First Stop: Return to Panama

We are only on day one and haven’t even reached our destination country, but it feels so good to be traveling again. We’ve turned our brains on to travel mode, and we are raring to go. We are minus a family member again: Melina is having her own adventure on a cruise to Bermuda with her high school show choir! She encouraged us to take this bucket list trip without her since birding and hiking and snorkeling are not her favorite activities. We miss her tons already, and it is killing me that I haven’t heard much from her, but I know it is because she is having a wonderful time. I know this because she is an amazing and independent young woman traveling with absolutely lovely friends on a dream trip…and also because I keep texting her chaperone to check up on her (sorry, Melina!).

The plane ride was uneventful. Someone had a dog on the plane that kept making muffled barking sounds in a predictable rhythm, and Zach kept us laughing by lip synching to them.

Before we knew it we were in Panama City for our one night layover. Zach and I enjoyed Panama so much when we were here in 2021, and we had fun showing off this dynamic city to Diane. It isn’t terribly hot but the humidity is overwhelming. We wound our way through the Casco Viejo (old town), where Zach and Diane were able to warm up their cameras on the incredible skyline.

The Jenga Tower

This city is strewn with skyscrapers, and they are even more imaginative than I remembered! There is a spiraling helix-like building they call the “Jenga Tower” because of its resemblance to the game. There is a building that looks like the mainsail of a sailboat, and one that looks like it is plated in gold. But the one we gawked at the most was the one shaped like an “L” where the ends of each wing had cables strung between them at the very top: it is a ZIPLINE.  Every once in a while when you look up you can see people careening across the cables, 40 stories in the air, no net below. Absolutely terrifying.

Right across the bay from this super modern city is the colonial Casco Viejo where we are staying. Here there are colorful houses, balconies dripping with tropical vines, and families strolling and shopping. The president of Panama lives here, and we were told that is why it is such a safe and clean area. Between the skyscrapers and Casco Viejo are parks and bike paths and the famous Mercado de Mariscos. We enjoyed some ceviche (good but strangely heavy on the onions), plantains, and pina coladas while we admired all the resident cats.

We are staying in the same hotel we enjoyed our last time in Panama, and when we checked in I didn’t see the water cooler I remembered in the lobby. When I asked about it, the receptionist grimaced. “No water, I’m so sorry, it is a problem but we should get it at 6:30 tonight.” No problem, we said, we still had water in our water bottles from the airport. Unfortunately when we returned to our hotel in the evening we discovered it wasn’t just the filtered drinking water that she was talking about – the water is shut off in this whole area of the city! That means no hand washing, no showering…and no toilet flushing. This happened the last time we were in Panama! Ugh. The water did NOT turn back on at 6pm, or 8pm…or ever. We are now getting ready for our flight to Ecuador in a pretty gross state. Zach said I should title this post, “Urinetown” but I declined.

On to a new country for all three of us…Ecuador!!