Travel Thoughts

As I sit here in the Panama Airport ready to fly home, I realize that airports abroad are a lot easier to go through as opposed to the airports in the USA. It took me all of 5 minutes to get through security and exiting immigration here in Panama. And then the thought of going through Miami's airport gives me the chills since that may be America's worst airport. Thankfully I have 4 hours between flights since customs there will take me over an hour...easy.

Panama itself was quite nice. Not sure what I was expecting before coming down here, but it was a surprise. It was very San Juan PR to me...very large downtown area, clean, and the people were very friendly. A lot if construction going on down here, as if there is no economic problems. Which I find odd since they use the American dollar as their currency. Since I was down here for work, I was unable to see any of the tourist attractions, such as the Canal. But just from my visit to Panama City, not a bad place in my opinion.

One of the fun parts of my job is the chance to travel the world. There are several places I have been to that I definitely would not have even thought about visiting if not for this job. The places include Mexico (all over the country), Puerto Rico, Guatemala (quite a surprise here), Costa Rica, Panama, and several cities in the USA. Some of these sound glamorous, but don't think Mexico includes Cancun or anything like that. I usually visit the capital city or some towns that have one stop light and dirt roads.

It isn't so bad, and it pays the bills. The hardest part is leaving Charlie and Sarah behind. Once Charlie gets a little older, I might take him down with me. Unlike my folks, I plan to enrich Charlie's life by visiting other places beyond a 5 mile radius from the house. My first trip on a plane was in 1986, when I was 15 years old. Charlie has already been on a plane, when he was 1 to visit family in Texas. Quite different from the days of us growing up. And thinking back, flying back then was a bigger deal; people would get dressed up to fly. I remember that my mom and sister were decked out and in heels for a 23 hours flight (with layovers). Once we got to Chile, I think they were both one big wrinkled mess. Oh well...times change.

Not much else to say, just posted to kill some time at the airport. Adios from Panama.