I am on a netbook about to write a bunch of stuff, great stuff, about our trip to Panama so far. The past 48 hours have been super busy and so enjoyable, and I will ramble. Of course I will. I write like I talk! But the netbook is super small and challenging, and this I have to have patience with. There's that word again. Before I get ahead of myself and start writing about everything that happened today, I will go back to Saturday and perhaps chop this post up a bit. We'll see. Where to begin.
Oh, and at the end, I will add pictures (once home and they are uploaded). For now, I want to stay ahead of the game and just start posting about our adventures.
As usual, we set out for IAD (Dulles Airport) at six am on Saturday. We arrived to a line at the COPA check-in counter, but it was more luggage taking up space than people. Once at the counter, we both noticed that the ticket agent ripped up our first set of boarding passes, but we didn't ask why. We walked away no longer in the seats we had reserved many months ago--17 D, E (the exit row). We had been bumped up to 7 D,E. Thinking we were "all that and a bag of chips: we just thought we were moved up to Economy Plus or something special again like the flights we had last weekend to Key West and back home. We wandered the airport in search of breakfast and stopped at the same bagel place we ate in six months ago. Service was so slow, the bagels were burning, but once the toaster oven was figured out, the woman seemed to be able to spread cream cheese on the bagels quickly. While waiting at the gate, I asked the gate attendant why our seats had been changed (because now being on our netbook we could see we were not bumped at all.), and why we were now sitting in an aisle seat and middle seat (row of three--ugh). The reason for the change was because "you must speak Spanish to sit in the exit row". Funny that an attendant at the check in counter could just tell by looking at us that neither one of us in fluent in Spanish and that on our last trip, all four of us sat in the exit row (when my sister and nephew went along for the trip) both ways and nothing was said then. According to this gate attendant, there weren't any other aisle seats available. Lesson learned. Question why they are ripping up the paperwork when the ripping begins. Annoyance one after this happened was that there were two empty seats in the exit row (both aisle seats!) and that we were seated (me rather) next to a one year old. Yay for me. The baby was very cute, but...
The flight ended up being non-eventful. The movie was good ("Pitch Perfect"--funny), the baby was good and her mother was super sweet. I just dislike the middle seat! Lunch was tolerable, and the plane landed thirty minutes early. Immigration has changed in that we now had our picture taken and all fingers printed upon entering the country.
The car rental place, Budget, was empty, and the female employee spoke very good English this time. Last time, no English spoken. Off we went to buy our toll card, we put ten dollars on it at the first booth and got away from the airport fast! No traffic! What!?
We arrived to Casa di Pietra B & B around five pm. Give or take two hours later. Luis, the owner, came out to greet us in the parking lot and had Jose show us our room. We were told to pay "whenever and happy hour is tomorrow night when a few more guests check in from six to eight pm". Having never stayed in a B & B before, it has been a good change for us. Ray says staying here reminds him of staying with his grandparents for the summer months in Southwestern Virginia. The windows were always open, the bugs came and went, and there was just an overall easy feeling to it all. I do not like bugs (there are tiny one's, possibly no see-um's that I see, around the sink in the bathroom). I simply solved the problem in that every time I wipe myself with an Avon Skin So Soft Bug Guard Plus wipe, I wipe other things down, too. I haven't seen the tiny creatures where I wipe (or so I tell myself). When living in Panama, this will take getting used to, but I will have screens on my windows. There aren't any screens in our room. I also keep my mosquito guard bracelet on my nightstand. This way if they try to get under the mosquito netting, they will change their mind. Again, it is all in my head. BUT! The first night (and we have been told this is unusual--because we showed up apparently) the winds were maddening. There was no way anything could have been flying around outside! And the only coming in was that fabulous breeze! Once checked in, we headed to Pinocchio's for some pizza (excellent!) making the mistake that "ajo" is not at all olive oil, but garlic. Duh. Our pan y ajo was delicious garlic bread, and the pizza was heaven. The crust was wonderful (can you tell that I haven't had bread or pizza in forever!). There is a fair in town for four days, fireworks were being shot off (it doesn't have to be for a fair though), there was a carnival-like train giving pedestrians rides to and from, and we were exhausted. So many people out walking and biking. We hit the bed by nine pm. I did get my hour back from losing it last week, since Panama doesn't observe daylight saving time.
So that is that about our first day getting to Panama and enjoying a few hours in El Valle. Next up--St. Patrick's Day in Panama!
No comments:
Post a Comment