Category Archives: Travel: The Americas

Travel: The Americas, USA

Mini honeymoon: practical outfit (though still kinda cute) #2

I am so pale I fluoresce. So I love the Columbia shirts that are quick dry and SPF50 or so. Columbia quick dry pants (though not convertible) and faithful Merrell ventilators that also accompanied me on part of the Appalachian trail.


Figured it would do me well wandering around with craggy rocks and beaches with wimpy ankles.


Collar was up to protect my neck, but I didn’t need to wear my Tilley hat today even though I had it in my daypack.

Panama, Travel: The Americas

Panama City, Panama – Thursday 4/9

4/9/15 
Slept a mighty 11 hours and woke up ready for coffee. (good coffee…haven’t found much yet here-that’s a little disheartening.)
Room service was wacky, we just giggled over the fact that they wanted to give us Froot Loops though we opted for granola and yogurt.
Mama had whatever cold/allergies thing is going around last week and so she’s still taking it easy. I’m good with that actually. I am not as gung ho about 12-15 hour days of sightseeing, trying to remember my Spanish, figure out how they do things in this particular Central American country (Uruguay was amusing because they speak a mishmash of Spanish with Portuguese pronunciation. Apparently it is the same dialect in Argentina. I got the hang of it eventually, but language processing takes a lot of brain power that I haven’t used lately, so I am out of practice.) Anyhoo, it isn’t too bad here. I smile goofily (I call it my happy puppy face) and start slowly. It helps that people here are really, really sweet and like to giggle along with me while saying their English isn’t very good. Its all fine and I’m digging the folks I’ve dealt with so far.
We walked down from the hotel to the main road , Ave Balboa, and I took a lot of pictures. Neat skyline. One of the things I like about it is that it is not just a bunch of skyscrapers in long, tall boxes in a row. They have twists and curves and decorations that make it unique, but still restrained enough that it isn’t just a bunch of garish buildings.
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So. Very. Humid.
This is not a surprise, we are on an isthmus between two BIG bodies of water, I’m still going to squawk a bit about it. I’ve been ok about washing clothes in the sinks in hotels for as long as I have traveled, but I get a little soaked by the end of the day that I might not have brought enough clothes this time. Heh. Never thought I’d say that…of course I couldn’t find all my merino shirts since I moved, so I don’t need to worry about buying more, just finding the little boogers in all my carefully arranged clutter at home that I am still sorting out.
I really don’t think I brought too few clothes actually… i think I just want to wear my favorite shirt every day… not about logic, you see.
Had a snack of cheeses and shrimp crostini (that I picked out the overt onions and hoped wildly that it wouldn’t have too much other onion in it) and devoured both. The tomatoes here are very sweet and tasty. The shrimp crostini had a hot, sweetness to it that I loved (mom says it was too hot for her and that she doesn’t know who I am anymore 😉 )
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Tried to see if we could get on one of those bus tours to the canal, but since a bunch of presidential types are in the area, there are lots of cancellations. We’ll have to wing it. I really want to see the canal, then my Eiffel trifecta will be complete (Statue of liberty (both!), the Eiffel tower and the Panama Canal. I really should start a list or a book or something with wacky lists of this kind.)
Had a steak for dinner then went back to the hotel so mama could pass out. I was well rested so I was awake til the wee hours. I knew I’d feel it in the morning, but oh well.
Good trip so far.

Panama, Travel: The Americas

Panama City, Panama – Wednesday 4/8

I chose the o’ god hundred flight to get me to Houston on purpose. (I have to keep reminding myself of that.)
It wasn’t so bad getting there and getting through security because there was no one at the airport at 4 am (no one in their right mind at least), but only having about 2 hours of sleep on a travel day isn’t my best option.
Sorry world.
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I wasn’t crabby even though Starbucks wasn’t open (and no, I dont consider anything on the plane coffee at all) I even got a latte with a minimum of fuss in Houston for my connection. Really it was all fine – I was only about 4 minutes away from my next gate – which never happens… it was ony when I started dealing with the rest of the world that it all made me want to crawl under a chair at the airport and hide.
Mom’s present didn’t get to her on time before we left-despite Amazon Prime + overnight shipping fees (It was something for this trip we are on, so I squawked at Amazon and FedEx on Twitter about that) then my plans to hang out with Susan in Houston next weekend, as Iam going to be there briefly, kinda got all bungled and I started feeling the lack of sleep.
Anyway, I talked firmly to myself about how to fix it all without letting myself go too far into the anxiety phase and calmed down.
The things I thought would be issues just weren’t so I calmed down more.
Met mom in line for boarding and soon we were on our way to Panama City to explore.
I was still tired so i ignored my brain telling me it was stamping its petulant foot and that it didn’t want to go anywhere new and the rest of the day passed without issue.

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Got a cab and the cabbie was playing some sort of Mexican radio sounding club mix. I liked it for the most part, made me giggle when it went into the reggae region, but it was somehow fitting to have it as a soundtrack for driving into the city. I didn’t get any pictures coming into the city worth posting…all too blurry from the crazy taxi ride. But hi-rise lights through the sea haze on an inky black coast reminded me of Hawaii or Monaco or some sort, very pretty in any event.
Got into our hotel (they gave us a cookie! Our access cards have a cookie on them! Now I have “C is for Cookie” stuck in my head.) Mom and I traded all the presents we brought for each other, compared travel gadgets, then I flopped on the bed and said “I want a steak and sleep.” We managed to get a hamburger from room service (Just FYI the tomatoes here are divine) I scraped off the onions, and reluctantly the guac-just in case, then devoured it.
I realized also that I somehow took out the travel sim chip OUT OF my unlocked android phone and therefore I couldn’t make a cell call with it. (“YOU HAD ONE JOB.” said mom.) However I had reloaded our account in the last couple of days in prep for using it here and noticed that now they have a VoIP option, and had already gotten that set up (also we test drove MagicJack and was able to make that work as well). Am an idiot, but I can sort of fix it most of the time. I can’t remember why on earth I took out the sim, but I’m sure it was very important and I put it in a very safe place. Mom just laughed. Sigh.

I slept for 11 solid hours in a well air conditioned room.
Good stuff.

Luggage, Packing, Panama, TeamUltraviolet, Tom Bihn, Travel: Packing List, Travel: The Americas, travelbunny

Packing List: Panama City, Panama 


We spent about a week in Panama City, Panama in April. It was hot and humid, but we didn’t venture out of the city, so I didn’t have to worry about hiking boots or mosquitos. I brought several tshirts that wash and dry fairly easily in a hotel room that has a/c and a tidy outfit for a poolside party. 

BONUS: both pairs of shoes I can walk in for miles comfortably!

Clothes:

  • Khaki light pants (Columbia)
  • Columbia Tamiami shirt
  • Patterned orange tank
  • Black light floppy sweater 
  • Black jammies dress (also good for stealth comfort wearing during the poolside party with  a fancy necklace and the floppy sweater)
  • Stripy shirt 
  • White tank top
  • Black shirt
  • Ex Officio underwear
  • swimsuit
  • Keen H2 sandals
  • Rockport sandals (these are older, but here’s the detail page)

Bags:

Gadgets: