Panama 2024: The Flight There
On Friday, February 16, we all flew to Panama City. My sister's family had a direct from Atlanta. Our route was somewhat more circuitous. My parents drove to Cleveland the night before. We'd determined that trying to put a car seat in a taxi while dealing with all our luggage wasn't worth it, so the next morning all five of us squeezed into M's car with all our luggage. We parked at a private lot near the airport for a nominal sum and took the shuttle to our terminal. Our flight was CLE->IAH->PTY and was largely uneventful. The layover in Houston was greatly aided by my parents having scheduled wheelchair assistance for my mother. All five of us were able to fly through all the lines to make it to our second flight quite easily. Customs in Panama City were a breeze, and we met up with my sister's family without issue.
It was very hot and humid in Panama City when we arrived that evening, and every day thereafter. Even after dark it was in the nineties, and this was during the winter 'dry season' when it is much less humid than the rest of the year. The contrast to the freezing weather back home was startling. Needless to say, our Cleveland winter clothing was immediately stuck in a bag until it was time to leave. Thankfully, our tour guide Gil and driver Pedro picked us up on in a white microbus that was aggressively air conditioned and contained a contained a cooler of cold drinks. The microbus was reserved for our use for the entire week, so we were able to mount our car seats in there and forget about them. They drove us through the skyscrapers of the rich part of Panama City to our first hotel, the Panama City Hilton, which itself is a skyscraper that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. We checked in, made arrangements to meet Gil the next morning, had a quick late dinner at the hotel bar, and went to bed.
The flights to and from Panama were Birdie's first (and as of this writing, only) plane flights. She did pretty well for a rookie passenger. M had loaded up the iPad with assorted videos (mostly Bluey) and her bag with all sorts of toys. Naturally, the one time that we would have been fine with her watching videos all day, she watched about 20 minutes of Bluey and then lost interest. There was some brief drama when her ears popped, but even that was relatively minimal. She didn't particularly appreciate sitting by the window.
Despite all our prior travel, this was the first hotel Birdie ever stayed in, as everywhere else we'd stayed in AirBNBs or with family. She may not stay in a nicer hotel for quite a few years!
It probably goes without saying that Panama was also Birdie's first time in a foreign country. A big shout goes out to the Cuyahoga County library system for making it dead simple to apply for a passport. I personally didn't make it to a foreign country until elementary school (Canada) and didn't get a passport until we went to Australia in 2004, so Birdie is way ahead of me on both counts. She didn't quote make it off the North American continent on this trip, let alone to another hemisphere; so that's a future milestone waiting to happen.
It was very hot and humid in Panama City when we arrived that evening, and every day thereafter. Even after dark it was in the nineties, and this was during the winter 'dry season' when it is much less humid than the rest of the year. The contrast to the freezing weather back home was startling. Needless to say, our Cleveland winter clothing was immediately stuck in a bag until it was time to leave. Thankfully, our tour guide Gil and driver Pedro picked us up on in a white microbus that was aggressively air conditioned and contained a contained a cooler of cold drinks. The microbus was reserved for our use for the entire week, so we were able to mount our car seats in there and forget about them. They drove us through the skyscrapers of the rich part of Panama City to our first hotel, the Panama City Hilton, which itself is a skyscraper that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. We checked in, made arrangements to meet Gil the next morning, had a quick late dinner at the hotel bar, and went to bed.
The flights to and from Panama were Birdie's first (and as of this writing, only) plane flights. She did pretty well for a rookie passenger. M had loaded up the iPad with assorted videos (mostly Bluey) and her bag with all sorts of toys. Naturally, the one time that we would have been fine with her watching videos all day, she watched about 20 minutes of Bluey and then lost interest. There was some brief drama when her ears popped, but even that was relatively minimal. She didn't particularly appreciate sitting by the window.
Despite all our prior travel, this was the first hotel Birdie ever stayed in, as everywhere else we'd stayed in AirBNBs or with family. She may not stay in a nicer hotel for quite a few years!
It probably goes without saying that Panama was also Birdie's first time in a foreign country. A big shout goes out to the Cuyahoga County library system for making it dead simple to apply for a passport. I personally didn't make it to a foreign country until elementary school (Canada) and didn't get a passport until we went to Australia in 2004, so Birdie is way ahead of me on both counts. She didn't quote make it off the North American continent on this trip, let alone to another hemisphere; so that's a future milestone waiting to happen.