Panama City, Panama

Flipping through our copy of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, I noticed the Panama Canal. A quick online search reveled that Panama was a country Singh could visit with his Thai passport sans a special visa. And they took US currency there at a 1:1 exchange rate. And they offered tours on the canal where you could see wild monkeys. Sold.

We opted to pay a zed fare to fly on an afternoon Copa Airlines right out of MCO. It cost a bit more than if I would have flown on my airline, but that flight was out of FLL and was a redeye. I have actually worked the PTY redeye countless times, but navigating a Spanish speaking country at 1am with a tired 3-year old? Yeah, worth the $150 zed fare out of MCO.

The trip started off with a rather long delay as I have come to realize not all airlines work at super sonic speed as mine does. Once we were in the air it was a smooth flight, albeit a bit long for Singh. He grew restless despite eating all the snacks I had packed. At least I discovered he likes eating dried nori as he downed 4 packages during the three-hour flight.

Once we arrived in Panama the customs process was a breeze. Singh and I both watched the agent stamp our passport and then we headed out to the hotel. We had booked a room at the Wyndam just outside the city near the Abroke mall, the largest mall in Central America. Not the reason we stayed there, but it was handy having a mall attached to the hotel. We booked the room because we found a deal on iD90. Sensing a pattern on our trips? The hotel, however, wanted us to pay $40 per person to pick us up from the airport. Um….no. A few of my FA friends had visited the city previously and had told me to try Uber. With free internet at the airport, we booked an Uber ride for just $20 to the hotel. A much more reasonable price. And who doesn’t love Uber? (Okay, this was before the whole immigration ban thing, and I only use Lyft now. But this was back in November…)

Our hotel was okay, definitely not a converted monastery with rotting skeletons in the attached crypt like our trip to Guatemala. But it had nice views of the sprawling city and the rooftop pool was pretty sweet. We walked around the attached mall while we snacked on a freshly made smoothie and Singh partook in the carnival mall rides. Yes. We fly all the way to practically South America and all the kid wants to do is ride the cheap ass merry-go-round. Well, I like to spoil the shit out of this kid so we spent all of our mall-exploring-time and money there. He giggled and smiled the entire time so I’d say it was well worth it. That night we went for a swim and ate dinner by the rooftop pool before calling it a night.

Booked through the concierge at the hotel, our tour picked us up early the following morning to take us to the Gamboa rainforest lodge. Gamboa was an old US Army officer club from the time the canal was built. We drove outside the city and along the canal as it started to rain. Awesome. I’m not going to lie, I’m piss-poor at planning for weather. I suck at it on my layovers and I’m honestly not the best yet for our Mummy and Singh trips. I did pack rain jackets though, but that’s about it. Once we arrived at the eco-resort, we hopped on our first tour, which was a boat ride on the canal and lake in search of wild monkeys.

Riding on the Panama Canal was awesome. As our little wooden boat sped along the man-made inlet, a huge container ship passed us with little more than a wave from the ship’s captain. Singh loves boats and he was having a blast despite the rain hammering his face. A chorus of “wows” and “heys” issued from his giggling mouth when we slowed down near the shore to see a family of howler monkeys watching us from a low-hanging tree. We idled up to them as close as we could and snapped photos and threw them fruit and fruit loops. They loved the candy-coated cereal and they would have enjoyed more of it had Singh not sat there and ate the whole bag as we photographed the wild creatures.

On the wet and rainy tour, we saw more monkeys and a few eagles along the shoreline. There was a toucan chilling at the top of one of the towering trees but I couldn’t get a good glimpse. For those of you who don’t know, one of my goals is to see a toucan in the wild. I’d heard them in the wild when visiting the rainforest in Peru but I haven’t been as lucky to see one yet.

The tour concluded with lunch, a nice buffet despite the large tour bus of Americans that arrived and loudly shared the outdoor dining area with us. After lunch we hiked back up to the main lodge and enjoyed a nice rum punch while we waited for the second part of our tour to commence. One our hike we had a lot of fun exploring the old army barracks and found a colony of leaf-cutter ants. By far the coolest type of ant, no question. 

The rest of our afternoon was spent exploring the canopy of the rainforest…in the rain. We rode up on a tiny metal gondola and were given a private tour of the plant and animal life of the surrounding canopy. Once at the top, we hiked a bit to a ten-story observation tower. We climbed all the way to the top and were rewarded with breathtaking views of the encompassing rainforest and the famous Panama Canal. We watch the rain continue to steadily pour as large container ships made their way through the muddy inlet waters at the bottom of the hills. Our hike back down was a wet one and we concluded the soaking tour by learning about the colorful tree frogs and butterflies of the Panamanian forests.

By the time we headed back to the hotel we were soaked and the incoherent words of “I wet” was echoed throughout the car by my toddler. He did finally fall asleep as we sat in an hour and a half worth of traffic—FYI there are no traffic lights nor stop signs in Panama City. Thank goodness we didn’t rent a car, yikes. After a hot shower and some room service, we hit the bed early as we had a 4am wake up call for our tour to the San Blas islands the following morning.

