I have arrived.. a little worse for wear

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I almost did not. It was looking like i might have ended up in Miami instead. My flight had arrived 20 minutes late and into terminal 24; i was leaving out of terminal 49. Slowed by a weighted back pack and a pair of flip flops i attempted to make a run for my plane which was deaprting in 10 minutes. Not making any headway, i stripped off the flip flops, chucked the bottle of water and ran my heart out. My years of yoga have done nothing for my cardio and I realized 7 minutes in I was completely out of shape.

I was the last one to board as the door was closing. Now I was sweaty, dirty and hungry. My trip had started at 1am.



We landed Panama city at 11:30 local time which is 1 hour behind the US. It is a sweltering 90 degrees and cloudy. I found the nicest taxi driver to take me to my next airport 20 minutes away but with traffic thorugh the city it took 1.5 hours.

Panama city was not what I expected. Huge office buildings of unique architectural design had been built over tiny wood 4-walled homes throught the city and Mr. Donald Trump had laid claim to an entire city block. He is also building several madmade islands in the ocean for his tenants. Sad really as there are 360 islands an hour from the city he could of used instead.

My next airport was tiny and not airconditioned. The policia and military stood outside next to the icecream man. The airport is called Albrook and is located on a former US military base. It is the only airport for getting around in country. My next flight was in 4 hours. From the airport I caught a glimpse of the Panama Canal

I met a very nice vet from Mexico who was very knowledgeable of how the flights from this airport worked. They grouped all persons in seats based on your next destination and when the total persons arrived they then decided on the size of the plane. He calmed my fears while I watched persons loaded into crop dusters, props and one fokker. I prayed the Fokker was coming back for me. My prayers were answered.

I landed in David next. The rest of the way would be by taxi into the mountains; 1 hour away on a pottholed roadway. At 630 pm I arrived at my host family.

There is no driveway to my host family. One must climb my a huge hill built into a mountainside and then up a steep set of stairs to their home. I kept shaking my head as we ascended.

Too exhausted to care where I was, I climbed into bed and passed out.

(please excuse my grammer and lower case letters. The keyboard I am using has 3 icons per key and I have no idea how to obtain the letters I need and <i have yet to learn the word spellcheck in spanish)

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Photos

Viva Panama
I am HERE!

Local indian culture
Even the leg warmers are colorful

Across the river
And up the mountain to mia casa

my house in the mountains
Swiss Family Robinson eat your heart out.

STEPS TO HOME
THEY KEEP GOING AND GOING AND GOING

waterfall lines the steps to my home
Not for drinking!

The view from my house
This is the city of Boquete

home sweet home
I have host parents, a 3 yr old host brother and 11 yr old host sister

my room
For 3 weeks... By the way there is no hot water. Yikes!

Comments

[Mom]

Love you so much and miss you BIG
OMG....how awesome, how exciting, how strange, how adventurous, how so not what you expected but that just leads to more excitement. Where are you bathing if no hot water? Or are you bathing? So much love, Mom and Dad

[Sparkles]

Happy you are in Boquete!
If you went through all that just to get there, you are clearly in for quite the adventure for the next 3 weeks! Enjoy the beautiful scenery! I love the pic of the view from the house!!