Paradise found...

Looking back to quite an exciting day...

Took a cab around lunchtime to bring me to Allbrook airport near Panama, as my destination for the weekend is called "Bocas del Toro". 

I so far had some taxi rides here in Panama and I learned some important rules: 

- there are no taxometers - price is being agreed upfront!

- indicators are pure decoration

- no matter how old and f**ed up the cab is - decoration is everything

- traffic lights are here to be passed - even if its red (we'll make it - as long as the side traffic is still in slow movement...)

- the horn seems to be more important than anything else - and it is being used. Hell yeah...

- Cab drivers will automatically become your best friend on the ride (everyone claims to be the cheapest, you get their phone number and they promise to organise you whatever you are dreaming of (that being legal or not...)

- pedestrians are considered "victims"...

- Ducktape fixes everything!!!   

... but I still kinda like it... :-)

So, overall I still must say, that I most of the times always felt safe (feeling safe but shivering and having cold sweat on the back, does this count too?)

So, we made it to the airport (Orlando wants to pick me up again on Monday - I just need to ring him...). The main hall of the airport is arrival, departure, ticket office, coffee shop and security control at the same time. There is 1 female and 1 male restroom - 1 was out of service... (Make an educated guess which one...)

So, plane was finally ready for us to board. It  seemed to be in good shape from the outside and also the inside. One thing, which made me laugh, was that the planes here are being pulled out by a Massey Ferguson tractor... 

So, we got in the air and there I had my first memory of my former employer: we were served Lay's Sour Cream & Onion and I must admit: still love this shit... ;-)

After 1 hour we landed and people wanted to get off the plane - we've been told that we're not there yet - "please wait for 5 minutes and we'll take off again". The couple next to me was wondering, if that now was a well deserved cigarette break for the pilot... In the first row, a very important (that's what he thought at least) American gentleman had a loud phone conversation, while we were waiting for the pilot to finish his fag (These f*in Panamanians, we now landed in the middle of a f* Banana-field, blablabla...)

We took off again (A Pilot announcement I'll never forget: Dear Passengers, pls remain seated, we'll be landing in approximately 7 minutes!) and made it safe to Bocas.

Wanted to take a taxi to get to the hotel. 1$ he quoted would be the price. So, jumped in the car and was ready to go - he wasn't. There was still plenty of room in the cab and he filled it up with other passengers. 

Finally made it to the hotel - free welcome drink in the hotel bar.

Quick shower and then off to have some really nice bites - on water, and with flop flops , sun glasses & T-shirt.

People here are really friendly and helpful - they seem to be the happiest people in the world and my spanish vocabulary seems to increase slowly.

So long - Hope I can upload some pics tomorrow.

Buenas noches!