Trip to Panama

Hey all,

So I left this morning for 9 days of leave, starting in Panama. I took the shuttle from the base to the airport, a 44 passenger bus that had two passengers. I got to the airport with six hours until my flight. I guess it beat having to pay 50-60 bucks for a cab from base. I was so early that I couldn´t even check in since the counter wasn´t manned yet.

Since I had so much time, I started with a cup of coffee at the ¨starbuck¨ of Honduras, called Cafe Americano, it is actually pretty decent coffee, especially when compared with the foul stuff they serve at the dining facility on base. I sat there and started readling this new book, a reprint of a pulp fiction book from the 50´s call ¨Home is a Sailor¨. After an hour, I checked, the counter had just opened up and I was able to check my bag. Then I went for lunch at a chinese place across the street from the airport and for four buck, got enough food to serve two and a half people. I thought it was comforting to see a group of eight cops come walking in to have a chinese lunch. I continued to read the book. I walked back to the airport, sat down in the food court and continued on the book. I finally made my way to the gate (having my water confiscated enroute, thanks to the Latin American inclination to emulate the foolish rules of the paranoid, senseless administration of the north) got on the plane and promtly finished the book. It was perhaps the easiest read that I have had in a long while, but really fun reading complete trash.

The flight was on Copa Airlines, a pretty good sized airline based out of Panama, it is a partner with Continental and their entire network. The plane was nice, clean and newer. There were two legs, the first stopped in San Jose, Costa Rica where I was a bit surprised to see a big tent like hangar emblazoned with the NASA logo, and a medium bodied jet with UND on the side and the NASA logo on the tail. I have no idea what they are doing down here, but I am curious. The second leg took me to Panama City, I really enjoyed looking down on the final approach and seeing dozens of ships at anchor, waiting to transit north from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Tomorrow I tour the city and see some of the canal, Monday I take a train ride along the length of the canal.

A final thought, I think it was interesting that on both legs of the flight, they offered not just a beverage, but food!! The first leg it was a turkey sandwich that was fair, and a little packet of oreos. The second leg it was a warmed cheese and ham thingy, which was less than fair. But I do give them a whole bunch of credit for at least serving something other and peanuts or pretzels.

I think that is about it for now. I changed time zones, ahead one hour, so now I am back on central time. I was looking through my ¨Lonely Planet¨ guide to Central America looking at the times listed and I found such a tremendous editorial error that I am really peaved. For El Salvador, it listed GMT minus 6, for Costa Rica, GMT minus 6, Panama GMT minus 5 (all of these are right) but for Honduras, it lists GMT plus 8, which is incredibly wrong, it should be the same as El Sal and CR. GMT minus 8 would be somewhere like India...

Until Later,
Evan