Thanksgiving in Panama

Sienna and I headed to Panama on Thursday morning for the long Thanksgiving weekend with my friend Jaime. We fought super cheap tickets on Copa Airlines running only $150 total for a RT ticket! Jaime's roommate Jen was there interviewing for a job next year because her Guatemalan boyfriend recently relocated there with Proctor & Gamble.

Our flight left at 5:45 am, so we left for the airport, only minutes away, at 4 am. I felt bad waking Sienna up from her sleep, but didn't have much choice. The flight was direct and everything went very smoothly. Sienna didn't sleep much, but she was really good on the plane.

We rented a car from Thrifty - it didn't carry a very "thrifty" price tag, but it was more convenient than relying on Pablo to drive us around. We found Pablo's apartment in the Bella Vista area without any problem, but were locked out because Jen hadn't returned from her interview yet, so we headed to Dunkin' Doughnuts on foot to wait.

Against my better judgment, we all crammed into Pablo's one bedroom apartment for three nights. It would have been fine if Sienna wasn't along, but four adults and an infant is a bit much for a tiny one bedroom. I would have preferred to have our own hotel room with a bed and a television where I could lay down and relax while playing with Sienna and she could sleep without a lot of activity going on around her, but Jen wanted us to stay at her boyfriend's and Jaime was in to give it a try, so I caved. Never again.

We slept on two couches pushed together which worked out just fine, but trying to get Sienna down to sleep was a bit difficult in the midst of all the activity. Finally at 10 pm, she went to sleep for good, but not after over 5 tries. Not only was she exhausted, but I was completely wiped out after a long day of traveling. Her usual bedtime is 7-8:30 pm and mine isn't too long afterwards.

We woke up on Friday and headed to Casco Viejo, the old capital city, to take a look. It was very rainy and gloomy and the whole city has a very rundown look to it. I had heard so many good things about Panama and I wondered if we were just not hitting the nice spots.

We went to a nice shopping mall, had lunch at Benihana and headed back to Pablo's for a much needed nap. Jen, Jaime and Pablo got ready and met his friends at a house party and Sienna and I immediately went happily to sleep at 8:30 pm!

On Saturday, we headed to the Panama Canal - the main reason for my trip to Panama. It was very interesting to watch the video played in the museum explaining how the canal works, the history, etc. and to watch a boat from Bangkok go through the Miraflores Locks. The museum was interesting, but it was tough to read up on everything while feeding and diaper changing Sienna ;)

It rained again all day and was very humid, but maybe that was a bonus because it could have been extremely hot had the sun been blazing out. The rainy season in Panama stretches from April/May to December, almost the entire year!

We went to the Causeway, a landmass made of the rocks dug out of the canal with a bunch of nice restaurants, for a nice seafood lunch. Afterwards, we headed home and took another afternoon siesta.

When we woke, Jaime and I put Sienna in the stroller and headed to a mall just down the street. It was still raining, but not too bad and it was nice to be able to take Sienna out without having to worry about her safety.

In Guatemala, it's not safe enough to stroll around with a baby in the streets - it's just not a good idea. This was the one and only factor that I liked more about Panama than Guate - security. But surprised as I was, all other factors - weather, appearance, traffic (it was HORRIBLE in Panama) and apartment price - were negative in comparison to what Guatemala City has to offer. It reminded me of how much I really like Guate.

We headed home after grabbing a bite to eat at the mall and went to bed, awaking the next morning and heading to the airport at 8 am.

Sienna slept on the flight from Panama to Managua, Nicaragua and had no issues with her ears, but on the decent into Guatemala City, she cried very hard for about 15 minutes and seemed to be in horrible pain. It was awful. I tried cupping her ears, as the flight attendant instructed, but it didn't help. She wouldn't suck on her bottle or pacifier, so I simply held her close to me and rocked her back and forth. If I took her down to try again with the bottle, she'd scream louder. Jaime was singing nursery rhymes to her, which actually seemed to soothe her quite a bit!

I was incredibly happy to touch down. Sienna stopped crying and I called my friend Hermano to pick us up. We went through customs, got our luggage and loaded into the car. Home at last!