Fri 2nd 1103 At airport landside. All OK so far. My flight is on time, though slightly worryingly one earlier inbound/outbound Bogota flight is cancelled.
Got up 8, no toilet paper in bog but luckily I had a it in my pocket. Wasted few mins waiting for other cubicle to empty so I could replenish supply but they didn't come out and I managed to snag some from another toilet off the common room.
Went out for food about 830 or 9 IIRC - whatever time it was, it felt surprisingly late. Went to that little restaurant with slightly surly stuff I went to first day, ended up paying 15k for steak & chips as they didn't have something for the 12k carne a la plancha I ordered - TBH I didn't fully understand the waitress. I was asked if I wanted anything to drink but wasn't clear if it was free and the fruit juice the first day was tiny and not v nice so said no thanks. Anyway, I did get the salad undressed and the food wasn't bad.
Then over Kr33 to Oxxo to get another litre of water, back over Kr33 and went to a hole in wall opp-ish D1 I'd seen on walk to the restaurant where I got an arepa de huevo (entire egg inside it, yolk cooked solid FWIW) for 3.5k which was very nice. Back to hostel to pack and check round. All fine (touch wood). Got phone call on Colombian SIM 945ish and answered it and only half understood but seemed to be driver telling me 10am.
I was packed but had been hoping to squash more charge into K1. Anyway sent message via WA checking this was genuine and went down to reception to wait. Bit edgy car would turn up and I'd be dubious, but after about 20 mins and one polite chasing message I got registration number from the company via WA (whoever is on duty today seems to actually type rather than send recorded voice messages) and that made me feel a lot better.
I "should" go airside ASAP on general principles but I *am* here pretty early and I don't want to chug my water over quickly (this will be second litre this morning, plus dregs in some other bottles) and just piss it right out, as I hope this will provide my "base" hydration for the day and I'll just top up with a small-ish water if necessary or maybe a coffee or something in Bogota. There is no free food on the flights, but I suppose it is not inconceivable they will give me a small bottle of water for free - I'm just not relying on it.
Did Duolingo this morning, I currently have the "once every 100 days" bonus 5/5 streak freezes and today felt like a day where I might miss if I didn't do it this morning. It isn't the end of the world but I am hoping to be able to keep this full 5/5 available until the boat trip so I can retain the streak over that big internet-less gap.
Four passengers (1 front, 3 back) in colectivo, I was second to last pickup. Mildly luckily the last person got in opposite side to me, so I ended up against left door rather than in middle.
1215 Through security, v quiet prob cos it's a national flight, no problems. Wearing fleece now cos I put it on to shove stuff in pockets before taking it off to go through scanner. Kept my empty litre water bottle as well as the two smaller ones brough from home on offchance of a refill.
Oh, just as I got up from table to go to bog and go through security an old-ish local showed me his boarding pass and asked me if his flight was delayed. Felt a bit odd but I think I handled the Spanish OK and he said thanks.
And the guy on the boarding pass checkpoint into the security area asked if I was Italian. He did have my passport in hand but I guess there's no reason he should pay over much attention to nationality rather than just looking at photo. Very pleasant chap TBH. seemed oddly pleased at me being English (maybe it's a bit unusual here) but of course maybe I imagined it.
1221 At gate 6. No sign of water refill. To be fair, coffee prices not insane (Tostao even showing a small tinto at 1500 and there's a Juan Valdez which is slightly cheaper than the landside Bogota one) but I don't desperately want a coffee, apart from maybe technically kinda-sorta being dehydrating I just drank all that water. Time permitting (fingers crossed no delays etc) I may buy a coffee while waiting in Bogota, we'll see how it goes.
1308 Been for somewhat needed piss. Lost my seat at gate but there's another one at gate 5 which is right next door.
1342 Flight now gate 4. Hardly anyone moved. It all feels borderline "nothing happening" and I was (still am) getting a bit nervous gonna miss flight. Luckily I overheard a woman talking to guy on desk and I think it's fine and we are boarding in about 20 minutes.
