Sheep Guarding Llama

We were ever so thankful this morning that we had already taken all of the time and effort to have gotten the car situation sorted out so that we did not have to do hours of extra driving this morning.  That would have been awful.  And far, far better than the original plan of having to have driven out to Playa Blanca from Panama City this morning!

Most of us were up before eight but it still took until at least nine before we had everyone into the car and on to the road heading to Panama City.  This time it was me driving everyone.  Bob riding up front and Dominica and the girls in the back.

The drive went pretty quickly this morning.  I made good time and we did not have to stop anywhere the whole way and traffic was not bad.  We took the Bridge of the Americas and the Southern Corridor, back tracking the way that we went yesterday to leave the city.

I was super impressed with myself for being able to drive the entire way from our condo in Playa Blanca, several hours to Panama City, across the city and through the neighbourhoods to get all of the way back to Bob’s family’s house in Brisas de Golf without any maps or directions!  We did run into some insane traffic near Bob’s family’s neaighbourhood and had to get off of the path and reroute a little and Bob did verify some of that with a map, but even there we knew what we were doing and got right back onto the right path.

We got to the house and Paul was waiting for us.  We had through that Maria was going to be there too but she was running behind and was far away.  After about fifteen minutes we decided to run out and meet her somewhere on the way to Colón once Bob had decided that he was not going to be going with us.

We followed the directions that we were given to meet Maria and that took us completely in the wrong direction and we had no idea where we were supposed to be.  That turned from being a simple thing into a rather big ordeal for no reason.

We took the North Corridor and finally found where we were supposed to be, met up with Maria, Paul rode with her and we convoyed up route 9 to Colón.  The original plan for today was to take the train that goes from Panama City to Colón but the train does not run on weekends (and we discovered that it is super expensive and the schedule for it is just crazy.)  So instead we are driving up.

The drive went quickly and we ended up (since Paul was directing things) going to a surprise location not in the city.  First we went to see the new canal construction where the Panama Canal is being expanded to accommodate more traffic.  We stopped and took a few pictures.  Then we drove up to the Gaton Lock and got to see some huge cargo ships going through.  That was really neat.

We actually waited for one of the ships to pass and got to drive THROUGH the lock!  There is a tiny bridge that goes along the bottom of it and we were inside where the ship had just been.  So cool.

On the other side of the lock we drove way, way out on this little country road in the middle of nowhere.  At one point Paul and Maria had a howler monkey run across the road in front of them!  We were far out in the wilderness to the west of Colón.  We ended up going through the old U.S. military base that was abandoned out there, which was pretty neat to see.  The remnant of American colonization abroad.

There was a marina there, hidden in amongst the old base, where we stopped and had a very nice late lunch.  We were right on the water amongst a lot of smaller ships.  The place was not very busy but there were one or two people there who had arrived by ship and a handful of tables that drove in like we did.

It was a nice location and we enjoyed the food.  They had calamari which made Luciana very happy.  Everyone got either fish and chips or fish tacos.

Returning from the old military base we stopped first in the base so that Paul could find a bit of Caribbean water and get his feet in it and take a picture there.  Then on the drive back in the mangroves we found a better place for him to get into the water so we took more pictures there.

When we returned to the lock we ended up in a rather long line of cars waiting to get back over.  We had to wait for one ship and we might have been so far back in the line that we got stuck and had to wait for a second.  Just before we were going to go through the lock a taxi that was about a dozen cars in front of us broke down in the middle of the locks and had to be pushed through manually!  We were pretty sure that we were going to be trapped for a while on the western side of the canal!

Once we were back through we ran through the outskirts of Colón, got gas and drove back down to Panama City.  There was a light rain on the way down, which Panama really needs right now.

We got back to where we had met Maria and we parted ways there.  We squeezed Paul back in to our car and drove him back to Bob’s in laws where they are spending the rest of the weekend.  This is the last that we will see of them until SpiceWorld in late September.

We got on the road and did the long drive back to Playa Blanca.  Actually it was not that bad of a drive at this time of night.  It was late enough and being Saturday night there was really no traffic and we made great time.  It was really dark.

Sadly after two weeks of everyone saying “it’s a miracle that no one gets hit out here with all of these people walking along and running across the highway”, we saw a guy who apparently had run across the highway to get to a bus stop and did not make it.  He was still partially in the road right in front of the bus stop but was nearly all covered by the sheet.  That made for a somber drive home.

