Panama, The Canal and Beyond

Panama, The Canal and Beyond – Travel Day

Travel Day – 5/6 November 2014

You ever get that feeling that you’ve left home without something? It never fails. I’m in the taxi on the way to the airport and I’m sure I’ve forgotten something. It was like my bag packed itself this time and I don’t trust it.

I’ll figure it out when I’m somewhere over Kansas, I’m sure.

And no, I didn’t forget to remove my cat from my luggage. She’s safely stowed in a kennel for this trip.

Well, I didn’t forget my passport. That’s the one thing that ensures I don’t make it to 36,000 feet over Kansas. I checked in and despite the new AC policy on checked bags, people are walking away from the counter with full sized carryons. I get up to the counter and a woman standing behind the clerks looks at me and says she was in biology class with me.

Not to date myself…but that was 1983. How on earth does someone who knew me for a few weeks in 1983 recognize me?? I didn’t have the first clue who she was. Is that Mother Nature’s way of saying that I’m aging well?

So, while we’re chatting, the clerk with my passport asks me if I have a visa for Panama.

Visa? What visa? Well, I just aged the 30 years.

I tell her I’m pretty certain that a visa isn’t required for the short visit and she goes on researching it and I go on reminiscing with Miss Biology. I look around for another clerk who I know works there. She was in grade school for nine years with me. I remember her.

The clerk finally says that a visa isn’t required and my blood pressure drops. (It didn’t help that I just started planning a tour of Vietnam, which does require a visa, so I had visa on the brain and yes, I had that brief moment of mix-up in the grey matter).

I’m not able to check in for my flights to Bogota and Panama City, which isn’t a big problem. I’m spending the night in Toronto. I hop on the flight and find that regs have changed for using small electronics. We don’t have to turn them off or stow them for take off and landing. And they announce that there’s wifi on the flight.

Sweet.

If you can connect. I get a screen that tells me I have to be within 100 miles of the US to connect, but even when we were, I didn’t get a connection. Wonder if the flight to Bogota tomorrow will have it.

I entertained myself with the latest Transformers movie and am happy I didn’t spend $10.50 at the theatres for that one. We landed just after 8 pm and being in the back row, I deplaned at 8:20. I was in my room at the Alt hotel by 8:40. Love that hotel. Incredibly convenient.

So, I get in and given the very long day coming up, I decide to take a shower.

And then I drop the 2 lb bottle of conditioner on my foot.

Ouch.

I don’t think much of it at first and then as I’m getting into bed, I see the bubble forming on top of my foot! Well, you want to see a Newf scramble? Only one thing to remember if you get swelling after a boo-boo. RICE – rest, ice, compression, elevation.

I’ve never located an ice machine so fast. Last thing I needed was a swollen foot a few hours before a 6 hour flight. I put the ice in a plastic bag, tied it to my foot, took the generous supply of pillows and elevated the foot and then laid back to watch Ice Pilots.

Yes, I really did. That wasn’t a pun…though watching a show about -50 degree temps and flying was soothing…in a way.

An hour and a half later, I felt safe enough to sleep. Luckily I had tossed my tensor bandage in my luggage…or rather..luckily, my luggage was thinking ahead and packed the tensor. That’s the compression part.

Then I sleep. Rest.

It wasn’t a restful sleep though. I had a wake up call for 5 am and fell asleep after midnight. But the top of my foot was flat when I woke up and what better thing to pull on that foot this morning than a flight sock. Compression in spades.

I’m in the airport by 5:30 and lines are non-existent. Gotta love Bag Drop. I was able to get a luggage tag to send my bag to Panama via Bogata but wasn’t able to get a boarding pass, so I’ll have to hunt that down on arrival.

Internet in Pearson is still as spotty as ever. Best spot is near Tim Hortons. Sad that TO can’t have a more reliable service. The flight took off on time and I had a sweet Columbian woman next to me who has been living in Canada for 35 years. I took the window seat for this flight but didn’t like being trapped there when she took a nap. From here on, it’s the aisle seat D.

We landed in Bogota six hours later. As I walked off the ramp, there was an agent there with my name on a sheet. She had my boarding information.

Sweet! And unexpected. She told me what I needed to know and with 8 hours to spare, I took my time finding the Avianca ticket counter where two very helpful employees printed out my boarding pass.

I wandered around the departures area of the airport, got a Big Mac and decided there must be more to do after security, so I went in. The girl there did a double check at my flight number….and I nodded. Yes, I have 7 more hours.

Viator actually offers a tour of the city from the airport. I should have signed up for it. They cater it to however much time you have and I had time in spades.

As it turned out, I had some editing work to do, and thankfully, there were plug kiosks after security. I walked to an empty one at the far end of the terminal and spent more than 5 hours tapping away.

I need a massage.

I did get a lot of work done and boarded the flight at 10 pm. I was wasted. The flight to Panama City is just over an hour and they managed to get a meal served in that time. A plane that was ¼ full helped. The views of Bogota and Panama City at night were impressive and the flight bumpy.

We land at Tocuman just after midnight and as we’re all walking down the terminal, another flight empties into the empty hallway right in front of us. Usually, you wouldn’t think much of that, until you see the immigration line.

Oh man, it was a good thing I didn’t need the washroom. If I had stopped to go before the line-up, I’d still be there.

It looks like they’re doing some renovations and the area looks temporary with only about 8 or 9 clerks on, but 3 were for locals/air crew and the other 6 for the other 500 people in the line.

It took me a full hour to get through the line and I picked up my bag, put it through the x-ray machine and walked out to arrivals. My voucher said to look for someone from Gamboa Tours and after I looked at the half dozen signs there, I started having flashbacks to my South Africa tour with Brendan when they didn’t know I was coming.

But like South Africa, I found a rep of the company there to pick up someone else. He called the office and said he’d take me to the hotel no problem. Luckily, the guy he was waiting for was behind me in the line and came out 20 minutes later.

It took about 20 minutes to get to the hotel and there was a pretty chipper young man on the front desk. He got me checked in fast and at 2 am – 21 hours after I woke in Toronto – I crawled into my room, dropped everything and went to bed.

I didn’t even bother to check for internet. That just goes to show how tired I was.