The beginning of the end....

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3/5/11 (Barb) We left Santiago this morning around 9 am after having our usual breakfast and then taking a pic of our cute waiter. Off we head for Panama City...praying that the car makes this one last trip!!! Uneventful ride except the other side of highway is packed...heading OUT of Panama City...our side..not so bad. We begin to hope the city has emptied and we will have it easy thru the city. Not to be! Not to be! Ms. Garmin had an idea where to go BUT we'll seestreets are blocked off for Carnivalle parade (we guessed) and after going thru the same packed streets....packed with people and cars....3 times....we headed back OUT of the city planning on trying another way on our own...Ms. Garmin just wanted us to keep making circles....guess she was thinking we were at the Indy 500 or something. Suddenly I saw a bunch of taxies near a bus stop...obviously waiting for people to get off a bus and need a cab. I said to Skip..how about if we get a taxi to lead us to the hotel...so we got ourselves over to the other side of the highway and pulled into the bus stop. I talked to a taxi driver and he said $25...Skip said go for it...so he led us about 15-17 miles total thru the city maze to get around the closed streets and then on to where we knew that we were supposed to be headed to the hotel...we would have NEVER found it..ever... ever...ever! We did recognize where we were at times from 3 weeks ago..but I'm sure we would have never got ourselves to that point on our own.

(Skip) I need to interject my thoughts concerning our little excursion on the wild side while driving in Panama City during Carnivalle. Barb's impression of our journey within Panama City is accurate; however, being in the drivers seat provides a different prospective! Once diverted from the Pan-American we began our journey down into the gopher hole with many overhead highway overpasses closing in overhead and huge buildings closing in on all sides. Vehicle and pedestrian traffic increased expontentially. Completely befuddled, bewildered and confused I attempted to somehow find a way to extricate ourselves from this slow mass of moving humanity. Somehow, perhaps through divine intervention, I was able to leave this completely confusing situation by somehow selecting the numerous proper left and right turns. What's truly amazing about this excursion into complete confusion is the fact of not only accomplishing this feat once but three times. Truly very, very amazing!
Just think, Barb and I could have been like Tom Dooly and the MTA, forever riding the MTA and never being about to leave the experience. Ha!! After the third time we were coughed up by the underworld, Barb, forever thinking out of the box, declared; look taxi's on the other side of the 6 lane road! Lets follow one of them to our destination!! Now execution of this idea is required! Somehow through luck, correct guessing or help from the Universe the correct selection of turns and loops brought us back to our waiting saviors; the yellow taxis of Panama. Again, Barb uses her vast experience of artful, tack-full negotiating skills and we end up following our friendly yellow taxi through the bowel's of Panama City to our final destination at the Riande Aeropureto Hotel, located near the international airport. Needless to say a couple of hours later, while sitting next to the Riande's beautiful pool and sipping a cool Balboa, this last adventure seemed only very dream like. Almost like the adventure never happened but rather a dream taking place during a short nap. But again, this is life! Onwards to the next experience!

(Barb) As usual I enjoy reading Skip's description of our adventure more than mine!
So, tomorrow we take the car back.....a day early...We'll see what happens there. After that I plan on taking a taxi to a mall that is supposed to be close by...I am in need of a fix!!! I have not bought one single thing...except for that Panama bag that ripped the first time I used it, so I left it in the Bocas.

Musing about things I'm grateful for...that we are safe of course...but I was thinking of the things I brought with me and/or bought to bring with me...I am so grateful for my Kobo E-reader that my kids gave me for Christmas...I could have never brought all those books with me....I read 6 total. I'm grateful for the sweet velcro pocket that my friend Barb made for me to put my Kobo in so I wouldn't scratch the screen. I'm grateful that I bought a pkg of chamois at the $1 store and cut them in half so I would have 4 wash cloths....I have not seen a wash cloth in any hotel or hostel that we stayed at...
I'm grateful for being able to buy lots of bottled water. I'm so very grateful that Skip brought this netbook...it's been wonderful to stay in contact with everyone...I never felt alone with you guys out there reading and commenting. God Bless FaceBook, email and blogs! I'm grateful for the Chaco sandals that Dean, my son, recommended to us...they have been great..like walking on open sneakers and Skip loves them even more than I do. I'm so darn grateful that I never saw a snake or any spiders worse than a daddy-long-legs. I'm grateful for all the beauty and wonder we saw and the wonderful people we met.


Some things we noticed:
No one has any respect for the flashing lights of an ambulance, police or school bus....people just keep right on driving like usual...no pulling over, no stopping. This amazed me.

Children are walking all over...they walk to the bus stops...even bus stops that are in the most remote parts of the country...there seems to be no worry about predators or any kind of danger to them. Once in a while you see parents walking with little ones...but often it's an older sibling holding their hand.

You see people on cell phones even in the most remote parts of the country....seems funny when Vermont & upstate NY can't seem to get cell service in a lot of their rural areas.

Ok..that's all folks...time to hit the hay.

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Comments

[kathy fournier]

very......interesting reading
enjoying the trip with you and skip; i agree with you barb; skip does have a second career in journalism i think!! sounds like this has been a trip of a lifetime. i have only just started reading since we just returned from mexico. and honestly our trip feels boring compared to yours! look forward to more reading tomorrow, stay safe! kathy

[Pam Maher]

How can it be over this quick
What an amazing adventure....your writing was enchanting, so much more exciting then life here. I am so happy for you both to experience such fun with each other. You have to visit again when back, Pat and I miss you both. Weve got plenty of room! Lot of Love, Pam