Panamanian Mania

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Since I'm in a foreign country again I thought I'd start up my travel blog again.

Pretty exciting times in Panama so far. We left Vancouver last Friday on a 8am flight to Houston and then caught a flight to Panama City. There were 5 of us from work flying in to replace other colleagues who finished their rotation. Our Russian geophysicist, Andrey, was really keen to get some duty free Scotch in Houston but there was a problem. The camp we were moving into was dry, no alcohol. This meant we would have to drink the whole bottle the one night we were in Panama City. We got into Panama City around 7:30pm and stood in the immigration lineup for 1/2 hour and when we got to the front of the line they tell us we must buy $5 tourist visas 'over there'. So we did, and stood in line again.

We were mostly pleased to see our baggage waiting for us at the baggage check. I say mostly because Caitlin's baggage was missing. Caitlin has never been outside of Canada before and spent weeks packing and repacking her bag to make it perfect. The baggage desk knew immediately her predicament because it was left behind on purpose because the flight was 'full' even though there were plenty of empty seats. They gave her a receipt and told her it would be in the next day on the 1pm flight.

So we left security and started looking for the driver that our client arranged to meet us and take us to the hotel. After thoroughly confusing all the Panamanian drivers waiting for other clients we realized that our driver was not there. Andrey rented a truck and by 8:45 we were on our way to a hotel that we didn't have an address for using a map I got for free from the tourist kiosk.

We drove in the right direction on the wrong road for a long time before turning in front of a huge parade. Being Good Friday the people were doing Stations of the Cross with real people and thousands of onlookers. Luckily we were on the other side of the divided road and were not delayed. We were able to see the hotel in the distance but couldn't turn off a weird highway with no exits. Driving creatively Andrey pulled a U-turn in front of a toll booth and turned into a one-way street in the wrong direction. But now we could get to the Sheraton Hotel. We checked into the fanciest hotel I've ever stayed at and had a great dinner. Remember that bottle of Scotch? It didn't turn out to be a problem. We all pitched in and drank it while eating candy from the minibar. We stayed up way too late considering we were up at 4am that morning and needed to leave at 8am. I caught up on all the office intrigue that I missed while in Australia.

The adventure continues and we haven't even gotten to camp yet! I'm tired though and must sleep. In case I forget here's some things I will write about later:

My first day in the jungle.
Playing with poison dart frogs.
Vines.
Talking with an ex-Navy Seal.
Dynmamite!
Snakes? What snakes?

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