Live from Panama City!
After a very harrowing airplane ordeal, we finally arrived in Panama City late on Friday night. Or I should say, rather, very early Saturday morning.
My flight was from DCA (Reagan) to Newark and then direct to Panama City. Apparently there were awful storms with hail and lightening over most of the NYC/Newark area, and right as we were about to take off from DCA they put a ground hold on planes taking off for Newark. So we sat on the tarmac for about half an hour before they decided it was going to be a long time before we could leave and it would be better to de-board us from the airplane. You can imagine the plethora of angry passengers at the Continental desk trying to figure out how to make their connecting flights—not a pleasant sight. Since there is only one Continental flight to Panama City each day I knew if I missed my connection in Newark, which seemed likely given that at this point the flight was scheduled to take off in an hour, I would have to take a flight out the next day. This was quite ironic, especially given the fact that I had given the only set of keys we now have to our apartment (because the subletter who arrives in a few days has the other set) to James before I went through security, meaning that even though our apartment is approximately five minutes from the airport I would have had to get a hotel for the night. The guy at the desk seemed to think this was the best option but also said that there was a chance the connecting flight might be delayed as well due to the weather.
I decided to risk it, figuring I could always spend the night in the Newark airport if I had to. My crazy optimism paid off, and despite the fact that we waited on the runway through another second ground delay at Newark, arriving a total of 3 ½ hours late to Newark, the second flight to Panama City was delayed even longer and I sprinted across the various Newark terminals to get to the gate, backpack flapping behind me, with what I thought was minutes to spare, but actually turned into about a half hour to spare. Even my bags arrived safely in Panama City. It was an airport miracle!
The poor Plan driver who agreed to pick us up at the airport seemed quite grumpy to be awake at 1 am to pick up two young and bedraggled girls. Finding our hostal/guesthouse was not without drama but once we arrived in the “Casa Cangrejo” we felt right at home. For the moment Leilani and I are sharing one room, but it’s quite roomy for a hostal and has a large desk, mini-fridge, and adjacent bathroom. I think we will be quite comfortable here.
Saturday and Sunday we spent orienting ourselves to the new city, getting cell phones here, going to the supermercados, etc. Sunday we decided that one of our goals is to stay motivated to work out despite our travels this summer, and we got gym memberships to a local gym. This gym is by far the nicest gym I’ve ever seen in my life! The treadmill can talk to you in 12 different languages. I watched Glee on Fox while I ran yesterday morning. Panama City is blowing me away with how international and modern it is.
We also went to a bar this afternoon to watch the Panama versus El Salvador game on their flat screen TVs. The Panameños were really into the game, and the crowd went wild when Panama won, of course. All in all, we had a great weekend of settling in, and I’m super impressed with the city. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before in Latin America. At least in the El Cangrejo neighborhood, it kind of feels like we are just hanging out in Columbia Heights, DC.
After a very harrowing airplane ordeal, we finally arrived in Panama City late on Friday night. Or I should say, rather, very early Saturday morning.
My flight was from DCA (Reagan) to Newark and then direct to Panama City. Apparently there were awful storms with hail and lightening over most of the NYC/Newark area, and right as we were about to take off from DCA they put a ground hold on planes taking off for Newark. So we sat on the tarmac for about half an hour before they decided it was going to be a long time before we could leave and it would be better to de-board us from the airplane. You can imagine the plethora of angry passengers at the Continental desk trying to figure out how to make their connecting flights—not a pleasant sight. Since there is only one Continental flight to Panama City each day I knew if I missed my connection in Newark, which seemed likely given that at this point the flight was scheduled to take off in an hour, I would have to take a flight out the next day. This was quite ironic, especially given the fact that I had given the only set of keys we now have to our apartment (because the subletter who arrives in a few days has the other set) to James before I went through security, meaning that even though our apartment is approximately five minutes from the airport I would have had to get a hotel for the night. The guy at the desk seemed to think this was the best option but also said that there was a chance the connecting flight might be delayed as well due to the weather.
I decided to risk it, figuring I could always spend the night in the Newark airport if I had to. My crazy optimism paid off, and despite the fact that we waited on the runway through another second ground delay at Newark, arriving a total of 3 ½ hours late to Newark, the second flight to Panama City was delayed even longer and I sprinted across the various Newark terminals to get to the gate, backpack flapping behind me, with what I thought was minutes to spare, but actually turned into about a half hour to spare. Even my bags arrived safely in Panama City. It was an airport miracle!
The poor Plan driver who agreed to pick us up at the airport seemed quite grumpy to be awake at 1 am to pick up two young and bedraggled girls. Finding our hostal/guesthouse was not without drama but once we arrived in the “Casa Cangrejo” we felt right at home. For the moment Leilani and I are sharing one room, but it’s quite roomy for a hostal and has a large desk, mini-fridge, and adjacent bathroom. I think we will be quite comfortable here.
Saturday and Sunday we spent orienting ourselves to the new city, getting cell phones here, going to the supermercados, etc. Sunday we decided that one of our goals is to stay motivated to work out despite our travels this summer, and we got gym memberships to a local gym. This gym is by far the nicest gym I’ve ever seen in my life! The treadmill can talk to you in 12 different languages. I watched Glee on Fox while I ran yesterday morning. Panama City is blowing me away with how international and modern it is.
We also went to a bar this afternoon to watch the Panama versus El Salvador game on their flat screen TVs. The Panameños were really into the game, and the crowd went wild when Panama won, of course. All in all, we had a great weekend of settling in, and I’m super impressed with the city. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before in Latin America. At least in the El Cangrejo neighborhood, it kind of feels like we are just hanging out in Columbia Heights, DC.
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