, 100-story condos compete for airspace on a waterfront so hemispherical, it bends like a scene in a fisheye lens.

Some of my favorite things from a too-short stay:

*Friendly, inexpensive taxis. $3 takes you anywhere. Almost every driver is a willing guide.

*Ceviche at the fish market. The freshest fish, octopus, shrimp, and squid, marinated in lemon juice, served take out or in the upstairs restaurant of Mercado de Mariscos, a lively fish market at Avenida Balboa and Calle 15 Este, Calidonia. An equally amazing fruit and vegetable market, Mercado Público, is next door.

JetBlue plans to begin flights to Montego Bay, Jamaica, starting Jan. 9. The carrier will offer Saturday-only nonstop service, subject to the approval of Jamaican regulators. Montego Bay will become the 33d destination from Logan for JetBlue, which is set commence daily nonstop service to Baltimore on Sept. 9.

Get ‘em while they’re hot – if not exactly cheap: Booking now at a new resort, Scrub Island Resort in the British Virgin Islands and which is still under construction, will save you some serious coin when the upscale resort opens Jan. 3.
Scrub Island, a free five-minute ferry ride from Trellis Island on Tortola for guests, and just across from Little and Great Camanoe islands, offers early-booking rates of $450-$1,175 per night for ocean-view rooms and suites, and up to $2,500 per night for very private hillside villas dotting the hills away from the resort proper. Booking must be made by Aug. 31 for travel dates of Jan. 3 through April 30. After that, rates shoot up: $650 and up for rooms, and upwards of $4,000 per night for villas.
The resort, which will have 26 guest rooms and 26 one- and two-bedroom suites, as well as a 31 two- to five-bedroom villas at build out in September of next year, sprawls over 230 previously undeveloped acres; legend has it pirates found it easy to put in here and scrub their boat hulls clean, hence the name. The island had been home to Donovan’s Reef for several years, a tiny bar/restaurant run by the McManus family of Pennsylvania, named for the patriarch’s favorite John Wayne movie.
If you’ve got the cash, it may be worth it – once completed. The resort in mid-July had a lot of work yet to be done, but the developers, Mainsail Development of Tampa promised all the main rooms and suites, and some of the villas, not to mention a complex of four restaurants, four white-sand beaches and 60 deep-water slips, some capable of berthing boats up to 150-feet long, will be good to go.
Scrub Island consists of two large chunks of land connected by a thin strip of land, with the smaller part housing the resort proper. The other piece, Big Scrub, as it’s called, is open for private ownership with 50 house lots permitted from 1.5 to 7 acres.
It would seem to be a huge leap of faith in a faltering economy, but Mainsail president Joe Collier said the wheels had been in motion since 2003, long before the economy tanked. He said sales have been brisk and interest strong in the resort, which tourism officials said is the first major development in the entire BVI in at least 15 years. Reportedly, $150 million has been invested in the resort.
Amenities include the usual found in an upscale resort, full-service spa and fitness center, shops, lagoon pool with waterfalls and swim-up bar, dive shop, boat rentals, fishing, scuba and snorkeling charters, motorized water sports, and exquisitely appointed rooms. Suites have Wolf ranges and hoods, SubZero refrigerators, stone flooring and wood-beamed ceilings.
And they include the not-so-usual: Go anywhere on the island with your guest-room phone and feel the need for a burger and beer where you sit looking over the Atlantic Ocean on one side or the Caribbean Sea on the other, and they’ll find you there, even if you don’t know where there is: Phones come equipped with GPS tracking systems.
Another unusual feature, according to general manager William Lee: Cameras mounted on some nesting boxes of the island’s various birds of prey will broadcast to guest rooms, so you can keep an eye on what they’re having for dinner as you have yours.

Posted by Paul E. Kandarian, Globe correspondent

Photo of the view from veranda of a suite on Scrub Island for The Boston Globe by Paul E. Kandarian

This is one of the most unusual promotions I've ever seen. Basically, this is the way it works: If you buy a JetBlue all-you-can-jet pass for $599 between now and Aug. 21 you can fly anywhere the airline goes virtually as often as you'd like from Sept. 8 to Oct. 8. And there are no blackout dates.