1352 Just got called over tannoy up to gate by name with two other people. Guy at gate desk spoke to me in English, wanted to see my passport and ticket out of Panama but I thought at first (maybe he made a slip in English, maybe I misunderstood) he wanted to see my ticket to Panama. Anyway, just a bit of delay, I showed him my Avianca via expedia booking and that was fine. I expected this to maybe be checked in Bogota but no real harm being checked here - TBH may happen again in Bogota for all I know. Boarding groups going to starting being called in a minute.
(He didn't ask to see my flight out of Colombia and back home, BTW.)
1421 On plane, flight is prob half empty - two full rows of 3 seats empty to my right. Stupid notice about overhead lockers being for wheeled bags only (so you charge extra for flights with cabin baggage vs just a personal item under seat, *but* then expect people like me paying that extra to have no legroom just because we don't have a wheeled bag?) but no one is trying to enforce it and not surprisingly as my bag has an entire overhead locker to itself.
We are obviously slightly late but fingers crossed not so much it will make any difference to the connection.
A320 BTW.
1557 Airside international in Bogota. Had to go landside and then come back through security but it was amazingly fast and (modulo the whole irritation of it) no stress.
Wanted to fall asleep on flight, something to do with pressure?? No problems anyway, did stay awake AFAIK.
Altho the cabin was "temporary" as everyone was getting off I did a test fit of my bag under seat in front of me in one of those empty rows. It did fit but it was a bit long and would have been a bit uncomfortable (eg if I had been on an XS fare and allowed to board with it, or if I'd been irrationally forced to do it even with an S fare), but just about doable though feet prob be forced to be about as close to seat as possible.
1733 On plane. Flight apparently completely full. Window seat, feel OK TBH. Put bag in overhead compartment across aisle where I can see it despite their fucking announcements, whichmay at least have once acknowledged that "large" bags can go in overhead bins as well as wheeled ones.
Had a coffee (asked for grande and got extra large, dunno if linguistic problem or upsell but they did show me the cup and it's fine) - white - at Juan Valdez airside for 11.3k. Paid on ccard as figured at this point conserving cash is mildly valuable.
Was surprised to see flight was boarding when finished coffee but not big deal. Had most of my bag of mini-croissants before getting coffee, wasn't actually hungry but was nice to eat and may make me feel better later.
Odd to think last time I was in that international departures area it was Feb/Mar 2020 and I was flying home prematurely.
Didn't get chance to top up phone in Bogota as expected. Both about 50% and think will be fine, plus in absolute dire emergency do have power bank. Was topping up K1 while reading on it at Buc gate but it seemed to charge v slowly.
FWIW have generally been trying to use coins instead of letting them accumulate and I think I have literally one or two, which is good.
Another A320 BTW.
Not that I expected it or am particularly bothered but FWIW no in-flight entertainment on either flight.
2337 At new hostel about to go to bed. I maybe got here 2230ish. Everything is OK and I'm not despairing but it has been a mildly stressful evening. Not quite the right phrase. Let me try and bash out some bullet points:
- I was relatively early into the slow moving immigration queue. No problems - and they didn't want to see onward flight, I suspect airlines are liable here and that's why this had already been checked - but they did want to know where I was going to stay. Did immigration in Spanish and was OK. In hindsight (relevant later) I had no trouble with the immigration woman's accent. The big fucker here is I GOT FINGERPRINTED. Every single fucking finger. This *probably* isn't a big deal and it wouldn't entirely surprise me if I *already* got fingerprinted a while ago, resented it but forgot, but I am pissed off. I *might* not have come to Panama if I'd known, but I certainly wasn't going to refuse once this was sprung on me. This *may* be a big nothingburger even from a privacy POV, but would be silly to pretend I'm not massively annoyed by it.
