May 4th, 2014 we flew from Albuquerque to Houston to Tampa with my wife’s son, his wife and their 3 kids. I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. Traveling with kids wasn’t a big deal. Oh wait, that’s FOUR adults to handle 3 kids…:-)
We stayed in Tampa for a week and then on the 10th of May, we boarded an American Airlines plane to Miami and then on to Panama! We arrived in Miami at gate 16, our departing flight was to leave from gate 14, not a problem, right? Wrong! After a half hour delay, we are told the Captain isn’t “comfortable” with this plane, BUT, there will be a plane up at gate 26 that we can use. So we all scurry off to gate 26. Up two floors and a tram ride later, we are all waiting at gate 26. But WAIT! Now, the gate we need is really back at gate 14 after all. Let the migration begin again!! So, an hour and a half late, two gate changes and we are on a plane to Panama!
We arrived at Tocumen International Airport in Panama City and made our way toward baggage claim. 1st stop, immigration. We showed our passports and received our notice of 30 days free medical insurance. Gave them our fingerprints and moved on to baggage claim. Our bag arrived just fine and as we headed toward the rental car area to meet our ride to Gorgona, we checked in at customs and gave them our declaration paper. They didn’t check our bags. It nice to know we look like the trusted travelers that we are. 🙂 A side note here. We were prepared to show either credit card statements OR bank account statements OR $500 cash for each of us, but were NOT asked for any of it. We also had proof of return trip tickets but were not asked for that either. We contacted our ride to Gorgona through the owner of the condo that we rented. More on that later…
Bob & Suzi's Perpetual Vacation 