Another country, another trip to the farmacia

We started Friday pretty much the same way as the prior two days. With rain. We sauntered down the boardwalk to get our coffee and breakfast. Thankfully Francine, our hostess, doesn’t ration it and we’ve been served copious amounts of French Press daily. The only glitch is that when certain monkeys are out, the accoutrements; sugar, spoons, and the like have to be put away. Breakfast was fruit and French toast with sliced bananas, nuts, and syrup. The other couple that we rode here with went back to Costa Rica yesterday, so we have the place, monkeys, and Francine’s attention to ourselves.

It rained for a good while; long enough to decide we didn’t want to swim and therefore pack wet swimsuits in our bags. So we sat around, read, and played with or brushed the monkeys. Francine made us lobster wraps and the strongest Cuba Libre I’ve ever had for lunch. Seriously, I couldn’t even taste the coke, which I assumed was the good stuff with real sugar and no HFCS.

Squirrel Monkey

Our boat taxi arrived promptly at 2 and we were off, back to Bocas to hop the puddle jumper to Panama City. When we landed in Panama City, the plan was to get an Uber to take us to the canal. The credit card being no bueno as it is, put a hitch in that plan. Cash and taxis. The first taxi outside the airport told us the Miraflores Locks were closed, which I knew, but there is a restaurant there I was hoping to at least say we’d been there. My understanding is that boats come through at all hours, and there is a restaurant open til eleven, but that the visitor center was closed. Thrown off my game, I didn’t explain that we wanted to go to the restaurant, so he just took us to our hotel. Which was for the best. Traffic was terrible and the drive to our hotel took over an hour. We got to our hotel and the cute desk girl spoke no English (In Bocas, English was widely spoken). We all figured it out, anyway. When our taxi driver dropped us off, he pointed out a good Caribbean restaurant a block away. He also said he’d be back at 7 am Saturday to pick us up and take us to the airport.

Goodbye

Our dinner was as amazing as he said it would be. We chatted a little with the waiters, who spoke a little English, and one even performed a magic show for us. The owner/chef chatted with us a little. We sauntered off down the street in the rain (again with the rain! We are so spoiled in Colorado) to have a hilarious encounter with a local and pharmacist. Purchases made, we walked back to our hotel, set an alarm for 6 am, and went to bed.

This morning, Lorenzo arrived a few minutes before 7, and we made it to the airport in no time. Breakfast was an alarming $32 US at the airport, but you do what you need to. We pulled cash knowing that once we left Panama, my trusty VISA was like Cinderella without her slipper. Now in Houston, we’ve cleared customs and immigration and gotten our Global Entry interview done. We’ve had so many trips where we were running through IAH, that this one is a breath of fresh air. We board for Denver in moments.