Panama City Day 4

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I'm sitting on the patio at our hostel this morning & listening to this crazy guy (truly crazy) harrass a taxi driver about taking him to the airport. The only reason I noticed is because I heard the exact same conversation last night while sitting here. It's funny because the guy is dressed really nice & he looks normal. But apparently he only wants to go to the airport. The best part is he's a local guy but when he asks to go to the airport he says it with an accent like he's trying to speak English. It's really funny. He's in the cab drivers face & he's acting like he doesn't even hear mr. crazy. Finally, mr. crazy smiles a bunch & tells him something in really fast Spanish & walks away all happy. Gotta love the city. There's also a guy who sleeps in the church entryway across the street, he's been there the whole time. He sits at the end of our street when church is in session & sits in their doorstep when it's not.

Being in a dorm is always an experience. It was pretty quiet last night which I definitely appreciate. A few drunk girls came in late but only woke me up for a minute. Love the earplugs. I was up before almost anyone else, except this old guy. It's funny to see a bunch of strangers sleeping all around you. And, in the dorms, it seems like modesty goes out the window. I saw a lot of underwear & people just changing right there for all to see. I prefer to change in the privacy of the bathroom.

We decided to go out for breakfast this morning & had ok eggs & toast. Panamanian food is really really boring. They don't have any one specialty that's all their own & it's all so bland & just boring. And, everyone uses only American Cheese. Ick. I miss good cheese.
Now, the box & the post office. I'm nervous! Not really but I hope they won't carry on their negative attitude with us the day after. You never know. I'm also afraid that maybe they'll decide to give the box a few kicks or stick it in a back corner for a few months & "forget" to mail it. You never know. But we're at their mercy so we're going to mail it with them. We walked back to the hostel & grabbed the box & headed out. At least we know where we're going this morning so that's a plus. We got to the post office & got in line & the same guy from yesterday came out from his hiding spot in the back & helped us weigh our box. He certainly wasn't all smiles but we were. We decided on the way there to just absolutely kill them with kindness. See how they like that! This time we were only there for a few minutes & done with it. Finally. We figured it only took us about 8 hours to mail one box. That might be a record.

After all that we headed out to find a movie theatre & escape the heat & rain & veg out for a couple hours. This, of course, also turned out to be an adventure. The first mall we went to had a movie theatre but it only played animated movies for some reason. So, we got on another bus (so far only our 3rd for the day) & headed to a different mall we were told also had a theatre. It did, but movies didn't start for a couple hours. So, we made the mistake of walking around the mall. OOpss. We ended up shopping again. We found a few things we needed & then treated ourselves to a well deserved beer in celebration of the box finally being mailed off. We watched a soccer game in the bar. I guess it's the soccer playoffs or something so everyone's all worked up about it. The mall had the game playing on a super huge bigscreen in the food court area. It was actually pretty cool. I could imagine football sunday on a big screen in malls at home. Or do they have that already? I never go to the mall so I really wouldn't know.

Finally it was time for the movie. We saw Thor in 3D. It was pretty good. I don't know how long the movie has been out but we had the theatre practically all to ourselves. It was entrancing to watch a movie when we haven't even watched TV in so long. I was thoroughly entertained. We filled up on junk food: popcorn & nachos. Yikes. (This was after a stop at a BK when it started downpouring during our walk to find the mall). Muy mala la comida. Needless to say our bellies hurt later that evening. I wonder why???

After the movie we headed out to catch a bus. What's wonderful about being a gringo in these parts is that services often just come to you because you stand out. So, we're waiting for the bus & a cab pulls up next to us & asks us where we're going, we say Casco Viejo, he says get in & it was only a couple bucks. Sold. Traffic was sucky at this point because it was around 5 so all the buses were jam packed. I'd rather sit in traffic in the cab. We arranged to have this cab driver pick us up in the morning, really early 4:45 am. Ick. To take us to the airport for San Blas.

Back at our hostel, in a different private room now, we worked on blogs & got prepared for the next day. Sadly, around 10 pm we got an email from the airline saying they pushed our flight to a much later time & of course we don't have the cab drivers number. ARG!

So, we went out in search of his friend who works at the hostel & had been out front when we arrived back from the movies. What's funny about this whole story is that when I asked the guy working at the hostel that night about where or how we could find the other guy he told me where he lived & I actually knew it. It's crazy. We'd walked past this guys house a few times & why it was so noticeable is because of a couple things. First, the front of the building is an old brick building with a big gate that serves as the front door, which you can see right through & into the house. Inside there is a couch, a refrigerator, & a TV, that as far as I can tell is always on. There has also been someone sitting or sleeping on the couch every time we walked by as well. It's like a big open warehouse room with just those things in it, but open to the street. So different. So, we walked down there & asked for Babo & he was on the couch but he didn't have the taxi guys number. Oh well. So instead we set an alarm & got up at 4:45 to ask him to come back later.

We made some rice & leftover fish for dinner & a couple of Aussie's gave us a cup of delicious rum punch. Then off to sleep.

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Photos

Our bunkbeds for the night.
Geoff is still asleep on the top bunk.

A typical 'Fonda'
It may not look like much, but they usually have the best food.

Celebratory Beer!
After finally mailing that damn box we were thirsty.

The smallest bathroom ever!
Please step over the toilet if you wnat to take a shower.