- Customs has a faffy form which repeats info you just gave the immigration officer. I guzzled remaining 4 mini croissants to avoid problems and showed my packet of pan integral con pasas (which handily "popped" in my bag as I took it out) to the customs woman just to avoid any possible accusations of smuggling food into Panama depsite having ticked the "no" box. (The Spanish and English vsns of Q re food appeared - but I am not expert - inconsistent, English version talked about fresh food while IIRC Spanish simply said "alimentacion" .) She said that was fine. Apart from faffy form and delays queueing up no real problems.
- No mask shit on flight, a few people wearing them. No one asked for my Colombian check-mig despite Avianca's e-mail saying to do it. And an electronic display in immigration queue in Panama said (in Spanish) "have your QR code ready in your hand" with some covid waffle underneath it, which shitted me up despite having checked FCDO and it saying there was no covid stuff to worry about on entry. And of course no one asked for it. I guess this is part of the grand tradition of keeping every possible sign and notification about mandatory covid stuff present even when it is no longer being enforced. Heaven forbid they should - gasp - turn off this display.
- Struggled with cash machines. Long story short, tried with both Starling and Barc Rewards in two diff machines and neither would let me have more than USD250. Fees USD5 or 6.50 (latter Davivienda; would rather have avoided them but limited choice.) Oh, I also tried a third machine which was Banco Nacional (?y and it felt quite like one of the others, so *maybe* I tried two BN machines. Anyway, no one would do more than 250. To be scrupulously fair, this is approx 2% fee which isn't all that terrible. Anyway, I tried to wd 250 on Starling but suddenly my card was blocked (and some hyper transient never got to see again notifs when I got to hostel and gave K1 net access again confirmed the txns failed), so I did 2xUSD250 wds on Barc Rewards and that worked. Went into bog and stuffed this in flip belt.
- Was prob 2100ish when cleared customs. By time I'd faffed with cash machines and wandered outside and been plagued by taxi drivers and was maybe borderline rude to one ("I'm going to get the Metro" "do you know where to get it?" "I'll find it" (walking off to get away from him when maybe he was trying to be helpful) I couldn't find metro and everyone "official" seemed to be a taxi tout and (not proud, but truth, though it kill me) I sank as far as to be cursing out loud as I wandered the parking type area outside the terminal. In the end I asked a cleaner inside terminal and then a flight attendant-ish woman at a bus stop and I found out there is a free shuttle bus between the two airport terminals and the metro and the FA told me where to get it and indeed I did - it was 90% airline/airport staff in uniform and had I not been clued in I might have thought it was for them only. I was extra pissed off here as the PDF of helpful English language tourist info I got from airport website did not mention this at all - there is some vague stuff about this for airport arrivals but not for departure. Once you know it's easy.
- Was getting stressed out during all this as up against 11pm shutdown of metro. Once got on bus was prob OK but still edgy. Got a card from machine at airport station and it had no change but offered to sell me credit for change, i gave it usd5 so this worked well (card costs 2), kudos here for dealing with this - instructions all in Spanish and you had to take the card out of the dispensing slot and put it in the recharging slot and I wasn't fazed by all this.
- metro tbf v clean and felt safe. no major problems changing twice to get to stop near hostel.
- area round hostel is quiet and feels slightly scuzzy. tbf hostel website half says this ("real panamanian neighbourhood" or something) and while I didn't *like* walking at 2230ish with all my belongings it didn't actually feel dangerous. I had somewhat intelligently twigged while looking at OM to refresh memory of route on flight that I could use the one way streets to orient myself (essentially it so happened I wanted to be walking against pretty sporadic traffic flow all the way), though I did get phone out and check OM a bit.
- hostel is a bit weird. owner is this probably nice (and need to try to maintain good attitude) but weirdish older woman. we spoke spanish but she asked me one thing - which turned out to be my name - and I hadn't a clue what she was saying and then she switched to English. she also examined all three of my USD20 bills with a tester pen *and* seemed to rub them against each other in a weird way (USD bills feel ultra fragile and I could imagine them breaking; COP bills are not plastic, I think, but feel more solid). I hope this isn't par for course in Panama. She also refused then accepted then finally refused my passport credit card copy; again, hope this isn't typical.