There are, however, restrictions: Flights must be booked no later than 1:59 a.m. EDT three days before the flight's scheduled departure. Tickets are nonrefundable and nontransferable. And taxes and fees for international and Puerto Rican flights are not included. The rest of the fine print is here, but given the breadth of this sale it still looks like a pretty good deal.

If you are interested, you should jump on this, as the airline points out that the passes will be available till Aug. 21 "or while supplies last,'' which suggests that it if there is heavy demand JetBlue could halt the promotion early.

Amid a general travel industry slump, Vacationoutlet.com is springing a one-day sale on a five-night cruise departing Oct. 22 from Boston to Bermuda aboard Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas.

What kinds of discounts? Interior rooms, formerly priced at $599, will be sold for $549; oceanviews will go for $649, down from $699; balcony accommodations for $799, instead of $879.

Actually, this deal gets even a bit better, as the travel website was already offering discounts of as much as $100, depending on the price level of the room. And, according to David Crooks, a company spokesman, those reductions can be used with the sale prices -- which means, say, in the case of a oceanview room, an additional $50 off the $649 sale price, bringing the fare down $599.

This sale started at midnight and will continue till midnight tonight. Crooks says there are also free upgrades available.

While the discounts are pretty good, this cruise represents an especially good deal for travelers in the area as they can board from here, avoiding airfares to your point of departure.

I've said it before but it remains true: If you can afford to travel this year there are some pretty good opportunities around.

The discount carrier has started twice daily nonstop flights to Los Angeles International and is offering one-way sale fares as low as $109. To get the special fares you must book before June 27 and travel between Sept. 8 and Nov. 11. JetBlue announced plans to launch the service in February after pulling back on LAX expansion in May of last year, citing the high cost of fuel and other start-up expenses. And starting tomorrow JetBlue will begin its previously announced nonstop service to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. To mark the occasion, Boston's favorite Santo Domingan, Red Sox star David Ortiz, will be at Logan to greet passengers boarding the first flight.

Ronald Aron’s summer vacation plans went no further than his Boxford back
yard until he recently won a free trip to the tiny Dutch-Caribbean island of
Curacao.
“I found the contest on About.com and made a ritual of entering it every
day,” said Aron who before this had heard of Curacao but “thought it was
closer to Sint Martin.” The contes, which we reported in March, hopes to gain visibility for the far-western Caribbean island by offering a
chance to win one of 70 free trips daily and to participate in a
half-million dollar treasure hunt, winner take all.
The island has been running a funny little ad, at right, to promote the contest.
Aron, who was so surprised by the win that he at first thought the
notification might be spam, is getting free airfare and four nights at Lions
Dive Beach Resort. He and his wife plan to travel in June and extend their
time on Curacao. “It coincides with our silver anniversary,” he said.
To enter the contest, visit curacaotreasure.com. Other Curacao summer travel
incentives including $200 p/p credit on airline tickets and a day’s free car
rental and diving can be found at curacao.com/now.

Posted by Patricia Borns, GLobe correspondent

The wireless Internet battle in the sky is quickly escalating to a dogfight.
AirTran Airways said yesterday morning that it plans to offer in-flight, wireless, Internet access on all 136 of its aircraft by midsummer. Virgin America currently has the service on 24 of its 28 planes, and is on schedule have the rest ready to go by Memorial Day.
On Monday, Delta Air Lines, which became the world’s largest carrier after its merger last year with Northwest Airlines, announced that it has WiFi on 139 planes, or about half of its mainline domestic fleet, and will have the rest finished by September. The carrier also expects to complete outfitting all 200 jets in Northwest’s domestic fleet next year.
And American, which has already equipped all its transcontinental aircraft, says it will have a total of 165 planes WiFi-ready by the end of 2009, with a goal of having 318, or nearly half its fleet, finished over the next few years.
Facing tough competition, the nation's airlines are viewing WiFi, which they once saw as merely a desirable amenity, increasingly as a necessary feature.
“Going online at 35,000 feet isn't a ‘nice to have,’ ’’ said Henry H. Harteveldt, principal airline analyst for Forrester Research Inc. “In today's tough business climate, in-flight Wi-Fi is as essential as the beverage cart. Business people need to stay in touch with their clients and colleagues, as well as stay on top of the volatile business environment. Leisure travelers appreciate WiFi in-flight because they can stay in touch with family and friends, plan their journeys, and entertain themselves.’’
While many carriers are aggressively adopting WiFi, others are at the very least kicking the tires. Southwest Airlines, which carries more passengers than any other US airline, is testing the service on four planes and is looking at the prospects for expansion. JetBlue hopes to have 20 planes outfitted this year for a stripped-down service that would allow e-mail and instant-messaging.
For the most part, all the services work the same. Passengers pay a fee, generally about $8 to $13 depending on the length of the flight, and the service is supplied by a contractor, the largest being Aircell LLC of Itasca, Ill., under its Gogo Inflight Internet brand.
The airlines, which have been garnering increasing amounts of revenue from the assorted fees they’ve launched in the past couple years, expect the service will be not just popular but profitable.
“On a coast-to-coast weekday flight, airlines tell me that it's not uncommon to sometimes have two dozen or more passengers online simultaneously,’’ Harteveldt said. “That could turn into a nice revenue stream long-term for airlines as the product becomes more widely available and more passengers begin using it.’’
But analysts say that the service also eventually could yield significant savings as it may let airlines remove their in-flight entertainment systems, leaving passengers to access the many media options available online. Getting rid of the systems would reduce the weight of planes, making them more fuel efficient, and free the carriers from having to pay for licensing entertainment content.

