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Published: February 16th 2011
(BARB)So our journey begins...our friends, Jerry and JoAnn, (a big THANKS to you folks) dropped us off at the Tampa Airport. No line for Spirit airlines..Yea! No line because we are hit with the 'good news/bad news' scenario when we got to the kiosk. Bad news: Our flight was delayed due to bad weather in NY!! Delayed so long that we would miss our connecting flight. Good news: For only $153 we could book a flight on Southwest airlines and make our connection...no coupons, no compensation, no offer for a free flight in the future offered...so sorry...no control over the weather sir..OR we could wait 2 weeks for an opening on another flight via Spirit (they only fly 3 times a week and all flights are booked!). Suck it up Skip and Barb and trot over to Southwest and buy our tickets. MMMMMMM is this a precursor to how the rest of the trip will be or just a little glitch to keep us on our toes??? Remains to be seen!
Of course switching back to Spirit in Ft. Lauderdale means going thru baggage area and outdoors and waiting for a bus to take us to another terminal and, yup, you guessed it...back thru security again.
Anyway, we get to Panama city at 2:30 am and find a Taxi to take us to our hotel. Not too impressed with Spirit Airlines at this point!
We don't pick up our car til Wed. so we decided to take a taxi to the Panama Canal...which I really did not have much of an interest in since we have the St. Lawrence Seaway up home..and gee if you see one set of locks, you pretty much have seen em all! But so many people were shocked that we weren't going to see the Canal...I decided maybe we should and Skip said OK.
Taxi : $70
Entrance to the Canal..to watch a boat float higher and higher for 2 hours: $5
Cost to practice Spanish with taxi driver and driving thru the crazy city traffic where no one uses turn signals and young boys try to sell you coconut milk at red lights: Priceless!
So, as you all know I'm not a man magnet...but I do seem to attract little kids and these young kids at the Canal were trying to talk to me in Spanish and of course it was hopeless. Then this mother notices all these kids around me and comes over to check out if I'm a child molester (ok.maybe not) and she tells them I cannot speak Spanish...( I did get that much!) so this adorable little boy (around 8 or 9) pushes his way thru to me, stares at me for a minute and says....”I'm fine thank you” in English...he was practicing his English on me!!! I said Bueno, which I think means good in Spanish, and he stops, thinks a bit, and says, “Good afternoon” and I said, buenos dias, which is good morning and then I said Oh no..buenos tarde which is good afternoon and the kid smiled a big smile and the mom nodded yes. As they left he turned back to me and said “Good bye, thank you” in a proud little voice....what a memorable moment! I wish I had taken a pic of him.
On the way back from the Canal I was struck by the landscape which featured Lovely Skyscrapers in the background and what can only be described as shacks in the foreground...what a contrast and yet the other thought that popped into my mind was...dish must be cheap here, as every shack had a small satellite dish attached (precariously, I would imagine) to their roof. But I am told dish is very expensive so I guess it's all about priorities eh? Just like the ole U S of A!
(SKIP)Our good taxi driver/tour guide on the way back to the hotel stopped at a large mall to help me obtain a Panamanian sim card for my cell phone. After a few dead ends in the mall, Michael our taxi driver, found a kiosk that carried the sims card, installed the card and sold me 100 panama minutes for $11. All set and good to go and the minutes will last for 1 year. Owning an unlocked world phone just saved $30 -$40. I must say that Michael was very, very impressed on Barb's shopping prowess in shopping and looking for a bargain, even in a far away place like Panama. Michael and I immediately had the male connection watching Barbara in action.
(BARB) Please note that the 'action' that Mr. Martin is referring to was a literal pop in pop out of the store with no purchases resulting!
(SKIP)Mean while back at the Riande Iropuerio Hotel & Resort Barb and I decided we both needed a little R&R poolside. Imagine, if you can, Palms swaying in the breeze, South American type music playing in the background, pleasant people lazying and both of us sipping on cold Balboa Cerveza (Beer). This is truly a very tough way to wind up the day. Oh yes, this is where we are composing our entry into the travel blog.
Tomorrow morning we pick up the rental car and start our journey toward western Panama. The first day we plan on traveling about 3 ½ hrs to the town of Penonome for our first unscheduled night on the road.
The finishing touches to this update is being accomplished at our breakfast table where Wifi is available for posting to our travel blog. Unfortunately we have not edited or downloaded yesterdays pictures onto this computer; therefore this will be one of our projects for today. We don't have hotel reservations for tonight so we'll enjoy meeting people and finding a reasonable priced place to stay for the night.
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Pat Jocelyn
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Loved your blog entry
You guys are great! I laughed at your bantering back and forth and I look forward to pictures and future entries. Stay safe and know that you have quite a few folks living vicariously through your blog. Love ya!