It’s Thursday already. We’ve been in Panama City since Monday evening. It is hot and we’re being very lazy. I’m only now getting around to updating my blog.
Our Journey
The journey went very smoothly. Early Sunday we caught a boat across Lake Atitlan, then a bus to Antigua. We visited the chocolate museum and spent much of the afternoon in the square watching people. We also watched a few parades — Catholic processions with men in purple gowns carrying floats with icons and marching bands playing music.
We had a lovely hotel room (San Jorge) where we only got to spend a few hours because our shuttle to the airport left at 3:45 AM. Our flight departure time was 10:30 AM, and it’s only a 60 km drive, but we were advised that the Monday morning traffic into Guatemala City is so bad we needed to go early or risk missing our flight. So we took the early shuttle and got there before the traffic and then spent 5 hours sitting around the airport. But we made our flight.
When we arrived in Panama in mid-afternoon, we met with a little resistance trying to enter the country. We didn’t know Doug and Mary’s street address and weren’t clever enough to make something up, so we told the officer we were being picked up by a driver who knew where to take us but she didn’t think she could allow us in with such imprecise detail. She sent us back to the arrivals waiting area and suggested we use the Wi-Fi to contact our friends and get their address. Unfortunately, the free airport Wi-Fi wasn’t working, but we were able to buy private Wi-Fi for 30 minutes and we did manage to contact Mary on Skype and got her address. We returned to the immigration line and had a different officer who didn’t seem to pay any attention to our prospective address. He did however fingerprint and photograph us so I think the country should feel quite secure despite our presence here.
Because of the delay, we were worried we wouldn’t find our luggage but the bags had been removed from the carousel and left lying off to the side of the corridor. Mine had been “examined” and a few items removed — a pocket knife and carrying strap — but those are easily replaceable.
Panama is hot. Panama is humid (and this is the dry season). Panama City looks like quite a shiny and glittery metropolis and the skyline includes a Trump tower, the driver pointed out. Mary says it’s all just appearance, scratch anywhere and the glitter flakes off and reveals a shabby and shaky foundation.
Maybe so, but hot and tropical and breezy is what I’m feeling here and it’s great. Here we are on the “causeway” just before supper at a seafood restaurant.