We made it to Panama - finally :)

What a skyline!!

I say we made it to Panama finally because since we have travelled as far as Costa Rica from our house in Honduras, its strange we haven't got here sooner! But I have checked for flights from Honduras to Panama City and never found a flight under $600 each return! The cost for our flight from Vancouver to Panama City was $581 for both of us one way - including 2 meals on the second leg. So not sure why I could never find a cheap flight from San Pedro Sula.

Anyways the flight from Vancouver to San Francisco was quick - 2 hrs. The San Francisco to Panama City (6.5 hrs)  was also good - or I guess as good as an all nighter flight can be!! Maybe slept an hour. Dwayne and I were not originally seated together on the second leg but once we got on the plane and moved with other people we were at least across the aisle from each other :) An old guy sitting behind Dwayne was constantly coughing - I'm sure almost coughing up a lung!! Spitting into the puke bag -So gross!! I just put my earphones in and listened to music. Started watching a Johnny Deep movie - Black Mass from 2015 but lost interest in it, other then how great his makeup was done - couldn't tell it was him at all, just like the change of Charlize Theron in Monster! I then tried Aquaman - but other that watching Jason Momoa not much reason to watch it LOL!! So music it was😊
Our Airbnb host Adrian picked us up at the airport. WOW did the humidity ever hit us when we walked out of the airport! It was already 25C at 6:30AM. Adrian is also an uber driver here on weekends and during the week he works for the Panama bus/metro office. Panama City has had one subway line since April 2014 and just this year has a second line running but not quite completed all the way to the airport yet. He charged us only $15US for the ride.

That was another thing that surprised me - the currency here is US dollars. Didn't even think that because every other Central and South American country has its own currency. Panama does have its own coins, one being the Balboa dollar. But all paper money is US only.

So once we got to the Adrian's condo - near downtown and on the 25th floor! he showed us around and then left to go visit his dad who lives about 3 hours inland and he said it was going to be really hot there! He took us up to the rooftop so we could see all around Panama City. We're both amazed by the number of high-rises here!! Adrian will be back late Sunday night. Nice to have the whole place to ourselves for now. Even though there is only a/c in the bedroom so we pretty well hang out there!

Our bedroom just as shown in Airbnb -small but enough room for us. There is a tv but few English stations to watch 

Downtown from the rooftop! So many high-rises

That is a park just outside the BnB that has a 5km walkway around it, and in front of those high-rises are beaches 

This building is known as the F & F Tower - you'd think a building this cool would have a more exciting name! It was originally named Revolution Tower finished in 2011

Around 9 we decided to take the subway to the end of the line towards the Panama Canal. There wasn't enough time this morning to get to the canal to watch the ships go through because Adrian said that from 11AM to 1PM the locks are cleaned so no ships go through.  Have decided to go early tomorrow morning.

After taking the subway back to our stop near the BnB we stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few things for supper - found a rotisserie chicken and figured that would be good for supper along with a salad - so picked up some veggies for that. The chicken was $6.50US so not much cheaper then in Edmonton.

Once we got back with the groceries we put them away and cooled down in the bedroom - I was sweating like crazy coming up the hill where the high-rise is located! Didnt take long before we were both asleep for a couple of hours :)

Later in the afternoon we walked to a nearby shopping mall (2km away) hoping to walk around in nice a/c area. Which it was. From there we found a cab to take us to the fish market which is close to the Old City of Panama known as Casco Antiguo. Decided to take a cab there instead of walking back 2km to the nearest subway station! I asked the driver the price and he said $10 which I bawked at since I'm pretty sure most rides in the downtown area is $5 since they have zone rates. We came to an agreement of $6. On the drive there he was trying to convince me we should book him for a few hours for $70 and he would drive us around to the major sights. But I explained that we don't understand spanish that well so it wouldn't work. His price is pretty good because the hop on hop off bus is $33/ea for the day. Anyways we'll figure out more once we get going tomorrow.

HUGE prawns at the market $8 per kilo -WOW! 

Pulpo! :) 

PULPO! the vendor yells!!

After walking through the fish market we walked beside the harbour where are the fishing boats are and then saw how the main road has been taken out into the sea to get around Casco Antiguo.  On our way back towards the metro station Maps.me took us through what looked like a kinda sketchy area! Had one black guy come up to us smiling and giving us both fist pumps! Is it odd for white folk to walk thru here or wishing us luck???? LOL!! So guess it really wasn't that bad :) Eventually did find the metro station and once we got off at our station we ended up going out a different door and got totally turned around thinking we were leaving by the same door we used earlier today and started walking AWAY from our BnB, but I got us back on the right track - we're never lost (unless both our phones die!!) - we just like to add more steps to our outing!! Ended up walking 10.6kms - that should help get rid of all that food we had on the plane! LOL!!

Outside the fish market where all the fishermen are

The curved building on the right is Trump's building

They took the highway out and around Casco Antiguo (Old City)

Part of Casco Antiguo - we'll visit that area tomorrow

Another odd building - tower surrounded by apartments 

On our way back to the subway we go thru a nice park (just before the sketchy area😁 ) and bought myself a necklace for $5. My coral necklace I bought in Belize broke again while in Abbotsford - couldnt fix it since my "stuff" is in the trailer

Street food - pork, chicken and veggies :) 

This area is also known for all the discos and night entertainment

Hoping we have a little more zip in our step tomorrow after a good nights sleep 💤