Welcome guest blogger: Ryan!
The next morning we awoke to the familiar sounds of crashing waves, tropical birds and the occasional howler monkey. We got our stuff together and met Helene in the restaurant and waited for our cab. The sunrise was beautiful. It always seems to be a nice day when you are leaving your current destination. During the bumpy ride out of playa bluff I had a banana and a cipro for breakfast. We got to the airport one hour prior to departure checked in and stood waiting. There was a lost crab wandering through the airport, which provided some entertainment while waiting. We eventually went through security two people at a time. They never really told you when the people in front of you were done so we had to guess and just enter the black tinted security room. On a side note the man behind me was complaining about how crappy the security system was, and unfortunately for me he emitted a horrible odor of sweat, booze and garlic, needless to say I did not indulge him in conversation. We all got through security and sat in another room waiting, with no plane to be seen. The plane arrived and we took off exactly one hour after our scheduled time. Steph boarded before me and by the time I got on all the seats around her were taken so I had to sit up front. For the next 45 minutes I regretted putting my bag in the overhead, because the views of Bocas from the air were stunning. A series of turquoise reefs surrounding islands was a beautiful sight from the sky.
We arrived grabbed a ham and cheese empanada, two café con leches and got some money out of the ATM and headed to Mamallena.
After checking in we walked to Calle Argentina and had lunch at café Beruit. The food was great and the restaurant was even nicer. In the words of Steph “It smells like Lebanon.” Upon entering the restaurant you were immediately struck with the smell of spices and hookah, which smelled wonderful. We strolled down the street some more and went into a huge supermarket to get some supplies for San Blas. Our afternoon sugar fix was cured with a banana split. We walked back to the hotel and grabbed about 3 gallons of water for San Blas since water is not provided and apparently drastically overpriced on the Island. For the past two days we have been discussing our San Blas trip and deciding if we are even going to visit the Islands. We read some blogs about the islands and came to the conclusion that we would skip it and try and take an earlier flight home. This decision was fueled by the expense of getting to and from San Blas and the fact that we had already spent 5 days lazing on beautiful beaches. We grabbed a veggie pizza from Hola Pizza and then went to make our call to American Airlines. We tried to use the phone at Mamallena but they charge 25 cents per minute for local calls! In an amusingly familiar situation we walked down the street to a cabina to make a call. However the circumstances were quite different but we laughed none the less. Via the website we anticipated a charge of 150 per person to make changes. To our amazement they would only charge us 65 per person and it was not an issue to leave tomorrow. In less than 15 minutes we had flights for manana. We cancelled our San Blas trip, told Mamallena what was going on and went to bed.
I awoke at 2:45 and had to go to the bano and when I got back I was WIDE awake. I sat in bed for the next 90 minutes not being able to sleep. I got up and brought the computer outside to look at pictures and edit some of our journal. After a half hour I was getting sleepy and I went back to the room and sleep till 7:00. I quickly got up brushed my teeth and we had a pretty nice hostel breakfast. We smashed two nature valley bars, sliced some banana and added yogurt. This was accompanied by coffee and a pancake. Our first pancake stuck to a sad looking pan like super glue.
Our plan was to go to the “handicraft” market to grab a few last minute souvenirs for Alex and grab some magnets for our fridge. We planned on taking a cab but ended up walking the whole way. The walk was fun because we walked through some markets and got to experience the morning rush in Panama City. I stopped to grab a pastry that I have been eyeballing for the past week, and it was delicious. We are still not sure if we officially found the market because all we found were second world electronic stores and stalls with sunglasses, belts and not much else. We did manage to find one handicraft store and found a mask which we can use as a magnet.
Panama City was lacking in the tourist souvenir department and we found nothing to bring back except our newly purchased paper mask and a coffee bag. We grabbed a cab back to the hostel, checked out and sat around Mamallena for a little while before leaving on our shuttle. Steph took some last minute video of the city and we boarded our flight to Miami. While boarding we met a couple from Puerto Rico who said they were spending their sons inheritance on travel which make me chuckle. The woman next to us on the plane talked up Guatemala and had some Yellow Springs Ohio connections. We ended up moving one row back so her and her husband could sit next to each other. The two rows behind us were empty so we had plenty of room and I could lean my seat back without feeling bad.
update: after dinner in MIA at la carreta we are home safe and sound in Columbus. Thanks for following along!
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