Costa Rica to Panama, and lots in between

A few interesting things happened in transit from Costa Rica to Panama. The first was that I was assigned to sit next to a man who appeared to not be Spanish, he looked white like me and he was older. He seemed slightly awkward for some reason so I didn’t make any effort to talk to him. But, about 30 minutes into the flight, and after a little nap, he handed me my breakfast which he had been keeping for me while I slept. Along with that he asked if I was traveling for work but it went something like this. Whawhawhawhawhawhawhawha whawhawhaaaaaaaaa whawhawhawhawhawhawhat are you dododododododododododo ing in Panama? Poor guy had a stutter. A terrible one. I commend him for opening his mouth to talk to me, or anyone in general. I can’t imagine having to deal with that. We had a great conversation though, turns out he’s a scientist from Chicago who has lived in Panama since 1992 with his family (wife and children). He somehow works for an extension of the Smithsonian museum. Smart guy, I wasn’t really totally sure what to do in the instance that he couldn’t get his words out. At times I finished his sentences for him, other times I just looked away until he could get it out. I tried studying his face for signs of embarrassment when he would trip up, but we would go right back to normal conversation. Interesting experience.

Upon my exit from the airplane, and being the last person to leave the airplane, I caught a glimpse of the bus full of passengers on the way to the airport. I was stranded, well not really. The rest of the flight crew and pilots were too. I stood there and made very small talk (and of course declared myself “lucky” to be stuck with the flight crew) for a good 20 minutes in the hot Panamanian heat while waiting for something to bring us in. It was taking forever, but I thought it was pretty funny.

After getting a big thudded stamp on my passport, and having my bags scanned, I was out in the terminal. As usual, I headed right to the ATM so I could get myself some local currency. I didn’t know what the exchange rate was, so I just took out 100. And guess what came out of the machine? US dollars!