The San Blas Islands. Let me just preface this by saying that these are the most beautiful islands I have ever experience. Any tropical island photo you see on a calendar or computer desktop is a photo of one of the hundreds of San Blas Islands that form archipelago just of the northern shores of Panama. So whatever you have to do to go see these islands, it is well worth it. In our case, it was a 2 ½ hour turned 5 hour drive on the only road across the country.

Our tour guide was fantastic and picked us up promptly in a very nice and comfortable car. The first hour and a half drive was non-eventful and Singh slept most of the way through the rainy countryside. Then we came to a complete stop in the absolute middle of no-where. Traffic was at a standstill for as far was we could see on the rainy two-lane road. We sat there for two hours and ate all the snacks before cabin fever got the best of me. I grabbed Singh and we walked on the side of the road to where the accident was, a good half a mile away. Turns out, there was a downed power line in the middle of the road. Awesome. My limited Spanish told me that the road was going to be closed until 1pm. We had been sitting there since 7am. Oh I was not having it. I walked up to some police standing around and did my best to converse with them and find out what the actual deal was. Did I mention everything is just slower in Panama? After watching the power company finally arrive and address the wire, we ran back to the car and continued on our way. For the only road that crosses the country why it took them 3 hours to open the road is beyond me. But we were on our way and I needed a drink and some tropical islands STAT.

If you do venture out to the islands, it’s a good idea to pop a Dramamen for the last hour of the drive. Even if you don’t get carsick, you will on this mountainous adventure down to the coast. The views out the window were beautiful and the waters became more and more inviting the closer we drove down the wild hillside. By the time we reached the bottom, our boat was waiting and we jumped in ready to see the islands.

The ride out to the collection of tiny palm-filled islands was long. It was a good half hour ride past sparkling waters and tropical sandy beaches. Our first island we arrived at was small and housed about 50 coconut trees and a small building with a dock and restaurant. Here we ate some fantastic rice and beans and took in the breathtaking vistas just feet from our table. Maybe it was due to our extended commute, but I downed a can of local Panamanian beer despite my hatred of beer and gluten. It was much needed, though, and I was chill the rest of the day.

Our second island we stopped at was a deserted sandbar with a tiny forest of palm and coconut trees extending out of over crystal clear Caribbean waters. We waded into the surprisingly warm waters filled with unique shells and stunning star fish. Singh had blast running around the water and playing with our tour guide in the shallows on the beach. Once he tired of the water he stripped of his shorts (I forgot to pack him a swimsuit. Oops!) and ran around the entire island naked. His giggles and laughs echoed off the tropical trees and I couldn’t help but smile and laugh along with him at the pure sense of joy and happiness that he showcased. It was a very humbling moment to watch my child run free on this secluded island we had completely to ourselves.

Running naked and uninhibited, this child was bursting with glee and gaiety. There will never be a TV show or book he will read that will ever replace this experience. This is exactly why we travel. This is why I will pick up extra trips, extra freelance work, extra illustration projects, whatever, so that we can travel and see the world. I will spend every last penny I have to make sure I show Singh just how amazing this planet is and expose him to as many different experiences as possible. I want him to be a citizen of the world that emanates compassion, kindness, and empathy. And the only way I know to show him this is to travel.

We saw one final island before we called it a day, Isla de Perro Grande—aka big dog island. Another sandbar with exotic foliage we had to ourselves, we played and swam in the gorgeous waters. We ate potato chips and drank tropical juice in the shade of a large swaying palm and a naked toddler’s butt was seen all over the small island. We bid the islands goodbye and started our long journey back to Panama City, this time without a downed power line.

Another round of room service concluded our stay in Panama City. We were beyond exhausted and I was lucky to even get Singh to agree to a shower that night. We left early for the airport in hopes to catch the first Copa flight back to Orlando but we lost the non-rev game for that flight. And just a note to fellow airline employees thinking about traveling out of PTY back to the states—there is absolutely no exemptions for crew. I watched as some US pilots had their bags searched and their liquids confiscated despite the fact that they were commuting. So unless you are Copa crew, you better adhere to the no-liquids rule. Also, we had to go through several different security checkpoints to get to our flight, which was incredibly annoying. You tell a toddler he has to take off his shoes three times and expect him to put them back on without a fight.

We did manage to hop on the second flight of the day, which was good as I was scheduled to be back in Chicago the following day to work a three-day. But nothing we do is without a hassle because once Singh and I went through customs we were temporarily detained because we were not on the manifest. i.e. the gate agent in PTY gave us tickets but didn’t actually put us on the list of passengers on the plane. AWESOME. The agent had taken our tickets so we couldn’t even prove we were on the flight. Thankfully, I had all of my adoption paperwork with me because they did ask for it and I had to explain my whole situation. After the continued hassle and scouring of our paperwork, we were eventually allowed back into the US. The only thing that made my arrival back into my country was getting pulled over for speeding on the drive home. For driving 36 in a 35 mph speed trap. Ugh. Can I go back to the San Blas Islands, please?

TRIP PLANNING LINKS & RESOURCES
Gamboa Rainforest Resort is a great place to stay at or to visit on a tour.
Make sure to stop at the Panama Canal Museum and learn about the history of the canal.
Read this great article to familiarize yourself with ride sharing apps like Uber in Panama.