OFF TO MESOAMERICA!!

The latest adventure had us (travel buddy Betty, from St. Paul, and previous travels to China + 7 other Asian countries two years ago, Egypt, Australia/New Zealand, and most recently she joined me on the last leg/week in Harpers' Ferry, WV, of the "Path of Happiness" (see pathofhappiness.org) into Washington, DC, last Memorial day! Anyway, Betty flew to Boston and Tuesday we flew to Panama on Copa Airlines (home base is Panama City). Flight went smoothly; we arrived in the afternoon and were met by Jose, a driver arranged by our Airbnb host Greg here in Alwood, a suburb of PC. Panama uses US $ as its currency so it makes life simple, with no exchanging money.

Greg is a California transplant who has had a treasure-hunting business down in this area searching for Spanish gold and other treasures! Now he does spear-fishing and diving (those spears are AMAZINGly heavy! And they dive just holding their breath, not with scuba equipment. He said he can do about 2 1/2 minutes!!!

His home is amazing, with two labradors, dad (golden) and son (black), who rule the roost, dashing in and out through several doggie doors to the enclosed backyard. Betty has her own room and bath upstairs and I'm on the ground level. Maria fixes a lovely breakfast with a fruit smoothie, omelet and a corn pancake, arepa it's called. The house has unusual decor

My room in Panama

Greg and his dogs

After a great night's sleep, Greg helped me order an Uber to take us down to the Causeway to a bike rental place. The causeway is near the entrance on the Pacific side to the canal and goes maybe 9 KM with water on both sides out to three small islands. Tourists can get ferries out to a couple of scenic beaches. It took me awhile (I'm still not totally acclimated!) to the heat and humidity! I wished I had worn a long-sleeved shirt as that sun just beat down!

In the distance was the unexpected skyline of downtown Panama with spikes of white apartment/business buildings. 

We first passed the BioMuseo, a biodiversity museum designed by Canadian architect Frank Gehry. He is married to a Panamanian woman but lives in L.A. We will visit this later on our way back. It was a beautiful ride, especially after mostly sitting (on the airplane) the day before. When we got to the end, there was a delightful Bike Club with  pretty young kids who were riding the same Causeway. Turns out schools are out until March for vacation, so lots of kids were around!

Yacht moored in harbor with helipad on stern

At the end of the Causeway

some of the prehistoric animals like Giant Sloth bigger than elephant

A huge container ship headed to Pacific entrance to canal

Closed Dinosaur mini-park on one of the islands

Cross between hawk and owl that I think is National bird

I was pretty tired on the ride back, as we returned our bikes and headed to the BioMuseo, that was a wonderfully displayed exhibit of the biodiversity in Panama. Lots of shopping at the gift shop!!

Having trouble here trying to use Uber! We waited at the museum for 20 minutes and no one showed up. So a taxi drove by and said he'd do the same drive for the $5 charge. We headed home!

I forgot to mention the night of our arrival, we walked the neighborhood spotting neques (tailless rodent-type animal about the size of prairie dogs) that are all around this neighborhood. We also walked by the Russian Embassy which is gigantic! Greg wasn't sure why they were building such a huge one!! 

We had the taxi driver stop at Greg's house where we dashed in to pick up a towel and bathing suits. He then dropped us at a local outdoor beautiful Olympic-sized pool! Which of course was closed for two days for cleaning!! We walked on and found a small restaurant to have a beer (and Margarita for me!) and some dinner. Then walked home! Exhausting first day!!

Greg helped Betty try to schedule ahead of time an Uber for 6 a.m. to take us to the Panama Canal Railway headed to the northern end of the canal at Colon!!