It was very late when we pulled back into the condo.  Everyone was right off to bed.  It was a very long day.  And tomorrow we are going to be setting off to explore Panama for the first time without extra people since we have gotten here.  So it is going to be a rather busy day.  We only have a car from time to time so we have to be rather judicious with it when we have the access.

The original plan had been to work in Panama City all day today and have a dinner thing tonight until quite late and then to head back to Playa Blanca early tomorrow morning to deal with car logistics and get Bob back out to Panama City to deal with the airport.

But first thing this morning, Paul and Bob stopped by the DoubleTree and said that we were changing plans and all of the stuff for today had been called off and that we were going to head back to deal with the cars today instead. So pretty much first thing I got all of my stuff together, got checked out of the hotel and we drove Paul back to the east, which took quite some time, to drop him off with Bob’s in laws where Paul will be spending the night.

I navigated and Bob drove from eastern Panama City out to Playa Blanca.  That actually went pretty well.  The drive out was a bit slow as we had a lot of traffic on the way.  All day Friday you have the holiday weekend traffic going on between Panama City and the beaches to the west.  It makes for a very long drive.

It was very early in the afternoon when we arrived in Playa Blanca. Dominica had not told the girls that I was coming home this afternoon.  They were pretty excited when I came through the door.

Our first order of business was getting me working and caught up.  We did that right away and then over to National Car Rental and picked up another Toyota Yaris for me so that I could drive everyone back to Panama City tomorrow morning.

No problems getting the car.  That was easy and mostly cheap this time.  Then back to the condo working until evening.

Once it was late, Bob and I drove out to El Valle and dropped off his mother in law’s car and I drove him back to Playa Blanca where he had decided to spend the night to make things easier for tomorrow.

It was pretty late when we were finally back and everyone was pretty tired.  So more or less right off to sleep for us.  The girls are both sleeping in the bed with Dominica and me in the master suite and Bob is sleeping in the girls’ room tonight.

Considering that I was up until four thirty this morning I was pretty impressed with myself for waking up on my own at seven thirty!  Up and getting started on the day nice and early.

I have nothing scheduled during the day today.  We had a lunch set up today but sadly Bob’s friend that we were going to be lunching with had a heart attack yesterday and is in the hospital.  He had to have a bypass but seems to be doing okay at this point.  Bob and Paul ended up going to lunch without me across town with Bob’s cousin.

I just spent the day working from the hotel room.  This allowed me to get a bit done and to have some time to really relax as it was nice and quiet.

After lunch Bob and Paul stopped by to catch me up and to talk for about an hour.  Then they took off and decided to call it a day.  They had a busy day yesterday and wanted to get in early and spend the evening with Bob’s family with whom they were staying since our evening plans had all been cancelled anyway.

Maria came by in the late afternoon and gave me a ride to the Pacific Mall so that I could hit the MacStore (not to be confused with the Apple Store) in the hopes of finding a replacement power cable for my MacBook Pro and a Thunderbolt to HDMI cable so that we could hook up the laptop to the television in the house.

That took a bit of the day but I did manage to find the cables that I needed (and it only cost $130!!)  Argh.

After work this evening Brynne stopped by and we headed into Casco Viejo via taxi and just started walking to see what we could find.  We stumbled quickly on a roof top terrace where we found amazing food and the best vodkatinis ever.  Ginger pear vodka martinis.  So good.  And the best bruschetta I have ever had.

After dinner there we hit an art gallery and hung out there for a little bit just because it seemed interesting.  Then we walked all over the old town and settled on sitting outside on the water front where we ran into a group of Londoners, two of whom had moved to Panama and talked to us for a while about living in Panama and having moved from Columbia.

We thought, and were told, that everything was going to be closed by this point but before completely giving up on food (our earlier food had been very light because we thought that Maria and her friend were going to meet us later on but their evening meeting ended up being over five hours instead of one!!) we walked a little bit down the water front and discovered the Whisky Bar which turned out to be the best find of the night.

The drinks and the food at Whisky Bar were amazing and the kitchen was open incredibly late.  They did whisky-themed tapas and so we just kept sampling.  Everything was great.

I will be going back to the Whisky Bar for sure.  Best find in Casco Viejo.

This morning Bob picked me up bright and early.  We had to be on the road very early so that we could get all of the way up to Panama City while it was still morning.  Paul (and Brynne) and driven up to Panama City last night.

The drive went fine, no issues.  We ended up missing the Bridge of the Americas and got stuck taking the central bridge and coming down from the north side of Panama City which was pretty awesome and wasted all kinds of time.

