Perhaps I am a travel wimp. Right when we got to the airport gate, I heard myself tell the gate agent that we have been on quite the journey - already - and hadn't even left Sacramento yet! In all fairness, my comment was stemming from the fact that United cancelled our direct flight into Houston and put us on one that would cause us to miss our entire day in Panama. I had that fixed but then our Sacramento to LA flight was delayed 3 hours, which would cause us to miss our connecting flight, thus miss our day in Panama. To make a longer story short, I'm just going to say: we arrived on-time into Panama, and here we are! I have never taken so many connecting flights, and guess what, I don't recommend it! It made for a lot of sitting around in airports and a missed night of sleep. I don't care how dirty the ground is - yes, that was me curled up on it getting some good sleep! My good friend at home will love this part - the gate agent told us to take our FOUR carry-on bags ON the plane with us because otherwise they wouldn't make it with us. No one said a word to us on any flight. My friend loves people like us!
On our flight to Panama, Greg sat next to very friendly "Frank" who gave him about 3 hours worth of helpful tips about Panama (for tourists). He started with the Panamanian way to survive its rainy season (now) - you carry a dry shirt (sometimes two) and shoes and then you change! Sounds like sound advice but I was expecting him to say an umbrella. He also had a million other great tips - mainly on how not to get scammed- but I slept through them. Greg brought them up throughout our day, and I kept wondering, "who is Frank?". And don't think you are going to get any tips out of Greg either because if you ask him when we get back I guarantee he will say something like, "Who is Frank?"
One of the best things about Panama is its currency. Guess what, it is the U.S. dollar! They have some of their own money and use it equally - its value is 1:1 and all the coins look the same as ours. Except apparently their dollar coin which many of their own establishments won't accept - and yes someone gave us one.
When I spend all my pre-trip hours at home planning all the finite details, nothing is ever set in stone. The two smartest changes I made for Panama was 1) cancel the rental car and 2) stay on the Causeway.
The drivers here are nutso- crazy! We hired the guide/driver "My Friend Mario" to get us from the airport, tour around the city, and bring us to our hotel. He told us that less than 20% of the people here speak English (they speak Spanish). We quickly realized that having him with us as our translator (probably more appropriately, our protector) meant it didn't matter what language anyone was speaking!
If you have never been to Panama, it is an odd mix to see. It starts out looking maybe something like simple undeveloped tropical Kauai, and then suddenly you feel like you are in the ghetto. Maybe a better description is that you survived the apocalypse, and are wandering around completely dilapidated buildings that look like surely they must be condemned yet very obviously they are over-populated. Not in a sad way, just in a very shocking way. Their old town, Casco Viejo" looks like it was once as beautiful as New Orleans French Quarter, and now it looks like a ghost town. I have never seen buildings before in such need of repair. They are slowly remodeling the area though.
I almost forgot to mention the biggest shocker - the buildings that look like something out of futuristic Dubai. It's the business district/ downtown along the coast.
A highlight was driving to the top of Ancon Hill. It immediately felt like we were entirely somewhere else, but it is right in the middle of everything. It was a lush, green jungle with (some) nice homes on stilts. It afforded excellent views of the business district, the old area, and the Canal. We saw a bizarre animal running by that looked maybe like a potbelly pig with short hair and no tail. Mario said it was like a ground squirrel. Ummm - not like any of our squirrels!
I could hardly wait to visit the Panama Canal! Back home I was reading the fascinating book: The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough. (I didn't finish it; it is like a bible of tiny print and many pages.). The Miraflores Locks center had a short movie, a brief museum, and a canal viewing platform. The canal is truly a modern engineering marvel, but that point was not impressed upon me there. We didn't stay long enough - maybe over an hour, but then it closed. It was fascinating to see the massive ships squeeze into the canal lock! You view it quite close up so the ship is like a massive wall almost right in your face! I could watch for hours, maybe, but it is a slow process. The Panamax ship we saw from Ancon Hill was still in the lock when we got there. Ships other than military and cruises have to wait 2 days to enter the canal. We could see them all waiting in the Pacific Ocean from the plane.
We had dinner along the romantic causeway at Mi Ranchito outside under a palapa in the humid, tropical air - watching the lightning over the ocean off in the distance. It felt just like Hawaii!
We didn't need our nice suite on the canal with a view of the Bridge of the Americas - we weren't there to enjoy it. But collapsing in the comfy bed was dreamy after our long day(s)!
Pictures include view of downtown and canal from Ancon Hill.
Sent from my iPhone