Johnny Depp, pal of the late dearly departed Hunter S., currently is in Puerto Rico filming an adaptation of Thompson's semi-autobiographical (did he write any other kind) novel "The Rum Diary'' about a lost, alcohol-fueled journalist who moves from New York to work on a newspaper in Puerto Rico.
Depp, you'll recall, played Thompson in the film version of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'' (I film I couldn't get through, owing to camera work seeking to replicate the experience of being really high and my own tendency toward motion sickness), and he also delivered a eulogy for the writer at a private memorial service.
Anyway, intrigued by the prospect of the film, an editor of Media Bistro's Galley Cat book blog reread "The Rum Diary,'' written very early in Thompson's career, and put together this video tour retracing the gonzo journalist's life on the island nation.
It's fun, interesting, and unlike "Fear and Loathing'' requires no Dramamine to watch.

This morning the government for the first time is going to open the books on where and when airplanes have collided with birds over the past 19 years. This has, of course, become a big issue after a US Airways jet hit a flock of Canada geese in January, forcing it to ditch into the Hudson River.
All of which brings us to this interesting video put together by Rosemarie Lennon of Howcast.com. For those who prefer to read the instructions -- or perhaps print them out to stuff into your carry-on -- they are available here.

Thanks to This Just In for pointing us to this.

From Logan, one-way, online prices start at $29 (Buffalo, Charlotte, New York, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, and Richmond, Va.) and rise to $59 (Oakland and SF), $69 (Bermuda, Chicago), $69 (Bermuda, Chicago), $79 (Long Beach), $89 (Austin, Denver) and $99 (Las Vegas, San Diego, and Seattle).
There is fine print: You must buy before midnight. Travel must take place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and needs to be completed by June 10. And there are other restrictions and you can scan them all here.

In connection with an increase in flights to Aruba out of Boston, JetBlue is offering three-night, air-hotel packages at Divi Dutch Village Resort Aruba for a starting price of $495 per person; at Renaissance Aruba Resort and Casino Marina Hotel beginning at $589 per person; and at Amsterdam Manor for a starting price of $599 per person. Book by March 31.
Visit www.jetblue.com or call 800-538-2583.

The Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao announced its Small Island, Big Bailout program that could add a major break to your bottom line. The country is giving away a trip for two per day for 70 days on its website.
Online registrants will be eligible to become one of 10 finalists in an on-island treasure hunt held in August. Although Curacao's August is a few degrees warmer than Boston's, the grand prize is $500,000, winner take all. I could live with that.

Posted by Patricia Born, Globe correspondent

I swear this isn't an attempt for some in-yer-face ha-has; I just think it amazing that in a few hours I went from looking at this, to looking at the new 15 inches plus on my lawn. Damn you, Phil! There are many bargains out there still for Caribbean travel ... that is, once the flights from Logan begin to take off again!

