30 dollar cab ride each way + 2xs $10 tourist card and no money = 7 hours and 10 minutes in the San Salvador airport

The San Salvador airport is actually really pretty nice - the stores are all very up scale - Gucci, Lacoste, etc. and it does have wifi, but still, its been a long 4 hours thus far. Its interesting because the airport is totally in the middle of nowhere and seems to periodically empty out. For much of our time here, hanging out by TACA Puerta 15, we've been outnumbered by airport personnel 10:1.

When a flight is about to board, the rope off half of the airport, set up tables, and search everyones bags. There are tons of guards here and police posters warning travelers a "no transporte drogas!" I don't think that it was any coincidence that we were greeted by a drug dog when we got off our flight from Panama... (Columbias northern neighbor).

Casco Viejo or New Orleans?

Miraflores Locks

We figured that we would be met with confused looks for the rest of our lives if we had gone to Panama without seeing the canal, so we decided that we had better go check it out.

They only run boats through the locks a few times a day, so we were lucky that our cab driver/tour guide was able to get us there in time. We rushed up the steps and up to the viewing deck just in time to see water pouring in to the lock. Then, for the next 15 minutes, we watched the water level rise nearly imperceptibly. It was not the most exciting thing that I have ever witnessed...

They did have a museum that told the history and future plans for the locks that was pretty interesting . We watched the Spanish version of a documentary that tracked all of the attempts at creating a passage between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. That put things in perspective a bit, but overall, the locks were cool but a boring!

Fun side note: When Adam set the metal detector off, the guide asked if he had a camera or cell phone. When Adam said that he did, he sent us in... Adam later realized that it was likely the switchblade in his pocket that had done it!

Ciudad de Panama

Seven mangos for a dollar?

Photocopies and lamination in vans on the street corners?

Hundreds of bathroom sized restaurants selling everything from soup to fried chicken on on the sidewalk?

Wild school busses decked out like hippie vans, blasting music and sporting bike tassels and shark fins dodging through through crowded streets?

Yes please. :)

Panama City, or simply "Panama" as everyone in the country seems to call it, was pretty amazing. It was like nothing neither Adam or I had experienced before - huge, modern and metropolitan, while still maintaining all of its Central American flair. Some people say its the Miami of the south, except with more english spoken!

The city skyline sweeps along the Pacific Coast and is within sight of the Panama Canal. Like any city, it has good parts and bad, and there is tons of diversity. There is still quite a bit of American influence (although not as much as in the past) and new army housing being built on the borders of the city. There are Brazilians, Colombians and of course Panamanians, and Barbadians and Chinese from the canal construction days.

The city itself has very modern highways and overpasses with pedestrian bridges and brick walking/bike path along the bay. There are huge sky scraping apartment buildings and offices, and low slung and often poorly maintained stores and housing complexes. Lots of new construction with gruas all over the city working on new buildings. The city is loud and fast, with lots of traffic, police officers, and tiny one way streets that apparently change direction overnight.

Tons of street vendors making snow cones (with or without malt) hand shaved from blocks, shining shoes, washing cars parked on the streets with buckets and of course selling lottery tickets and toothbrushes.

I feel like we were able to see the highlights in just one day, but wish that we had had longer to explore. We didn't tackle the huge independent bus system or eat any meals in the little restaurant boxes. On our way to the airport the next day, we also became aware of just how much of the city we had missed. It's pretty huge and would be cool to visit again.

Bussing it across Panama

Our deluxe ride was pretty nice and took plenty long enough, especially for being the express trip! When the bus arrived to the station, we put our luggage underneath and got tags to present to retrieve it later. We had assigned seats and probably watched about 4 movies dubbed into Spanish. One of the only strange things about the experience was our lunch stop at a roadside plaza. It was basically a rest stop for buses, but the food was cafeteria style. It was our first encounter with horchata - a drink made out of milk, rice powder, cinnamon and vanilla. We were stopped by immigration officials and had to present our passports, but overall the trip was pretty uneventful. Especially as we got closer to the city, it was really interesting to see how ... American things became.

Hacer esnorkel y las playas!

Just like Gilligan - Stranded on a Tropical Isle

Sunday morning we were walking around Bocas, trying to get our day planned out, and stopped to inquire about express tickets to Panama City (they cost more, but get you there without transfers in a mere ten hours). We found out that we had two options, a day bus at 8am, or a night one at 7pm.

We went back to the hotel to swim and think about it, and when we returned like an hour and a half later, they were ALL sold out. Both trips. So, left with the option to either wait another day and leave Tuesday or still leave Monday and coordinate a trip on our own that would probably take a minimum of 16 hrs, we decided to stay put. One more day at the beach isn't all that bad, I guess......

We ended up getting a water taxi to take us to one of the other islands, arranging for a round trip ride. It was kind of sketchy because we didn't even know where we were going and simply asked to go somewhere where we could swim. Our driver threw in a snorkel mask and had us jump out of the boat at a beach surrounded by no tresspassing signs.... Someone can own the jungle, but not the beach, right??? We had it to ourselves for the first few ours and then a few small boats showed up with people to swim and snorkel. It was called Playa Ladrones and, luckily, our driver came back to bring us home ;)