As for the rest of the world our little bubble has also been burst. We cannot board a passenger ship as foreign travelers in Panama therefore we cannot transit the canal, strike two for that bucket list item . Avianca has grounded its fleet so our trip to Colombia is cancelled. Instead of returning home on the 27th, we will be returning home??? 

Our day was a full wonderful day with a rescheduled trip to visit the Embra People at a different site out of the National Park. Access was by a long wooden boat holding up to 8 passengers sitting side by side. The 30 minute trip was made more exciting by low water, it is the dry season, which required much poling and occasional trips into the water by the boatmen to push us through the shallows (less than 9  inches). While there Juan  Carlos learned that the Miraflores Visitor center, overlooking the Miraflores Locks was closing at 5 with no planned reopening. Change of plans, rather than a couple of hours free time, we headed to the Visitor Center where we saw a wonderful 3D IMAX movie about the canal, history and current operation before heading up onto the 4th floor observation deck to watch several boats transit the Miraflores Locks less than 100 Yards from us. 

We have plans for a group dinner in 30 minutes and for a rain forest walk tomorrow. After that it is all ??? As I said to our children, if we get stranded for a while I cannot think of a more compatible group we have traveled with, family excluded.

What can I say, there is wifi of a sort here.

Back to yesterday

This is the ring where Roberto Duran trained on his way up to the top of the boxing ring and below is a picture I took from within the ring. When I was in grade school my father thought I needed to learn boxing. I learned from Ozzie Sussman in his small gym behind the Monroe Theater Projection room. As a result I became an avid follower of the sport until Mohammed Ali left the scene. 

As we were guided through the El Chorrillo neighborhood we stopped to play dominoes where the old men come after lunch to spend their time remembering the invasion  by the US in 1989.

Today, Friday the 13th we started with making drum making and then moved on to masks for Dirty Devil Dancing.

That is Carol under that “frightening” mask made of papier mache on a clay mold. From there we moved on to “A Day in the Life” at the home of a couple that make very special dresses for festivals.  Here is the husband, William, working on making the edge that goes around the dress’s seven layers. MVI_0016 You will notice he keeps talking while he works at the very intricate braid. 

We are keeping up with the news. We are hand washing repeatedly and greeted with sanitizer where ever we turn. Already some of our itinerary has been changed as a result. So far we continue to live in a protected bubble in a country that has a few cases only in Panama City. We will be in the outskirts for the next three nights. Then on to our very small cruise through the Canal. We are only 14 of the original planned 21. As far as anyone can tell we are still going on to Colombia. There is one more OAT group in country running 3 days behind us. They may be the last for the near future. The impact on the people of the tourism industry is frightening.  For our Tour Leader and driver this is their only job.

Enough, back to our bubble while we can!

I an sitting in the lobby of the Cubita Hotel in Chitre Panama. After a longish bus day. Yesterday was touring in Panama City with history from the destruction of the original city  by the Pirate Henry Morgan to the reconstruction . the colonial city in its current location. We had a teaser of Jazz in the evening and 10 of us reserved. Carolthand I headed out looking for dinner and ended at the American Trader Hotel where the Jazz Club is located. 

WE were not sure it was even open because at 6:30 PM it was totally empty. We were told to take any table so we did. As soon as we ordered another couple appeared and we asked them to join us. The Rosenthals (as it turned out) did join us we had a delightful dinner. They called us kids since Vince claimed to be 92 and I was in place to call him out on it. They had been married 40 years, and he told me his first marriage had been 30er. years. He sure has staying power.

Dinner ended and it was time to get on to the Jazz. The trio, Trumpet, Guitar and Percussion played many standards with a salsa twist. There were black and white videos from the 40′ and 50’s on a screen over there heads. Eventually a professional dance couple came onto the floor and started to entertain. They were joined by some of the audience. At some point the lady of the group started around the floor looking to take someone out to join her. I couldn’t refuse. You will need to get Carol to send you the videos. Later CArol and I got out on the floor. We really need salsa lessons if we ever want to do that again.

After an uneventful overnight flight and transfer to Central Hotel in Panama City. We set out to walk around places we remember from a year ago. This are of Colonial Panama City is very contained consisting of three East-West avenues named A Central and B connected by many cross streets. 

Our introductory information had several suggestions for free time including a Mola Museum which seemed new to us. As we strolled we came across it and decided to take a look. Although the material had suggested there was an entry fee, it was free admittance. We wondered why we had not seen it last year and on asking we learned it had opened three months ago. Here is a link to a picture of a Mola.

We wandered back to the hotel and encountered a photo shoot in the lobby https://photos.app.goo.gl/WCDANnEYRKrxDxJd8 

We met with some of our group, down to 15 from the original 21, and had a short walk around the area and 6 of us went to a roof top bar CasaCasca to watch the sunset over a round of adult beverages.

After dinner and a good nights sleep we are ready for the first day of the trip. 

We completed the first and maybe most difficult part of the trip, driving to LAX late afternoon. We picked up the car in the morning and after parking it on our site we took the Jeep and went to Missy’ 15th Hole at Rancho California RV Park across the highway from us. I cannot remember how many has owners/chefs this place has had in the 5 years we have been coming here. Carol and I hope Missy will be around for a while, not that there is anything wonderful being offered, just that it is tasty and pleasant to . eat there. A vast improvement on her predecessors. 

We finally closed the suitcases and loaded them into the rental Mazda allowing ourselves a generous four hour  to fill the gas tank and return the car and get to LAX Terminal 3. We got it done in 3 hours.

We are in the Lounge and it is time to head on down to the gate. More to follow.