UMTravels

An easy day today – so why was I up at 6am. Oh, that’s right — the previous guest had the alarm set for 6am.

Actually, it was good, I’d gone to bed early, and I used the time to listen to a web conference video and bill some hours, catch up on email, and generally get grounded here in Panama.

Breakfast buffet. No time for an omelet, or actually, no desire, they were huge. Just give me some scrambled eggs, too much pork product, and it being Central America, some re-fried beans with casa (Mexican cheese) on top.

On the bus by 9am — first (or maybe third) comment on this group. They are prompt. So far, no stragglers. We’ll see tomorrow when it’s luggage ready at 7am and on the bus by 8am. Guessing no work in the morning for me — but at least I know the alarm is set for the right time!

Morning tour of the Panama City Museum, with surprise guests, Guns and Roses — they have a concert tonight or tomorrow. Why do I keep circling them —- my mechanic/house guy tours with them, shit, maybe he’s here and that’s why I can’t get him to do the gravel on my driveway.

Then off to the section of ruins. I did the 114 steps up to the top of the cathedral, then went shopping, then bolted across the road to check out the ruins of the monastery/nunnery.

I guess here is where I should put int he scrolling bar of the bunches of pictures I’ve taken:

After the church/monastery/shopping (bought a Panama centennial license plate) we were off to the locks for lunch in a private dining room overlooking the locks — with it’s own viewing deck. Damn fine. Lots of time to explore, though they did run us out a little early due to an afternoon storm… reminded me of the Santa Fe storms — intense, for about 15 minutes.

Read the news and napped on the way back to the hotel. Checked and dealt with email then went back to grocery store for more supplies — I think we are going to the woods for two days, god knows what’s available but the 1 liter “Kentucky Cream” is only 91 cents more than the 750ml.

Time is short… there is a 7:30 “special event” and dinner is 6-10:30. Dinner before, not super hungry, dinner after, starved. Before. Had two glass of wine at with dinner — house (Chilean) —with tip – $10. Cheap by American standards.

The show — here is a shot of me posing with the crew after saying “A vacation without embarrassing photos is a vacation misspent”:

OK — so I proved that one. That photo got hoots from the other 44 passengers.

Here are today’s three latest amusement’s from last night:

• The Simpsons in Spanish
• Stain Stick — had to buy one, have used it on four stains already

Huge man-made things:

• Hoover Dam — still drying
• Three Ganges dam — still really big
• Gatun Lake — how many damns did it take to make it.

So — tomorrow we are off to Portobello (for mushrooms?), the Gatun locks, and the rain-forest (and resort).

Details to follow.

[clueless]