Learn Something Every Day

We have the local transportation system down pat.  We found its very useful mobile app.  So far, everywhere we want to go has been best accessed by bus.  Nothing by subway yet.  Compliments to Panama City on their transportation system.  The buses are on time, very clean and easy to use.

Since we began our quest to understand the public transportation system, we have learned that most of the city is to our west.  We know where the main subway stations around us are and when someone tells us to go to “such and such” via Avenida Brazila or via Avenida Italia, we have a general idea of the way.

On our outing to Isla Flamenco, we learned that the main hub for both local buses and long distance buses is the Albrook Metro Station.  A smaller regional airport is there as well.  If you know these things, you can pretty much travel anywhere you might like to go from there. 

Getting to this point was hard!   Our first bus outing was to Isla Flamenco.  Its tropical name called to us.  The MiBus app told us when and where to catch which bus and away we went.  End of the line after about a 30 minute ride, was the Albrook Station.  This metro station/bus exchange is located in a huge indoor/outdoor mall.  The app’s next instruction was to catch the C850 bus to the Isla.  We had gathered that the C850 bus is unique since its route is only out to the marina on Isla Flamenco and back to the Albrook Station.  Obviously its bus stop would be in a special location.  But where was it???  No signs at all.  Not one.  Finally I caught the eye of an employee who didn’t have the answer herself but who happened to know someone who did.  At one moment there were three people standing in the middle of the mall waving and pointing, giving us instructions on how to find the C850.  Perfecto!  Mucho, mucho gracias!  We took stairs to an over-street walkway connecting the metro station and mall to another terminal.  Should we decide to take a bus to other cities in Panama someday, this terminal is where we board.  A whole other world just opened its doors to us.

The C850 was literally waiting for us.

Isla Flamenco is the fourth in a string of small islands connected by a wide modern causeway known as Calzada de Amador, built with materials extracted during the construction of the Panama Canal. These lovely islands are home to a large number of local and international yachts and mega yachts.  Of course there are a few interesting hotels, a convention center shops, bike rentals and a good selection of restaurants catering to the yachting crowd.  On the way to the island we passed the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the colorful Bio Museo which like so many venues has been closed for months due to the pandemic but has just reopened for visitors on Saturday and Sunday only.  We put a visit on our list.

Let’s talk about food for a moment.  Before arriving here we pictured having incredible seafood every day.  We also tantalized ourselves imagining new Panamanian specialty dishes we might try.  I searched the web up and down looking for great local restaurants.  Oh there are plenty of good restaurants here – most we’ve found so far are in malls or in large hotel complexes like the JW Marriott (former Trump Tower).  But no foods that are easily recognizable as Panamanian has been found.  Most popular restaurants feature sushi, steak, Mexican or Italian food.  We had some delicious nachos yesterday.  If you have a taste for good fish the primary choices are a Japanese restaurant or one of the noisy, open-air restaurants at the Mercado del Merisco.  Since we arrived I have searched for sancocho.  Besides ceviche, I heard it was the one must-have thing to try.  A little shop just down the street told me he’d have some on Friday.   We went there but the soup did not look appetizing to me at all.  In my mind, the sancocho would be very similar to the caldo de pollo served in really good Mexican restaurants.   Mmmmmm, steaming soup with big chunks of potato, chayote, corn, carrot and chicken.   His soup looked nothing like that.

Well . . . I finally had sancocho today at Niko’s Café.  It was recommended by our Uber driver when I told him how much I wanted to try this dish.  Niko’s Café sounded quaint.  As it turns out, Niko’s Café has several locations in town.  It’s a 24-hour cafeteria!  On weekdays you can get the lunch special of the day with soda for $4.50.  Depending on the day, you’ll get a generous serving of pork chop, chicken-cooked in a variety of ways, or meat balls served with rice and vegetables.  Now that’s decent food for a decent price!  My sancocho today looked only a little better than the soup I saw in the shop down the street but it was what I came for.  I’d have nothing else.   It was pretty tasty.  I liked it.  I cannot however say it will become a favorite.  Its total list of ingredients includes chicken, water, yucca or potato and plenty of an herb that is very similar to cilantro. Check!  That’s off my list  I’m holding out for the Mexican variety of chicken soup next time.

You know a day or so ago we did a dry run to find the cinema location of the church we planned to attend.  As with many churches these days an advance registration is required for attendance.  I signed us up and almost immediately received a return greeting and a note advising that service was temporarily being held in an alternate location.  We had hoped we could find a church within walking distance or available via public transportation.  The cinema location fit that bill.  However the new location in Diablo Heights in a woodworking studio is ummmmmm, not convenient.  We were committed; we went.  We took an UBER and still, it took a good 35 minutes to get there.  Had we gone by bus, it would take over an hour.

We thoroughly enjoyed service at this tiny church.  The music was beautiful and moving, and the young pastor delivered his thought-provoking message with genuine sincerity.  People there were eager to meet and welcome us.  We will go back to Life Bridge International Church even if we have to take UBER.  Next Sunday there will be only one service and afterwards the congregation will stay and build lunch bags for needy in their Lunchbox for Love outreach program.   Oh this is right up our alley.  Afterwards, we will deliver the bags to homeless and needy families in the area and sadly there are plenty of opportunities here to do that!

You know, Panama City is very beautiful but it has its less than pretty sides too.  In our area for example, right in the middle of multi-million dollar high-rise condos, sidewalks are littered with trash from the evening before and baggies of doggie-do lie here and there everywhere.  Then just a two blocks more all is pristine.  It seems, the more well-used a sidewalk is, the dirtier it becomes.

One more tidbit.  Yes, this is the rainy season.  It has rained every single day since we arrived – but not during the day time.  We have yet to be forced  change plans due to rain.  Knock on wood!  However, it rains each night.  Lighting and thunder, the sort of which we have heard only in one other place in the world (Prague), is ferocious! Lightning literally lights up the bedroom and I cannot help silently counting to hear its accompanying thunder.  Like sheets of tin-roof metal being thrashed about thunder crashes and rolls.  Typically rain storms are soothing to me and put me to sleep.  Not this kind.

Ok, just one more thing.  Stan brought his little Nikon Coolpix camera – it takes such good photos and has traveled with us to many places..  Too bad, he apparently brought the wrong cord that attaches to a computer for downloading photos.  Frustrating!!!!!  As we walked home from Niko’s Cafe, we decided to walk through the mall – air is so much cooler there.  We happened to stop in a big camera/electronics store to see if he could purchase the correct cord.  After much ado, it was decided the best solution to his problem was to purchase a card reader with USB.  Office Depot, the store guys said, probably has these and the store was only a short distance from the mall.  We started that way but then thought it might be smart to have the camera and existing cord with us when we visited the store.  We headed back to the apartment.

Because I heard Stan say at the store today his old travel computer had only one USB port, I just happened to take a look at his laptop and said, Stan you have two ports, one on each side of your laptop.  He picked up his computer, looked at one side then the other and said, and guess what, I have a card reader too.  Who knew???  Did you???  All these years we have struggled with downloading photos from camera to computer and all we really had to do is insert the camera card.  Hallelujah!  Thank you Lord, for little discoveries.

PS: GO BRAVES!

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