- there are three cats here, one was in my room (trapped? there seems no other way in than door, maybe it wasn't locked but think it was) when she showed me to it.
- a few young-ish guys hanging round, talking English, by pool - have sort of nodded at people a bit, no more.
- I popped out to minimarket (she said closes 11ish) to get water and - cos I could and it kind of felt I'd earned it - couple of cans of Balboa, which I drank solo at table in garden. I could not understang the shop guy telling me the price at all - I had loads of 5s and 1s but I lugged out a 20 just to avoid complication (and got >USD15 back, which didn't feel too bad - I got a 2l bottle of Dasani, and everything chilled). I dunno if this is him (maybe he has a speech impediment for all I know, for example) or me. Maybe I was just tired and edgy.
- Homeless/beggar guy outside minimarket as went in (no trouble), also a weirdish guy walking down street. As I say it feels a bit scuzzy but not actually dangerous and maybe (rose tinted glasses?) it is kind of cool.
- Sink is in open air so no proper clothes washing. :-( Given this I washed both top and uw in water only when having a shower, better than nothing.
- Room has aircon. It is warmish here but I was wearing fleece whole way over, I suspect metro has aircon but not super super cold, and (of course it's lateish at night) walk over wasn't sweatarama wearing fleece. Daytime temps are prob 28Cish and given this is sea level and I've been in mountains (even if low-ish at 1300m perhaps lately) in Colombia I suspect it is generally warmer and muggier here. This is first aircon of trip. I probably "shouldn't" use it as I need to acclimatise and I suspect a lot of cheaper accom outside PC will not have it (but who knows), but fuck it, I've got it on at 22C right now and it is nice. As I've hopefully conveyed, in Colombia it was generally warmish at night (actually cold in some places eg Tunja) and I didn't always sleep super well but it wasn't intolerably warm.
- There is free coffee til 11am. It's been ages since I had free coffee at hostel. Plan for tomorrow is to get up 8-9ish, have some free coffee, have chat if that's an option and otherwise take it easy with the main goals being a) go out and eat b) wander round a bit, either locally or slightly further afield but prob on foot c) buy a local SIM d) (bonus, no rush) buy toothpaste and a new razor e) (no massive deal) sort out all my stuff and try to stash cash safely and sort out what's in my flip wallet etc.
- I could maybe see myself extending here for a night, but it would prob barring good reasons to stay be good to get out into the rest of country and started on my bummel, and if I did want to stay here and try to socialise or whatever, it might make more sense to do that when I'm here pre boat trip when maybe my fellow idiots will be around. But no rush to decide. It's also not super cheap here in this private room (USD26ish a night even with discount code).
Sat 3d 0006 I think that's about it. If I forgot something I can always fill it in later. If I want to be up in time to take piss out of free coffee :-) I need to get to bed and I do feel a bit tired. I don't regret the beers TBH, I have had cumulatively a lot last few nights but not drinking to excess any given night and despite my not great out loud whininess outside terminal on the whole I haven't done badly today. And getting Metro cost me USD2 for the card and maybe (not clear) USD0.5-1 for the trip, vs prob USD30+ for a taxi, so that's not too bad.
Oh, the metro feels rather propaganda-ish, but that's prob par for the course. "Look how great we are, new line 3 coming, jobs, blah blah" "Here's how you should behave on the metro" "Be kind to refugees" (paraphrased) I may be wrong, but I am not sure I saw much if any actual "commercial" advertising on metro. Dunno if that should be capitalised or not. Anyway, as I say to give it credit it was clean and felt safe and was very good value. It just gives me a vague "Singapore" vibe which I don't really like.
There was a local SIM machine at airport but I didn't want to waste time and I assume it's appalling value too. I am not on a 2 week holiday and can afford to take a little time and get a bit of Spanish practice in talking to people tomorrow.
Got up 8, no toilet paper in bog but luckily I had a it in my pocket. Wasted few mins waiting for other cubicle to empty so I could replenish supply but they didn't come out and I managed to snag some from another toilet off the common room.
Went out for food about 830 or 9 IIRC - whatever time it was, it felt surprisingly late. Went to that little restaurant with slightly surly stuff I went to first day, ended up paying 15k for steak & chips as they didn't have something for the 12k carne a la plancha I ordered - TBH I didn't fully understand the waitress. I was asked if I wanted anything to drink but wasn't clear if it was free and the fruit juice the first day was tiny and not v nice so said no thanks. Anyway, I did get the salad undressed and the food wasn't bad.
Then over Kr33 to Oxxo to get another litre of water, back over Kr33 and went to a hole in wall opp-ish D1 I'd seen on walk to the restaurant where I got an arepa de huevo (entire egg inside it, yolk cooked solid FWIW) for 3.5k which was very nice. Back to hostel to pack and check round. All fine (touch wood). Got phone call on Colombian SIM 945ish and answered it and only half understood but seemed to be driver telling me 10am.
I was packed but had been hoping to squash more charge into K1. Anyway sent message via WA checking this was genuine and went down to reception to wait. Bit edgy car would turn up and I'd be dubious, but after about 20 mins and one polite chasing message I got registration number from the company via WA (whoever is on duty today seems to actually type rather than send recorded voice messages) and that made me feel a lot better.
I "should" go airside ASAP on general principles but I *am* here pretty early and I don't want to chug my water over quickly (this will be second litre this morning, plus dregs in some other bottles) and just piss it right out, as I hope this will provide my "base" hydration for the day and I'll just top up with a small-ish water if necessary or maybe a coffee or something in Bogota. There is no free food on the flights, but I suppose it is not inconceivable they will give me a small bottle of water for free - I'm just not relying on it.
Did Duolingo this morning, I currently have the "once every 100 days" bonus 5/5 streak freezes and today felt like a day where I might miss if I didn't do it this morning. It isn't the end of the world but I am hoping to be able to keep this full 5/5 available until the boat trip so I can retain the streak over that big internet-less gap.
Four passengers (1 front, 3 back) in colectivo, I was second to last pickup. Mildly luckily the last person got in opposite side to me, so I ended up against left door rather than in middle.
1215 Through security, v quiet prob cos it's a national flight, no problems. Wearing fleece now cos I put it on to shove stuff in pockets before taking it off to go through scanner. Kept my empty litre water bottle as well as the two smaller ones brough from home on offchance of a refill.
Oh, just as I got up from table to go to bog and go through security an old-ish local showed me his boarding pass and asked me if his flight was delayed. Felt a bit odd but I think I handled the Spanish OK and he said thanks.
And the guy on the boarding pass checkpoint into the security area asked if I was Italian. He did have my passport in hand but I guess there's no reason he should pay over much attention to nationality rather than just looking at photo. Very pleasant chap TBH. seemed oddly pleased at me being English (maybe it's a bit unusual here) but of course maybe I imagined it.
1221 At gate 6. No sign of water refill. To be fair, coffee prices not insane (Tostao even showing a small tinto at 1500 and there's a Juan Valdez which is slightly cheaper than the landside Bogota one) but I don't desperately want a coffee, apart from maybe technically kinda-sorta being dehydrating I just drank all that water. Time permitting (fingers crossed no delays etc) I may buy a coffee while waiting in Bogota, we'll see how it goes.
1308 Been for somewhat needed piss. Lost my seat at gate but there's another one at gate 5 which is right next door.
1342 Flight now gate 4. Hardly anyone moved. It all feels borderline "nothing happening" and I was (still am) getting a bit nervous gonna miss flight. Luckily I overheard a woman talking to guy on desk and I think it's fine and we are boarding in about 20 minutes.
