The occasional universal

After a relaxing Sunday night of eating pasta and hanging at the hostel, we woke in the morning with a great night of sleep. It was going to be a good day!

We decided that we were going to book our sailboat to Colombia, now one of the most common ways of bridging the gap between Panama and Colombia. Going by land is not recommended, considering there is guerilla warfare in the connecting jungle. Narco-tourism is not what we are here for, although we are convinced it will be a huge thing in a few years. We asked about the boat up on the hostel board called Tango leaving on February 24th from Puerto Lindo to Cartagena. Puerto Lindo is easy to get to by a cheap bus from here and Cartagena is the ideal endpoint since all the other options would leave us needing to take a couple more boat and bus connections in order to get there. It said there were 4 spots left but the receptionist was going to call and confirm that those spots had not already been booked by another hostel. She was talking to the captain and started erasing 4 and writing full, so we thought we were out of the equation. Sad. But then she gave us a big smile and thumbs up to indicate that we were passengers that made it full! Oh happy day! We got it! After stressing about from where and leaving when we got the one we wanted and now that it is full we will definitely be sailing barring any hurricanes (knock on wood).

At this exact moment an old friend walked in. Levi, one of the two cyclists we met in Nicaragua. We were already faked out by two bicycles that arrived the previous day in the lobby belonging to two other men doing an epic bike trip, but calculating what we knew to be Levi and Scotts schedule we deemed it impossible. But here he was, in the flesh, with a huge smile on his face and the haircut Sophie gave him on Isla Ometepe. He parted ways with Scott whose flight is not for another week or so, and bumped his flight up a few days. He was walking by our hostel and decided to go in, remembering we said we were going to be here. Awesome!

We knew it was vital to bring him along with us to the fish market (yes, we are still talking about the fish market), and we gathered him and Barry and went on our way. After a delish lunch we all decided to meet up later, Kat and I making our way to the first post office of the trip. We arrived and were instantly transported to our local post office, where dreams come to die. As soon as you walk into a post office your momentum is halted. Whatever roll you were on, errands and whatnot, getting to the post office really puts a damper on things. Like any in the U.S., the paint is peeling from the walls, there is paper everywhere, and no one, NO ONE, looks happy, especially the employees. We are in Brooklyn, we know it! At least we know that while we are suffering at the offices in the states, we are not the only ones.

After this fun field trip, we head towards the center to a Casa del Cambio where Kat attempted for the umteenth time to exchange her Honduran and Nicaraguan money.  This place did it, but it was not pretty. The exchange rate was horrible, but the gamble that she would be able to do it anywhere else forced her to concede. At the mall where this was we randomly ran in to our friend Diego whom we met at the music festival. He works there! Crazy. We made plans to hang out with him and Juan later in the evening for dinner.

Congrats to Juan on his raise, which we ended up celebrating with him that night at Casablanca, a nice outdoor restaurant on a main plaza in Casco Viejo. We will see them tonight as it is our last night in Panama City. Last night was filled with interesting conversation about the effects the canal has on the makeup and relations amongst the people, a fascinating topic which Sophie may consider an anthropological study prospect. All in all it was a nice evening that we ended by sharing  Balboas in front of the hostel. We will be sad to leave Panama City, but it has been so good to us we can only say we will try hard to return in the future. It is truly a developing city that is on its way to becoming something big. Casco is on the verge of being one of the best and nicest places to live, probably in all of Central America, soon to move forward from there. We look forward to watching the transformation and feel lucky that we get to see such a thing at this time in the world.