Vacation 2013: It Came From The Cookie Jar

 

The view of Casco Antiguo, Panama City, Panama, from the Amador Causeway. At dusk.

Vacation 2013. Literally, it did come from the cookie jar. Or, to be more accurate, it was what was left over after 29 other vacations were pulled from the cookie jar. From Capadoccia, Turkey, to Sarajevo, Bosnia, to the Loop Road around Iceland, to, finally, Nashville, Tennessee USA, the survivor in the Cookie Jar o' Potential Vacation Destinations was:
Montevideo, Uruguay.

So what am I doing sitting in my room in a Country Inn & Suites in Panama City? (The real one.  The one in Panama.  Not Florida.)

Country Inn & Suites in Panama City. It looks just like the Country Inns in Wisconsin!

Because the Country Inn & Suites in Panama City doesn't just look like the Country Inns & Suites in Wisconsin.  The Panama City Country Inn & Suites is right alongside the world-famous (you may have heard of it) Panama Canal.  That's the view from my room.  Like it?

Puente de las Americas: the Bridge Over The Pacific Entrance Into the Panama Canal

Here's the same view, from the same room, now with ships!

Same Puente de las Americas: Now with Ships!

Anyway, I decided to stop in Panama to break up the long long flight down to Montevideo.  I'm flying Copa, the Panamanian national carrier, which hubs out of Panama City.  I would've had to change planes here, and I will on the return leg, so I figured why not see the canal that everyone's been talking about.

The flight was uneventful.  Which, to me, in the modern air of jet transportation is just about "best case scenario."  The flight left at 5:00AM.  Which meant that I had to be at the airport at 3:00AM.  Which meant that it was easier to just stay up all night until boarding time and try to catch some winks of the flight.  (Or at least it seemed like a good idea when I committed to it the evening before.)  (It got less good as ideas go when the clock got to 1:00AM.)  (It seemed like a very very bad idea by about 2:00AM.)

The good thing about flying out of the new Terminal 3 at 3:00AM is: absolutely no security line.  I could leisurely take off my shoes and belt without anyone huffing behind me.  I didn't even feel nervous about sending my money supply through the X-ray machine.

I slept some.  But when morning light broke, the flight crew did something I've never seen a flight crew do early in the morning.  They broke out the booze and toddled down the center aisle serving up free cocktails at the breakfast hour.  I needed some coffee to prevent a major caffeine headache from brewing and, weirdly enough, they had no coffee.  Whiskey?  Yes.  Rum?  De claro.  Coffee?  Nada.

Just an old tree I thought looked cool on the grounds of the Country Inn