1352 Just got called over tannoy up to gate by name with two other people. Guy at gate desk spoke to me in English, wanted to see my passport and ticket out of Panama but I thought at first (maybe he made a slip in English, maybe I misunderstood) he wanted to see my ticket to Panama. Anyway, just a bit of delay, I showed him my Avianca via expedia booking and that was fine. I expected this to maybe be checked in Bogota but no real harm being checked here - TBH may happen again in Bogota for all I know. Boarding groups going to starting being called in a minute.
(He didn't ask to see my flight out of Colombia and back home, BTW.)
1421 On plane, flight is prob half empty - two full rows of 3 seats empty to my right. Stupid notice about overhead lockers being for wheeled bags only (so you charge extra for flights with cabin baggage vs just a personal item under seat, *but* then expect people like me paying that extra to have no legroom just because we don't have a wheeled bag?) but no one is trying to enforce it and not surprisingly as my bag has an entire overhead locker to itself.
We are obviously slightly late but fingers crossed not so much it will make any difference to the connection.
A320 BTW.
1557 Airside international in Bogota. Had to go landside and then come back through security but it was amazingly fast and (modulo the whole irritation of it) no stress.
Wanted to fall asleep on flight, something to do with pressure?? No problems anyway, did stay awake AFAIK.
Altho the cabin was "temporary" as everyone was getting off I did a test fit of my bag under seat in front of me in one of those empty rows. It did fit but it was a bit long and would have been a bit uncomfortable (eg if I had been on an XS fare and allowed to board with it, or if I'd been irrationally forced to do it even with an S fare), but just about doable though feet prob be forced to be about as close to seat as possible.
1733 On plane. Flight apparently completely full. Window seat, feel OK TBH. Put bag in overhead compartment across aisle where I can see it despite their fucking announcements, whichmay at least have once acknowledged that "large" bags can go in overhead bins as well as wheeled ones.
Had a coffee (asked for grande and got extra large, dunno if linguistic problem or upsell but they did show me the cup and it's fine) - white - at Juan Valdez airside for 11.3k. Paid on ccard as figured at this point conserving cash is mildly valuable.
Was surprised to see flight was boarding when finished coffee but not big deal. Had most of my bag of mini-croissants before getting coffee, wasn't actually hungry but was nice to eat and may make me feel better later.
Odd to think last time I was in that international departures area it was Feb/Mar 2020 and I was flying home prematurely.
Didn't get chance to top up phone in Bogota as expected. Both about 50% and think will be fine, plus in absolute dire emergency do have power bank. Was topping up K1 while reading on it at Buc gate but it seemed to charge v slowly.
FWIW have generally been trying to use coins instead of letting them accumulate and I think I have literally one or two, which is good.
Another A320 BTW.
Not that I expected it or am particularly bothered but FWIW no in-flight entertainment on either flight.
2337 At new hostel about to go to bed. I maybe got here 2230ish. Everything is OK and I'm not despairing but it has been a mildly stressful evening. Not quite the right phrase. Let me try and bash out some bullet points:
- I was relatively early into the slow moving immigration queue. No problems - and they didn't want to see onward flight, I suspect airlines are liable here and that's why this had already been checked - but they did want to know where I was going to stay. Did immigration in Spanish and was OK. In hindsight (relevant later) I had no trouble with the immigration woman's accent. The big fucker here is I GOT FINGERPRINTED. Every single fucking finger. This *probably* isn't a big deal and it wouldn't entirely surprise me if I *already* got fingerprinted a while ago, resented it but forgot, but I am pissed off. I *might* not have come to Panama if I'd known, but I certainly wasn't going to refuse once this was sprung on me. This *may* be a big nothingburger even from a privacy POV, but would be silly to pretend I'm not massively annoyed by it.
