Monday, February 2, 2009

Visiting Friends



Yesterday, Mall Boyd and her sister Leena Deryuen, arrived on the direct route, as compared to our scenic route that wandered around America. They flew to Houston and then on to Panama City on Continental Airlines. I followed them on their flight status website. Thus, I knew they were arriving 15 minutes early so we should get to Tocumen Airport a bit early. The flight actually arrived according to the arrivals board 25 minutes early, but there did not seem to be any Mall and Leena coming out of the customs doors. We waited and watched for nearly an hour. Did they miss the flight?

It seems that the Panama City International Airport is a bit small for some of their busier times. They ended up spending over 20 minutes on the runway waiting for a gate. After getting in the airport things went a bit better. With our car experiences, we had opted to go out to the airport by taxi. Even in evening rush hour, and a cautious taxi driver with an old car (we were passed by everyone), it only took us 30 minutes. The fare was $25. On the trip back we were given a van that was comfortable for all four of us, so Mary Ann was very pleased with the decision to forego a car.

To break in the visiting gringos, we spent the day exploring the El Cangrejo neighborhood and wandering in and out of the stores on Via Espana. They adapted to the sidewalks and heat just fine. Their only concern today was why we did not have any water in the pool! Enrique, our condo contact checked it out and found that there was a leak that was being fixed. Should be open in a couple of days, hmmm we’ll see. Mall and Leena are bridge players so we spent a couple of hours tuning up our bridge skills. Yikes, I don’t get any better hands in Panama than I do in Washington.

No comments: