On to Panama

I decide to get the hell out of Gulfito and take a trip with the girls to Panama City. to meet Mike and Neila who have our new Credit Card that courierd by a visiting friend and to shop for an auto helm part.
We taxi to the boarder and cross into Panama without too much fuss. It is really a strange boarder with no defined crossing. There are just a lot of buildings and traffic. You actually have to search where to check in. We find out later that down the road a few kilometers there is a passport checkpoint.
As luck would have it a Mini bus had room for us to David - Panama’s second largest city. We travel to there and transfer onto the luxury bus to Panama City.
The bus was freezing cold beyond what I could stand. I had to beg for hugs from the girls to keep warm.
Panama is a lot richer than the rest of Central America. There are a lot of ranches with large North American desert style homes.
Panama City is beautiful with sky scrapers and a landmark bridge spanning the cannal. The" Bridge across the Americas" It is breath taking - back in a city
We taxi to our hotel and find our reservation was not accepted and they only have a suite available for 30 bucks more. It turned out we were at the wrong hotel because I had asked for a canal room and we were in the city. The taxi took us on a tour of the city and to our other hotel. ( we thought he was being nice, but found out later it was fare gouging)
When we arrive at the hotel they give us the same story about not having our reservation and add another 30 bucks onto the room fare. 160 bucks. The trick is if you book on internet, there is no guarantee that your room is available at that cost because the internet booking clerks work independently. It’s just a scam. We grab a room on the canal and can see the boats anchored in front of Balboa Yacht club. We have a balcony over the pool and watch the ships pass through the canal. It really is amazing to see the cruise ships pass through followed behind the hundreds of container ships. It is non stop action.
We get our credit cards from AT Last.
I managed to find a place where I could get the part I need for our autohelm in a mater of days with no tax.- I tell the clerk I was so happy I wanted to kiss him. Finally something is going right for a change.
He shyly said it could be arranged then asks me to wait a minute. He returns with a surprise. Apparently, the part I needed was ordered and not picked up by a customer so he handed me the exact part I needed.
The next few days are spent shopping, shopping, shopping. This city is
amazing, malls and stores everywhere offering shoes at 1.99 and knock off brand name shirts for 2.99. Jeans 9.99
Girls gone wild.
After a couple days we opt for cheaper accommodation to allow for more shopping but we really come up short. We stay one night in a dive for 80 bucks and 1 night in a grand suite that has seen better days for 1 night.
I stumble across the deal of the Century. I had my heart set from the start of this trip to go to the San Blas Islands. I stopped into a travel agent to see what it would cost just out of curiosity really.
I almost fell off my chair when she told me that 4 nights, flight, accommodation, meals and tours would cost a mere 180.00 per person
Surely she had made a mistake. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself.