Appleton's V/X only £5 a bottle! God bless Panama!

Out of the hotel...

I finally found somewhere to live! I moved in with a Panamanian guy called Fernando yesterday in Costa de Este, about a 10 minute can ride from Bella Vista, Marbella and the World Trade Centre where I´m working. It´s Fernando´s apartment, and I´m paying $175 a month for the smaller of the bedrooms. He´s only just moved in, so there´s no fridge, no cooker, not much furniture and no hot water, but it´s always hot here so who needs a hot shower?!

Fernando´s cool so having someone my age about is worth more than a swanky flat, and after living on City Road, I can handle most places!

Panama baby!

So I arrived on Saturday night, at about 10pm local time which we thought was 3am. Turns out Panama doesn´t have daylight savings time, so it was really 4am. Seeing as I hadn´t slept before my flight, but managed to pass out for most of the two 7 and 5 hour flights I didn´t really notice!

The night before I left was fun, if a little worrying when I still hadn´t slept, and was a little messy, about an hour before my boss was supposed to turn up to pick me up at 7:45. The fact that Ali had fastened a chunky padlock, Oli´s leaving party style, to the back of my trousers; which I kept forgetting about didn´t help. The thought of turning up with my boss and Claire, the girl I work with, a little worse for wear and having to take my trousers off to get through security didn´t seem that appealing!

Things improved; for me at least, when my boss called to say that I´d have to get a taxi coz he´d had to put his dad in an ambulance. His dad was fine, except a busted knee, but it meant I got an hour or so at the airport to have a drink and a cigarette before meeting the two of them. The fact my voice had gone and I couldn´t speak properly was at least a talking point and if anything they seemed a little jealous that I´d been up all night having fun with my friends before I left.

So a pint and a rum and coke, and a sleeping tablet when I got on the plane meant the journey wasn´t too painful. Even losing my boarding pass for the Panama flight at Newark airport wasn´t too bad! The lady at check in just gave me a new one and I went through ready to fall asleep for another 5 hours.

When we arrived in Panama it was dark so you didn´t get much of an idea of what the place was like until you got outside the airport and the humidity was crazy. It was late at night, but I was sweating while I waited outside, having a cigarette, for my boss to sort out our hire car.

We drove around for a while looking for the hotel, which we eventually found, and checked in. Still not having had a chance to find out what Panama City was like, except countless skyscrapers making up a pretty dramatic skyline as we drove in, we wandered out on a little mission to explore the surroundings. We stopped at a little bar where we had a couple of beers and I bought some cigarettes, all of which were stupid cheap, before heading back to the hotel and falling asleep.

We spent Sunday having some breakfast and then splitting up to explore a little. I wandered down the coast road, Avenida Balboa, and heading into Caledonia; a beat up part of town with a long pedestrian road with loads of cheap shops selling clothes, electronics and textiles, before wandering back through the middle of the city towards the hotel. I stopped of in a beautiful park near the water and watched some guys play some basketball, if only to get out of the searing heat, before heading back to the hotel. My boss had decided the hotel wasn´t quite up to his standards, so he and Claire checked into the far swankier Mirimar Inter-Continental. Not quite being able to afford the extra 200 quid for the week, I stayed where I was; which was more than comfy enough for the week I´d be there.

We went out for dinner to the best Steak restaurant in Panama. I was a little worried as I still had to find somewhere to live with my remaining money. I needn´t have been. I had a massive rib-eye steak, and spanish sausages to start and we shared a nice bottle of wine, and it came to $30 each... about 15 quid. On my way home I worried myself when I bought another packet of cigarettes from a gas station, seeing as how quickly I´d smoked the last pack knowing they were only 1 pound fify. They were $1.60... about 80p. My chances of giving up seem to have dropped dramatically.

I woke up for work on Monday, having found out that we´d have to wear suits to work from now on, hoping it wouldn´t be too hot at 8 in the morning. I couldn´t have been more wrong and arrived at the World Trade Centre (still standing) sweating my arse off. After waiting around for my boss and Claire who were about half an hour late we had an ever exciting day at work.

My boss left early to sort out his things that had been shipped from the bahamas, taking Claire with him to translate and I stayed til about 6 finishing off some work. I wandered home, had a shower, and went off to explore some more. I went to a bar that i´d found in the rough guide which was dead but allowed me to practice my worringly non-existant spanish and headed off north where I walked and sweated around a few streets before finding a little open air bar where I stopped and had a beer or three. And a rum & coke :) which all in all came to $5. I´m worrying less about my money situation now and more about my health!

I´ll leave you with a photo-fit of me, courtesy of Dave that reminds me a little of James in Chicago. It may become reality if the humidity keeps up. And from what I´ve read it only gets worse, all the way through rainy season, which runs from now until January!!

Missing everyone badly,

Sam x