Panama City, Panama
On Thursday, March 15th, we flew from Cartagena to Panama City via Bogotá. Mike asked us if we had ever been patted down by Customs before. Of course, we said no. Mike warned us that we could be patted down in Bogotá. Pete was disappointed; we only had our backpacks scrutinized. Customs was interested in the cardboard box (4 feet by 4 inches by 4 inches) that Karen was carrying. She explained it contained charts or maps, which they did not understand so she had to break out the Spanish-English dictionary and find the word for maps. Turns out that they do not understand maps but mapa was very clear to them. Later we noticed when we picked up our luggage in Panama that the cardboard box had about 10 holes stabbed in it. We are still not sure why.Panama is one big sauna. One day we went to the Parque Natural Metropolitano (rain forest in the middle of the city) at 8 AM to go bird watching. No, we're not really bird watchers but Panama is known for its birds. By 10 AM it was 95° in the sun. We saw many different animals: falcon, squirrel, yellow-oriole, 5 species of hummingbird in one tree, small snake that I almost stepped on, many finches, titi (or tiki - not sure of spelling) monkeys, and heard a toucan bird. I bet you're wondering how we were smart enough to identify all these animals. We're not. We ran into a German guy, whose hobby has been bird watching for the past 25 years. You'll never guess what he told us his name was. Woody! Pete almost lost control of himself and burst out laughing when he told us his name. We wonder if woodpeckers are his favorite bird. We never asked. After the park, we took a taxi to the Balboa Yacht Club, which turned out to be one pier and about 30 moorings. After we take the boat through the canal, we believe we will end up here for a few days. We thought we would check it out in advance. The restaurant at the club was a cement slab with a tin roof. The menu specialized in hot dogs and hamburgers. After lunch we decided to walk the causeway (a thin bit of land that linked 4 islands together west of the yacht club, on the 2nd island is a marine exhibit run by the Smithsonian). The guidebook stated it was a 15-minute walk from the yacht club to the causeway. An hour and 30 minutes later we reached the marine exhibit. In the sun, it was now 103° according to Pete's watch. Luckily we had two big water bottles with us. The marine exhibit was 90% outdoors, which was disappointing after that walk. There were signs explaining the marine life in the area. They had an aquarium that consisted of 4 big fish tanks that were all outside under a tin roof. Two had coral and fish from the Caribbean and 2 had coral and fish from the Pacific. A guide let us hold some of the animals. We held a starfish, sea cucumber, and a sea urchin. We took a taxi back to the hotel and relaxed.
We stayed at the Las Vegas Suites Hotel. Our room had a small kitchen with a microwave and one other appliance. This appliance was a combination refrigerator, 2 burners and a sink. We've never seen anything like it before. One disadvantage of being unemployed for the next year is that we can't afford to eat out every night. There was a 24 hour grocery store about 2 blocks from our hotel. You can get everything we can get in the US. Many of the items are the same (Ivory soap, Tide, Cheerios). Some items are cheaper and some are more expensive than the US.
One night we feasted on Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, which is a very fattening meal. Pete was in heaven; this is one of his favorite meals. He joked about needing to fatten up before the 30 day Pacific Ocean crossing. So much for losing 20 lbs at the beginning of our trip. Down the street from our hotel was Hotel Continental which has a casino with a few roulette, blackjack, Caribbean stud poker tables , and something called Canal poker. The casino also included about 30 slot and poker machines. For two nights, we walked down there and Karen gambled. So far, Karen lost $2 USD (Panama uses the USD as its currency) in the nickel video poker machines and Pete has watched Caribbean stud poker but he hasn't played. Pete asked - there is no live poker in Panama.