Day 1

I made it to Panama City safe and sound last night, after 15 hours and 2 layovers. My first layover was in Dallas for 3 hours. When I was riding the tram to my gate, a women asked me where I was going and she lit up after I said Panama. This woman, in her late 50s to early 60s was excited because she too was going to Panama, but she lives there. Cricket (yes, that´s her name), has lived in Panama City since 1988 when her and her husband went there to do some mission work with their church in Virginia. We talked for about a half hour and she gave me a lot of pointers and dismissed some of the concerns I was having. She gave me her card and her cell phone number in case there was anything else I needed while I was in Panama. After this, I walked around and found a nice, cushy chair to sleep in for the next couple of hours.

My next layover was in Miami. At first it seemed like an ok airport, but then I went into the main check in area because I had to re-check in for my flight to Panama. How confusing! I swear, everyone that was walking through the airport had at least 4 pieces of luggage with them! I did find it interesting, though, that there was such a diverse group of people there. Another saving grace was that there was Starbucks, which I went to because I knew it would be the last one I saw for the next 10 days.

The plane I took from Miami to Panama City was a lot larger than I originally thought. When I first booked the trip, it looked as though there was going to be only 36 seats on the two and a half hour flight, but luckily the plane was much larger (a 737-800, I think, and it had 29 rows).

Once I landed in Panama City, I just kept thinking, "What the hell did I get myself into? Am I crazy? There´s no turning back now!" As soon as I walked off the plane, I played a game with myself, called "One of these things is not like the other." Can you guess what the answer was? Well, it was a white girl. Most of the people standing in the immigration line with me were from other parts of Central America or Europe. I think I was the only one in line that had a blue passport cover. After going through immigration, picking up my luggage, and then going through customs, I knew it was time to figure out how the heck I was going to get to my hotel.

It was already dark outside when I left the doors of the airport (and it was only about 7pm) and I was instantly hit with a blast of heat and humidity. Luckily there were cabs lined up at the doors and I quickly found one that was within the price range that Cricket told me should be correct for my trip from the airport to my hotel. I was kind of disappointed that it was pitch black outside, so I couldn´t really see everything (or anything for that matter) on the 20 minute cab ride. When we got close to the hotel, I kept thinking that things were ok in my surrounding areas, but then we suddenly took a left turn down a dark alley that had a bunch of guys standing around in the street. Great. My luck will be that the hotel is right there in the sketchy part of the nice area in Panama City. The hotel wasn´t too far from there, but it was not in a dark alley, thank goodness!

As soon as I got into my room, the first thing I did was look at all the walls and floors to make sure that there wasn´t anything creeping and crawling anywhere that I could see. The first impression of the room was definitely not what I expected, considering it´s one of the nicer hotels in the city. By American standards, this would be a cheap, run down hotel, but I´m not in Kansas anymore, so I know not to expect that. By Panamaian standards, this hotel was worth the price, I guess. Now, I´m glad that I paid extra for a "nice" hotel because I have no clue what I would have gotten had I spent less. At this point, I was still thinking that I´m crazy for coming here because it´s definitely going to test everything I have in me because it´s so far out of my comfort zone.

Although it was only about 8pm by the time I got to my room and situated, I knew the best thing to do was to just get some sleep and start fresh the next day. I was tired, but couldn´t fall asleep for a couple of hours, so I just sat there and though it´ll have to get better tomorrow.

When I finally woke up this morning, I quickly looked outside to see what the city actually looked like during the day. Now, it looked like a normal big city during the night, so I wasn´t expecting anything too crazy. Wow! I was wrong! Daylight does this city no favors! I am situated in one of the nicer parts of town, the banking district, but it´s defintely like no banking district I´ve ever seen before. I took some pictures from my balcony and the deck outside my front door, but didn´t want to look like a gawking tourist while standing on the streets, so you´ll have to take my word for it. Just...wow. I don´t know what I expected, but I guess not this.

Right now I´m at a mall, looking for a cell phone to use while I´m here. I better go, so I can find a cell phone, then get back to my hotel in time to check out. Later today I have to make my way to Albrook airport, so I can catch my flight to David. When I get there, luckily, there will be someone from GVN to pick me up and take me to Boquete, where I´ll be spending the next week.

I´ll update soon. Hasta luego (I shouldn´t even pretend like I know what I´m saying)!