WELL! Here is what happened yesterday, our first day of retiring to Panama. And as someone posted on facebook page, "let the games begin"! (The games being that I just lost this entire post--ugh! Starting over again.)
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| It all fit into our daughter's car!
Yesterday morning began entirely too early. We had a ten am flight, but Ray started tossing and turning at three am. And then he was out of bed by four thirty. Since we were up and ready to go, we decided to get on the shuttle as soon as we loaded up the luggage cart and just head to the airport (Dulles International). Everything fit into the back of the shuttle, the inside was packed full of passengers and the five minute trip was uneventful. We grabbed another luggage cart (very large), and once we approached our check in counter for Copa airlines, we were told we had about fifteen minutes until they even opened up (6:45). There were a few reasons why we chose to fly business class when moving to Panama. The most important reason was because we had the points to use up, and this was a huge deal for us! Let's do it right! Also, we could take four suitcases each carrying seventy pounds, and we pretty much knew we would have overhead space. And at the end of the flight, our luggage would come out on the belt first. The check in attendant was at the ready at 6:50, but his computer and printer were not. Practice patience. Fifteen minutes later, we were on our way to gate A19. Same gate as always. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for a simple flat bread veggie egg white for me, and a texas toast bacon, egg and cheese sandwich for Ray. haha While sitting at the gate waiting to board at nine ten am, a nice lady came over to ask us if we wanted to check our two roller boards for free. Yes! They never would have fit overhead with my large, overstuffed purse. Please just make sure they get a priority tag put on them, so that all of our luggage comes out together (and she did).
When boarding the flight, I broke a newly manicured nail. The plane sat on the tarmac for forty-five minutes, and I thought "we're doomed". But the flight attendant was informed of my nail, and the pilot said there was a lot of traffic flying south and also to Panama that day, so no worries. Roasted and toasted nuts, two salads, bread, wine, soda, steak, vegetables and potatoes along with wine and some Baileys with caramel sauce over my ice cream, and I was out like a light! I did watch the "glad I didn't pay $13 at the movies for this" movie "3 Days to Kill" with Kevin Costner.
Once we landed, we had to go through Customs. For our past visits to Panama, the middle section, aka tourists section, has been empty. Yesterday, it was packed (even our attorney today spoke about the crowds). We knew, but we doubted, that we could stand in the residents line that had one other person. What's the worse that could happen? They would put us at the back of the tourists line. And we apologize for being stupid gringos. But nope. We went right through the residents line having our pictures and fingerprints taken and seeing our luggage coming out onto the conveyor belt behind the glass windows. We had four bags immediately. Where were those others? We noticed that no luggage was coming out. We had landed at two forty-five and by three fifteen we were on the next line. Immigrations. We had to reload our luggage onto the belt and have it searched/scanned. Done. Out the door. And it was PACKED out there. So many families and friends waiting for their loved one's. And a bit warm. Humidity. The tropics of Panama. Ray was on a mission. We were headed to Thrifty car rental. But first, we saw this poking out of the crowd:
Clyde and Terry Coles, wonderful friends, decided to surprise us at the airport! How great is this! I had no clue who would be calling us out and who knew to call me "Al". It had been an early day afterall, and we did not know we would see them so soon. We knew we would see them for dinner, but we had no idea the crazy gringos would come out to the airport to welcome us! So fantastic seeing familiar faces on such a big day! Once we hugged, we dragged them to the car rental place chatting along the way, they followed us to the Metromall Marriott to look at a car which we did buy (!), and then to our hotel to drop off a few bags. But about the car. While waiting for Diego and Monica to show up at the hotel on Panamanian time (which is "whenever they get there" time), we had beers and coffee in the lounge chatting more with Clyde and Terry. The car pulled up and is a 2014 Nissan XTrail (Xterra in the States) with 5,000 miles on it. For sale by a COPA pilot that had to move back home to Colombia. I am a skeptic. But the car is fantastic. Today, some of the money was wired to pay the bank loan. Once we get the title from Monica, the girl with POA rights, we will pay off the balance. We drove it around, looked at the engine, and I mostly looked at the buttons and gadgets. With that taken care of, until we can do more with it, we then went to dinner. For some reason, Clyde's car has a pull towards Pomodoro, an italian restaurant we have been to before with them. We sat in the back of the courtyard this time still talking and making plans for Clyde to cook dinner for us on Thursday night when we arrive in Chame. Ray and I hit the bed at nine pm! What a great first day!
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