Day 1, Jan 13th, 2011

Day 1 - Panama, Jan 13th, 2011

Travel day. You wouldn’t think that this would be a day worthy of writing home about, yet it was a great day. From inside my cocoon of warmth in my bed, 4:15 AM came too quickly, but I was quiet excited for it. Yet, realizing, I should have turned on the space heater for the room over night, boy it’s cold, I can’t wait to feel the warmth that Panama is promising me. I prepared my bags the night before and I only needed to finish up a few details and I was ready to go. It was awfully nice of my ex-husband to offer to give me a ride to the rendezvous point for the group I was traveling with; roll out 5:15 AM.

During this trip, I’m traveling with 12 people, Skot and Suzy, trip organizer and his lovely wife, Polly is my roommate, Cory, Ann (times 2), Peggy, Deb, Georgia, Gary, Jan and Janette. Our details for today are a flight to Houston, 2 hour layover, flight to Panama and a shuttle bus to Gamboa Rainforest Resort. You can see details about it at www.gamboaresort.com.

During our flights, I sat with Polly and Cory, we had a delightful time. It was fun to hear of where they were both from originally, all of us are from the Denver Area now. Polly from Minnesota and Cory from Holland, the Southern part, along the Belgium border. Lots of talk of where we’ve been and the adventures we have had. Additional chats about the kinds of foods we like, one of my favorites was hearing about the progression of meals during a day in Holland. Lots of chocolates and sweets, yum! We each enjoyed some time with word search books or crosswords and I of course had to take several naps. The entire trip was very smooth and we had no trouble at all with any bags or people, haha.

The Gamboa Resort is 45 minutes North East of Panama City, along the Chagres River, ABSOLUTELY gorgeous place. We even have a hammock on our balcony! Since it was so late when we arrived, only a hint of the river was visible, illuminated by a brilliant half moon. The air was warm, humid and mildly thick, it feels wonderful. We all dropped our bags in our rooms, I took a couple of pictures before the beds were disturbed and then a quick evening snack of Civiche, and a couple of drinks in the lobby bar with everyone.

One thing I noticed, as I walked along the outside corridor, was the sound of the tropical insects and maybe a couple of monkeys, welcoming me to Panama. The sound was intense and I realize it was an appropriate greeting to the country, since this all started with a walk in the park, listening to singing insects.

I was a little anxious for the next day and had a little bit of a hard time getting to sleep, but it was much welcomed once I settled my mind.