On Grenada’s west coast, Molinere Bay was a sanctuary for marine life and divers until Hurricane Ivan ravaged the reef. Now the underwater sculptures of UK artist Jason de Caires Taylor attract fish and people once more.
The site located below Molinere Point is a 10-minute boat ride from the capital St. George’s or about two miles by road. Here, Taylor’s sculptures made of concrete are sprinkled casually around the bay in shallow water to about 30 feet. Because they’re unmarked, snorkelers discover them as naturally as they would a patch of coral, swimming into "Vicissitudes,'' a human circle made from casts of children from different ethnic backgrounds; or the apparition of "La Diablesse,'' a she-devil of Caribbean folklore, whose corpse-like face hides under a life-like wide-brimmed hat.
Posted by Patricia Borns, Globe correspondent

Photo of "Vicissitudes'' by Jason de Caires Taylor for The Boston Globe

Bloomberg News is reporting that American will halt free meal service in coach on flights between the United State and Latin America and the Dominican Republic. Snacks will be sold for $3 or $4 on flights longer two hours starting March 1. And on longer flights passengers can buy sandwiches for $6.

Last October, I wrote a story about getting dirty and sweaty on a Barbados vacation where we joined locals exploring little-seen parts of the island on some of the free outings offered by the Barbados National Trust. Now Morris Greenidge, a private Barbadian guide, author and steel-pan music teacher, is leading themed walks engaging a little more brain and less brawn, exploring the island’s melting pot of religions, Amerindian trails, slave history and architecture.
An intellectually curious, articulate former career journalist, Greenidge recently launched a walk in the capitol Bridgetown featuring its melting pot of religions, from two mosques and a Jewish synagogue to Freemansonry and Hindi influences and some dozen Christian faiths. The urban crawls fill a void especially for cruise ship passengers seeking rewarding alternative ground tours.
On Greenridge's upcoming walking schedule:
Feb, 29: Holetown, the original settlement site
March 14 and 21: Bridgetown
April 4, and 11: Bridgetown religious tour
The walks cost $10/per person and groups are limited to twenty. Greenidge also offers custom tours on Wednesdays or Saturdays with 14 days’ notice. For tour times, meeting places and bookings, call his 24/7 cell, 246- 230-7799.
Posted by Patricia Borns, Globe Correspondent

An ancient synagogue in Bridgetown

If you saw the Globe's article on Dominica in the Travel section recently, you know it's one of the few fairly unspoiled places left on the earth. In fact, National Geographic's Center for Sustainable Destinations has placed it among the "best rated" destinations in its islands survey. Better get there while it lasts. Dominica hotels and restaurants are offering Valentine's Day packages and menus to lure you there by Feb. 14. Among the offers:

Jungle Bay Resort & Spa has an "adventure package with romantic upgrade" that starts at $269 per person per night at a luxury cottage with dinner and a massage for two.

The restaurant at the Fort Young Hotel has a Valentine's Day menu for $46 per person.

Calibishie Cove's "romantic escape" package includes seven nights in a penthouse, champagne, flowers, candlelit dinner, a waterfall tour and a kayak rental. Rates begin at $1,595 per couple.

The Bamboo Restaurant at Calibishie Lodges has a Valentine's dinner for $32 per person, and each couple will receive a Valentine's-themed gift.

Headed to the Caribbean this winter? Go ahead and aim your expectations at sun, surf, sand, and sweet rum drinks. If, however, you’re looking for local tropical fruit as well as fresh, cheap, local seafood, you may be disappointed. During a recent stay on St. John in the US Virgin
Photo and text by Veronika Trufanova, Globe Correpondent

Islands, our food diary looked something like this:
Day 1: Fish and chips at JJ’s Tex Mex, Ben & Jerry's ice cream bar, and local beer
Day 2: Raspberry-strawberry smoothie, Uncle Joe's BBQ, painkillers made from local rum
Day 3: Vacuum-sealed scallops (origins unknown), mussels from Prince Edward Island, champagne, and Nutter Butters … and bushwhackers on the beach
Finding something more exotic was not for lack of trying. Early on, I was befuddled by the lack of local dishes and the shortage of tropical fruit at the smoothie stands, which are instead decorated with plastic bananas and juices in cans. During dinners out, we were informed by servers that mussels are flown down from Prince Edward Island, and the king crab special hails from Alaska.

