Farewell Tour – Panama Day 8

Where We Had Our Last Dinner in Panama

Today started early with a bus ride back to Panama City.    We were up at 5am to catch a 6am bus out of David. My wife’s brother and uncle showed up right on time, very un-Panamanian of them.  It was really tough leaving because we have so much fun with my wife’s family.  My wife had been there since the end of January so it was especially tough on her.   My wife was all excited about getting front row seats until I reminded her that there was no leg room in the front seats.  She denied this until we took our seats and she quickly went in to change our seats.  It was strange because it was the exact same bus we rode on the trip up to David but the leg room, even in our new seats, was terrible.  It was like six hours of sitting in Fenway Park for someone over six feet tall. The good thing about early morning bus rides is that it is very easy to fall asleep, even with no legroom.  We all woke up at the half way point which is an open air restaurant in Santiago where we spend a half hour.  I noted how much more comfortable a week in Panama had made me.  I ordered everything in Spanish and didn’t have to rely on my wife for help.  They showed the movie War Horse on the second half of the trip.  I think it was a pirated copy because there would be a periodic warning come across the screen about intellectual properties and such.  We stopped a lot during this second half as the drivers seemed to want to fill all the seats, even though this was supposed to be an express bus to Panama City.  I’m sure all the cash they collected got back to the company (tongue firmly in cheek).  I was struck by the kindness of the Panamanians as there was an elderly lady who apparently had some sort of bowel emergency.  The bus driver stopped the bus and backed into a rest stop and then waited while the lady was taken care of.  No one on the bus complained.  I can imagine the same thing happening in the US (yep, tongue still in place).   Our route took us over the canal where we could see the construction ongoing for the new wider canal – it was impressive.  We also passed by some of our all stomping grounds from 30 years ago which supplied a nice dose of nostalgia.  One of my wife’s cousins met us and ferried us to our hotel – same one as day 1.  We learned that the Indians closed the road about three hours after we passed.  We had a lazy afternoon, my wife took advantage of the low cost manicure and I caught up on some reading.  Tonight we went to a nearby bar and restaurant that had some jazz musicians playing.  We passed one final great evening with five of my wife’s cousins – with once again the perfect blend of serious and at times extremely funny recollections of the past week.  We even delivered the paperwork for the land deal to my wife’s nephew, our lawyer, so he can register the sale for us.  We catch a very early flight tomorrow morning and the next time I blog it will be from the US, unless the Indians figure out how to block the runways.