- Customs has a faffy form which repeats info you just gave the immigration officer. I guzzled remaining 4 mini croissants to avoid problems and showed my packet of pan integral con pasas (which handily "popped" in my bag as I took it out) to the customs woman just to avoid any possible accusations of smuggling food into Panama depsite having ticked the "no" box. (The Spanish and English vsns of Q re food appeared - but I am not expert - inconsistent, English version talked about fresh food while IIRC Spanish simply said "alimentacion" .) She said that was fine. Apart from faffy form and delays queueing up no real problems.
- No mask shit on flight, a few people wearing them. No one asked for my Colombian check-mig despite Avianca's e-mail saying to do it. And an electronic display in immigration queue in Panama said (in Spanish) "have your QR code ready in your hand" with some covid waffle underneath it, which shitted me up despite having checked FCDO and it saying there was no covid stuff to worry about on entry. And of course no one asked for it. I guess this is part of the grand tradition of keeping every possible sign and notification about mandatory covid stuff present even when it is no longer being enforced. Heaven forbid they should - gasp - turn off this display.
- Struggled with cash machines. Long story short, tried with both Starling and Barc Rewards in two diff machines and neither would let me have more than USD250. Fees USD5 or 6.50 (latter Davivienda; would rather have avoided them but limited choice.) Oh, I also tried a third machine which was Banco Nacional (?y and it felt quite like one of the others, so *maybe* I tried two BN machines. Anyway, no one would do more than 250. To be scrupulously fair, this is approx 2% fee which isn't all that terrible. Anyway, I tried to wd 250 on Starling but suddenly my card was blocked (and some hyper transient never got to see again notifs when I got to hostel and gave K1 net access again confirmed the txns failed), so I did 2xUSD250 wds on Barc Rewards and that worked. Went into bog and stuffed this in flip belt.
- Was prob 2100ish when cleared customs. By time I'd faffed with cash machines and wandered outside and been plagued by taxi drivers and was maybe borderline rude to one ("I'm going to get the Metro" "do you know where to get it?" "I'll find it" (walking off to get away from him when maybe he was trying to be helpful) I couldn't find metro and everyone "official" seemed to be a taxi tout and (not proud, but truth, though it kill me) I sank as far as to be cursing out loud as I wandered the parking type area outside the terminal. In the end I asked a cleaner inside terminal and then a flight attendant-ish woman at a bus stop and I found out there is a free shuttle bus between the two airport terminals and the metro and the FA told me where to get it and indeed I did - it was 90% airline/airport staff in uniform and had I not been clued in I might have thought it was for them only. I was extra pissed off here as the PDF of helpful English language tourist info I got from airport website did not mention this at all - there is some vague stuff about this for airport arrivals but not for departure. Once you know it's easy.
- Was getting stressed out during all this as up against 11pm shutdown of metro. Once got on bus was prob OK but still edgy. Got a card from machine at airport station and it had no change but offered to sell me credit for change, i gave it usd5 so this worked well (card costs 2), kudos here for dealing with this - instructions all in Spanish and you had to take the card out of the dispensing slot and put it in the recharging slot and I wasn't fazed by all this.
- metro tbf v clean and felt safe. no major problems changing twice to get to stop near hostel.
- area round hostel is quiet and feels slightly scuzzy. tbf hostel website half says this ("real panamanian neighbourhood" or something) and while I didn't *like* walking at 2230ish with all my belongings it didn't actually feel dangerous. I had somewhat intelligently twigged while looking at OM to refresh memory of route on flight that I could use the one way streets to orient myself (essentially it so happened I wanted to be walking against pretty sporadic traffic flow all the way), though I did get phone out and check OM a bit.
- hostel is a bit weird. owner is this probably nice (and need to try to maintain good attitude) but weirdish older woman. we spoke spanish but she asked me one thing - which turned out to be my name - and I hadn't a clue what she was saying and then she switched to English. she also examined all three of my USD20 bills with a tester pen *and* seemed to rub them against each other in a weird way (USD bills feel ultra fragile and I could imagine them breaking; COP bills are not plastic, I think, but feel more solid). I hope this isn't par for course in Panama. She also refused then accepted then finally refused my passport credit card copy; again, hope this isn't typical.
