April 15th, 2011

We decided to leave our beach paradise this morning to begin our return home via Panama City. Our cab driver came at 8.30 a.m. and picked us up and took us to a place we had discovered the night before for breakfast -- it was just off the Interamericana Hwy. After breakfast, we walked out to the Hwy. and a bus came by, almost immediately, and we were off again, in an air-conditioned bus, on our way to Panama City. We had been having trouble getting money out of the ATM.s in El Valle, but we felt that we had enough money until we got to Panama City, as transportation is very inexpensive.

Arriving in Panama City, our first priority was to get to an ATM and then find a place to stay. Getting to the place we had hoped to stay in, we discovered that they were totally booked. The woman in this hostel was extremely helpful in phoning another place for us to go to. With only $6.00 remaining we decided to go to the bank before proceeding to the other hostel. No luck, no luck, no luck at every machine we both tried. It began to rain, rain, rain, rain. It was one of those times that makes backpack traveling challenging. The backpacks and I stayed on the patio of a sports bar, while Gerald ran around looking for a Bank. I felt that I could not order anything, given our money situation. After some time, and more rain, rain, rain, I wondered exactly how much money I had for a coffee and cab fare to the hostel. I searched my entire money belt and found $30.00 -- we were rich. Gerald came back, without any success. So, we decided to get to the hostel and plead our case, if necessary (which it wasn't).

Arriving at the Hostel, yet again, another lovely place, with air-conditioning and hot water and CNN, we got settled in Then, we headed to Rey, the supermarket to buy groceries for supper and breakfast, as our hostel had a kitchen we could use. It had stopped raining and the sun was shining -- truly and it was very warm again, i.e., in the 80.s We received an email that our bank was wanting to speak with us, so we decided to contact them the next morning and hopefully solve the money situation.