2019/04 Panama trip - Return to Hope |
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Thursday May 2nd
Our ride to the airport wasn’t until 9.30 am, so we had a much needed lie-in. I’m not sure my back would have taken another day like the last one. We’d said our goodbyes the previous evening as the birders were off on an early trip. We breakfasted alone, watching the birds and not moving very much except to click the cameras at the birds’ banana bar.
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Canopy Lodge birds (0.39) |
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This shrimp plant had burst into flower since we arrived, and this Muscovy duck was feeding in the river. He may have been wild or a refugee from one of the nearby farms.
Driver Eduardo took us down to the Pan American Highway and then east back to Panama City. We took the arched Bridge of the Americas, the first permanent bridge over the canal. This gave us a view of the city’s skyscrapers, impressive and totally different from the rest of the Panama we’d seen. We’d heard some stories though about the faster and cheaper construction methods used and some towers that now had a worrying lean.
We took the Cinta Costera, a marine viaduct that bypassed the old city and took us out into the bay. We approached Tocumen airport from its good side, avoiding the industrial zone we’d crossed on our arrival.
Sandie was miffed to have her kids’ scissors with rounded ends confiscated as a deadly weapon. I was ordered to take my plastic watch off – that was a first for me. We’d have to take our luggage through customs inspection in Mexico City – another first as we hadn’t had to do that when flying in from Canada or Costa Rica.
Even so we breezed through Immigration and Customs; always the way when you have six hours to kill! With some difficulty we found a sit-down restaurant tucked away behind a bar. My fajitas de pollo were easily ordered but Sandie’s sides of egg and fries needed extensive consultation. The Coronas went down very well.
The airport is active all night and our flight took off at around 1 am. After six hours we were in Vancouver by 5 am local time, decidedly chilly compared to Panama’s weather, but at least it was dry. Our value parking company kept up its record of incompetence, rejecting the plastic token it had delivered to us ten days earlier, so we had to call for help to get out. We did the week’s shopping on the way home, and then I mowed the lawns and Sandie set about doing the washing before our soggy clothes rotted. Of course, once we sat down the day was over.
It had been a busy and sometimes grueling ten days, but a great experience with some interesting people, both guests and guides.