Panama City, Panama 25 miles and a few taxi rides
Today was our errand day, including getting our bike shipped on a cargo plane to Quito. We woke up early, got all of the stuff for the bike together and headed off towards the airport. Of course, just as it is hard to find any destination in this city, we wandered for a while until we discovered a long busy road which lead us to the airport. Once at the airport, the cargo area is quite a ways further. The company we wanted to ship with, Girag, didn’t have a sign stating where it was located, but fortunately as we arrived there was another guy, German named Gunther, just leaving on a motorcycle who lead us to the correct building. He had just come from San Francisco, but only took 2 weeks! Nuts! Unbelievable. Regardless, we found the company and after waiting quite some time wondering what in the world they are doing, we paid our $750 in cash, parked Yoshita, said our goodbyes and we’re off in a taxi back to Panama City. The entire process took about 2 hrs, not bad and supposedly Yoshita is being shipped to Quito today so we should be able to pick her up when we land tomorrow – keeping our fingers crossed! We weren’t asked to disconnect the battery or drain the gas.
After the bike shipment we wanted to go to the Mexican embassy as we had previously discovered that we didn’t return our vehicle importation documentation and supposedly could face some big fines. Well, after the taxi driver was confused by the address we had, and several other people he asked, we decided to not send the driver on an expensive wild goose chase and headed back to our lovely and musky hotel. Our next task was the Correos (post office). Always a challenge not only finding the post office, but getting to it during business hours, and having everything necessary to mail a package home. After some walking and discovering that the one post office which we walked to had just been demolished, and the heavy thunder/lightening and rain starting, we hopped in a cap which took us clear across town to the post office. An hour later and our package was mailed home (backups of our photos). On the way back we couldn’t pass up another gyro at the little Greek restaurant we enjoyed yesterday – delicious!
After so much rushing around and sweating, we took a rest in our hotel for a few hours until we couldn’t take the musky smell and small room any longer and took off for a meal at the Hard Rock Café (a little treat). When we got there, there was a ton of little kids hootin’ and hollering to the band that was playing on stage – quite a racket/scene. Regardless, we took in the ambiance and ordered a good ol’ American sandwich and milkshake. The band must be a recent Panamanian one-hit-wonder band as they had their video playing after their performance. The main singer wore a red outfit with this little yellow helmet (both in the video and on stage); quite fun. Hard Rock was located in a giant mall which we wondered after dinner avoiding heading back to the hotel too early. The mall also had one of the many casinos you see all over town. Yes, you can buy a pair of Diesel jeans, turn the corner and play a couple hands of black jack; very interesting. The place was packed on a Monday night. I could tell Mike was tempted to play a few hands, but I reminded him that we could easily blow our daily budget in 5 minutes…
After a nice stroll we made it back to our room. We’re ready and anxious for our flight tomorrow and look forward to what lies ahead of us. Hopefully Adam will be arriving in Quito soon and we have a nice get-together with him and Keith. Both Mike and I have decided to step up the quality of hotel a few notches while we’re in Quito just for some much needed comfort and sanity.
See you later Central America, hello South America!!!
After the bike shipment we wanted to go to the Mexican embassy as we had previously discovered that we didn’t return our vehicle importation documentation and supposedly could face some big fines. Well, after the taxi driver was confused by the address we had, and several other people he asked, we decided to not send the driver on an expensive wild goose chase and headed back to our lovely and musky hotel. Our next task was the Correos (post office). Always a challenge not only finding the post office, but getting to it during business hours, and having everything necessary to mail a package home. After some walking and discovering that the one post office which we walked to had just been demolished, and the heavy thunder/lightening and rain starting, we hopped in a cap which took us clear across town to the post office. An hour later and our package was mailed home (backups of our photos). On the way back we couldn’t pass up another gyro at the little Greek restaurant we enjoyed yesterday – delicious!
After so much rushing around and sweating, we took a rest in our hotel for a few hours until we couldn’t take the musky smell and small room any longer and took off for a meal at the Hard Rock Café (a little treat). When we got there, there was a ton of little kids hootin’ and hollering to the band that was playing on stage – quite a racket/scene. Regardless, we took in the ambiance and ordered a good ol’ American sandwich and milkshake. The band must be a recent Panamanian one-hit-wonder band as they had their video playing after their performance. The main singer wore a red outfit with this little yellow helmet (both in the video and on stage); quite fun. Hard Rock was located in a giant mall which we wondered after dinner avoiding heading back to the hotel too early. The mall also had one of the many casinos you see all over town. Yes, you can buy a pair of Diesel jeans, turn the corner and play a couple hands of black jack; very interesting. The place was packed on a Monday night. I could tell Mike was tempted to play a few hands, but I reminded him that we could easily blow our daily budget in 5 minutes…
After a nice stroll we made it back to our room. We’re ready and anxious for our flight tomorrow and look forward to what lies ahead of us. Hopefully Adam will be arriving in Quito soon and we have a nice get-together with him and Keith. Both Mike and I have decided to step up the quality of hotel a few notches while we’re in Quito just for some much needed comfort and sanity.
See you later Central America, hello South America!!!
Hang on Yoshita...hope to see you again
Don Quiote?
Right before the cockroach attacked me
posted by Pedro and Maria at 1:32 PM
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