Quick facts: Capital city of Panama; GPS: 8.952480, -79.534737; GMT-5; Altitude: 64′
Ciudad de Panamá – I woke up this morning and went down to the lobby for the included breakfast buffet. Afterwards I packed my stuff and got ready to leave. I got a late check out and hung out in the room until it was time to check out. I walked over to the airport and checked my bag and then went back to the hotel to see what their lunch menu looked like. I wasn’t that impressed with what I saw not to mention it was crazy expensive.
It was a little early but with nothing else to do I figured I’d go through security and see what other options there were for lunch. Before doing so, I checked but like before there was no sign of anyone that could help me with the Spirit issue and I thought I would just deal with it when I get back and let the travel insurance take care of it. I looked around and since I didn’t have a voucher for the business lounge I went with a somewhat known quantity, TGI Friday’s. I only ordered a quesadilla since I wasn’t that hungry and waited for the plane to board.
Our flight took off on time and even though this was another semi long flight, almost 4 hours, it went by quick enough while listening to podcasts on my phone. The movie selection on this flight was lacking and I had already watched the one I would’ve chosen, so I am glad I had something to listen to.
We landed in Panama City and eventually made it through immigration. This is the first place that has done so much recording of biometric data yet. I am not sure if it’s because of reciprocity with the US doing this to some countries or what but it sucks! They took all ten fingerprints along with my photo. The only place I have heard doing more was Bangkok with retinal scans, and I chose not to go there years ago specifically because of that. I think if I had known about it I would have chosen a different route! They stamped my passport and I went and got my bag. I had to look and ask around a bit before someone could tell me where I needed to be to get the shuttle to the hotel. Surprisingly, the only ones with answers or could understand me were a couple police officers in their office. One was very nice and even walked me to the spot I needed. I thanked him and within a few minutes the shuttle pulled up and took me to the hotel which was close by.
After checking in I dropped my bags off in the room and went down to the restuarant to have some dinner. They had a few options but I opted to skip the sushi restaurant and just get something a little more Panamanian or even American I guess, a steak with potatoes and veggies. It was pretty good so I think I chose correctly with that one. After dinner I walked around the outside pool area and while it was all lit up with people at the nearby bar area, the pool was supposedly closed so I skipped the idea of taking a quick dip. I went back to my room and went to bed instead.