Quiet Day

Had a fairly uneventful day today. It started with me sleeping in till 8:30am!

I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to sleep last night, cause when I got into the room someone had unplugged the A/C unit. I promptly plugged it back in, ready to do battle with anyone who dared try to unplug it again. Fortunately, no one did. I mean, I get why they unplugged it - I think I'm getting some kind of cold from the A/C. But if I have to choose between a cold and not sleeping, I'm plugging in the A/C every time.

Some of these hostels in Panama offer free breakfast. This amounts to a huge bowl of pancake batter set next to a few frying pans on the stove. The frying pans were awful, and after two failed attempts, I grabbed a granola bar out of my mochila (backpack).

The rest of my morning basically amounted to watching South Park episodes online (again, thanks Matt and Trey for being pretty much the only show available outside the US!) and doing some reading while I did laundry. Fortunately, it was pouring for a good part of the morning so the heat was bearable.

After I finished my laundry, I hopped in a cab and headed to Casco Viejo. This section of town is pretty interesting. It's really old and it shows. probably twenty percent of the buildings are in ruins. The others are an odd and disorganized mix of touristy restaurants and hotels as well as housing for locals who seem to be fairly poor. This area seems to be in the process of being built up.

There are lots of neat churches and buildings here as well as an obelisk ... with a chicken on the top. Kat and Nati told me about this, but It was still pretty bizarre to see for myself.

I had lunch at Coca-Cola diner. The chicken fried rice was really good, but if you go there and order some, watch out for bones ... you're gonna get some bones. Anyone? Anyone? Okay, moving on.

After lunch, I finally had a Pitufo Sundae! Kinda looks a little bit like a smurf, right? With the little white hat thing sticking up? So here's the secret recipe - vanilla soft serve, plus blue M&M's, plus blue sauce. The blue sauce is eerily transparent. It looks and feels about the same consistency as watery toothpaste. But it actually tasted pretty good!

Next on my list of McDonalds ice cream treats to try is the current special flavor - Hershey's McFlurry. Looks like it has little bits of chocolate and possibly some caramel mixed in. Kinda wished they mixed things up like this in the States. I mean what do we get? A shamrock shake and an eggnog shake at their respective holidays? Not bad, but we can do better!

After desert I walked back to the hostel to pick up my Kindle and catch a cab to Albrook. I wandered the mall for a bit and then saw Captain America! It was good! Also really glad that Mike Morris advised via Facebook to stay after the credits! Thanks, man!

I'm probably getting a little too cocky for my own good, but I caught a mis-translation in the Captain America subtitles (the movie was in English)! They translated "borne" (like "carried") to "nacer," which is "to be born." Felt pretty good about catching that! Maybe if I write them a letter about it they'll offer me a job? :)

Unfortunately, the movie started at 5:35, which means that I got back to the hostel around 8pm. Only about an hour fifteen left before they turn on the A/C now!

After I finish posting this, I'll probably just watch bad movies in the living room. They have some kind of LaCie media hard drive loaded up with about 500 movies. Seems like every night, the same joker is working the remote and he has pretty bad taste in movies. Last night it was Quarantine. They just now finished watching Ninja Assassin - can't wait to see what's next.

Tomorrow morning I'm planning on taking a train ride! There's a train that runs along the canal between Panama City and Colon. It leaves at 7:15am and the trip takes an hour. Once I get to Colon, I'll hop on a bus and head right back to Panama City - Colon is supposed to be a really, really rough place. Most of what I've been hearing is "don't go there." That'll put me back in Panama City around 9:30am. All I have to do is find a way to keep cool for the rest of the day - I head back to the States Tuesday!