From Isla Colon to Panama City

We got to Isla Colon and put in at the dock at Lillys Restaurant. Lilly is a real gem, though I have yet to meet her. On previous trips she has allowed the group to decamp at her place and stow their luggage while the walked around town. She is also the purveyor of "Killing Me Man" hot sauce. After a leisurely lunch the others went to walk around town. we had about 2 and 1/2 hours to kill before our flight.Isla Colon is a really neat, shabby town on its own. That real Key West, end-of-the-line groove. Must be some awesome surfing because they place was full of scruffy 20 somethings carrying ntheir boards through town. Also well populated by older American expats. Jimmy Buffet meets Earnest Hemingway type of place. I stayed at Lillys with the gear, plugged into unlimited electricity and bummed the password for the WiFi next door. I won't say how. Trade secret.

The gang eventually returned and we started hauling our bags to the street to get a van. And of course, the deluge commences. Amber and Kyle volunteered to find a van as all we had seen was open back pick up truck taxis - not a good option at the moment. After about 20 minutes, with no letup by the downpour, they returned with a nice big van. We piled in and made the relatively brief trip to the airport. Without much fanfare or hassle, we checked in, checked our luggage and boarded our flight. This time, no stopping in Changuinola. An hour later we were back in Panama City and on our way to the Hostal Almador, once again with a dinner stop at Nikos Cafe. (Just a sort of obscure thought, realize that Panama City is on the Pacific coast and Isla Popa is on the Atlantic. Each time we made this hop we were 'crossing the continent'. On this trip I have crossed the continent 4 times. Just saying).

At Nikos I had the very welcome pleasure of seeing live baseball being played - the Southern League consists of Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Perfect timing for an unexpected pleasure.

After dinner, we returned to Almador and settled in for the well deserved showers we had been craving. We joked about choking the drain with mud but nothing of the sort happened. By now we were pretty weary, the excitement had faded and we just wanted to clean up and get some rest on clean sheets. And that' exactly what we did.