Breakfast at the hotel was a really fancy buffet with everything imaginable! I wasn't too hungry for some reason, so I had a bowl of granola, a little danish thing, and a little fruit. (Yea, that's a "light" breakfast compared to what I've been eating!)
I asked a group of guys - taxi drivers - in front of the hotel to take a picture for me and showed them how to work my camera. They said they would take a picture, but then kept pointing to each other...no one actually wanted to! I eventually just handed my camera to one guy and he got the job done. :)
My flight is at 8:30 this morning, and I wasn't too sure how early I needed to get to the airport. The girl at the ticket counter yesterday, when I came to print my boarding pass, told me I should get here at 8! I thought YEA RIGHT, I am NOT missing this flight! Well, she was right! I got here to the airport at 7:12 and was at my gate by 7:19 - seriously. It took me 7 minutes to make it through immigration AND security!! This airport is small (7 gates total) and there was like 1 person I'm front of me in both lines! I walked around for awhile, called my mom on the pay phone, walked around some more...went to the bathroom. The guys bathroom, that is! Yea, I can read and I know which is for men and which is for women, I just wasn't paying attention! I walked in, thought I maybe saw a urinal around the corner from the stalls, and sure enough, right then a guy walked in and just stopped and looked at me. Uuhh, yea, sorry about that!! ;) Boarding was supposed to start at 7:45, per my ticket, which is never right, I know! But it's 8:10 now...and still nothing! I have a connection flight to catch in San Jose, Costa Rica...so theybetter hurry it up!! ;)
The flight from Managua to San Jose actually took off almost on time - they boarded it fast and it wasn't full. And it was a whopping 35 minute flight! I saw my old friend, Volcan Arenal, from the plane! :) I checked the tv as soon as I got off the plan at SJO - its a pretty small airport too - 18 gates total, all in one terminal. I spent plenty of time at SJO last year when I missed my flight!! I came in at gate 4, and had about 45 minutes to get to gate 8 - about 100 feet away. I walked around, looked at all the souvenir stores, ate a snack, and boarded my flight to PANAMA - finally!!
 |
| ...back in Costa Rica... |
 |
| My airplane to Panama |
I got the first row behind first class. LOTS of leg room and a window - perfect! Filled out the immigration and custom forms before we even took off, and actually dozed off a couple times I think. I didn't realize just how tired I was! I woke up when they were delivering the food: some sort of sandwich thing...like a crescent roll with some sort of stuff in it, I really don't know what, and a gingerbread-ish cookie with fruit filling in between. I listened to some music and then we were landing. The flight was 50 minutes, take-off to landing. I got a picture of all the ships waiting to come in to the Panama Canal, but I couldn't get any good ones of the city on the other side of the plane. :( Maybe on the way out I will...
PTO is much bigger than the other Central American airports, and Panama City is much bigger and nicer than most of the other Central American cities I've been in! I mean they have big nice hospitals and sky scrapers and shopping malls, etc... Anyways, I made it through immigration and customs, no problem. There was hardly a line at all.
I walked outside and saw the sign for the taxi stand. Got a taxi right away too. It was a big, nice, white SUV, and my driver, Eduardo, spoke pretty good English! He is from Panama, but used to live in NYC, and he drove that vehicle all the way from Arizona to Panama! I got his whole life story, about how he moved back here and started his own company, then went bankrupt (I got the whole story why) and now he's a taxi driver. He put a video in the dvd player about the Panama Canal and told me all about the different parts of town we were driving through and about the tides of the ocean, etc. There are some very fancy and very expensive parts of Panama City - Midtown - and there are slums at the base and edge of it. Some of the locals refused to sell there land, so its pretty funny looking...there are fancy hotels and then tin shacks built over the water right next to them!! It was a long and very informational cab ride...and it cost me $28!! Ugghh - this place is as bad as any city in the US!!
Eduardo dropped me off right in front of Luna's Castle...my sweet hostel in the old dilapidated area called Casco Viejo. It is literally so old it's crumbling! Of course I read in my book how it looks neat because the buildings are old, but its actually not a very safe area of Panama City. Shocking! ;) Hey, it was as cheap as I could find...$11 for a bed, shower, internet, and free breakfast! Lunas Castle is right on the edge of Casco Viejo and is an old three story building with big wooden creaky steps! I'm not sure how many people this place holds, but I'm glad I got a bed! I'm in a mixed dorm room with 11 other people (6 sets of bunkbeds), no air conditioning, but a big fan, and an amazing view of downtown and the bay from my window! Yea, seriously, the park and waterfront walkway is across the street!! For $11?!
This place is super trendy - kinda funky - with lots of crazy art work all over the walls. And just like at every other hostel, its jam packed with young friendly backpackers whose stories I love to hear! :) I got checked in, dropped my bag off on my bed (bottom bunk!) and decided to walk around the area and get my bearings a little. First I walked across the street and took a picture of the view!! Then I just started walking through Casco Viejo. Didn't feel all that safe, lots of men and not any tourists, so I only went 5 or 6 blocks away probably. Stumbled upon a few super old churches, and lots of crumbling buildings.
So my whole point in coming to Panama was really to see the Panama Canal. I read that the big ships only come through there between 3 and 5. It was a little after 2 and black clouds were rolling in...but I decided to go down the street and try and get a taxi to the Miraflores locks. Didn't take long at all, and my taxi drover spoke English (most of them do). We agreed on a price of $6 for the drive there. None of the taxis here have meters, so you definitely have to agree on a price before hand. Well, I do anyways, because I'm a girl, I'm alone, ad as soon as I open my mouth they know I'm American and try and rip me off. (Stories about that coming soon...)
