Travelling by train is one of my favourite things……anywhere, anytime. Travelling by train along the side of the Panama Canal is just one of those bucket list experiences. When we were here a couple of years ago we just could not fit it into our schedule. It was the same for Louise and Wayne – they too had always wanted to do it. The difficulty with this train trip is that it leaves at 7:30 am, used to only go once a week, now it is daily, an...

After an interesting shared taxi ride with a young american army dude...thank god he could speak spanish.....I was finally dropped at the Avila Hotel where my friend Louise would be waiting. Louise and I work as mediators..when I work.... and she had decided to come to Panama when she saw a seat sale, direct from Calgary to Panama City for $199 return. She had booked a couple of months to stay for a month. When she signed on to print her boarding pass this week...

I must say I don't have too many travel 'firsts’ anymore. Usually that is a good thing, but my first flight on Copa Air, from Guadalajara to Panama City started with a ‘first’.I reluctantly left the cosiness and friendliness of the Birds of Paradise condos and made my way the 40 minutes or so to the Guadalajara airport. The series of calamities started as soon as I arrived. I had difficulty finding where Copa Air was processing the fli...

My dear Dad is an adventurer. Just writing that it seems like a crazy understatement. He was a career military guy - joined the army in his small coal mining town of Stellerton in the Maritimes and dreamed of seeing the world. The adventure began there and really has never ended. He was stationed all over Canada, was in Korea during the Korean War, was in Egypt for the skirmishes there, spent time in Japan, was in Congo for a pretty long time and once we kids ...