Panama City

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So after a long bus journey on a bus which stank of cockroach repellant, we arrived at Panama City. We were lucky as our room was available at 6am when we arrived so we went and crashed there for a few hours. That day we went to the infamous Panama Canal. We took a shuttle there from our hostel (Lunas Castle) in Casco Viejo- the old part of the town and went to the Miraflores Locks. Here they had a four story museum about the development of the canal and viewing points looking over the lock and allowing us to view the massive ships that go through. Due to the current usage of the canal they are trying to extend and widen it so they can get more and bigger vessels through. On our way back we stopped at a fish market and had a wonder round there (eyeing up the lobster for the last supper) and then bought some fish to cook at the hostel. After chilling at the hostel for a bit, we went for a walk around the old town and went for a drink on a rooftop bar near to the hostel. We then cooked our prawns and snapper for tea before watching the National Basketball Association Final in a bar nearby, which was surprisingly addictive!

So the final day in Panama was really chilled and all we really planned on doing was getting some lobster for lunch from the fish market- 1. Because it is the start of Lobster season in Belize 2. Because it was £20 for lobster and wine 3. Because it was our last day. The lobster was really worth it and was a really good meal to end with as we were getting a flight in the evening. The rest of the day I wondered up to the centre of the main town which has lots of skyscrapers which loom over the rest of the city.

And then we were hoping for a chilled journey to New York where we would have a layover in Miami, however….

Our flight was supposed to be at 2am, but was delayed to 4.30am, meaning we would miss our layover. The next flight we got given the option of was the following day and to be honest, this wasn't an option for us we had booked accommodation and we on,y had a few days in New York. The way around this was to buy other tickets and then we would get a refund within the next week for our flights. So we booked more flights and unfortunately HSBC decided to block my transaction! This was frustrating at 1am and the customer services weren't open. When I got through to them it was fine but it was quite a stressful few hours. On arrival to Miami we had to change airports and used the trirail (this 3 story train) to go in between. The American Airlines are so efficient and check in was out of this world! So, almost in New York.

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