The folks at TSA know that the holidays are -- how to put it -- a stressful time. Most people who fly know the carry-on rules, but for some reason it becomes easy to forget that the rules apply even to holiday goodies. To wit, the TSA reminds travelers that the following foodstuffs and beverages need to packed in luggage and checked:
* gravy (??)
* salad dressing
* oils and vinegars (who travels with oil and vinegar?)
* cranberry sauce
* salsa
* sauces
* maple syrup
* creamy dips (then noncreamy, less fattening varieties are OK?)
* wine, liquor and beer
* jams
* jellies
* soups (excuse me sir, is that a soup in your pocket or are you just happy....)

And who says these TSA guy don't have a sense of humor? Check out this last bit of advice from the website:

Note: You can bring pies and cakes through the security checkpoint, but be advised that they might be subject to additional screening. (italics mine)

Ya gotta love these guys.

It'll set you back $28,000 a week.
Of course, we're not talking a two-bedroom in Dennis with foldout couch that sleeps 27. This is a four bedroom, four bath villa on the Caribbean island of St. Barthelemy (St. Barts, to its friends).
The house, located in the hills of Lurin, has a big deck and views of St. Jean Bay and is managed by of the very tony and exotic St. Barth's Properties, based in Franklin, Mass., a bedroom community of Attleborough. It sits on a half-acre lot and comes with a caretaker's house, a pool, a lily pond, and a Balinese-style gazebo. (funny, they don't say whether there's a TV and if it's high-def or not and if you get satellite or cable. Or a barbeque.)
Martin apparently rented the place last winter and liked it so much he bought it, including all the furniture. It wasn't disclosed what he paid but the property was listed for $9 million in spring.
I know. Times are tough, and $28,000 is pretty steep. But what'll really croke you is the airfare.

Thanks to The Wall Street Journal for pointing us to this one.

Now that “Hank” Paulson and the Bailout Buddies are about the only people with enough money for carefree travel these days, and luckily for them it's not to the Louisiana destination on the Travel front this week, perhaps we should simply consider moving. Not off the dime, since we have none, but “moving house,” as the Brits say. And not just Until This Whole Thing Blows Over. Forever, maybe. Moving far from our foreclosed houses, our failing industries, our buff SUVs, our 300 cable channels, our excruciating electoral productions (who will ever write the American “Bleak House” about that?) . . . but wait, that brings me to Panama.

Two Boston Globe readers who saw my Oct. 19 story about Nevis wrote to tell me the island was hit by Hurricane Omar last week.
Tara MacIntyre, who works for the Four Seasons Resort Nevis, writes:
“Thank you for the lovely article on Nevis in the Sunday Globe. You really captured the charms and the quirky character of the island. Also, your timing was appreciated as the island was hit by Hurricane Omar last week and is recovered. Four Seasons, however, since we are closest to the beach, was damaged and the Resort is currently closed to assess the repairs and timing for a re-opening. The rest of the island is back up and running.”
Another reader referred me to a blog that reports the following:

Mickey's headed to Russia. Disney Cruise Line is sending the Disney Magic to St. Petersburg by way of Oslo, Copenhagen, and Stockholm. The 12-night Northern European Capitals cruise will depart from Dover, England, in June and July 2010. Rates start at $3,649 per person. If the balmy Mediterranean is more your thing, the Disney Magic will depart from Barcelona for 10- and 11-night cruises in April, May, August, and September 2010 with stops in Malta, Tunis, Corsica, France and Italy. Rates start at $2,529 per person. Looking for something shorter? The Disney Wonder, departing from Port Canaveral, Fla., will take you on 4- and 5-night cruises to the Bahamas, Key West, and Disney's private island, Castaway Cay. Rates start at $849-$899 per person. Bon voyage.

If you’re planning to go on a long plane ride but have a painfully short attention span, have I got a book for you. ‘‘747 Things to Do on a Plane’’ by Justin Cord Hayes gives you, yes, 747 things to do to make a long flight feel less tedious. Hayes’s ideas range from no-brainers (read the newspaper) to morbid (write your own obituary) to bizarre (draw tattoos on your arms). His section on making lists is thought-provoking and a possibly eye-opening use of time (list the top 10 happiest moments of your life or the top 10 vacations you’ve ever taken). He gets desperately snarky in the section on pranks. Sneaking into first class (then what?) is one thing, but belching the alphabet and kicking the back of someone’s seat? Not that anyone who knows how to spell air marshal would actually act like such a jerk on a crowded plane, but still. The book is better than a magazine, makes a great gag gift, the word puzzles included are clever, and you won’t mind if you leave it behind when you finally arrive at your destination.