Panama to Houston

Whoever said there wasnt much to do in Panama city was wrong. I have just left and am wishing I had more time there. 

My night walk through the old city left me hankering for more. The fish markets could be an every day occurrence.  A day on the canal was fabulous and now I’ve been there, done that, and am happy. 

I spent this morning ogling modern architecture in the financial district still to find the great restaurants in my hood that I have passed a few times. The city / downtown I haven’t touched and I could have spent days exploring along the causeway leading to Flamenco Island. I would have loved to venture out of the city to see how folks live in the real world as city folks didn’t seem to different to folks in any other big city. But I loved what I saw this morning. 

I am at the airport waiting to check in after my adventure. My volunteering experience in Guatemala exceeded my expectations and I lived the extra time I had in Antigua. Sadly I left the tour not having learned anything about the 4 new countries I have travelled through and apart from some glimpses of towns I saw nothing of the people or their culture.  

I’ve become used to tourists ignoring local culture and venturing around towns and cities in what I call beach clothes. I’ve joined the masses of tourists that have sunk more alcohol in two weeks that I would normally have in months. The food has seldom inspired me and the activities on offer on my tour just didn’t do it for me. There were some activities I would have liked to do but because there were insufficient participants they did not go ahead. 

I met some lovely people, some of whom I will continue to keep in touch with. 

But for now my adventure is nearing a close. Panama to Houston shortly, then an overnight in Houston before a long time to spend hanging out before my flight home. 

At the airport I was wondering why they would charge $22 for a chicken parmigiana in a country where everything is super cheap. Then this arrived. No way I could finish it but have to say it was mighty good. 

As much as I enjoyed Panama I have to say that I have never come across such a rude grumpy bunch. The women in the hotel were lovely as was the woman who checked me in. I was pleased to see her again as we were boarding and told her she was the nicest person in the airport. She beamed. The others were grumpy, one refused to move from in front of the things she was trying to sell and the rest completed transactions with neither a word nor a smile. 

Well I’m on board and stretched out across three seats as are most the other passengers on this flight. Probably the most unprofessional flight I’ve ever been. No one checked boarding passes as we boarded. I had my stuff on the seat with my arm rests raised and no one cared. 

The conversation about refreshments was as brief as the AirNZ ‘tea/coffee’ conversation. 

Announcements are ad libbed and in a broad accent from a crew member that forgot to comb her hair and picked her uniform up off the floor today.  She is talking to us as though she is talking to a child in monosyllabic words. 

“So when the seat belt sign comes on we will do our final chat and that’s when y’all have to put your seat belts on. When we land here at Houston we are paperless. You go through immigration with your passport and FORM ….. then you collect your bag and when you have it you can go outside”. “Christmas is coming so you can buy things duty free if you want”.  Oh dear. 

Still we arrived safely and thats the main thing. 

The queue for immigration resembled that at some of the border crossings we had done. Well over an hour later I got to the desk. My ‘form’ wasnt looked at nor was the passport with my visa and I was flagged through within a few seconds. 
I even easily managed the labyrinth to get to the exit where I was told to phone for a shuttle only once I was there. That I did and was told 15 minutes. To cut a long story short the shuttle arrived in 25 minutes but we didn’t leave for 45minutes by which time the hotel restaurant had closed. I only booked this place because they had a restaurant so I was pretty peeved off. 
Doritos and tobler had to suffice for dinner and then the super high, deliciously comfortable bed forgave all sins.