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Panama City, Panama
8° 58' N 79° 31' W
Dec 18, 2005 17:42
Distance 203km

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Addendum to Bocas

Text written in: English

Well Noah and I  are about to leave Panama city. Right now I must reflect on the fact that Noah and I might have some of the best luck in the world. For starters, when we arrived in Bocas we were told to expect rain for the whole time, and even though it did rain the first day the rest of the days were beautiful, after a great stay, we were told that we wouldnt be able to get on a flight to Panama city (all the flights from bocas were full today), yet we waited standby and sure enough two people did not show up. So I'm just going to thank the stars for continuing to allign.

 Panama city is the first big city that we will stay in on this trip and I am excited to be here. Its bustling with activity even on a sunday morning, street vendors are selling various items (cheap t-shirts, toys, food), people are walking in droves through the streets to do shopping, and the buses which are for the most part painted very colorfully are constantly moving through the street. Noah compared our ride on the bus to downtown to a carnival ride, music was blaring, the colors were bright and the driver weaved dramatically through the streets. After we found our hostel, where a giant shirtless man who was the owner showed us to our beds, we searched for the cowboys game.

we found the cowboys game in the marriot at their restaurant, champions, inside looked almost exactly like bennigans, complete with a disgustingly large array of sports memorabillia, greasy american priced menu, and waitresses wearing cheerleading outfits. We ate cheese fries, which made my stomach hurt, listned to nothing but english on the tv and the loads of americans sitting next to us, and grimaced as the cowboys struggled. We left after the start of the third quarter, and immediately I felt better, the air was fresh, I heard some spanish and was reminded that I was actually in a latin american country not back in america. Overall I regret our decision to travel back to america via champions the restaurant, but what can I say, I'm a fan.

For dinner Noah and I went to the grocery store, which was quite an experience, as the grocery store here in panama city is quite nice compared to all the grocery stores we have visited in the past two weeks. It smelled better, was cleaner, more spacious, and more well light but it was almost overwhelming.  In Bocas there is one type of tortilla you can buy in the grocery store, in Panama city fifteen. In Bocas the sounds are the sounds of people going about their business (sometimes loudly) in Panama city, it was loud christmas music. It wasn't hard for us to figure out what we wanted to eat though, they offered sandwhich combinations there for very cheap. noah and I had to jump on the chance, and we enjoyed it quite a bit. overall, I've liked walking about Panama city, and I regret that we wont spend more time here, but am very excited to head to columbia today.