Getting to the DoubleTree was an exercise in dealing with big city traffic.  That was no fun at all.  I was very glad that I was not the one that was driving and dealing with all of it.

Finally we got into the DoubleTree driveway and after waiting for a ridiculous about of “line problems” with the waiting line (they kept letting people line jump) I managed to get checked into the hotel and up to my room.  At least I was able to get into my room quite early.

The room was nice but not up to DoubleTree standards.  Comfortable for sleep, the bed and linens were great, but the office chair and overall furniture situation left something to be desired.  The Internet access was an unnecessary pain.  But the room was pretty good overall.

Pitty and Paul were there shortly after we got there and Maria arrived a few hours later. A little bit after noon we rode with Pitty up to the Colón Free Zone to meet with someone.  The Free Zone was super interesting.  It is part of the port up on the Caribbean side of the country and is a tax free zone.  We had to go through security to get into it.  Everything there has not passed through customs.  It is like a city within a city.  I’ve never seen anything like it before.  It was very educational.

After work, around seven thirty, Brynne met us at the DoubleTree and we all walked down to the Executive Hotel to eat at the Executive Cafe which Maria had told us about.  It is, apparently, a staple of Panama City and is much like a high end, Panamanian Denny’s.  It very much had a diner menu and was open long hours.

We all shared a bit order or Nachos Gringos which was perfect as we were nearly all gringos.  So it was Nachos Gringos con gringos!  They were delicious.  I also got huevos rancheros which were amazing.

Bob and Paul had to take off really eary, around eight thirty, to get back to the house.  So that left Maria, Brynne and I with nowhere to go.  So we want back up the street and ended up grabbing a few beers at an open air bar right across the street.  They had a nice selection of craft beers and we tried a few things.  Hardcore IPA for me.

Maria had to get going because she had a meeting to get to.  So Brynne and I decided that since it was early that we would just walk to a bar that Maria had been telling us about.  Before Maria could leave, though, she offered to give us a ride because that was where she was headed to pick someone up.

Maria’s friend ended up wanting to join us so the four of us ended up staying out until the bar closed down, sitting out on the upstairs balcony near the water front, but not close enough to see the water.

Once the bar closed down, Maria took her friend home and Brynne and I set off to walk back to the DoubleTree but we decided that we would attempt getting some food as it had been about seven hours since we had had dinner.  We tried going back to the Executive Cafe but they were closed even though everyone had been telling us that they were open twenty four hours a day.

There was another place just up the street called “something” Azul, but that place was closed too.  We asked some locals and were sent on to a place called El Prado, which later we were told is a staple of Panama City’s late night eating scene.

The walk proved to be really, really far and the directions that we were given were not good but some locals that we ran into on the street were headed that way and walked there with us to make sure that we made it.  We would never have found it on our own!

It was about three thirty when we got “dinner”.  Brynne got a cuban, I got shrimp fried rice.  It was a huge menu and quite varied.  Very obvious why they are a popular late night stop in Panama City.

 

I was up around seven thirty this morning.  Dominica was up not long after me.  Liesl had slept in our bed last night because she found an ant in her bed when she was trying to sleep last night and freaked out and needed to sleep with us.

Once the girls were up this morning we got them ready and right out the door, which was about nine thirty, to walk down to the beach and spend the morning in the ocean.  We actually did really well and put in probably two hours down on the beach!  It was pretty awesome.  That was a great way to start the day.  We got some exercise as the walk is pretty far and the girls had an awesome time playing out on the beach.

The tide was going out when we got there so we got to slowly move out with it. The girls had so much fun playing in the sand. Dominica sat on a chair and I spent my time walking the beach.  The girls did a lot of shell collecting.  I found the outlet of the Farollon River and we played in that too.  We discovered tons of crabs living in the rocks there too.  It was very interesting.  The girls got to see their first crabs.

I got a little bit of sun today.  Still don’t really have a tan, though.  I can’t believe how much sun I get and how little tan I pull off from it.

I worked all day standing at the kitchen counter.  I am trying to avoid sitting too much which is so easy to do.  The chairs in these rental places are terrible for trying to actually work.

Liesl managed to do a bit of school today.  Keeping in that habit with all of the moving is very hard.

This evening Dominica and I sat outside.  I had a lot of database documentation work that I needed to do this evening so I was working on that and wrapped it up around midnight.

Bob is coming to pick me up around seven thirty in the morning and we are driving out to Panama City.  I will be staying at the Hilton DoubleTree Panama City all week.  Going to be a long day.