Day one: surviving transit

My apologies if any of the formatting is off. I didn’t want to travel with my laptop so the next few posts will be from my phone.

I had an early flight this morning and got to the airport without much time to spare. Note to self: Never book
vacation flights before noon!

Got to the airport, made my connection to Dulles and met some of the people I’m hanging out with this week at the airport. They were heading straight to the resort but I wanted to spend some time in Panamá City so I’m at the Hilton Garden Inn tonight. It feels like home.

I’ve been having a problem with my bank so I’m low on cash until pay day (or until things get straightened out, but pay day is probably sooner) so I only have $40 cash until the end of the month. Since I need $35 for the shuttle to the resort I decided to not take a cab at the airport (which the internet says is ~$30) and opted for the bus instead. The internet said to head right out of the airport terminal and follow the covered walk way until you get to the bus stop. The buses heading towards the city pick up across the roundabout so I stood there with a crowd and waited. I knew I needed a Via España bus. I also knew that the fancy buses require a metro card and I didn’t have one. I was ready to pay someone $2 to use their metro card for me, but a Red Devil bus came before an air conditioned bus so I hopped on.

(selfie on the bus)
Boy am I glad I don’t have personal space issues. I was 3 across in an old Blue bird school bus. All of the old signage was in English so I believe Panama gets American school buses when they are put out to pasture.

I had my google maps and I followed the route periodically. The red devil stops every 5 feet so we moved at a snails pace regardless of traffic. Oh well. For $0.25 to get from the airport to less than 1/2 a mile from my hotel is nice.

In addition to my cheap transportation I also got a free view of the city.

my bulkhead on Copa

Engrish on the Customs form

Lunch on Copa

Creature comforts

view before landing