Panama City, Panama

So we are now in Panama City, Panama. And we are not off to the best of starts....

A couple days ago we booked our flight from Bocas del Toro (whose airport runway shares space with the local baseball diamond - Terry has pictures) and booked our hostel in Panama. So yesterday we got on our flight, got into Panama around 5:30, got our luggage and grabbed a cab from the airport (who over charged us) to our hostel to find out that our reservation was not going to be honoured. Apparently the front desk clerk had made some mistake and overbooked the hostel, and some people he thought were going to leave didn't. So it's about 6:30 at night, we just want to unload our bags, and we find out we have nowhere to stay. The clerk had called around and got us room at another place, and since you can't get last minute space in Panama, we had to go where ever he put us. He got us a cab and told the driver where to go. As soon as we took off quoted us an overcharged price. Terry began to say that that's not the price the clerk said, but right away he pulled over and told us to get out. Us with our bags in a foreign city, not knowing where we're going had to just choke down the price and keep on going. We got to our new hostel, with the driver swearing at us while we walked up the steps.

This place isn't bad, actually. Two people we met in Mal Pais, Irish Katherince and Aussie Scott, are here, there's a very nice back garden and free internet. But the problem is that it's about 20 minutes further from the center of town than we would have been at the other place, and that place was already a little out of the way, and whereas the other hostel is known for being fun and youthful, this place is decidely quiet and it looks like we're the youngest people here. In nine days (nine!) I'll be back in Yellowknife, so was looking forward to socializing and having some fun....

But regardless, today we are going to go check out the old parts of Panama, and catch a movie later on, before checking out the Panamanian nightlife.

Cheers!