- there are three cats here, one was in my room (trapped? there seems no other way in than door, maybe it wasn't locked but think it was) when she showed me to it.
- a few young-ish guys hanging round, talking English, by pool - have sort of nodded at people a bit, no more.
- I popped out to minimarket (she said closes 11ish) to get water and - cos I could and it kind of felt I'd earned it - couple of cans of Balboa, which I drank solo at table in garden. I could not understang the shop guy telling me the price at all - I had loads of 5s and 1s but I lugged out a 20 just to avoid complication (and got >USD15 back, which didn't feel too bad - I got a 2l bottle of Dasani, and everything chilled). I dunno if this is him (maybe he has a speech impediment for all I know, for example) or me. Maybe I was just tired and edgy.
- Homeless/beggar guy outside minimarket as went in (no trouble), also a weirdish guy walking down street. As I say it feels a bit scuzzy but not actually dangerous and maybe (rose tinted glasses?) it is kind of cool.
- Sink is in open air so no proper clothes washing. :-( Given this I washed both top and uw in water only when having a shower, better than nothing.
- Room has aircon. It is warmish here but I was wearing fleece whole way over, I suspect metro has aircon but not super super cold, and (of course it's lateish at night) walk over wasn't sweatarama wearing fleece. Daytime temps are prob 28Cish and given this is sea level and I've been in mountains (even if low-ish at 1300m perhaps lately) in Colombia I suspect it is generally warmer and muggier here. This is first aircon of trip. I probably "shouldn't" use it as I need to acclimatise and I suspect a lot of cheaper accom outside PC will not have it (but who knows), but fuck it, I've got it on at 22C right now and it is nice. As I've hopefully conveyed, in Colombia it was generally warmish at night (actually cold in some places eg Tunja) and I didn't always sleep super well but it wasn't intolerably warm.
- There is free coffee til 11am. It's been ages since I had free coffee at hostel. Plan for tomorrow is to get up 8-9ish, have some free coffee, have chat if that's an option and otherwise take it easy with the main goals being a) go out and eat b) wander round a bit, either locally or slightly further afield but prob on foot c) buy a local SIM d) (bonus, no rush) buy toothpaste and a new razor e) (no massive deal) sort out all my stuff and try to stash cash safely and sort out what's in my flip wallet etc.
- I could maybe see myself extending here for a night, but it would prob barring good reasons to stay be good to get out into the rest of country and started on my bummel, and if I did want to stay here and try to socialise or whatever, it might make more sense to do that when I'm here pre boat trip when maybe my fellow idiots will be around. But no rush to decide. It's also not super cheap here in this private room (USD26ish a night even with discount code).
Sat 3d 0006 I think that's about it. If I forgot something I can always fill it in later. If I want to be up in time to take piss out of free coffee :-) I need to get to bed and I do feel a bit tired. I don't regret the beers TBH, I have had cumulatively a lot last few nights but not drinking to excess any given night and despite my not great out loud whininess outside terminal on the whole I haven't done badly today. And getting Metro cost me USD2 for the card and maybe (not clear) USD0.5-1 for the trip, vs prob USD30+ for a taxi, so that's not too bad.
Oh, the metro feels rather propaganda-ish, but that's prob par for the course. "Look how great we are, new line 3 coming, jobs, blah blah" "Here's how you should behave on the metro" "Be kind to refugees" (paraphrased) I may be wrong, but I am not sure I saw much if any actual "commercial" advertising on metro. Dunno if that should be capitalised or not. Anyway, as I say to give it credit it was clean and felt safe and was very good value. It just gives me a vague "Singapore" vibe which I don't really like.
There was a local SIM machine at airport but I didn't want to waste time and I assume it's appalling value too. I am not on a 2 week holiday and can afford to take a little time and get a bit of Spanish practice in talking to people tomorrow.
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