We fly from Portland to Panama City and hang out for awhile
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An early wakeup at 3:30. What an ungodly hour to leave for vacation. Ugh. We got out of the house later than planned — 4:15. I quickly realized I had forgotten to get gas last night. Uh oh. There’s nothing open at this time of day. The car computer says 20 miles left before empty. It’s 18 miles to the airport. But the computer is based on city driving since that was most of the tank so I figure I have 5 or 6 miles to work with. We got there with the computer showing 10 miles left. I’m not sure how we’re getting home but that’s a worry for next week. I didn’t mention it to Marion who is freaking out enough as it is.
The airport is mobbed. I didn’t expect that. I suppose I should have. Everybody leaves first thing in the morning. But I never do if I can help it. We didn’t have a choice on this trip. Not without going through 3 or 4 other cities, which seemed like a bad idea. But we got through security in 20 minutes or so. There was no time for breakfast though. Marion got her coffee, which she was apparently willing to miss the plane to get. Luckily she got back before final call.
We arrived in Houston around lunchtime. Our nerves were a little ragged due to lack of food. And we got halfway down the concourse when Marion realized she had dropped her phone on the plane. We hustled back to the gate where they managed to find it on the second try. We hooked up with Audrey and Hugh. It was fun to meet them in the airport. They picked up a “talker” on their flight who was going on the cruise with us. He glommed on to them and we were regaled with his “stories” until the plane boarded.
On the flight to Panama we were in the back row by the bathroom. Who picked these seats? (Oh yeah, me.) We were the last ones off the plane. But customs went pretty fast. There was a Panamanian rock star (as it turns out) one row ahead of us. I thought he was just an arrogant punk based on my observation of him on the plane. But he was met by screaming fans, cameras, a video crew and a marching band. Very loud and raucous. The tour person who met us told us he was very famous. Well they can have him. Welcome to Central America. It’s very hot and sticky.
We got formed up with the cruise people and bussed to the Sheraton. We couldn’t see much of the area because it was dark. But we could see the ships lined up to go through the canal off shore. There are a lot of them.
The room was fairly small but nice. A very comfortable bed and good pillows. We watched CSI and soccer in Spanish on TV. Luckily there were a few English-speaking channels as well.
Saturday 11/10/2007: Panama City
We had breakfast in the room. I tried to talk Marion into scheduling delivery for later than 8am last night but no dice (at least I got her past 7:30). We were still in bed when they showed up. But lots of food for $11. So much we couldn’t eat it all.
There was nothing to do until the cruise folks came to pick us up at four. The hotel is not in an area we wanted to walk around. There was a nice view of the ocean but no way to get over the freeway to it. Lots(!) of condos or apartments or something going up but nothing else. We hung out in the room. I read and did the Thursday NY Times crossword. Marion napped. We went downstairs for the lunch buffet which let us practice a little Spanish. We did some shopping in the hotel but there were only a few stores. It was cloudy all day, with occasional misty rain. Finally it was time.
The bus ride through Panama City was interesting. We drove past the canal administration buildings. The regular city buses were very colorfully painted. It looked a lot like Puerto Vallarta. I saw a storefront completely taken over by a Coke sign. The whole store painted red. We passed some Internet cafes. Lots of street vendors. It was third world looking but not squalid, although there were some interesting decaying apartment blocks that reminded me a lot of Hong Kong.
We arrived at the boat out on the docks. I wouldn’t want to hang out there off the boat. It looked a bit rough. It was right by the Bridge of the Americas. Very pretty in that direction. The bridge looks a lot like the Sydney Harbor Bridge only smaller. The other cruisers are friendly, generally older but not all. The room is tiny as we expected but everything fits (just barely). There are no locks on the door which is a little weird for me being generally paranoid. But then again, once we’re underway there won’t be very far a thief can get.
We headed up to the sun deck for hors’ douvres. We got a welcome speech and the safety talk where we all practiced putting on our life jackets. I hope we don’t need them because they choke you. We sat with the cruise photographer at dinner. He’s primarily a studio photographer but has been to many countries. This was his second time on the Costa Rica trip.
The bed is very very firm (i.e. futon like). I hope that’s not a problem. Sitting on it to read put my butt to sleep. We’re looking forward to doing something finally tomorrow.
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