It was another long and interesting travel day for the Collins Crew. We were headed to Panama City on a bus, a 12 hour trip from start to finish. The 6:30 a.m. water taxi was beyond packed with others going to the bus, students and local residents. We arrived at the bus station early for the 8:00 a.m. scheduled departure. Well, that time came and went and still no bus. The two girls that I lent $5 had paid their cab an extra dollar to find an ATM before dropping them off at the bus station. They paid me and said that I had saved their lives. Michael and I have said we often rely on the kindness of strangers, so we hope to experience this as well if we find ourselves in a pridicament.

It was probably 8:45 before the bus left. There was another man on the bus who worked for the bus company. As the bus departed, he informed us all about the stops the bus would make and how long they would be. He also provided directions on the use of the toilet on the bus. Unfortunately, all of the directions were in Spanish, so all I got was the idea that he was talking about the stops and toilet.

To our surprise, a monitor lowered down from the ceiling of the bus and a movie started. It couldn't have been a more violent special ops type movie. Of course it was in Spanish, and there were no subtitles. All you could see were a lot of guns and a few topless women thrown in for good measure. There were several children on the bus. Of course, Liam was glued to it, trying to figure out the story line. I was relieved that he fell asleep during the movie. Only another movie started after that. It starred Keanu Reeves. It was filmed in China and called The Man of Tai Chi or something like that. This one was just as violent as the first movie only it featured constant intense, aggressive martial arts fights-some resulting in death...nothing like the title had suggested. This was quite distracting as I was trying to take in the views of the land which were definitely worth watching for the first third of the trip.

We made several stops for people exiting the bus at seemingly random locations. One lady literally exited on a median in the middle of a busy road. I had no idea how far we were from Panama City, but we had gotten a late start, so we weren't going to meet to our estimated arrival of 5 p.m. We ended up arriving in Panama City around 7:00p.m. We still had to get a cab to our apartment for the week. I had a heck of a time trying to confirm that someone would be there to give us our key. They said we'd be charged extra money if we came after 6 and I thought that we would be there by then. Oh well.

Our cab driver couldn't find the apartment. After several international phone calls with non-English speaking contacts, we finally had the taxi driver make a call to see if he could find the apartment. Something was lost in translation because the written provided directions said 'in front of the Hilton Garden Hotel'. We were there, but the apartment was across the street on the side of the hotel and back a bit on that street. We made it to the apartment probably around 8ish, and still hadn't had a proper meal. We found a local restaurant and had a nice, inexpensive meal.

After we slept off that bus trip, we went for a walk in the morning and explored our new neighborhood. It was pretty hot, but we headed toward the water for a walk along the Cinta Costera. In usual Collins fashion, we waited too long before we ate. It took forever to find a restaurant as this American couple told us there were tons of restaurants along this route (our shorts gave us away as other Americans). Well, there weren't any places to eat on this walk. We finally found a deli off the path and ate there. Full, but worn out, we grabbed a cab back to the apartment just in time to avoid the afternoon rain.

We relaxed a bit and ate some leftovers for dinner. We need to gear up for our next adventure tomorrow....the Panama Canal!

Family selfie....Everyone is well and enjoying the adventure!