So it took about 25 minutes or so to get to the locks / visitors center / museum on the Panama Canal. And about 10 minutes in to that drive, it started pouring. I don't mean just raining a little, I mean down-right thunder and lightning amd high wind and lots of rain "pouring" - just like last night in Managua!! I was less than thrilled with that, to say the least! I had to get out in that crap and make a run for it up the steps to the visitor center.
Paid $8 to get in, and all it is is a bunch of huge ships going through locks...just like I've seen in Chicago, just like in Seattle...only much bigger boats. And they're super slow and it takes like 15 minutes for one stinkin' boat to go through. I guess I don't really know what I was expecting, but it was so boring and just completely over rated! It probably didn't help that it was in the middle of a thunderstorm and every where I went to get pictures I got wet and so did my camera. All the picture are dark and gray and blurry...blah! I sat through the 10 minute informational movie, and walked through the 4 floors of the museum in about 10 minutes with a few snaps of the camera on each floor. I'm not much for museums...too much reading, too boring! :)
 |
| This is maybe what I would see if it wasn't pouring rain... |
I was probably there for an hour total and saw two boats actually make it through the locks...with many more lined up waiting. They definitely were the biggest boats I've ever seen, and I guess the concept of the locks and how old they are and how it was built, etc, is kind cool. But still, overall, just OVER RATED!!
I ran back through the rain (still pouring an hour later - and I was still wet from my first round of that) to get a taxi again. The taxi director guy said it would be $12 to take me back to Casco Viejo! Ummm...excuse me?! I know I scream America, but I'm not stupid! I told him I just paid $6 to get here an hour ago, and I had a really hard time believing the price of time and gas doubled in that one hour! He didn't like that...tried to tell me it was different going back the other way or something, and becuae it was raining...it was so ridiculous, I literally rolled my eyes and as I was walking off told him he could either find a driver to take me for $6 or I'd find my own way back! I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking, because I had to get a taxi, but there was no way I was going to get THAT worked over!! (I was slightly irriated by the rain and the lack of excitement from the canal, too.) So he talked to a couple guys standing there, in Spanish of course, and eventually one super old guy who didn't speak English got in his car and pulled up. The director guy tried to be all friendly and held an umbrella for me to get in the taxi...but before I put my legs in, I leaned forward and said, "HOW MUCH??" Because I knew he knew what was going on. He just smiled really big. Oh huh-uh buddy!! We are not playing this game! The director guy was literally trying to shut the door on my legs - which were soaked now, and I did NOT get in completely until we had gone 'round and 'round for a good minute I bet. I settled at $7...which I felt okay about considering he started at $12. :)
No wonder they got him to take me...he was the slowest, worst driver EVER!! I seriously think he was almost blind - seriously! Oh well, I made it back to the hostel just fine...just took a lot longer! I checked my email and read a little in my book before deciding, rain or not, I was going to have to venture out and find some dinner...in the dark and alone. I was literally standing at the front door of the hostel putting my rain coat on - when this guy sitting there at the door smiled at me and said hi, and asked me where I was going. I said I didn't know, hadn't been here long, but was heading out to try and find some food. What a coincidence, so was he, as well as his friend, and they invited me along. :) Sean is a massage/yoga instructor from England (accent) and his friend Adam is from New Zealand (another accent) - they both live in Panama now and have lived all over the world!! SO cool...and so thankful to have them to show me around Panama at night! I hopped in a cab with them (I know, maybe not the smartest decision, considering I didn't even know their names yet, but it turned out fine!) and have no idea where we drove to - I mean what area of Panama City we were in - but we ended up at a little Indian restaurant called Sabor de India. I'm not sure I've ever had real, authentic Indian food before. I know I've had Thai, but not Indian. I let the boys order a bunch of stuff since its one of their favorite restaurants, and we all just shared everything. I don't really know what any of it was, but it was all pretty good, minus the super spicy part! They were getting a kick out of how much water I drank. Oh yea, and it was just tap water and I'm still alive! I generally don't drink the tap water in any foreign country, but they assured me it was fine here. :)
We sat outside on the balcony area and talked for quite awhile, and they both know more about the United States of America than I do! I mean history, the government, the Federal Reserve Bank - you name it, they know it all. I may have felt somewhat stupid... But they were really fun and interesting to talk to. When we got ready to leave, Sean just walked to his apartment because it was near by I guess. So Adam and I walked down the street (it had pretty much stopped raining by now) to a busier intersection to catch a cab. Adam waived one down right away, and we hopped in. He was a young driver, and I don't know if he spoke English or not because Adam talked to him in Spanish. He said he didn't know where Luna's Castle was, but Adam said he'd show him and to just get us to Casco Viejo. So off we went...ummm, with NO lights on - at night. Yea, the cab driver didn't have his headlights on! It was really weird and I don't know what was going on, everything was just dark inside and out, but whatever, we made it. When we got back to the hostel, Adam showed me the bar downstairs, called Relic, and said he and Sean would be there later. It looked really fun, but let's be honest, there is no way I'm going to make it up past 10pm! Even if it is a Saturday night in Panama City, partying/drinking just isn't my thing. So I went upstairs and got on the computer and talked to some people at the hostel about what to do tomorrow. After a few internet searches and emails, I'm all set to visit an indigenous Emberra Indian village tomorrow in the jungle just a couple hours outside of Panama City! Should be pretty sweet - more to come tomorrow! I'm off to try and get some sleep in this loud crazy city - with the windows wide open! ;)
 |
| the view of Panama City outside my window tonight |
No comments:
Post a Comment