We arrived safe and sound in Panama City this morning a little after 8am. Our flight was just under 6 hours, but it felt like a long time. Since I was a genius and didn't check us in for our flight online, we didn't even sit together. In fact, we both had middle seats. We were in the same row, but of course didn't really get to communicate or anything. And while I am usually able to sleep fairly well during flights, especially red eyes, I couldn't fall asleep. And on top of that, Jaime felt a little sick near the end, but was able to pull through and was fine by the time we landed. I am not complaining, it was a smooth flight, no turbulence, just felt long. But, I did sit in between (yes, in between) a couple from Alaska. They were traveling to Peru, AND the guy was a retired Marine Veteran, so we did talk a bit throughout the flight.

We were a little grumpy, tired and hungry. Our transportation from the airport to the hotel was not waiting for us as it should have been, so we had to have somebody call for us. BUT it only took them about 15 minutes to get to us, so it was really no big deal. I am just trying to set the scene....

When we arrived at the hotel, it was about 10:30am, and check in time was not until noon. And they would not let us use the amenities until that time, and our room was not ready either. So were kind of just grumpy, tired, and wanting to eat something and relax and couldn't even do that. But, they did hold our luggage for us, and we decided that would be a good time to just get a ride into the city and do some sight-seeing whlie we waited. We asked one of the hotel workers if they could get us a driver, and they said no problem, one would take us wherever we wanted to go. And it was very affordable. Quite the change of pace for how expensive Iceland was.

So we put on some clean clothes, and went into the city. It was already really cool seeing everything on the way in to the hotel. We even drove across the Bridge of the Americas to get there, and saw awesome views of the city, and drove through downtown as well. So once we changed clothes and got in the car we were in much better spirits.

We had a few things we knew we wanted to see, and our driver, Alex drove us by some other cool sights as well. We saw the very cool Panama sign, and took a bunch of photos there. Also, very cool buildings, and views of the skyline were able to be seen on the way to that location.

Another thing we wanted to see was this random giant Einstien head. We found this online when looking up cool sights in Panama City, and it came up. Our driver knew where it was, but had no idea why it was there, or what Einstein did for Panama, he thought it was really funny. As did we. it was in the middle of a rather busy street with a lot of construciton going on. But we got our pics.

We also went into the heart of downtown to get some cool views of the F&F Tower (the green twisty building) and drove around and underneath some other cool skyscrapers. He stopped at one hotel and said there was a cool lookout point on the very top floor, sometimes they let people go up there, but it was closed until early evening, and we couldn't wait. But it was still very cool of our driver to take us there to try. He also dropped us off at a mall for a tiny bit.

Our last and final stop was Old Town Panama. Now this area is what I thought all of Panama City was like for some reason. The crazy skyline and amazing architecture was quite a surprise to me. But Old Town had that small town, classic feel with cobblestone streets, and old buildings. Here, we saw a couple of beautiful Churches, one that the Pope had recently visited, and one that was all gold inside. This area also offered a very cool view of the incredible skyline from across the water.

Then, we headed back to the hotel. At this point it was just around 3pm. And it was perfect timing, we got back to the hotel about an hour before our friends Jon and Shareen got there.

We were just a little late for the lunch buffet after we checked in and got settled in to our room, but it was no problem, because food is offered many places on the resort. We went to one of the restaurants called Starfish, and I had an amazing veggie panini, and Jaime had a burger. We both got fries on the side. It tasted amazing because we were so darn hungry.

The resort was a little confusing at first, because it is a Westin. These are generally not all-inclusive, but they have different packages and you get a wristband with different colors based on your package. So our band was purple, and included pretty much everything except room service, and a mini bar in the room. But when we went to Starfish for lunch, the menu had prices on it, any all inclusive we have been to, the food menus do not have prices, because, well, you have already paid for the food. But the Westin was different. People can stay there and not be part of the all inclusive option, so they would have to pay for the food. And let me tell you, based on the price of the food (the fruit plate I got as an appetizer was $10!) We got the better deal going with the all inclusive option. We just ate, and left, everything was already paid for, and they could tell that by our wristband color.

So after we ate, and were in an even better mood, we met Jon and Shareen down by the pool and enjoyed the evening there relaxing, and enjoying beers and cocktails and until we headed up to clean up for dinner. The Dinner buffet was very good, definitley more options for meat-eaters, but I for sure was able to fill myself up. Great selections of salads, cheeses, breads, etc.

The four of us stayed up for as long as we could, but were not ashamed to call it a night around 9pm. Jon and Shareen had been up since about 3am their time as they caught an early flight. And it wasn't until about that time that Jaime and I realized we hadn't been to sleep since Saturday night since we took the red eye in. So we got a couple more drinks and enjoyed a little time out on a deck on the beach where we could feel the nice breeze and watch the crabs in the sand.

Tomorrow's agenda includes nothing but relaxing at the pool and enjoying this nice hot weather.